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"Take care of yourself, yeah?"
— Curtis' last words on the show, spoken to Rudy

Curtis Donovan was the longest serving member of the original Misfits gang.

Curtis started out as a rising athlete whose goal to become an Olympian was destroyed when he was found guilty of drug possession. After the Storm, Curtis gained the power of rewinding time which only triggered when a strong feeling of regret occurred. With it he wasn't able to revive his career but at least save his ex girlfriend Sam from imprisonment. On Christmas, Curtis sold his power to Seth in favor of money but came to regret it when his girlfriend Nikki died as a result.

Unable to regain his power, he bought the ability of switching his gender, though later swapped it again for the ability of resurrection at Seth's request to bring back his girlfriend Shannon. However, this power created an onslaught of zombies and he made sure never to use it again. This went on until his relationship with femme fatale Lola made him murder her ex boyfriend. Resurrecting him for answers, Curtis was infected by a zombified Jake during the investigation. After discovering Lola's secret, Curtis succumbed his infection and resolved to kill himself before he could cause anymore harm. He was potrayed by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett in the first four series of Misfits.

Biography[]

Series 1[]

He is the first Misfit to use his power for the benefit of someone else, being inspired by a meeting with his just-released from prison, more-or-less former girlfriend Sam to undo the drug charges that led to their arrest; however, after he learns that the other Misfits — with the exception of Nathan — were killed in Tony's rampage without him present to undo their deaths and provide advance warning, he once again resets time.

In this iteration he willingly sacrifices his career by allowing himself to be caught with the drugs, while ensuring that Sam stays clear. But no matter how he alters events, Sam still believes that they are in a relationship, whereas he now considers himself to be with Alisha. He eventually breaks up with her after using the line "the ones I love will always be the ones who pay" from the film Spider-Man.    

Series 2[]

In Season 2 the couple are still in a relationship and Curtis acts very affectionately towards her, even to the point of threatening Simon when he thinks he may have assaulted Alisha. Super Hoodie later saves his life when Curtis is strangled by Lucy. When his powers acted in reverse during a drug trip, Curtis 'flash-forwarded' to the future where he was standing on a rooftop dressed in a black costume and green cape while being approached by an unfamilar woman.

Although he attempted to reject her apparent desire for sex, Curtis was subsequently surprised to encounter her past self while the Misfits were tracking Super Hoodie. At the end of episode 4, series 2, Curtis and Nikki, after the situation with the meat hooks, they meet up, and they kiss, resulting in a relationship, the two experiencing the events of Curtis's 'flash-forward' while attending a fancy-dress party.

It was revealed that Curtis is lactose-intolerant, which resulted in him being the only member of the group left after they were attacked by Brian, a former tea-boy who could control all dairy products; Brian was able to suffocate others by manipulating the dairy products that they had eaten earlier- 'strangling' Nathan's brain with mozarella cheese to give him brain damage as his immortality made it impossible to kill him directly-, but Curtis, having never consumed anything for Brian to use against him, was able to drive Brian off- albeit after Simon sacrificed himself to stop Curtis being stabbed- before travelling back in time to save his friends by preventing Brian from going public or learning about his power. 3 months later Curtis and Nikki remain in a happy relationship. Curtis has a job as a barman. After Alisha sells her power to local power dealer Seth,the rest of the gang sell their powers for £20.000. Curtis and Nikki plan to go on holiday. Later at the bar while the gang are drinking and celebrating their lives without the powers, a robber under the influence of Elliot, who has bought the powers of Magnetism, Water walking and Alisha and Nikki's power and is claiming to be Jesus Christ shoots Nikki. Curtis cries and cradles her body as she dies. Curtis and the gang go to retrieve their powers, but Curtis's has been sold and the prices have been doubled. The gang steal Elliot's locker full of money and attempt to bring it to Seth but Elliot pulls it away but kills himself in the process. The gang head to Seth where they buy new powers.

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The gang go and see Seth where they acquire new powers

Series 3[]

Seth has already passed Curtis's original power on to a man who claimed that he would use it to go back and kill Hitler. Curtis then gains the ability of "Gender Swap", having been the only one currently in stock. Even though it seems he dislikes the power, he uses to his advantage whilst running from the police by changing into a woman as he is cornered.

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Curtis in his female form as Melissa

Curtis then uses the his power to relive his career in sport by competing in the women athletics team, under the identity Melissa. Alongside her is Emma, a woman Curtis previously shared a sexual encounter with only to find himself unimpressive in bed. Melissa and Emma eventually falls for each other and have sex, which Curtis claims the experience as more enjoyable. On the downside, Melissa, being an attractive young woman, becomes the target to unwanted attention from males such as Shaun, Rudy (who preforms oral sex on a barely conscious Melissa after being misled) and his coach Mark. Mark, however, molests his female athletes and gets his eye on Melissa. He spikes Melissa's drink and drives her to a secluded area where he tries to rape her. Just before he can commit the act, Melissa regains consciousness and turns into Curtis who then punches Mark. Just before Melissa was victimized, Emma caught Rudy preforming oral sex on Melissa and assumed she was cheating on her. When Emma visits Curtis in order to rekindle, Curtis rejects her advances. Emma is touched by this but then finds the dress she lent to Melissa in his room, now assuming Curtis had sex with Melissa. After hearing Emma is with Mark, Curtis knows what he will do and rescues her. The next day, Curtis tells Emma the truth and they depart each other on good terms. Curtis also exposes Mark by tying him out on the field, naked and gagged with his crimes drawn on his chest.

Further exploring his new body, Curtis starts to masturbate as Melissa, switching from male to female. However, this gets his female counterpart pregnant when he uses the same tissue to clean both his male and female self after ejaculation. Adding to his problems, he suddenly becomes unable to switch back as a male and thus cannot easily avoid the pregnancy. He goes to Seth to get his power removed, who agrees on the terms that Curtis surrogates the power of Resurrection to bring back Seth's deceased girlfriend Shannon. Curtis has a problem with doing so since Seth is currently dating Kelly and he doesn't want to betray his friend. He agrees so as long Seth does not inform Kelly of Curtis' involvement. After resurrecting Shannon, Curtis decides to use his power for good by bringing back an old lady's dead cat. However, anything that was been resurrected by Curtis becomes a zombie with insatiable hunger and can turn others into zombies by biting them. Through this, Kelly founds out about his involvement and the zombified cat turns an entire team of cheerleaders into zombies, forcing the ASBO five to kill the cheerleaders and their new probation worker after the death of Shaun.

In the series finale, a medium brings back the spirits of Tony,Sally and Rachel. Curtis has sex with Rachel after she comes onto him in a chance to enjoy all the things she missed out on in life. When Rachel intends to get revenge, she threatens Curtis, Kelly and Rudy with a Stanley knife before murdering Alisha via slitting her throat. After the death of Alisha, Curtis, still possessing the resurrection power decides not to bring her back considering what it will result in. Curtis,Kelly and the two Rudys bid Simon farewell after he travels back to become superhoodie. The 4 then stand on the roof of the community center and agree to continue community service with their heads down.

Series 4[]

After Alisha's death and Simon's departure to the past, Kelly went to spend the rest of her community service time in Uganda and defuse landmines. Curtis and Rudy continue with community service, them being the only two people from Series 3 alongside Seth. Curtis, by this point, is the only remaining member of the original ASBO 5. We first see Curtis being held captive in the Community Centre's freezer, occasionally being checked on by Rudy, who has locked him in there with the aid of Seth, due to the trio being under the affects of Michael's power.

Eventually, newcomer Jess uses her power of X-ray Vision to see that Rudy is keeping someone captive in the freezer, and with the help of Finn, they distract Rudy and Seth and go to rescue Curtis. Upon opening the freezer, Curtis seems to be unconscious or possibly dead, but suddenly fires up, headbutting Finn and escaping the room. Towards the end of the episode, Curtis, along with Rudy, Jess and Seth, chase Finn (who now has the briefcase, due to him and Jess also being affected by Michael's power) up to the roof of the Community Centre, threatening him with a baseball bat. When Michael finally dies, the affects of his power are deactivated, and Curtis returns to his normal self.

Afterwards, Curtis meets a new beautiful blind girl during a sculpting lesson, and they start to have a relationship. This ends quickly though, as she turns out to be racist and objects to black and white people mixing. Rudy attempts to persuade her out of racism, but she angrily forces him out of her flat after he used cling film as a makeshift condom. Curtis and Rudy have one last drink with Seth who returns to Uganda to be with Kelly. At the end of the day, Curtis meets Lola, a trainee probation worker, and they start a sexual relationship. Curtis easily lived up to her "bad-boy" expectations, even stealing a wedding cake for her.

Curtis next takes Lola to a bar, where she meets her ex-boyfriend. Lola pretends to Curtis he assaulted her, leading Curtis to enter his flat and interrogate him. This eventually led to his death at Curtis's hands, and he confesses his murder to Lola. meanwhile, Lola disappears to have another relationship with a different man.Curtis and the gang revive the ex and ask him questions, although he becomes a zombie and Finn is forced to brutally kill him. Despite this, Curtis was bitten by him and became a zombie.

Going to Lola's flat, he finds a CD of her, which shows that she was actually an actress who played a woman called Lola when the Storm happened, and she started living Lola's life for real- using men against each other and forcing them to kill her ex's for her. Upon finding this out, Lola's current boyfriend kidnaps Curtis and attempts to kill him. However, he cannot go through with it and lowers his gun. Lola shoots him and then shoots Curtis, making it look like a double murder. Curtis, who is a zombie and cannot be killed unless shot in the head, jumps up and bites Lola as she places the gun in his hand to frame him. Curtis tells Lola he's sorry, before shooting her in the head in order to prevent a resurrection.

Cutis's phone rang, and upon answering, Rudy asks Curtis about the options they have left. Curtis tells Rudy that there is only one option left, suicide. Rudy begins to sob and questions Curtis if he could manufacture some kind of a happy ending. Curtis informs his old friend that there were no happy endings this time. Rudy then asks for one last drink, just him and Curtis, and talk about the good old days. Curtis tells him that it is "Better this way", and for Rudy to take care of himself, then hangs up. Curtis closes his eyes, puts the gun to his head and takes his own life. His body falls through a hole in the floor. Curtis lands in a running position, arms outstretched like he had won a race, marking his costly victory against the zombie outbreak.

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Curtis' dead body lays in the running position after he shoots himself

Curtis's death emotionally affected Rudy as he had once attempted suicide. Curtis is later mentioned in the next episode by Greg who asks Rudy : "Why would Curtis blow his brains out in a disused factory?". Abby later joins the gang, filling the void and bringing the gang members back up to 4. Rudy later mentions Curtis in the Series 4 finale where Rudy says Curtis told him the story about Nikki's heart transplant.

Curtis's death brought the end of an era, as he was the last original member of the gang on community service, with Nathan in prison, Kelly in Uganda, Alisha dead and Simon going back in time to continue his eternal love cycle.

Series 5[]

By Series 5, Curtis remains dead, most likely being given a proper burial since his body was found. This is the only Series not to feature Curtis, and he is not mentioned, most likely meaning that Rudy has recovered from the loss of his close friend.

Death[]

Curtis is shot in the torso by Lola, however, due to being a zombie, the only way he can die is from severe damage to the brain. As Lola places a gun in Curtis' hand to frame him for shooting Pete, he springs to life, biting and infecting her. He immediately tells her he's sorry and shoots her in the head.

Curtis' mobile phone then rings, and he and Rudy share a sad goodbye. Knowing he can't live as a zombie anymore, Curtis shoots himself in the head, and his body drops through a hole to the floor below. 

Characterisation[]

There is some conspiracy as to whether Curtis was adopted, due to his reaction to the Nathan's statement in S2E1 "adopted kids are nut-jobs". Nathan seems to be directing the statement at Curtis, to which he reacts offended and annoyed.

Curtis was once a rising running star, who aimed to compete in the 2012 Olympics. However, his career was left in tatters after being caught in possession of cocaine. Due to his high profile he was publicly shamed, being made an example under the eyes of the law.

Curtis is forced to trade his tracksuit for a jumpsuit and take part in Community Payback. Although he’s desperate to toe the line, Curtis hates being lumbered with a bunch of losers who can’t even paint a bench without getting into a fight.

Curtis is a very selfless person, doing many things for other people even if it doesn't benefit himself. This includes the occasions he made sure he was on community service to save the gang despite being given the chance to revive his sporting career via time rewind and ending his own life in order to stop himself from spreading the zombie infection.

Special Powers[]

Time Reversal[]

After being hit by the Storm, Curtis had the power of time manipulation; whenever he regrets something, he rewinds and replay past events to affect their outcome — an ability over which he has little control of at the start. Curtis is shown to be able to replay events multiple times, but his power requires a personal connection to the people he is trying to help; for example, he was unable to undo the death of Ollie, the newest member of the group, because he didn't know him that well, but he was able to replay the events surrounding his arrest multiple times. With the heavy weight of regret on his shoulders, Curtis just needs to learn how to control his power.

Flash-Forward[]

When he took drugs, Curtis's power was reversed. Instead of travelling back in time, he flashed forward into the future Episode 5 (Series 2) where he met his future lover, Nikki . However, he was only there for a bit, before he went back to the present.

Gender Swap[]

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Curtis/Melissa

see also: Melissa

Curtis sold his ability of time reversal to Seth. He then tries to buy it back however he was unable to as his original ability had already been sold to someone else. In series 3, Curtis has gained the power Gender Swap. He first uses it to throw off a policeman that was chasing him by transforming into a woman and confusing the cop. He says the only reason he picked this power was because everyone else picked before him and it was the only one left. He later used his power to compete in the female athletics team. He came up with the name Melissa for his female identity, and fell in love with Emma, another runner, who entered into a relationship with both Curtis and Melissa.

Resurrection[]

During Episode 6 (Series 3), Curtis begin to randomly shift between being himself and a girl, until he finally stopped and got stuck being Melissa. He also found out that he had made himself pregnant, so he went to Seth and asked for a new power. Seth allowed him to have a new power for free, but he first wanted Curtis to use power of Resurrection to bring back his dead girlfriend. Curtis agreed, and so swaps his Gender Swap power for this one.

Curtis used this new ability to resurrect Shannon and a cat. He wanted to revive Alisha after she was killed, but the others said it was a bad idea and she wouldn't want to be a zombie.

Despite vowing to never use this ability again, Curtis doesn't receive a new power from Seth. He is forced to use it once more on Jake after killing him, needing to ask him questions concerning his girlfriend Lola. Jake is quick to give in to his thirst for blood and attacks the gang, biting Curtis. Curtis is forced to feed on small animals to prevent himself infecting people while searching for answers on Lola. During his final confrontation with her, Curtis bites her and then kills her to prevent her reanimating. After succumbing to the bite, Curtis shares a sad goodbye with Rudy over the phone, proceeding to shoot himself in the head afterwards, selflessly ending his life to stop the infection spreading and ending the curse of the resurrection power once and for all.

Trivia[]

  • He is the longest surviving character on the show.
  • To date, Curtis, Simon, and Kelly are the only Misfits to have had more than 2 powers, not counting Nathan's dual ability of Immortality and Mediumship or inverse powers. Curtis has had Time Reversal, Gender Swap and Resurrection.
    • Kelly and Curtis are also the only Misfits to have shared the same power but at different times, Time Reversal. However, Simon had a similar power to this, One-Way Time Travel.
  • Curtis' original power reflects the regret he has for being caught with drugs and ruining his athletic career.
  • There are several instances during Series 3 where Curtis has the possibility of bringing Nikki back to life. Kelly does not tell him that Seth has his old Time Reversal at the end of Episode 4 (Series 3), and Seth explains to Simon that the power is gone due to Shannon eating Seth's pet iguana, Iggy, who had the power stored in him. Also, when Curtis gains the power of Resurrection, he doesn't even seem to mention Nikki or try to go and revive her. This, however, may be because she would've become a zombie.
  • Curtis is the only character from the original cast to appear in Series 4. However, his appearance is short-lived as he commits suicide after becoming infected by a zombie in Episode 4 (Series 4).
  • In both instances Curtis has died on the show (Episode 4 (Series 3) and Episode 4 (Series 4)), it has been caused by a bullet to the head.
  • Curtis was the only character to die midway through a series, all others left on the final episode of a series.
  • He is lactose intolerant therefore making him invincible to Brian's power.
  • In the alternative timeline where the Nazi's won World War 2, Curtis seems to have a lack of remorse and less guilt as he is prepared to kill Seth and maybe even Rudy. 
  • Curtis has met every other member of the gang, except for Abby.
  • Curtis appears in every Series except for the 5th and final Series. He is also not mentioned.

Appearances[]

Episodes[]

Series One
1

Appears

2

Appears

3

Appears

4

Appears

5

Appears

6

Appears

Series Two
1

Appears

2

Appears

3

Appears

4

Appears

5

Appears

6

Appears

Christmas Special

Appears

Series Three
Vegas Baby! 1

Appears

2

Appears

3

Appears

4

Appears

5

Appears

6

Appears

Erazer

Appears

7

Appears

8

Appears

Series Four
1

Appears

2

Appears

3

Appears

4

Appears

5

(Mentioned)

6 7 8

(Mentioned)

Other []

Simon's Series 1 Films []

  • "Stoner" 

Series 2 Community Centre security footage []

  • "Locker Inspection"
  • "Lock In"
  • "Man Vs Machine'"
  • "Ready, Steady, Roll!"
  • "Last Supper"

Misfits Strung Out []

  • "Episode 1"
  • "Episode 4"
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