The season finale for #TheFamily was appropriately titled, “What took you so long?” It’s ironic because as a viewer, it was the question I’ve been asking my TV screen for quite some time. Here’s why.
I’ve been a fan of the show since day one. For those of you who haven’t been watching, let me break the series down for you. A politician named Claire has a son named Adam who gets abducted. He is never found and ultimately presumed dead.T hen after ten years, manages to escape and returns home to his family. The plot twist? The boy that returned home is not actually Adam. His name is Ben and he was held captive in the same place Adam was. This news doesn’t stop the sister, Willa, from “inviting him” to be part of the family. The only problem? The mother, father, and older brother don’t know. Eventually family members find out, leads are made in the case, and the family ultimately has to decide: do they keep up with the facade or not? They decide to to allow Ben to stay as part of the family, even though questions about his intentions and his past have arose. This brings us to the finale.
In the finale, a lot of shadows are brought to light. Jane, The wife of the man who abducted both Adam and Ben, finally makes a run for it. She just had a brand new baby and realized that having a young boy in her home is probably not the best idea considering her husband’s extracurricular activities. But Jane hasn’t been completely innocent herself. When a detective, Agent Clements, tried to warn her about her husband in a prior episode she hit him so hard he was knocked unconscious and has been essentially keeping him captive in their cellar. She brings him food and stuff though, so it’s cool. Clements’ partner, Nina, who has been the lead detective on Adam Warren’s case throughout the decade, hasn’t given up hope that Clements is still alive. And this is the episode where she finally finds him. The only problem? He can’t ID the captor since he never saw his face. Luckily for her, the captor can’t get very far because he’s bleeding out by a tree. The question is then: who shot him?
While all this is going on, Willa is trying to break off her relationship with the reporter her and her brother have slept with (a post for another day). Why? Not because it’s creepy, but because the report finally has enough dirt to break this story open. The only problem?is Claire has just been elected senator; this could ruin everything. So the reporter has to be stopped. And she is — dead in her tracks. Literally. Which poses question number two: did Willa go even further to protect the lie she created? Or is there another killer at play here?
The biggest question of all though, came within the last minute of the show. As Jane continued her escape towards Canada she stopped at a gas station. When the car comes to a stop, you see someone who is a clearly a young boy step out of the car. As the camera follows, it finally pans up to the back of the boy’s head and settles on a scar. Viewers watching will remember the flashback where Adam hit his head trying to escape from his captor. They’ll remember that he hit his head so hard, that ten years later he would definitely have a scar. Ladies and gents, the real Adam Warren just stood up. He’s alive. Then since he is finally free, he walks over to the pay phone and dials home. Because nothing is ever easy, they made it so Claire’s hands were too wet to answer the phone, so naturally Ben has to answer. The Ben who has been impersonating Adam. The Ben who finally got the family he always wanted. The Ben who is also finally free. So when he realizes it’s Adam on the phone and hears him accuse him of stealing his life there’s not much he can do. Especially when Adam hits him with these three words: “I’m coming home.” And with that it’s all over. Not just the episode, but the series. Leading us to the question that started this post, but ended it all, “What took so long?”
I wouldn’t say it’s a shock to find out that Adam was alive all this time. What’s shocking to me is that it took so long to get there. I understand laying the groundwork to put your plans in motion. I understand you have to make fans care enough about the family to make this reveal matter. But the series threw a lot of unbelievable stuff at us. This is the show that gave us a literal sibling love triangle, after all. But with all the crazy, it did do a great job at setting the pace for a second season. It gave us plenty of questions to want answered.
What happened to Ben’s foster parents? We know that the reporter tracked down his mother, but would anything have come of that? Ben finally confessed to Danny that he was not actually Adam. What would the long term effects of that be? Did Danny put two and two together about why the reporter chose him and his sister to sleep with? Is he the one who killed her? Now that Nina has found her partner, will she finally be able to solve this case? Or will the captor slip through her fingers like he’s done many times before? But above all, it left us wondering: how will Adam Warren make his way back to the family — and what will happen when he gets there? There were so many questions that fans may never get the answer too. Especially because we know the show won’t be back on ABC, but there are so many other places it could end up. If you ask me, it’s a chance worth taking. When a show hits it’s stride you want to be there when it officially takes off. So that poses the final question? Will any network or streaming service come to the rescue? Or will we be left with another unsolved disappearance on our hands?