‘The Real Manhunter’ Recap: ‘The Murder of Christopher Donovan’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Five of ‘The Real Manhunter’.
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There are a great many reasons that people are eager to tune into true crime shows. Such as the fact that they offer us grand insight into the cruelty that mankind is capable of since every awful detail of the crime in question is put on display, allowing for us to gain unsettling perspective on the act in question. But while that is a solid reason to tune in, since it satisfies our morbid curiosity, what we don’t talk about enough… is that another good reason to watch true crime stories… is to enjoy a taste of hope. Which might sound out there but think about it for a moment. Because a vast majority of these stories, also feature the detectives and investigators that brought the monster in question to justice and learning about what they did to put the offender behind bars is quite poetic and beautiful.

Since it speaks to the wonder of justice, and it also reminds us, that for every person out there eager to indulge in evil, there are others willing to fight that evil and pour over every difficult detail to figure out how to bring that person to justice. And that sense of hope and that level of attention to detail is paramount to our discussion today, simply because both elements popped up in the next episode of The Real Manhunter, and that’s a good thing. Because ‘The Murder of Christopher Donovan’ was quite the harrowing case, one that put mankind’s cruelty on full display since the aforementioned Mister Donovan fell prey to a group of hooligans one fine night, the kind that were drugged up and drunk and eager to start a fight and their desire to do so… resulted in a horrible beatdown for Christopher, one that took his life.

But thankfully Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton and his team were assigned to the case, and they wasted no time in injecting hope into the matter. Because this is a crime that could have gone unsolved. Thanks to the fact that it happened at night and involved a group of assaulters, which should have allowed for sloppy evidence and hearsay to come into play. But Colin and his team quickly took control and were able to get the public’s help in getting an idea of who might have been involved in this mess and once they had suspects, they were able to dig deeper via questioning and narrow down who specifically might have been involved in Christopher’s death. And to close out the case and bring together a guilty verdict, all they had to do was put together some solid evidence that proved the parties in question were indeed at the scene and involved.

A feat that Colin and his team accomplished in a stunning manner. Because without outright confessions, they needed to visually prove to a jury that their suspects were there, to correlate eyewitness testimony and that motivated the team to use mannequins and seized clothing to recreate the steps the gang of hooligans took that night and when images of that recreation were compared to CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts, it was inherently obvious that the parties involved were guilty of committing a heinous crime. And for that act, they were sentenced to jail for a few years and taught a valuable lesson about crossing the line and the sanctity of life and well, while Christopher might not be with us anymore, that really was quite the uplifting way to end this episode. 

Because this case helped to remind us that there are indeed detective and investigators out there with fine moral centers, the kind that will do whatever it takes to bring heinous criminals to justice, as evidenced by the extra mile that Colin and his team went in this case. And there really is hope to be found in that, and such a push sends a signal to others thinking about crossing the line, that it is best they don’t, since they will be found. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that Christopher’s parents also came to realize that good can come out of tragedy if we work at it, since they set up a nonprofit in their son’s name to educate others on the impact of violent crime and that’s powerful and brave and truly allows for the viewer to walk away from this case, feeling a little lighter on their feet. For good came out of tragedy and justice was served and hope springs anew and it will be interesting to see if there are other happy endings awaiting us in this series as we close in on the finale. Until next time.

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