'Dexter' Revival Is Somehow Bringing Back John Lithgow As The Trinity Killer
Showtime is bringing back the serial killer thriller Dexter for a new season that will hopefully make up for the disappointing series finale from back in 2013. To help bring back Dexter with a bang, the series is resurrecting one of the best guest stars the series ever had.
John Lithgow will be returning to Dexter for the series revival, and he will again be playing Arthur Mitchell, better known as the Trinity Killer from the fourth season. But wait a minute, didn't The Trinity Killer die at the hands of Dexter at the end of that season? What's going on here?
Deadline has news of John Lithgow returning to Dexter for what will be the ninth season of the show, even though this revival is being treated as a limited series comprised of 10 episodes. What they don't know is how the Trinity Killer will be returning after meeting a grisly end during the show's fourth season. But it's said that showrunner Clyde Phillips and the crew have "concocted a pathway for the Trinity Killer to come back that works within the larger Dexter narrative."
That might give us a good idea of what this could mean.
How Will The Trinity Killer Return?
Whenever Dexter (Michael C. Hall) has talked about the innate desire he has to kill, he always refers to it as his Dark Passenger. Personified as Dexter's father Harry (played by James Remar), the Dark Passenger acts as a sort of inner-monologue that Dexter has with himself while wrestling with the urges he has to kill. Knowing that, perhaps this is where there's a path for the Trinity Killer to return that fits within Dexter's parameters.
At first, I thought it might be possible for Arthur Mitchell to return and become Dexter's new Dark Passenger. But that feels like it steers too far from the character's origins and history. What would make more sense is if Dexter's son Harrison, who would now be a teenager, starts to have a Dark Passenger of his own. Since the Trinity Killer is responsible for killing his mother Rita (Julie Benz), leaving Harrison in a puddle of her blood, it would only make sense that he starts to follow a worrisome path like Dexter.
This has been a consistent fear of Dexter's ever since he was left to raise Harrison on his own, knowing that the Dark Passenger was something he carried since he was a child. With at least eight years passing since the finale, it would only make sense if this became a new hurdle for Dexter to overcome as a father. After all, Lithgow is only said to be shooting for just a day or so in Los Angeles, so this won't be a huge role. Perhaps this could be some kind of lead-up to a spin-off series where Dexter and his son are killers together? We'll have to wait and see.