Supernatural Talk

Tarts Talk about Family Remains

By Suzette Chan
February 23, 2009

Welcome to Supernatural Talk, where Tarts talk about Supernatural, their favourite show about demon-hunting brothers. This week: episode 4.11, "Family Remains."

It's been a month since Dean revealed his transgression in Hell. He's avoiding Sam's questions about it, so he's dragging his brother across the nation on a non-stop monster-hunting spree. Finally, they come across a haunted house job. The boys discover that the house isn't being haunted by ghosts, but being aggressively defended by the monstrous products of a monstrous act of incest: two murderous children who live in its foundation.

Who taught those kids to read and speak?

Katherine Keller, Editrix In Chief and Copy Editrix: Let me say off the bat that I thought this was one of the weakest SPN episodes I've seen since Season One.

And seriously, I'm wondering if these kids lived their whole lives in the walls, never going outside, never seeing the sun?

Really, if they were that "feral", how the hell did they learn to read and speak. I'm thinking maybe their mother, but how long was she around?

Wolfen Moondaughter, Assistant Reviews Editrix and Den Mother: I assumed the father/grandfather taught the kids reading and speaking, but otherwise I have no answers, just more questions.

Patti Martinson, Staff Writer: I didn't really think of that. Perhaps they had access to television or something for a little while and they learned from that?

Suzette Chan, Assistant Copy Editor and Staff Writer: Any speaking or reading they would have learned was through the grand/father. Plus they would have overheard the television and the maid and anyone else who would have come by the house.

However, they seemed to have very little facility for either speech or reading. There were no reading materials in their den, and we never heard them speak. Danny reported his communication with the girl, but we don't know for sure that she formed actual sentences. She could have been answering Danny's questions with gestures, grunts and minimal actual speaking.

Why didn't they attack others who entered the house (police, real estate agents, inspectors, the cleaning and painting crew)?

Katherine: See above about a weak episode. If these feral kids were that much about defending their territory, I think they would've attacked anybody who spent more than 10 minutes in their home.

Wolfie: I assume there were just too many people around at once to attack, or that the kids were hoping the strangers would all go away, and only started attacking the adults in this instance when it was clear they wouldn't leave. But then why slash the tires and make it impossible to go? How was it that they were so animalistic almost all of the time, yet the girl apparently was able to hold a conversation with Danny, I wonder? I guess the moral here is that you can't expect the insane to have logic.

How did they not die of diseases, living like that, eating dirty, raw rats and living in such filth, though? I assume they got water from the faucet — what did they do when the water was turned off when the old man was killed? If it was never turned off, why didn't the water department note water being in use and do something about it?

If I were Danny, I would have been freaked out by some strange, scary-looking girl being in my closet and run for the folks right away. (Later, I wanted to tell him and his sister not to fear, what with Supergirl being his mom. Heheheh.) How did the Deliverance Twins scrawl "go" on the wall without being noticed, anyway?

Patti: I assumed that they suspected that the other adults were just temporary. When it looked like the family was permanent, that's when they attacked.

Suzette: They were used to people coming and going — there was a regular maid, after all — but they were upset at anyone who looked like they were going to be there permanently. Plus, by the time the new family moves in, the kids have been starved for weeks: they killed the hand that fed them, then the realtors had the dumbwaiter sealed up. Dean explained it as defending their territory, but an additional way to read it is that the siblings were out of their minds with hunger. If there was ever a possibility that they would have appealed to the new family for rescue, it had been starved out of them.

I don't think it makes sense to assume the water company would know anything about the house. The house was way out in the country, so they're more likely to be using an artisan well and a septic tank instead of running, metered water.

Is Dean more ashamed that he caved, got off the rack and became a torturer, or that he enjoyed it so much?

Katherine: In my opinion, it's that he liked it so much. Getting off the rack? I think he can cut himself a little slack for that — everybody has a breaking point. But the fact that he relished it? And has to live with the memory of liking it? It will be a long time, if ever, before Dean can forgive himself for that.

Wolfie: I do think he's upset all around, but the fact that he enjoyed it makes it even worse, like the cherry on a guilt sundae. Poor Sam — how does one respond to a revelation like that?

Suzette: Both, and together. Dean thinks of the two acts as separate, but compounding evils. He mentioned caving in first, then waited a month to tell Sam about the enjoyment. But one act led to the other, which is what makes him so upset about Sam using demon powers. Dean doesn't believe harm can be limited. Once you cross that line, you just go on to do worse and worse things because you've completely lost your bearings.

As interesting as Dean's revelation was, I have to say: please, no more sitting on the Impala for curbside exposition bombs about Dean's time in Hell. It worked gut-wrenchingly well at the end of "Heaven and Hell", but this was a pale imitation and felt manipulative. Supernatural usually does a good job of keeping their more melodramatic moments from seeming contrived. Actually, I think we get the gist of Dean's time in Hell. I don't think the show needs to get into the details, but it would make for an interesting Vertigo mini-series. Lucifer could make a guest appearance!

One thing I really liked about the scene was that little shot of Dean putting down the burger without eating it. This was Dean, with food in hand that he was not immediately stuffing into his face. I thought, "uh-oh!" I loved that Sam noticed this was an indication that something was very, very wrong!

Patti: I think he is more ashamed he enjoyed it so much. Like that girl who ate the rat with relish in front of the boys — which was the only scene that sparked my interest, really. I was mostly bored with the episode. The situation wasn't particularly interesting and neither was the family. The beginning/ending bits with Sam and Dean were okay, but the rest of the ep didn't impress. Almost immediately I thought of The X-Files episode of "Home", which did a much better job with on the subject of incest.

Suzette: The rat-eating was one of the most disgusting scenes ever on Supernatural! Oh, fun fact from the Supernatural Wiki: "The role of the housekeeper in this episode, Mrs Curry, was played by Karin Konoval who also played the mother of the incestuous family in that X-Files epsiode."

Any other thoughts?

Wolfie: Overall, it was a scary ep, sure, and not without merit — although the dialogue was downright painful at times, and the family's backstory too vague, to the point where I wondered why they bothered with the whole "dead son" story. They also believed our boys too easily, especially after they learned no ghosts were involved.

Suzette: Ah, but the dead son story was there to give the family a sense of being somehow cursed or haunted. They were also exhausted from the drive over and were given an additional kick in the emotional pants when they had to stay in a motel for yet one more night when they thought they had arrived home. Also, although Uncle Ted was suspicious of Sam and Dean, he never doubts that the world is full of human lying in wait to scam, cheat or possibly kill you. Uncle Ted was a lot more invested in the whole situation after he was proven right all along: they weren't dealing with ghosts, they were dealing with humans.

Wolfie: It might have been a better episode if it had turned out there was some horrible secret with the family being protected. I did appreciate Dean's fierce desire to protect the family and the angst of his guilt, and the twist, at least. Even so, it's not the sort of story I tune in to a show called Supernatural to see, so I was a bit disappointed.

Suzette: It was creepy, and it was a conscious return to the monster-of-the-week format the series started with. But Supernatural became a lot more compelling after it started to explore the Winchesters' own mythology.

I did sort of wish they hadn't made an overt reference to the incest/imprisonment case in Austria. Although I knew that's what they were referencing, bringing in that awful situation and equating it to these feral, murderous siblings felt terribly unfair. If there had been a supernatural twist to them, if they weren't human, the comparison would have been displaced farther from exploitation territory.

Wolfie, you made the connection between Dean's desire to protect the family and his guilt over his deeds in Hell. There was another beautiful little scene earlier in the episode that provided a more fundamental reason for Dean's dogged determination in this case.

When they realize that Danny is missing, Dean swears he'll find him. The father, Brian, doesn't understand why Dean would be so emotional about people he doesn't know. Here's how the scene played out:

- Dean: "I'm getting your son back. If it's the last God-forsaken thing I do."
- Brian: "Why do you care so much?"
- Cut to Dean. He's silent, but you can tell a whole story is unfolding in his head.
- Sam approaches: "Dean."
- Dean nods.

So while Brian is still mystified, viewers have their answer. What Brian doesn't get to know is that Dean is a proven protector of children. It started when his father put six-month-old Sam into four-year-old Dean's arms and told him to take the baby to safety. From that point on, he followed his father's orders to protect Sam. Dean took it so seriously, he not only protected Sam from the supernatural — and knowledge that it even existed — he also protected Sam from knowledge of their father's obsessive pursuit of his vocation ("A Very Supernatural Christmas"). As an adult hunter, Dean protected Michael from the shtriga ("Something Wicked"), Ben Braeden from the changelings ("The Kids Are Alright"), and still tries to protect Sam: this season, it's not about keeping Sam from physical harm, but from giving in to the seductive utility of evil — something Dean himself could not resist in Hell.

Tune in next time for another Tart talk about our favorite demon-hunting siblings.

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