Summary
Although a little slow, the pilot of Manhunt does a great job of setting the stakes for what we can expect to see in the season.
In Episode 1 of the Apple TV+ limited series Manhunt, John Wilkes Booth begins plotting and scheming to kill President Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln and his team receive great news about the war from Robert E. Lee. However, the news of the war coming to an end has left civil unrest and the death of a president. Events get off to a slow, steady start here, but the premiere lays out the necessary components for the rest of Season 1
Manhunt Season 1 Episode 1 Recap
Who attempted to kill the Secretary of State?
We see John Wilkes Booth hand David Harold a gun and inform him where Secretary of State Bill Seward will be. David gives Lewis Powell the weapon but says the gun has issues with the trigger, so they hand him a knife in case things go south. Powell goes inside, hits the maid over the head, attacks Seward, and stabs him in the face.
At the office, President Lincoln has just received the telegram that Robert E. Lee had accepted the deal from him and surrendered, meaning the Confederacy is dead. Everyone is celebrating and spreading the news but is cautious about how Lee’s supporters will react.
Who dies in the Manhunt premiere?
President Lincoln is with his wife, enjoying the show at the theater. While he looks on, John Wilkes Booth is waiting in the wings, preparing to make his move. Once a roar comes from the crowd, Booth shoots and kills President Lincoln. He jumps to the stage and announces, “Freedom for the South.”
Edwin Stanton arrives at the scene to find out that President Lincoln had been shot. Stanton attempts to calm President Lincoln’s wife down and has her sent home to relax while he checks in on him. Stanton walks in and sees the president lying in a pool of blood. A man rushes to talk to Stanton to inform him they have a man in custody who claims that he was tasked with killing Vice President Johnson on the orders of John Wilkes Booth.
Edwin tells Edgar to send word to the press that President Lincoln died this morning, 22 minutes after seven. A group of men arrives with a casket, which they put the president in. The same men carry the president down in front of a mass group gathered in the pouring rain to honor him.
Sanford Conover from the New York Tribune visits Edwin Stanton to ask him if he was responsible for protecting President Lincoln. He pressures Stanton about whether he cares more about the Blacks than men like them. Stanton tells him that if they care about this country, he should get his men and photograph the place like a battlefield.
How does Manhunt Season 1 Episode 1 end?
Stanton confronts one of the workers at the theater, who informs him that Booth left the theater on a horse. He proclaims his innocence, stating that he didn’t know what Booth was about to do, and tells Stanton that a man named Ned Spangler was in charge of holding the door. Stanton and his team find Spangler and have him arrested.
Stanton and a colleague visit John Wilkes Booth’s house and discover he left his bank book behind. Inside the book, they find a $500 deposit from the same bank used by the Confederate Secret Service. Stanton says if it is found that the Confederates were involved in the assassination, it may lead to another war.
What did you think of Manhunt Season 1 Episode 1? Comment below.
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