Supernatural: The Memory Remains

Posted by: Kyle Tetarenko  •  April 14, 2017 @ 3:39am

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

Sam: Dean, there could be a god up there.

Dean: I'm cool.

After getting a text from Mick about the latest strange killing, the boys are off to Tomahawk, Wisconsin to investigate. The boys arrive and speak with Sheriff Bishop but he seems less than interested as he believes the victim, Jared Hayes, more likely left town due to a poor upbringing. The Winchesters aren't too convinced by that story and follow up with Jared's friend, Daryn. Daryn claims to have seen a monster with the head of a goat kill Jared. The boys have something to go on and Sam discovers that the town might have a monster on their hands that's a satyr, a half man half goat named Black Bill that feasts on his victims until his stomach is almost bursting. Meanwhile, back at the bunker, Ketch and British Men of Letters are using the latest hunt they have sent the boys on to learn everything they can about them and plant listening devices throughout their home. Later that night, Daryn is finishing work and is attacked by the monster. When the boys do some digging the next day at the meat packing plant where Daryn works, they learn from the manager, Pete, that Sheriff Bishop is the owner. With two of his employees suddenly disappearing without a trace, the sheriff has a lot to answer for.

After Mick's death at the end of last week's The British Invasion I was hoping that Supernatural would continue that story a bit longer but regrettably, The Memory Remains fell flat at almost every turn. For starters, a few big plot holes such as why there was no door knob on the inside of the freezer at the packing plant or how Pete managed to move a starving sacrifice god to a meat packing plant without anyone noticing or getting eaten himself didn't help. Look, I'm all about suspending belief for a show but tying the only deaths of the show to a freezer without a safety latch is kinda lame when the two people that died worked at the plant and neither of them commented on it. Besides the issues that I mentioned with Pete and Moloch the sacrifice demon, there just wasn't enough in the episode to make me care about either of them. Pete spilled the beans like a mustache twirling villain for his life story and left everyone to be eaten by Moloch was the equivalent of the hero being lowered into a pool of ferocious sharks. Combine that with bizarre pacing of the scenes with the Men of Letters and the flow of the episode is thrown completely out the window. Not one of those scenes in the bunker needed to happen. Ketch could have been on a phone, given the order to get things done and that would have been it. Cut to the last scene where Dean hangs up the phone but Ketch still hears what they are saying and then give the shot of the microphone under the table. It's subtle and gets rid of the hokey spy music being played altogether.

Speaking of hokey villains, Pete Garfinkle definitely won't go down as a top ten villain for Supernatural. Like I mentioned above, Pete was a weird character that turned from thief to accomplice in murder to a sacrifice god in a very short amount of time. Besides telling Dean, a near complete stranger, everything about his life – there just wasn't enough motivation there for me to make that leap. In addition, Ryan McDonald's performance was nearing manic when he attacked Sam and Sheriff Bishop. Pete wasn't a great character but the performance wasn't there either.

Though Moloch wasn't that great, the highlight of The Memory Remains was definitely when Sam and Dean investigated the monster (the one they thought it was) and actually tried to build some lore around it. Unlike most episodes that assume that everyone watching knows exactly what a wendigo is, The Memory Remains took some to explain the satyr and why it's a threat that needs to be stopped. It reminded me of the earlier seasons of Supernatural that spent time building the villain that they were going to face.

Unfortunately, The Memory Remains was a rather undercooked episode of the Supernatural. We'll see what happens when Supernatural returns on April 27th with The Future.

Tags: Supernatural, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki

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