Mikes Film Talk

“The Family” just keeps surprising viewers with more twists and turns and this week sees more secrets unveiled and reveals much about the main characters and a few peripheral ones. This episode “Fun Ways to Tell Boyfriend You’re Pregnant” sees Clements still alive, Ben admitting the truth of who hurt Adam in that bunker and Claire gets her claws out when Meyer refuses to play along.

The detective appears to be the only person concerned about Clements and Bridey goes for the win by putting two and two together after catching Willa out meeting with the leader of the DNA lab.  Hank gets to play hero and he insists on getting all the credit for catching Doug.

Willa decides to keep probing Ben for the truth about what really happened to Adam and  when he admits to hurting her brother, she is understandably freaked out. She also starts having doubts about the whole “Adam”  charade.  Meyer goes to search Doug’s house and it is clear that  she is the only one who believes her FBI partner has not gotten drunk and gone AWOL.

Clements keeps working on Jane to let him go and ends up helping her deliver her baby while still cuffed.  When he insists on being released she reveals that Doug took the  keys.

(Best line of the episode goes to Agent Clements (Matthew Lawler) when he asks Jane about the whereabouts of Doug.)

“Is your monster here?”

Claire Warren goes on the attack when Meyer refuses to tell the woman who the suspect is and when the detective queries who “Adam” really is, Warren gets vicious.  Meyer gets the last word and warns the Mayor:

“You better have your house in order when I catch him.”

Hank reveals his clue to Meyer and tells her what he wants in return.  It is a clear indication of his arrested development as an adult.  Asher (Andrew McCarthy) tells the detective what he wants as his reward:

Hank: “I want a world where good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. We need more heroes. So you’re going to make me one.”

Ben admits to Willa that he loved and hated Adam after admitting that the reason he hurt his bunker-mate was that all he talked about was his family.  Later, at the Warren family meal Willa is disturbed by her most recent secret and Danny senses something is up.

Jane (Zoe Perry) self delivers and Clements tell his captor that he is sorry, the baby is a boy.  Willa tries to tell Claire about Ben but gets sidetracked. Later Danny (Zach Gilford) tells Willa that he know something is up but she will not tell him what is going on. 

Clements, we learn, is an alcoholic who has gone on benders in the past (the reason his colleagues are not overly concerned about his disappearance). When the agent learns that Doug took the key, he asks Jane for a drink.

Willa meets up with Bridey and after sex, the tired conspirator sleeps while her journalist lover copies her hard drive.  Meyer keeps insisting that Clements was at Doug and Jane’s house and “Pocky” turns himself in.

This week’s episode of “The Family” had some great tense moments and two  brilliant reveals. Doug and Jane are undergoing a transition and it appears that each one is out for themselves.  Ben also turns out to be quite the conspirator and Willa may just pay dearly for her deception.

As usual, Joan Allen’s Claire Warren does not come over very well. Her threats and belittling of Detective Meyer reveal a truly unpleasant side and it may be this ugly vein that ultimately loses her the governor’s race.

Ben is, as would be expected, a truly damaged young man.  Although it is unclear just how damaged he was before Doug took him and how much his captivity refined his existing mental issues.

Hank, as usual, may be in for a surprise when his “hero” wish is granted. As evidenced with his meeting with John Warren (Rupert Graves) the first thought that went through John’s head was that Asher was friends with Doug. The sex offender is dismissive and angry  but his “childlike” mentality did not see this possible outcome of his presenting evidence to the police. 

“The Family” has its penultimate episode next week (“Election Day”) which means that the end is nigh for the Warrens, Ben and Asher. It remains to be seen whether Clements will survive his infected wound and being held in the basement of a secret house in the woods.

Jane, despite her constant apologies, may still let the lawman die in order to save her own skin and Doug’s new game plan, so different from what he outlined earlier is still a mystery.

The series airs Sundays on ABC.