The Family, Season 1 Episode 4: This is the Most Twisted One Yet!

After watching The Family, season 1 episode 4, “Feathers or Steel” you may need to remind yourself to breathe! This episode is filled with spine-tingling suspense and some major twists! It takes a lot to surprise me, but The Family absolutely did – and more than once. The thriller factor just went up a bunch, and I still have no idea what the heck is going on!

Also, just so I don’t keep stopping to rave throughout this review,  I want to address the performances.  This is an excellent cast doing top-notch work.  For instance,  detective Nina Meyer (Margot Bingham) could come off as the typical stock-in-trade procedural detective, but Bingham makes the audience go into her emotions beyond just wanting to get the bad guy.  

Then there’s Andrew McCarthy as pedophile Hank Asher and Joan Allen as Adam’s mother Claire Warren.  We’re only four episodes in but if I don’t see some Emmy nominations for their work in this series then the system is clearly rigged.

The Setup

This week the voiceover is Claire’s and she’s talking about finding out “what you’re made” of via difficult and extreme circumstances. The camera is roaming through a house that’s being either ransacked or where there’s been a fight. Spots of blood smeared on the floor leads one to suspect a fight is more likely the cause.  Especially because Claire is talking about a person learning if they could save a life – or take one.

Unlike last week’s somewhat gimmicky approach The Family, season 1 episode 4 has gone back to using the opening voiceover in a straightforward manner.  That’s not to say that it’s done exactly the way the first two were.  However, the episode opens up with Claire and is about giving us some real insight into who she is and what she’s capable of.   It then visually circles back to where that the episode started and …yeah, we’ll talk about that at the end of the review!

The Flashbacks – Hank and Claire

These are the summaries of  flashbacks scattered throughout the episode.

Flashback 1 – 8 years ago

Claire is sitting, tense, silent and grim as her voice over continues.

Claire: If they cut you open, what would they find: feathers or steel? …Answer me that. I’ll tell you if you’re a mother.

(Does anyone doubt that Claire will prove to be steel?  Just checking!)

Claire is saying this while at the prison sitting across from Hank.  All she wants is for Hank to tell her what he did with Adam’s body so that she can give him a proper funeral.  Of course, since Hank didn’t do it, he can’t help her, but he can’t say that because he took the plea deal saying that he did.  These two people hate each other – each with a legitimate reason.  As far as Claire knows, Hank murdered her son, but for Hank, he’s looking at the woman whose family has him sitting in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.   The fact that her being elected mayor allows her to walk in and visit him – regardless of whether he wants to see her or not, is just one more thing this woman and her family has taken from him and he is both resigned & seething.  

What’s fascinating to watch is a sad light dawning for Hank as they talk.  By the last shot of Hank that pure contempt and rage has changed to a mixture of emotions across his countenance.  There’s still rage and contempt, but there’s also sadness and understanding.  He’s not completely unsympathetic to Claire’s plight because this conversation makes him realize she’s not the one who set him up.   See, Hank knows someone planted the bottle with the boat in his drawer,  but it can’t be the woman begging him to tell her where her son’s body is.  In that last shot Hank sees how they’ve both been screwed. 

Any sympathy Hank might have held for Claire is subsequently killed by the actions Claire takes as mayor in order to try to get Hank to tell her where Adam’s body is.  She hires the assistant prison warden to run her security detail – and gets him to first try to have other inmates get Hank to reveal where the body is.  When that doesn’t work, the warden offers more “help.”    The next scene is hard to watch.  Hank is sitting alone by himself in the prison dining lab.  He bites into a sandwich and sees blood on the bread, then we see his pain and shock as blood spouts from his mouth.  Staggering, he looks to the guards for help.  They look at him – and turn away.  Then a prisoner approaches him with a hidden shank and we know Hank’s about to get cut much worse than the razor blades or broken glass that was in his sandwich.

Viewers know (or think we know) that whatever else he may have done Hank is innocent of killing, so all of this scene is especially brutal.  Slicing his month via the stuff in his sandwich is Hank’s  “punishment for not talking – but the truth is he has nothing to say.  This also makes Claire’s on air talk in “Of Puppies and Monsters” much worse, because she’s on the air continuing to paint Hank as a guilty man who deserved what he got – even though there is no proof that Hank has physically touched a child, never mind killing one.  So much for innocent until proven guilty.

Did you ever think you’d feel sympathy for a pedophile? Because, Hank is a pedophile.  Even if  the only way he’s acted on his sickness is supporting the kiddie porn trade, it’s still an awful crime and it still supports the horrible exploitation of children.  What Claire said last week is true. He has not been completely innocent. Still, in no way do her punishments fit the crime, nor does she have the authority to be the judge, jury and “executioner.”  At this point, Claire is only the mayor, but she has no problem breaking the laws when she believes she’s right.  It’s a dangerous precedent.

Flashback 2 – Christmas Time, 8 years ago

Claire is angrily putting presents under a Christmas tree while railing at her husband John (Rupert Graves) about Hank not telling her where Adam’s body is.  When John mutters they have to move on, she snaps back asking if moving on is “chapter 3” of his book on grieving.

John:   It’s almost two years.

Claire:  Sorry if I’m not grieving gracefully enough for you.

Timewise, this scene turns out to be in the middle of two other ones.  While putting away some towels in a closet Claire finds a small blue jewelry box with a pretty silver and crystal heart pendant on a chain.  She thinks it’s for her and is clearly touched by the gift.   She must have had the fight with John earlier Christmas eve, because the scene after finding the box is Christmas eve with young Willa (Madeleine Arthur) and young Danny (Rarmian Newton).  It’s present opening time!  Willa gives Claire a wrapped sweater-sized box “from Daddy.”  Claire opens it and finds…a sweater.  She actually looks to see if anything else is in the box before hastily leaving the room.

The last Christmas flashback we see is Claire driving by Nina’s house.  John is there with an arm around Nina, drinking a glass of wine and helping Nina decorate her Christmas tree.  Well, that answers one question.  Claire has known about this affair for a long time.

It’s this last flashback that explains so much about this marriage between Claire and John.  It’s sometime after Christmas and Claire is getting ready for bed.  She picks up her pillow and finds the blue jewelry box! John sheepishly comes in and tells her he meant to give it her for Christmas, but it didn’t seem like the right time.  There’s also something he wants to tell her….but Claire cuts him off.

Claire:  We need to bury our son.

John:   What?

Claire:  I can’t wait for a body anymore.

Claire goes on to say they’ve got to move on with their lives, essentially sweeping John’s affair under the rug.  So for eight years she’s known about it.  So there’s been this big elephant in the room that neither would talk about for eight years!

Present Day

The real-time events in The Family, season 1 episode 4 are by turns cynical, dark, and shocking!  It starts out the night of the day last week’s episode ended.  Hank jolted out of his sleep by the sound of a crash.  Terrified he gets up to see what’s happened and finds someone – a figure we can barely see backing away in the brush outside – had thrown a rock or brick into his home and broken a glass window.  Worse it when Hank is taking the broken glass out to the trash.  Spray painted on his garage door in giant white letters is the word, “Monster.”  It’s a direct reference to what Claire called him on television earlier that day.

What’s a nightmare for Hank is good news for Claire though. The next morning  at the Warren’s Willa (Alison Pill) comes rushing into the kitchen where Claire and John are having coffee and she’s got all morning papers.  She’s excited because all but one have run stories about it and Claire’s impassioned reactions.   Willa’s convinced Claire’s got the election in the bag, but Claire is more tempered, noting that her competition, Governor Charlie Lang (Grant Show) has “very deep pockets.  Willa won’t hear of it and declares Lang’s track record is horrible.

Willa:  You’re the next governor of Maine, mother.

This happy moment is cut short when Danny (Zach Gilford) sleepily wanders into the kitchen with reporter Bridey Cruz (Floriana Lima).  Mom and dad get over the awkwardness once Danny tells them it’s a friend from high school and not a hooker – which is a hilarious beat.  Claire smiles and asks her if she’d like some coffee and John offers to make waffles!  Only Willa is completely baffled and annoyed.

Willa:     Seriously?

Claire:    Go see if Adam’s hungry, will you?

Danny:   Yeah, go see if Adam’s hungry.

“Adam” (Liam James) is already up though.  He’s outside watching Hank trying to scrub off his garage door.  This is another great and nuanced scene:

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt-TgGF95V4?rel=0&showinfo=0]

 

What is Adam sorry for? It’s not just the fact that this happened, that makes sense. Heck, as a viewer I’m sorry it happened. However, Adam sees this as his fault. If he hadn’t come back from the dead, Hank wouldn’t be going through any of this. Claire made his life hell in jail for a few years, but then he was pretty much just another guy in jail. Now that he’s out, he’s going through hell all over again.

Meanwhile Hank thinks this kid is Adam. So he’s got all the memories of a kid he may or may not have molested, but that he certainly fantasized about. As a child, Adam didn’t treat Hank like a pariah. Adam had trusted Hank. Having this older Adam still trusting Hank and feeling badly for him, has to be painful and bittersweet. It’s that initial relationship that’s set all of this up – which still isn’t Adam’s fault. After all, Hank’s the pedophile and registered sex offender. None of that is Adam’s fault. When Hank here’s Claire calling Adam, he knows it can’t be good for him….

A New Kidnapping

First of all, there’s what looks like a copy-cat kidnapping of a little boy. It’s not a total copycat though.  The kidnapper knocked out the mother to take the kid, but it’s at a park in broad daylight.  Plus the kid looks similar to Adam.   This is juxtapositioned against Doug, the pockmarked guy (Michael Esper), acting completely guilty of  kidnapping someone.  So, while Nina and Agent Gabe Clements (Matthew Lawler) are dealing with the idea that Adam’s kidnapper may have struck again, we’ve got Doug coming home from we don’t know where – and neither does his wife.  

Doug’s wife has been texting him all morning because they’re having a couple’s baby shower.  Doug brushes her off and goes straight into their shed, where he: moves a rug, lifts up a secret trap door in the floor – complete with a wooden staircase – and goes down to a partially finished hidden room with a dirt wall and floor.  Once down there, he grabs a shovel….

What’s added to this mix is the Warren family.  John, Claire and Willa are called down to the police station because they’ve been told about this kidnapping – and that it could be the same person that took Adam. The place is swarming with press shouting questions, to which Willa sharply retorts that a child is missing and they aren’t going to politicize it.  Right….of course they’re going to politicize it! Just them showing up there politicised it, and who tipped off the press in the first place?  (That we’re never told, but it’s a good guess that someone on the Warren campaign let the press core know.) Sure enough, after a minute Claire addresses the press.  This moment is also how we meet Claire’s competition for Governor.

Governor Charlie

Given the current state of politics the relationship between Charlie and Claire is darn-right friendly.  Still, when Charlie’s advisor Scotty (Francois Battiste) tells Charlie that he needs to strengthen his position on crime because Claire Warren is talking about it.  

Charlie: She’s a one-trick pony, Scottie – a light-weight, small-town mayor running a one-issue campaign.  Believe me, people are going to get tired of sex-offenders and microchips.  So let her jump through her pretty hoops, and her pretty ring and when the kids are done clapping for the pretty, pretty pony, we will get down to the real issues

I do admire how Charlie’s description of Claire’s campaign manages to hit on issues of both sexism and grandstanding politicians in one shot.  I’m not sure when The Family was actually written and filmed, but doesn’t this sound like reflective mashup of our current presidential frontrunners?

It’s obvious to viewers that Charlie is majorly underestimating Claire and his own political situation, but it’s only starting to dawn on him. What’s the first clue he has about this?  Hardly anyone is covering his press conference because most reporters are covering Claire at the police station where she is…giving a few juicy soundbites.  She has three talking points.

1. she’s understands what it’s like to have your child kidnapped (she’s empathic)
2. she gives the press the license plate number of the white van the police are looking for (she’s for the people and community involvement)
3. she then threatens the person who took this child, Ryan (she’s tough on crime.) with this warning:

Claire:  You, are on borrowed time. We may not know your name, or where you live, but we know who you are – and we will find you.

After this little wake up call Charlie decides to invite Claire to the governor’s mansion for lunch.  With total condescension he begins his agenda of teaching Claire how campaigns in Maine are done.

Charlie: You’re new to the scene.  Races are run on issues Claire, not celebrity.

Claire had caught on immediately to what Charlie was up to and looks amused as he continues on with trying to show her how badly prepared she is to be a governor.

First, he goes on about how “complicated” budget appropriations are, and then asks her if she knows how many freshmen are in the legislature and who they are.  It’s a classic case of mansplaining. When Claire tells him there are two freshmen, he thinks he’s got her, but she’s the one who’s got him!

Charlie:  There aren’t any.  Not this year.  You’re having a moment, Claire.  Enjoy it.  But it’s not what this race is about.  Do you understand?

Claire:    There are two.

Charlie:  Excuse me?

Claire:     Well, I assumed you meant the House as well.  There are two freshmen in the House. Cumberland and Jones. Both women, so, they’re probably very confused about that budget, but, I look forward to setting then straight as governor.

I understand you don’t want me to talk about my son.  I understand that I’m not just a threat to you, I’m a nightmare because I am the voice of every parent’s worse fear, and I actually intend to do something about it.  But don’t you worry Charlie, I don’t intend to chip adulterers, just criminals.

This is one of those crazy moments because while I’m glad to see Claire demolish Charlie’s high horse sexism, I still, knowing what she’s done, don’t like Claire.   As for her chipping idea, as logical as it might sound, the ramifications for the U.S. Constitution are, to say the least, problematic.  Add to that the  enormous room there is for error and the whole thing sounds like a nightmare.  Besides, where would it end. In reality people have been debating the idea of microchipping their kids! 

Nina and Gabe (Agent Clements)

Nina and Gabe have lucked out – no thanks to Claire’s impromptu press conference which has flooding the police phone lines with crackpots.  Gabe’s FBI guys have been combing through security cam footage and come up with a picture of a man with dark hair and a baseball cap standing near a white van.  They take it to the Warrens and show it to Adam, asking if it looks like the man who took him.  Adam freaks out.  This makes Danny think that maybe it is Adam after all, but Willa just runs out of the room….

With a license plate number and Adam’s ID, Nina and Gabe start driving around looking for this van (you can do this in a small town area.)  Gabe and Nina have struck up a little friendship while working this case.  He worries that all she seems to eat are protein bars and talks about the honey farm he and his husband bought five years ago.   That’s when Nina sees the van parked outside of a motel.

To make a long story short, while Claire watches John playing baseball with “Adam” and remembers him doing so with young Adam (Maxwell James), Nina finds the kid Eric asleep and chained to a bed.  There’s also someone in the bathroom and a gun sitting on the dresser.  As the audience we’re wondering if it’s Doug in the bathroom or not.   Nina silently eases up towards the bathroom door, waits for the person to emerge, and shoots him dead – but it’s not Doug!

What happens next is told in flashback as Nina lies through the standard police inquiry into the fatal shooting.  By highlighting what Nina did against what she says she did, the inquiry focuses viewers on just how much Nina did not follow police procedure in this and that there was no reason to kill this man.  We get it, she thought it was the man who raped and tortured Adam – but that’s still not her job.  She’s no better than Claire has been about Hank, only Nina really was willing to be this man’s judge, jury and executioner.  It’s also in the same vein as how Nina railroaded Hank in the first place.  There’s definitely a theme in this series about people doing the wrong things because they think they are right and justified in doing so!

Then there’s Gabe. Gabe came in right after Nina shot this man and sees what happened and asks Nina what she wants to do.  He proceeds to help Nina cover up that the man was unarmed and backs the version of events Nina gives in the investigation.   Why?  Because Nina has become his buddy and she’s a good cop?

The latter is questionable.  Not that she’s on the take or doesn’t want to get the bad guys, but her ability to jump to conclusions, force confessions and kill those she thinks are guilty do not belong in the definition of being a good cop.  Maybe Gabe does it because the man was guilty, even if it wasn’t of taking Adam.  He did time for rape and attempted murder and had kidnapped the child of his ex-girlfriend for revenge.  The world was better off anyway, right? Why should criminals get due process, and why should a good cop go down for taking one out?

It might be easy to go with these reasons, but here’s a thought.  Hypothetically, what if this guy was just being paid to watch Eric and isn’t the actual kidnapper?  If that were the case then Nina just lost another lead to Adam’s kidnapper.  The idea that it’s okay to not have brought this guy in because of his record and what you think you know about him never keeps in mind that it’s possible what you think is wrong.

Nina and Claire

This will be short, but not sweet.  It’s Gabe who tells the Warren family that the person responsible for this kidnapping was not Adam’s kidnapper.  When John doesn’t see Nina he panics and asks about her well-being.  Claire is not amused.

However, Claire has to deal with her public image.  Nina and Gabe are heroes who took a convicted rapist who kidnapped a child permanently off the streets.  There’s no way she can’t make a big deal out of them.  What she can do is tell Nina to stop sleeping with her husband and belittle her as one of many – right before marching Nina up to a press conference.

The Siblings

Danny, Willa, and “Adam” all have things going on with them this week.  For Danny, seeing Adam’s reaction to the photo of his kidnapper, has him doubting his suspicions and regretting telling Bridey about them.  Unfortunately, Bridey’s already told the head of the paper about the reaction and he’s running the story, even though Bridey’s says she promised to tell Danny before it ran.  She feels bad about it – for at least a minute.   After all, banging a guy in his parents house and having an almond-milk latte and waffles with his family a woman’s got to feel a little guilty to be using him.  It’s the decent thing to do.  So when Danny stops by the office and asks if she’s told anyone, she lies – then suggests they go get a drink.  Danny angrily tells her he’s not drinking and leaves.

How guilty does Bridey feel?  She’s feeling so guilty that she goes back to the Warren house to try getting something with Adam’s DNA on it so she can have it tested.  First she’s got to get pass Willa, who seems to loathe her.  Bridey talks her way into the house by saying she left her phones, then sneaks into Adam’s room and uses a tissue to fish a Q-tip from his trash. She’s sticks it in a baggie, slips it into her purse and heads out – only to be met by Willa standing at the door.

Willa:     This is Adam’s room.

Bridey:   That’s why I couldn’t find it.  ….You don’t like me very much.

Willa:      I don’t know you very much.

Bridey:    I know you.  You were a strange little girl back in the day.

Willa:      I still am.

Bridey:    Good.  That makes it interesting.

That, was one weird conversation.  Bridey is smiling through the entire thing while Willa is grim, and after Bridey leaves she’s kind of a mess.  Never in a million years did I guess why….

Adam is also busy this afternoon.  After learning that Adam’s kidnapper is still at large, Adam’s acting nervous and afraid.  He convinces John to give him the security code for the alarm system.  Adam then goes to his room, writes it down on a piece of paper, wraps that around the key and hides it in his drawer!  What is that about?  It’s something not good – that’s for sure!

At dinner, Willa tells Danny that she’s googled Bridey and knows that she’s a reporter.  Danny blithely says “a blogger.”  He’s a little less cool when she tells him that Bridey had been in Adam’s room, but tries to blow it off.

Willa:  If she shows up again, for her panties, tell her we’ll mail’em.

Ouch!

Danny’s definitely not as okay as he pretended to be.  When Bridey comes back to her place she finds Danny sitting in it.  He’d broken in.  Bridey gets all high and mighty about him breaking in, but Danny’s not having it – not with the kind of deceit she’s been practicing.  He knows she took something from Adam’s room, but she says it’s too late and that he shouldn’t have told his story to a reporter.

Danny:  You’re a lying bitch.

Bridey:   Well, you’re a stupid drunk.

Danny is clearly hurt by that, and Bridey actually seems a little remorseful after he leaves.  Obviously though, not that much.

Now, here’s the big shock.  Willa is alone in her room on her knees in prayer position – but it’s a whole different kind of praying. She’s masturbating while fantasizing about…Bridey!  Willa is a closeted lesbian!

This opens a whole new possibility of things.  I’m assuming for now that this is a fantasy of Willa’s and not a memory, because then that’s a whole new level of twisted!

Was Willa jealous of Danny’s relationship with Bridey even back when Adam went missing?  Could she have helped Adam “disappear” for what she thought was a little while, hoping to keep Danny from making out with Bridey?   Also, does Bridey suspect Willa is gay?  Bridey does write the lesbian lifestyle blog.  Maybe she’s bisexual…?  If any of these ideas are on track, things are going to get a whole lot messier for this family!

Hank

Hank’s day just keeps getting worse.  After the thing with Adam that morning an officer comes over with a restraining order!  The officer does seem a little sorry for Hank – he suggests a power washer get the paint off of the garage door.  Still he warns Hank that he shouldn’t go past the tree on his side of the street.

Seriously?  As Hank said, Adam came over to his house.  Given all that the Warren’s have put him through Hank seeks out a lawyer to see if he can sue the Warrens for “slander and defamation.”  This is also where the flashback came in about the sandwich in jail. We and the lawyer watch Hank take apart his sandwich and go through the pieces carefully before putting it back together and taking a bite.  Unlike the lawyer, we know why he’s doing it.  It’s a sad thing.

The lawyer tells Hank there’s no way he’d win.  Hank’s a registered sex offender and Claire’s a mother.  His suggestion is to use the money he got for being wrongfully accused and go buy an island.  That’s pretty much how we feel about sex offenders though, isn’t it?  They should all be rounded up and put on an island?  Honestly, I sort of agree with the general idea.  With all the money Hank got he could just move and start over.  However, Hank doesn’t want to move.

Hank:     I don’t want an island.

Lawyer:  What do you want?

Hank:      Justice.

Lawyer:   Good luck.

With that, the lawyer leaves.

The Wrap Up

Doug

Back at Doug’s home, the baby shower is over and he’s helping his wife clean up.  She sends him into the house and uses the time to go look in the shed that he’s been telling her to stay out of all day.  It’s one of those heart-in-your-throat scenes because:

a) what’s she going to find?

b) what’s he going to do if he finds he in there?

What she finds, is a hand-carved baby cradle sitting on top of a table – which is on the rug covering the trap door.  When Doug comes in he doesn’t seem upset.

Doug:  I didn’t want you to see it.  It’s the wood from that walnut tree we cut down last fall.

The comment that really stings is when he jokes about her thinking he was “doing something shady right under her nose.”   He doesn’t say that he’s not, he jokingly says that he’s “smoother than that.”  …Well, he didn’t lie….  Late that night we see Doug sneak into shed and go back into his secret room.  He does this right after we’ve heard Nina and Gabe talk about the fact that person who took Adam will at some point take another kid because, “they always do.”

Hank

That night Hank goes out onto his sidewalk by his tree and stares at the Warren house.  He’s out of prison, but still in one.  In an angry act of defiance he steps in front of it.  That’s when John, who had fallen asleep on the couch, happens to get up.  He glances out the window and sees Hank staring at the house.

From that moment, we go back to the episode’s opening scene.  The house that had the fight in it is Hank’s house.  The blood on the floor is Hank’s.  We see Hank laid out cold on the floor.  There’s a pool of blood around his head and a bloodied nose. Next  to him is a wooden baseball bat with the letters “A.W” carved into it.  It’s the bat from the game John and Adam were playing that afternoon!

What. The. Heck?!  That’s where they leave us!  I have no clue who went and clobbered Hank.  John seems obvious, but  it’s not impossible.  Could it have been Adam? Is that key the key to Hank’s house?  If you have any theories about what’s going on, leave them in the comments.  I’d love to know what other people are making of all of this!