Lower Decks

Supernatural
“Jump the Shark”
Originally Broadcast Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Despite the title this wasn’t a true “jump the shark” episode. It didn’t make me want to give up on Supernatural but, of course, the title was just another in a long line of jokes the producers and writers of the series have inserted into episodes. Jumping the shark refers to the moment when a television show, in a blatant attempt to revive flagging viewership or critical acclaim, does something outrageous. In this case, the outrage was a revelation about John Winchester’s past.

It wasn’t so much outrageous as it was insulting.

Since the beginning, Supernatural has been about the relationship between Sam and Dean Winchester. Two brothers, fighting side by side against all manner of evil creatures, relying on one another to stay alive. To suddenly discover after almost four seasons that they have a half-brother does nothing to add to their relationship or the series over all. Rather, it destroys the character of John Winchester. Look at that! The man couldn’t keep it in his pants. And, to make matters worse, he took his other son to baseball games on his birthday!

As the episode begins the Brothers Winchester are in the Impala when their father’s cell phone rings. Dean answers. Someone named Adam Milligan is on the other end. He says he’s John’s son. The brothers meet with Adam and, after deciding he isn’t some sort of demon or shape shifter, learn that his mother is missing. They eventually reveal that they’re his half-brothers. Dean doesn’t want to involve Adam in their world of hunting and carnage but Sam decides to show Adam a few tricks.

It turns out that Adam’s mother isn’t the only one missing. Another man has disappeared as well. While investigating, Sam and Adam come across what looks like Adam’s mother. Sam, who realizes there was far too much blood found earlier in the episode, tells Adam to shoot his “mother” because it’s not her. With a smile Adam says he knows and then he knocks Sam out with the butt of his gun. Uh-oh.

Adam and his mother are both ghouls. Siblings, in fact. John Winchester killed their ghoul of a father years back and they’ve decided to have their revenge. They’ve killed everyone in town connected to him: Adam, Adam’s mother and the man who helped John track down their father back in the day. After learning that John was already dead they decided to kill Sam and Dean. The two begin feasting on Sam but before they can get very far Dean (who came upon Adam’s dead body) arrives to save the day.  Surprise, surprise.

After killing both ghouls Sam and Dean give Adam a final farewell. He was their half-brother, after all, and deserves that much. Dean was surprised at how Sam reacted to Adam, how he insisted on teaching Adam rather than letting him stay innocent. It was what John would have done and Sam is, it turns out, his father’s son.

I thought “Jump the Shark” was an incredibly dark episode. No, not bleak or grim or sinister. The cinematography of the episode was lacking in illumination and I had an difficult time seeing what was on the screen. I’ve had this problem before with Supernatural (and Smallville) but in this case it was next to impossible at times to decipher what was happening.

Nevertheless, I saw enough to know that as a standalone, Monster of the Week episode, “Jump the Shark” wasn’t bad. It had an interesting monster (or monsters) and the twist at the end with Adam being a ghoul was intriguing. But making Adam a half-brother to Sam and Dean was a horrible idea. It did nothing to flesh out the episode; if Adam had been another random person in need of help the episode would have played out almost exactly the same way.

If the purpose of the episode was to show that Sam has become his father, well, so what? He’s more than his father, in many ways, and has done things that his father never would have. We’ve known for years that he isn’t the same person he was when the series began. He’s accepted hunting as a way of life just as Dean had long before. Was the episode supposed to build Sam up so that Dean could be torn down?

Suggesting that Sam is more like their father than Dean could ever hope to be was painful, in a way, because Dean has always been the one closer in personality to John. After everything he’s been through, going to Hell and torturing souls, learning that his father never broke, Dean doesn’t see it that way. He doesn’t see how he can compare to his father at all.

But did he mean what he said as a compliment? Sam decided to take it that way, yes, but Dean may not like what he is seeing in his brother. He certainly doesn’t like the way Sam uses his dark abilities and pals around with Ruby. And now, on top of all that, Sam is the one telling Adam he can’t ever have a normal life with friends and family? Sam was the brother with a bright future, the one with hope. If he doesn’t have that anymore what does that say about Dean?