Partial Remains

June 8, 2020·41 min·3 clips

Eric refuses to keep providing Sam with clean urine for drug tests, confronting him about the heroin addiction Sam insists he doesn't want to quit.

The episode opens with therapist Leah Dixon reading from official case notes about Sam's sister Whitney, who disappeared in 2003 and whose partial remains were found in 2012. Sam contests the official version. The narrative then shifts to a flashback to teenage Sam working at Prescott Artisan Deli, where his boss Jimmy Prescott unexpectedly drops in. Jimmy's casual rapport with Sam contrasts with his position of local power. Mira, Sam's direct supervisor at the deli, is in the back office distressed about fertility troubles and fear of losing her job to the Prescotts. Sam calls her husband Owen, who arrives and argues with Mira about family pressure from the McCaskey side to produce an heir. A customer fills Sam in on local lore: four McCaskey boys died in the mines in the 1950s and their bodies were never recovered, linking the McCaskey name to the mountain. In a parallel flashback, Sam joins Kyle and Kimber at Crystal Lake after getting off work early. The group discusses the Baraska parties, where mysterious women in white emerge from the woods at 1 a.m. and single out individuals who are then escorted off the mountain. Kimber admits she attended one party to investigate. The teenagers debate whether to attend a party at Ambercott later that night. Sam goes into work briefly and has a warm exchange with Emmaline Bonham, who invites him to the Baraska party. Back at Kimber's house, Sam, Kyle, and Kimber banter about relationships and insecurities in a loose, comfortable scene. They agree to attend the Ambercott party that night and pick Kimber up at ten. In present-day, Sam has a confrontational therapy session with Leah, pushing back on her professional concern and insisting the story he is telling is not really about Whitney. Eric then confronts Sam about his heroin use, the arrangement of providing clean urine, and his unwillingness to get help. Sam says he does not want to be clean because he does not want the nightmares back. Eric says he cannot keep participating in Sam's slow death.

As heard by us

A bleak missing-person chapter built around partial remains and the grief still hanging over Whitney Walker's case.

The episode gives Whitney Walker's disappearance a harsher edge by circling back to the 2003 case, the later discovery of partial remains along Interstate 55 in May 2012, and the question of whether they were really hers.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A cold-case listen about Whitney Walker's 2003 disappearance and the partial remains later found along Interstate 55.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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