| “ | It's already over, | „ |
| ~ Mitchell's signature line, said to all his victims before killing them |
| “ | Hello, Dexter Morgan. | „ |
| ~ Arthur Mitchell confronting Dexter at the police station; his most famous quote |
Arthur Mitchell, also known as The Trinity Killer, is the main antagonist of the Dexter television franchise.
He serves as one of the two main antagonists (alongside Brian Moser) of the original Dexter series, one of the three overarching antagonists (alongside Matt Caldwell and Oliver Saxon) of its sequel miniseries Dexter: New Blood, and one of the overarching antagonists in its sequel series Dexter: Resurrection.
In the original Showtime series Dexter, he serves as the main antagonist of Season 4, and the overarching antagonist of Season 5 and Season 6.
He is the most prolific serial killer in American history, with a body count of at least 279, who murders in cycles of four in order to recreate the destruction of his own family, whilst posing as a kindly old man and pillar of his community. He is the most dangerous killer Dexter has ever encountered, and the one to have damaged him the most, being responsible for the death of his wife Rita, leading to Dexter's son Harrison developing homicidal urges.
He is portrayed by John Lithgow.
Biography[]
When Arthur was a young child, he lived with his sister Vera and his two parents together. One night, when he was only 10, Arthur secretly observed his sister in the shower naked. When she saw Arthur staring at her, she slipped fell, shattering the glass and cutting her leg; by the time an ambulance arrived, she had bled to death. The tragedy tore apart Arthur's remaining family; his mother, extremely traumatized, threw herself off a bridge to kill herself, while Arthur's father became an alcoholic who was extremely abusive. Eventually, Arthur snapped one day, and beat his father to death with a hammer.
Over the next few decades, Arthur, who had been destroyed by this tragedy, would annually commit a series of four murders which mimicked the death of his family. First off, Arthur would kidnap a young boy, dress him up in cowboy pajamas, and forces him to play with a train set. Arthur would then bury the boy alive in cement, often located in houses built by Arthur's charity organization, Four Walls, whose nationwide duties allowed Arthur to commit murders around the country. Following this, Arthur would break into the house of a young woman, undress himself, and then slit the woman's femoral artery with a straight razor in the bathtub, while placing a mirror in front of her. He then forces another woman, this time a mother of two, to jump to her death, often threatening her children's lives as a form of persuasion. Finally, Arthur tracks down a father of two, and bludgeons him to death with a hammer.
Almost all of these acts have Arthur say, "It's already over", as a form of coping. In addition, he leaves parts of his sister's ashes at each scene of the crime. Over the course of decades, Arthur racked up a body count of over 200 people. Despite this, his highly precise and immaculate execution of the murders led to him going undiscovered for years. The exception to this was FBI agent Frank Lundy, a serial killer hunter who identified the recurring patterns of the bathtub murders, the fall murders, and the beating of a father to death with a hammer, but not the missing boys, leading to him mistakenly dubbing Arthur the "Trinity Killer".
Despite this deranged form of coping, Arthur continued to spiral into madness, as he developed a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and became highly controlling and manipulative. He had a relationship at one point, which led to the birth of a daughter named Christine Hill, who was aware of her father's murders, but the relationship with Christine's mother did not last. Later, Arthur had a second wife named Sally, and had two other children with her, Jonah and Rebecca. However, he was highly domineering over them; he frequently called Sally a c*nt, locked Rebecca's windows and called her Vera, and was extremely physically abusive towards Jonah. Despite this, Arthur kept this abusive behavior a secret, and posed as a pillar of his community; in addition to the Four Walls building project, he also held positions as a church deacon and a high school teacher.
Dexter Season 4[]
In 2009, Arthur begins his murder cycles again, this time in his hometown of Miami. After he performs the bathtub murder on a woman named Lisa Bell, Lundy, who has retired from the FBI, heads to Miami to finally capture the Trinity Killer. He only reveals this to Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst he was friends with during an investigation into the Bay Harbor Butcher; unbeknownst to Lundy, Dexter is the real Bay Harbor Butcher, who solely goes after murderers, and who had framed James Doakes for being the butcher. Meanwhile, after taking an extremely hot shower, Arthur continues his cycle by throwing Tarla Grant off a building, before yelling at a man to beat him up. When he heads to a hotel he frequents, he encounters Lundy, who tracks him down alongside his ex-girlfriend and Dexter's sister Deborah Morgan. However, both Deborah and Lundy are shot by Arthur's first daughter Christine, who has become a reporter and wishes to protect her father.
After Lundy's death, Dexter steals his files and begins tracking down Arthur, eventually witnessing him bludgeon a man to death with a hammer as the final part of his ritual. However, when he follows Arthur home and discovers that he has a family, Dexter is taken aback and starts stalking Arthur from afar. He eventually joins the "Four Walls, One Heart" organization under the name Kyle Butler, and forms a close relationship with Arthur, discovering that the dates of the organizations travels coincide with Arthur's murders, and that the seemingly sympathetic and kind Arthur turns violent when Dexter touches his urn. However, Dexter refuses to kill Arthur, instead being impressed by Arthur's ability to seamlessly balance being both a kindly family man and a highly prolific serial killer, and attempting to study him in order to help his own relationship with his wife Rita and their kids, Astor and Cody.
At one point, Dexter even seeks advice from Arthur after he accidentally murders an innocent man, accompanying him on a road trip, where Arthur refuses to put a deer out of it's misery. During the road trip, Arthur discovers his childhood home where his family was destroyed, and contemplates suicide, but is begrudgingly saved by Dexter, who still seeks answers from Arthur. However, eventually, Dexter discovers the abuse Arthur has perpetrated against his own family, and overtly attempts to kill him during a Thanksgiving dinner where Arthur almost kills Jonah. As a result, Dexter makes up his mind and decides officially to kill Arthur. He sees Arthur restart the murder cycle with a boy named Scott Smith, and manages to fight off Arthur and save him before Arthur can bury him in cement.
Furious, Arthur attempts to track down various Kyle Butlers around Miami and kill them in order to stop Dexter from coming after him, especially after Dexter tries to extort Arthur by threatening to tell the police he's a pedophile. He also disowns Christine after he discovers she was the one who killed Lundy, therefore attracting attention to his murders, leading to her committing suicide in front of Deb. Eventually Arthur tracks Dexter back to the Miami Metro Police Department and discovers his true identity, threatening him to leave his life or else he will murder them. Despite Arthur's warnings, Dexter tracks down and eventually kidnaps Arthur to kill him. Arthur insists that Dexter is worse than him, as Arthur never took pride in what he did, while Dexter is sadistic. Dexter brushes off his warnings and finally kills Arthur with his own hammer. However, when he returns home, he discovers, to his horror, that Arthur had killed Rita, and that Dexter and her's baby son Harrison is left crying on the floor.