Review

Dean reads in a local newspaper about the death of a man in Stratton, Nebraska who was slaughtered in the locked room of a farmhouse on a two acre farm. Naturally the Winchester Bros are soon on their way to the murder house thinking they are dealing with a ghost. Complicating matters the Carter family show up, they have recently brought the farm as a new beginning following a family tragedy. The Bros attempt to defend the family from a revenant but discover what they dealing with is entirely human.

Every attempt to get out of Dodge is foiled, and when the youngest Carter, Danny, disappears Dean decides he is going to get the kid back. The Carter family are soon under siege in an outlying shed, while Dean searches the hidden places in the house for a sign of Danny. Not everyone is going to get out of this one alive as the Winchesters discover the disturbing secret of what they are dealing with. Dean finds there are even more secrets hidden in the house, secrets that could prove fatal.

One of the best yet multi title meanings for a Supernatural episode, Family Remains directly relates to three separate families. Firstly of course it directly relates to the Winchester Bros, as they try to pick up the pieces after Dean's eventually revelations about his time in the Pit. Secondly it relates to the Carter family who are trying to pick up the pieces following the death of Andy, the eldest son the previous year. And finally it relates to the antagonists of the piece, who have somehow survived what life has thrown at them including generational incest. If you didn't pick up on that little tidbit then you need to learn to listen to the dialogue.

It's been a while since Supernatural threw on a non-supernatural episode, the last one I can remember was The Benders way back in season one. Like that episode it's the backwoods inbreeds you need to worry about, you never know what they might be cooking up in their sheds and basements. I have to say I don't have a problem with Supernatural rocking out different horror tropes, but I'm wondering if we shouldn't be more focused on the overall season plot arc, just a thought.

A further detour from the seaosn plot arc, how are the Demons and Angels doing?

For a while I was wondering whether or not the episode was simply going to throw up haunted house tropes, but of course nothing's that simply when it comes to Supernatural. We get the figure seen in the upstairs window, that's gone quickly leaving a character wondering if they did see it or not. The pre-teen kid who no one believes that should have been listened to, at least one death could have been avoided in this episode if the adults had of listened to Danny. The ever popular warnings written on walls, with the final one saying it's way too late. The chick having her hand licked by what she thinks is the family dog till the actual dog walks in, what was licking her hand! And of course the ball being tossed from the back of a closet with the kid throwing it back, always a winner if only we hadn't seen it a zillion times previously.

One aspect of this episode I couldn't understand was Danny waking in the basement and the film changing to some sort of night vision green lighted option. While that sort of thing might work in found footage outings it looks completely out of place in a normal television show. The trick is used for a single scene for no apparent reason and then disappears for the rest of the show. I'm not even going to try and determine what they were attempting to do with this approach.

Another aspect of the show I had problems with were the size of the wall cavities, they really that large in three bedroom North American homes? Seems like a huge waste of space to be honest, you could get some massive closet space if you utilised that room. Equally I couldn't really understand the dump waiter thing. I get the concept for large multi stored buildings, but really this house had a dump waiter between the ground floor and the basement that looks completely unusable! From memory can't remember dumb waiters being a fixture of any house of this size in any previous movie or television outing. Could be wrong of course and might just be a Nebraska thing.

Just to sideswipe any feelings I wasn't digging this episode, there's some true tension built up in places, I've got two thumbs up going on for the makeup and costume for the character of Lizzie and of course guest actress Mandy Playdon is knocking one out of the ballpark with her performance. I was as convinced as Dean that we were dealing with a revenant through the first block of the movie; Ms Playdon has the jerky j-horror style movements going down, and I could readily believe Lizzie had been living in the walls of the house, only coming out at night. Some might argue that Family Remains dips its toes into The Ring, but to be honest the people arguing that would be mentally challenged, Lizzie for mine is unique from Samara and similar Japanese inspired long haired ghost girls.

Writer Jeremy Carver tries for some empathy for Dean in this episode, and to be honest I kind of think the script is heavy handed and misses the mark on this aspect. Throughout Family Remains Dean keeps a recurrent phrase about dealing with humans happening, and then toward the closing credits reflects on the similarities between himself and the denizens of the house's wall cavities. He reflects that Lizzie was locked away and tortured till she became a monster, which was pretty much his own experience in the Pit. A bit of a bomb shell to finish things off with Dean admitting he enjoyed torturing other souls! Not quite sure how that will sit with team Dean out in the female-sphere, but no doubt the Ladies will come around to feeling sorry for the elder Winchester. I was just thinking, dude no chick moments, but that's how I roll.

What no entry in the mullet rock stakes! Come on how about "Real Wild Child" by Iggy! I am deeply disappointed in the producers of Supernatural.

And it just goes to show the Winchesters can deal with the non-supernatural as well. Solid enough episode that worked around the pun in the title wonderfully well, though the script was at times slightly on the confused side of the equation. Dean seems to be going Sam a tad too often in recent episodes, I want my boy back wise cracking and getting the job done rather than growing chick parts! Leave the emoting to Sam, I expect better in the next few episodes. Reasonable hour of television that managed some chills, though for some reason I'm left thinking this isn't the best episode of Supernatural I've ever seen. View at your discretion, you are not going to be on the outer in terms of plot arcs if you don't catch up with this one.