Family Remains - Recap

In Stratton, Nebraska, Bill Gibson is watching TV at his farmhouse when the lights go out. As he leaves the room, he discovers the door won't open. A closet door opens and a white-skinned girl comes in. Gibson is surprised to see her and says it's impossible she's there. She attacks him and blood splatters across the room.

The Impala is pulled over on the road and Dean is going over reports when Sam wakes up. Dean has found three cases they can take on but Sam thinks Dean is trying to keep busy to forget about the time he spent in Hell torturing other souls. Dean ignores him and they head out to investigate Gibson's murder, which took place in a locked room. They figure it's a ghost and drive to Stratton. When they arrive there they find the house is up for sale, but fail to note the "sold" sign that has fallen into the grass.

The brothers go inside the farmhouse and investigate. As they search the kitchen, Dean finds a sealed-over dumbwaiter. Sam picks up numerous electromagnetic readings but Dean, skeptical, notes nearby high-power lines. Finally they find a doll's head in a closet. Before they can check things out further, a car and a moving fan pull up. The new family moving in, the Carters, have arrived. None of them seem happy to be there: mother Susan, daughter Kate, or uncle Ted. The husband, Brian, tries to put a good face on things while his son Danny starts playing with their dog Buster. Sam and Dean come out and claim to be county inspectors who have found asbestos and a gas leak. They convince the Carters to go to a hotel room for the night.

The Winchesters find Gibson's housekeeper, Mrs. Curry, who talks about how Gibson kept to himself after his wife died giving birth to their only daughter, and that years later the daughter Rebecca hung herself. She doesn't know why Rebecca killed herself but provides the brothers with photos. She notes that she did hear rustling noises in the walls when she cleaned but never saw any rats. Sam and Dean discover that both dead women were cremated, meaning their ghosts can't be responsible.

The Carters return to their new home and Ted confirms there's no asbestos or gas leak. Kate catches a glimpse of a girl in an upstairs window but thinks she imagined things. Susan says that things should be fine but Kate doesn't believe it.

That night, Danny is playing a video game in his room. The closet door opens and someone inside tosses out a baseball. Intrigued, Danny talks to the unseen person and they play catch back and forth. Downstairs, Brian and Susan are in the kitchen and Brian smells something dead. He tries to reassure Susan that they'll be happy there despite the rough year they've had. Ted informs them he's discovered a message on the wall: "Go." Brian accuses Danny of acting out but the boy denies it. He says that the girl in the wall wrote the message and she hates grownups. When they don't believe him, Danny says that Andy would have and runs up to his room.

As Sam and Dean return to the house, Kate is in bed trying to sleep with her arm dangling over the side toward the floor. She feels something licking her hand and figures it's Buster the dog... until Buster comes into the room. Kate screams as something runs into the closet. The family comes upstairs and Sam and Dean bust in. The brothers manage to convince the Carters they're not responsible and Danny says it's the girl in the wall. The lights go out and they hear Buster barking outside. They run out only to discover a trail of blood and the words "Too late" written on the moving van. Brian reluctantly agrees to get his family out and let the Winchesters deal with it, but they discover that the ghost has slashed all their tires and stole the equipment out of the back of the Impala. Kate catches a glimpse of the white-skinned girl in the woods, further confusing Dean and Sam because ghosts can't leave the house they're attached to.

Everyone goes inside and Dean puts salt down in a barrier line. Sam shows Kate and Danny the photos and they recognize Rebecca as the girl she saw. Sam goes to investigate the attic where Rebecca killed herself, and the white-skinned girl comes into the room where Dean and the Carters have gathered. She steps over the salt line and attacks Dean with a knife, and he realizes that she's a human being, not a ghost. He tries to hold the girl off without success, but Sam returns and she runs away in horror when he shines his flashlight in her photosensitive eyes.

The Winchesters go outside and discover that Danny is missing. Dean convinces Kate and Susan to hide in a boarded-up shed while the men search for Danny. Dean and Ted go inside and find a hidden panel in a closet. It leads to a between-space in the walls and they start exploring. They find a hole in the floor and Dean climbs down where he discovers a collection of dead and eaten dogs. Above, the girl attacks Ted, killing him with a knife through the head. Dean returns just too late to save Ted.

Sam and Brian fail to find Danny and go to the shed. Dean returns and breaks the news that Ted is dead. Sam goes over Rebecca's diary, which he found in the attic, while Brian tries to comfort Susan. He promises that Danny won't die the way that Andy did. Outside, Brian explains to Dean that they lost their son Andy in a car accident. Dean promises to get Danny back safe and sound and Brian wonders why he's so vehement. Sam pulls Dean away and explains that according to the diary, Rebecca had a daughter, sired by her father. Gibson hated Rebecca, who killed herself, and then Gibson locked up his daughter until she broke free and killed him.

Dean figures where Gibson locked up his daughter. Meanwhile, Danny wakes up in the basement and the Gibson girl approaches him and offers him a rat. When he refuses to eat it, she breaks its neck and starts chewing.

Dean breaks open the dumbwaiter and insists on going down first, while Sam and Brian make a rope out of curtains. Outside, the girl starts banging on the walls of the shed to get to Kate and Susan.

Dean climbs down and finds their guns laying on the floor. He also locates Danny, who warns that "he" is coming: the girl's brother. The brother attacks Dean and the two struggle. Danny runs to the dumbwaiter shaft and Sam pulls him up. Dean manages to blind the Gibson boy with his flashlight and shoot him dead.

At the shed, the Gibson girl manages to break in and attack Susan. Brian arrives just in time, yanks her outside, and stabs her to death.

The next day, everyone is packing to lead and the Carters promise to Sam and Dean time to get away before calling in the police. The Carters seem to have resolved their differences for the time being. Down the road, the brothers stop for lunch but Dean isn't hungry. Figuring something is wrong, Sam asks what the matter is and Dean says that he can sympathize with the Gibson children. He thinks he was worse: they were merely defending their territory, but Dean enjoyed torturing souls in Hell. He admits that no matter what he does, no matter how many people he saves, he can never undo what he did.


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