Supernatural, 4x11, “Family Remains”

Episode Title: Family Remains
Writer: Jeremy Carver
Director: Kim Manners

Originally Aired: 01/15/2009
Grade: B

I’m quite conflicted as to how I felt about this episode. On the one hand, part of the premise of the show is that scary stuff can be fun and thrilling. This was about a couple of children who were horribly abused and almost completely lacking any kind of social development, who killed people out of pain and fear, and ended up getting killed themselves. That is not in any way “fun.” On the other hand, Dean was upset about the situation himself and seemed to really understand the intricacies of how fucked up it all was, and the episode certainly made me sad, so maybe it was successful in its goals? And hey, the kids were dog murderers, so clearly they had to die…

(I also generally like Jeremy Carver’s episodes, so I think the fact that there actually were intricacies for Dean to notice and empathize with is all thanks to him.)

This basically felt like Supernatural’s version of The Descent to me, and it affected me in a similar way: a) it played on my claustrophobia, b) it grossed me out, and c) it made me feel horrified and weirdly sad.

I’m still not really feeling this “Dean was a torturer in Hell… and he enjoyed it!” storyline. Isn’t it neat how the tables have turned as to what we thought of each brother at the beginning of the season?! Yeah, not really. I don’t buy that Dean would go through all this pain and suffering, and then enjoy inflicting the same pain and suffering on other souls, and then come out of Hell and be all ready for cheeseburgers and getting laid again. If they’d given some kind of explanation—for example, when Castiel touched Dean to pull him out of Hell, he also soothed some of Dean’s inner pain—I could see it, but the way it’s played out thus far really undermines the gravitas of the whole affair.

Finally, it was laughably convenient that the dead guy’s neighbor just happened to have pictures of his dead wife and daughter, and also happened to think of offering them to Sam and Dean. I mean, why? They’re long dead and cremated, why do Sam and Dean need to know what they looked like? Gotta love those TV shortcuts.