Julie Benz could look past everything in Dexter, except for one shocking death that she still can’t get over. Even thirteen years after the fan-favorite series concluded, the actress has yet to quite come to grips with the tragic demise of her character in the show, Rita Bennett (later Rita Morgan).
Reflecting on Rita’s shocking death and why fans still struggle with the twist, Benz admitted to Entertainment Weekly: “I’m not over it. Now anytime anybody joins Dexter, they understand they could be killed off at any moment. Like, I think everybody has died at this point. When we were doing the show, we didn’t realize that — especially killing a mom who just had a baby. To me, the audience is never going to forgive you.”
“I always say I was more devastated than anybody else watching it,” Benz added. “My first reaction was, ‘Oh my god, I just lost my job.’ And the second reaction was, ‘Who’s gonna raise Harrison?’ I was heartbroken by it. I just felt like I didn’t serve Rita enough. Maybe I should’ve fought for her more in the writers’ room, come to them with more ideas on storylines. Because I felt like I really failed this woman. I had to go through my own grieving process with her.”
How Rita’s death became one of Dexter’s most unforgettable twists
For Dexter Morgan, a forensic blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who killed criminals when he wasn’t helping catch them, the one light in his life was his girlfriend, Rita. A sweet but damaged single mother who had been abused by her ex-husband, Rita gave birth to her and Dexter’s son, Harrison, in season 4.
As the serial killer struggled to balance fatherhood and his extracurricular activities, Arthur Mitchell debuted in the show. He is an unassuming church deacon and family man in the light and the Trinity Killer in the dark. But right before Dexter could get to him, Arthur murdered Rita. Dexter returned home to find Rita dead in their bathtub and Harrison crying on the bloody floor.
This game-changing ending of season 4 was so unexpected that it became one of Dexter’s most unforgettable twists. As John Lithgow, the actor who played Arthur, reflected on the plot twist: “When I found out that Trinity killed Rita, it was like, ‘Here we go!’ I can’t think of anything since that has had the same astonishing, surprising impact on an audience.”
