Warning: Contains spoilers for Dexter: New Blood episode 4.
Harrison is taking a murderous path in Dexter: New Blood and it seems likely that he will have John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer as a Dark Passenger to guide him. Dexter: New Blood has a lot to live up to from the original series, but the negative reaction to Dexter’s controversial finale gives the show some leeway. While it is important that Dexter: New Blood does not try to strictly imitate the original, John Lithgow’s return as the Trinity Killer can bring back an audience favorite for a powerful homage.
In Dexter season 4, John Lithgow played The Trinity Killer, real name Arthur Mitchell, and was one of the original series’ most memorable and influential antagonists. Despite being called The Trinity Killer, Arthur Mitchell actually killed in fours. His first kill would be a young child buried in cement, his second a woman with her femoral artery slashed, the third a mother forced to jump to her death, and finally, a father of two bludgeoned to death. While Dexter (Michael C. Hall) caught up with The Trinity Killer and murdered him himself, Mitchell still got the last laugh.
With Dexter: New Blood almost at the halfway point, there have been exceedingly few returning characters from the original Dexter. The only figures who have reappeared are Dexter himself, and his sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) in the form of Dexter’s new Dark Passenger after the events of the Dexter season 8 finale. Bringing back any other cast members in a living form would be tricky for Dexter: New Blood as too many people from Miami either knew his identity or were beginning to suspect it when he faked his own death. However, John Lithgow returning to be Harrison’s Dark Passenger in the form of the Trinity Killer makes a lot of sense. Here’s why.
John Lithgow's Trinity Killer Is Coming To New Blood
During production, it was revealed that John Lithgow would be making appearances in Dexter: New Blood. After he was seen near the filming location he was asked about his involvement and confirmed that he would be appearing while also spilling the beans about Jennifer Carpenter’s return as Deb Morgan. While this news got a lot of viewers excited, it also raised some serious questions about how these actors would appear in the new series given that both of their characters received bloody fates in the original series with Dexter dropping bother of their bodies into the water.
Harrison's Past Is Tied To The Trinity Killer
While John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer was an important figure in Dexter’s life, his connection to Harrison is arguably even stronger. After Dexter kills The Trinity Killer, he returns home to find that before he captured him Trinity had paid a visit to his home and killed Dexter’s wife, Harrison’s mother, Rita Morgan. Having slit her femoral artery while she was in a bathtub, Rita bled out and Dexter found Harrison sitting in a pool of his mother’s blood, echoing the way that Harry originally found Dexter.
Dexter considers seeing his mother killed and being left in her blood to be the origin of his Dark Passenger in Dexter. In Dexter: New Blood, Harrison clearly has some memory of the event and based on his violent actions and subterfuge in episode 4, it is likely that Harrison has developed his own manner of Dark Passenger. Shortly before the first attack that he makes in Dexter: New Blood, Harrison listens to a podcast about The Trinity Killer and is visibly affected by it. When he attacks Ethan, he uses a straight razor, Trinity’s weapon of choice, and slashes Ethan’s femoral artery, continuing to mimic the action of The Trinity Killer.
Dexter's Visions Foreshadow Harrison's Own Ghosts
Throughout Dexter, Dexter’s visions of dead people became a mainstay. Narratively, they helped to give the serial killer someone to debate things with and provide exposition, but they also provided a valuable window into Dexter’s mental state. The identity of these figures that represent some element of his Dark Passenger has changed multiple times throughout Dexter’s story with his father Harry Morgan originally filling the role, his brother Brian Moser taking over briefly, and then in Dexter: New Blood Dexter’s sister, Debra, becoming his new Dark Passenger. All of this foreshadows the idea that Harrison will have his own version of these visions passed down from Dexter and formed by his experiences around the Trinity Killer.
Why Harrison's Dark Passenger Would Be The Trinity Killer
Dexter was able to channel his desires into his very precise manner of killing by following Harry Morgan’s guidance and keeping to Harry’s Code. A key part of Dexter’s narrative is that Harry Morgan was able to get to him and see the signs early, and while he couldn’t stop the urge to kill, he could make sure that it wasn’t simply wanton murder. The fact that Harry was such a guiding light for Dexter explains why, when left alone, Dexter manifested an image of him.
Harrison, on the other hand, grew up without Dexter to guide him for the majority of his life. While he now hopes to be able to instill some form of Harry’s Code into Harrison for the same purpose, the years without Dexter have likely already formed a different image in Harrison’s mind. In New Blood, Harrison already has a straight razor to hand; it's clear that his fascination with The Trinity Killer stretches back to well before he heard the podcast in Dexter: New Blood and that this figure has haunted him for a long time.
If Harrison needed to create a mental image for his Dark Passenger during his time alone and in foster care, there are really only two logical options. Dexter’s Dark Passenger is always a family member who is dead, so it could potentially be Hannah McKay, his stepmother. However, she died more recently so is less likely to have been part of his Dark Passenger’s formation and on a more meta-level there is no news that her actress, Yvonne Strahovski, is making a return for Dexter: New Blood. The only other option is John Lithgow as The Trinity Killer himself, which would explain Lithgow’s return to the series. The Trinity Killer serving as Harrison’s Dark Passenger will also provide a lot of narrative opportunities for conflict as Dexter attempts to guide Harrison towards the code and once again finds himself facing off against the internalized idea of one of his greatest villains in Dexter: New Blood.
Dexter: New Blood releases new episodes Sundays on Showtime.