8/10
A portrait of grief
5 October 2023
The title Never Let Him Go may allude to either Steve's tenacity at seeking justice for Scott or his inability to resolve his unbridled grief and letting Scott go. The documentary itself was balanced and unbiased with accounts from all key players: from the family members to the attending officer back in 1988 to the lead investigator at unsolved murders. For a saga spanning nearly four decades, I thought the four hours runtime was appropriate.

The most interesting part to me was in episode 3 where we saw the clash between Pamela and Steve. I had a lot of empathy for Pamela and could appreciate her transference when she perceived Steve as an entitled rich white man who undermined her authority and professionalism. This was a woman who had to claw her way to the top in a white male-dominated environment. Steve on the other hand displayed no empathy towards Pamela, gloating later about how Pamela shot herself in the foot when it was he who loaded the gun by leaking her email to him to the media. Her tone remained composed while his own earlier reprimand of her can be described as spiteful.

After the killer was apprehended, found guilty and sentenced, a result that not even the family believed was possible, Steve conceded that he would never get closure and that he would keep returning to the site of Scott's death to mourn what could have been. While it is true that everyone processes grief in their own time, I wonder how much counselling if any Steve has accessed. Almost 35 years since Scott's death, he seems no closer to accepting the loss of his brother, in spite of all the effort spent in the pursuit of justice. Money may have bought him his brother's killer but it is not bringing him any peace.
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