Familiar
Written By: Josh Malerman
Aspiring lawyer Jackson (King Bach) and his ditzy sculptor girlfriend Fawn (Hannah Fierman) stumble out of a karaoke bar after a night of drunken partying. As the duo discuss Jackson's legal practices, Fawn spots a place across the street known as "Boone's Third Eye", and pressures Jackson to accompany her inside on a lark. Fawn and her boyfriend are welcomed by fortune teller Boone (Keith Arthur Bolden), who gives Jackson a disturbed glance, then proceeds to give Fawn a palm reading. While performing the reading, Boone slips Jackson a note which reads "Something bad followed you in here." Upon reading the note, Jackson feels uneasy and believes that something is behind him, even hearing a roar, but he shrugs it off when Fawn interrupts his train of thought. After paying Boone and returning to Jackson's apartment, Jackson watches a door down the hall slowly creak open, but the source turns out to be Fawn's dog Rudolph, who doesn't seem to like Jackson that much. As he watches TV with a sleeping Fawn, Jackson looks at the note Boone gave him, just before he hears the sound of something clicking against the wall. He then discovers a monstrous, pitch-black creature with red eyes that roars at him. When he turns on a nearby lamp, the creature suddenly disappears. Having woken up from the commotion, Fawn asks Jackson what happened, to which Jackson replies that he should stop drinking for a while, completely unaware that the creature has moved to the shadows behind him.
While at work the next day, Jackson's latest client argues that he has a "slam-dunk" case against a shoplifter, but Jackson's urging him to take it easy causes him to storm out. After the client leaves, Jackson's fax machine activates on its own. Upon examining the machine, he notices that the paper he received is blank, and the machine doesn't actually have any paper inside it. When he turns back around, he discovers that someone or something has meticulously stacked the contents of his desk in a pile. He also discovers that something has spilled his coffee and left behind a trail of hoofprints leading outside of the office. The frightened Jackson hides in the bathroom and frantically texts Fawn to fill her in on the situation. Suddenly, the lights go out, and Jackson hears the sound of someone coming in and turning on the sink. Upon asking if someone is in the bathroom, the creature's clawed hands reach out at him from outside the stall, but recede when he stands back up. Bursting out of the stall, Jackson looks around intently, and flees once again when he gradually notices the creature is standing behind him, inches away from his person.
While at a fancy restaurant with Fawn, Jackson shows her the note he received from Boone. While she doesn't necessarily believe his claims of being followed by some dark force, Fawn views his predicament as an exciting opportunity to prove that supernatural forces exist, treating the creature like an "imaginary friend" instead of a malevolent and primordial force. She also invites Jackson to go and see Boone again, mentioning that he might know how to deal with the creature. When Jackson vehemently refuses another visit to Boone's place, Fawn pulls a joke on him, then gives a hand-sculpted lamb as a present, saying that it's meant to keep him company. Later that night, Fawn leaves Jackson a voicemail to let him know that she's going to be staying late at the studio. As Jackson reaches Boone's place, he goes inside and looks around for answers. He discovers an old book titled Familiar, which he proceeds to open. The book explains that the creature following him is a familiar, a pitch-black demonic creature which comes in a variety of forms and has existed for centuries. The book reveals that familiars will seek out and attach themselves to a human host. Once attached, a familiar will do absolutely anything, even kill, to remain tethered to their host. Familiars are also known to possess the corpses of whomever they kill, pretending to be a long-time friend of their host.
Before Jackson can learn anymore, Boone approaches him, and informs him that he needs to trap his Familiar and keep it as far away from him as possible. Over drinks, Boone tells Jackson that exorcisms are merely a show and won't work against a familiar. Boone states that Jackson will need to physically trap the creature by completing a specific ritual. Boone tells Jackson to draw a "sacred circle" on the floor, lay a piece of "innocence bait" (an object created in an environment of pure joy) inside the circle, and then trap the Familiar inside a "blessed crate" when it comes to collect the bait. Once the Familiar is caught, Jackson is told to take the trapped creature to the deepest body of water he can find and dump it in, making sure it sinks deep enough so that not even his scent can reach it. Despite finding the whole thing ludicrous, Jackson does set up the trap as per Boone's instructions, using the necklace Boone was wearing as his innocence bait. After much time passes, the trap slams shut on something. Upon hearing the whining of a dog, Jackson mistakenly thinks that he has trapped Rudolph, but as he goes to free him, the Familiar lunges out at him. When he looks back, the Familiar is gone, having taken the necklace with it.
While visiting Fawn at her workshop, hoping to find a different method to rid himself of the Familiar, he suddenly remembers the lamb she made for him. Returning to his apartment, Jackson puts the lamb inside the sacred circle, makes sure Rudolph stays by his side, and sets up his phone to record the Familiar when it comes to collect the bait. After momentarily drifting off to sleep, Jackson hears the trap slam shut on something. Fawn's voice comes from inside the crate, crying and begging to be let out. Unsure whether the person inside is Fawn of the Familiar mimicking her voice, Jackson checks the footage on his phone to discover that the recording glitches out just as the trap is sprung. Jackson also calls Fawn, and when he can't hear her phone ringing inside the crate, Jackson immediately assumes that he has caught the Familiar. He calls Boone, who darkly reminds him of what he needs to do next.
Jackson proceeds to take the crate, the creature inside still crying and screaming, to a lake, where he pushes it in and watches it sink. Jackson then drives home, laughing maniacally about he's free of his supernatural stalker. When Jackson returns to his apartment, he finds Fawn's lamb sitting on a table in front of him, Fawn's water-logged corpse sitting behind it, and the Familiar itself behind her, revealing that Jackson's paranoia led to him killing the actual Fawn. The Familiar proceeds to possess Fawn's corpse and has her ominously shuffle over to Jackson. Giving the screaming Jackson a hug, the undead Fawn whispers to him "I believe you now."
This episode contains examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Jackson. While it's not seen, it's hinted at very frequently. It may also imply that his experiences with the Familiar, his "personal demon", was actually him being blacking out drunk and assaulting the people around him.
- Amoral Attorney: Downplayed with Jackson, as he's a lawyer-in-training who doesn't always believe what his law books say, and decides to accomplish things with the least amount of effort, if not use bullshit excuses outright. His meeting with a client who has a "slam dunk" case against someone who stole from his shop has him persuading the client to approach his case "as if the rim is 11 feet high, just in case", causing the client to storm out.
- Assuming that Jackson is being blackout drunk, however, the client may have left because Jackson was actually either drunk or hungover at work, explaining his ineptitude in what's said to be a very simple case.
- Ancient Evil: Familiars are noted to have existed for centuries, as per the ancient illustrations in Boone's book.
- Bathroom Stall of Angst: When the Familiar's presence gets stronger and it starts screwing with him at work, Jackson hides in a bathroom stall and frantically texts Fawn to fill her in on the situation.
- Body and Host: Familiars need to tether themselves to a human to survive. It's a rather interesting variation of the trope, as the Familiar doesn't actually possess Jackson nor has total control over him. For the most part, it usually stays out of his line of sight and screws with him in mundane ways... at first.
- Bookends: The episode starts and ends with Fawn telling Jackson she believes him about something. The difference is what exactly she believes.
- Box-and-Stick Trap: Jackson ends up using one of these to catch the Familiar, albeit with a wooden crate suspended from the ceiling.
- Call-Back:
- Jackson and Fawn are revealed to be watching Gray Matter on their TV.
- Much like The Finger, Jackson's experiences with the Familiar may have actually been him blacking out from drunkenness and murdering his lover.
- Hannah Fierman returns to the series in this episode, having previously played the Countess in Night of the Living Late Show.
- Captain Obvious: Fawn's reaction to the note Jackson got from Boone is simply to call it scary.
- Cat Scare: "Dog Scare", as the case may be, since what Jackson thought was the Familiar following him home was actually Rudolph.
- Chekhov's Gun: The lamb that Fawn makes for Jackson as a present, which he uses as replacement innocence bait.
- Creepy Long Fingers: The Familiar has three long clawed fingers on each hand, surrounded by two stubby digits on the ends.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Jackson fails to kill the Familiar, and he instead ends up killing his girlfriend, which is then possessed by the creature he was trying to rid himself of.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Familiars are said to possess corpses of those they kill to pose as friends of their host.
- Disappears into Light: The Familiar instantly vanishes whenever it makes contact with bright light.
- The Ditz: There's no doubt about it, Fawn is an absolute idiot. If it wasn't the Familiar swapping places with her via dark magic, then she ended up getting herself killed by crawling into the paranoid Jackson's familiar trap.
- And even if there wasn't an actual familiar and everything was the result of a blackout drunk Jackson assaulting her, she stays with him anyway because she's too stupid to know any better.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Jackson is an established alcoholic, a fact that Boone makes clear when he mentions that he "smells spirits" on him. This also hints that Jackson's experiences with the Familiar could very well be the result of him being blackout drunk, including kidnapping and abusing Rudolph and Fawn.
- The Dog Bites Back: After Fawn scares Jackson in the restaurant during their meet-up/date, Jackson returns the favor by scaring her as he enters her studio.
- Dumbass Has a Point: As dim as Fawn is, she did raise a valid point that Jackson should've returned to Boone so he could learn about the Familiar and how to stop it.
- Enemy Within: Jackson is known to be an alcoholic, hinting that the Familiar may actually be the manifestation of his drinking problem driving him to ultimately murder his girlfriend.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Rudolph is known to furiously bark at Jackson whenever he spots him. Given that Jackson may be a blackout drunk abuser and/or have a malevolent primordial being tethered to him, he may have a reason to do so.
- Evil Wears Black: It's unknown whether Jackson is intentionally evil regarding the familiar situation, but a few scenes have him wearing black outfits.
- Familiar: The main threat of the episode. In contrast to the usual depiction of familiars in media, these familiars are depicted as monstrous, primordial creatures that seem to be made of pure darkness, which actively seek out and bind themselves to a host instead of the other way around, and will commit any atrocity necessary to remain tethered to said host.
- Foreshadowing:
- The hints of the Familiar's presence go back to the very first time Boone meets Jackson, whereupon he becomes gravely concerned with his presence.
- Rudolph's furious barking at Jackson when in his presence may hint that he's already blackout drunk, and is actually assaulting Fawn instead of hugging her.
- The book Jackson reads describes how familiars are known to possess the corpses of whoever they kill, which is exactly what it does to Fawn.
- Fortune Teller: Boone, who advises Jackson as to how he can rid himself of his demonic stalker.
- Gilligan Cut: After Jackson tells Boone that there's no way in Hell he's lugging the "blessed crate" in the fortune teller's storeroom back home with him, the episode cuts to him standing next to the crate in the elevator, a comically annoyed look on his face.
- Hidden Depths: Despite being an absolute moron, Fawn establishes herself as a successful sculptor.
- Hollywood Exorcism: Boone has a dislike of exorcisms, stating that even though they're a good show, they don't do squat to a familiar.
- It Began with a Twist of Fate: Jackson manages to capture Fawn, kill her by accident, and let the Familiar that's been hounding him all episode free to possess her, just by drifting off to sleep for a single second.
- Jerkass: Despite her ditzy, bubbly, childlike demeanor, Fawn reacts rather insensitively to her boyfriend's situation and behaves quite demandingly to him in general, such as her petulant demands that he tells her that he loves her during their date, smacks him when he jokingly insists she has wrinkles, gives him the sculpted lamb as a way of saying she views him as weak, and trolls him by acting like something is behind Jackson and then gasping in shock. To her, she's just trying to be funny, but to others, it can be seen as uncalled for.
- The Killer in Me: Jackson, while blackout drunk and on a murderous streak, could've been the real reason for Fawn's death.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Is the Familiar an actual, physical entity that's looking to keep Jackson under its control? Or is it the manifestation of Jackson's murderous actions while he's blackout drunk?
- Meaningful Name: Fawn, Jackson's girlfriend, is portrayed as a gullible young woman, someone who is easy to fool with, like a baby deer. If he's genuinely being blackout drunk and abusive the whole time, Jackson uses her as a go-to punching bag.
- Mundane Solution: In spite of the spiritual properties to it, the process of banishing a familiar is essentially to trap it in a crate and throw it into a lake.
- Mysterious Note: Boone writes one directed to Jackson that reads "Something bad followed you in here!". Jackson learns what it means when he spots the Familiar for the first time.
- Mythology Gag:
- Similar to the original film, the method to get rid of a familiar amounts to trapping it inside a crate and dumping it into a lake.
- The ashtray makes an appearance on one of Boone's shelves, hidden behind the book Jackson grabs.
- The Familiar possessing Fawn and turning her into a shambling, waterlogged corpse is heavily reminiscent of the zombies from "Something to Tide You Over".
- When Jackson deduces that he has caught the Familiar, he screams "I got you!" just like Annie Lansing.
- Fawn's dog Rudolph is likely named after Rudolph Junkins from Christine.
- During his palm reading on Fawn, Boone notes that he sees people Fawn acquainted with, including someone named "Marcia".
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: The Familiar initially appears to be all in Jackson's head, with Fawn actually calling it an imaginary friend. It soon disproves this by tricking Jackson into killing her.
- Ominous Music Box Tune: One of them is heard during Fawn's palm reading, where the Familiar manifests for the first time.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: When Jackson views the Familiar's capture on his phone, the video glitches right when the trap is sprung, preventing him from knowing whether the thing he's trapped is Fawn or the Familiar mimicking her.
- Overt Rendezvous: Jackson and Fawn discuss the former's Familiar stalking him while on a date in a busy restaurant.
- Poke the Poodle: The Familiar's presence in Jackson's workplace starts off this way, with it sending Jackson a blank fax and piling his desk contents while his back is turned.
- Possessing a Dead Body: Familiars are known to do this to friends of their human hosts. Jackson's Familiar does this to Fawn after Jackson accidentally kills her.
- Recursive Canon: It doesn't get anymore recursive than Jackson and Fawn watching an episode of the series itself.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Familiar has red eyes, and Fawn later gains the same eyes when the Familiar possesses her.
- Ritual Magic: The process of banishing a familiar is to lure the creature into a "sacred circle" with a piece of "innocence bait", then trap it in a "blessed crate" when it trips the trap. Once it's trapped, it must then be dumped into the deepest body of water in the area.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Jackson utters a girly scream as the possessed Fawn hugs him at the end of the story.
- Shout-Out:
- Boone is an homage to the character Aaron Boone from Nightbreed.
- The bottle of booze Boone drinks from is named "MacReady's Highland Single Malt Scotch Whiskey".
- As she and Jackson enter Boone's place for the first time, Fawn quips "I see dead people." Jackson rebuts her with "I see lawsuits."
- One of Boone's tables has a crystal skull on it.
- Jackson discovers that the Familiar has stacked the contents of his desk in a matter straight out of Poltergeist (1982).
- Spanner in the Works: Fawn drags Jackson into Boone's place for a reading on the fly, letting him discover a familiar has tethered itself to him. A few days later, she meets her death and possession by her boyfriend and his familiar, the former having grown way too paranoid of the creature she inadvertently introduced him to.
- Stalker without a Crush: The Familiar, which follows Jackson and plagues him with supernatural activity nearly everywhere he goes.
- Time-Passes Montage: One occurs as Jackson waits for the Familiar to trip his trap, which showcases him performing various activities like checking his phone as he glimpses the trap every so often.
- Trapped-with-Monster Plot: An interesting variation where the victim is stuck with an ominous-looking, seemingly harmless monster that tethers itself to him and follows him everywhere, leaving him desperate to make it go away.
- Troll: Fawn is prone to being a troll to her loved ones, pranking the nervous Jackson by acting scared and pretending that there is something behind him. She also continually hugs Jackson to get a reaction out of her dog Rudolph, who apparently doesn't like Jackson getting close with his owner.
- Familiars are implied to be a race of primordial, supernatural trolls, known to sneak and cheat to keep themselves tethered to their hosts. Jackson's Familiar sends him a blank fax and rearranges his desk for its own amusement.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: When you get right down to it, the entirety of the episode is Fawn's fault. Thanks to her dragging Jackson inside Boone's place without letting him get a single say in the matter, Boone lets Jackson know about the Familiar, which starts stalking and haunting him, and eventually leads Jackson to accidentally kill Fawn herself in a fit of paranoia.
- Voice Changeling: The Familiar is able to mimic the voices of those close to Jackson. It first disguises itself as Rudolph, then as Fawn, the latter impersonation being so good that Jackson is easily fooled into killing the real Fawn.
- Your Other Left: Boone asks Fawn to give him her left palm so he can read it. She proceeds to give him her right palm, apparently not knowing right from left and further solidifying her dim-witted nature.
