Well, not really, but the writers were having some fun with one of the tenets of the phenomenon. Occasionally referred to as “Cousin Oliver Syndrome,” the sudden inclusion of new family, especially children, is an oldie, but goodie, in the shark jumping world. And more often than not, it brings with it disastrous results. Thankfully, while Sam and Dean did have a shiny new brother to meet, that’s where the similarities with the ill-fated Cousin Oliver ended. Although, you have to admire the attention to detail with Cousin Oliver’s diner.
I’ll admit it, when I first heard rumblings that Sam and Dean were going to meet their long lost brother, I was not amused. I know, we should all be much more trusting than that with the Supernatural writers. But even after assuring myself that there would be more to the story, I still came into the episode sure that I didn’t like the new Winchester before we even met him. And then two surprising things happened.
First, I actually did like Adam (Jake Abel). As he convinced Sam and Dean that he was the real deal, and then as they argued over what to do about him, he quickly grew on me. I started thinking that this could maybe work as an occasional recurring character. Of course, that all went out the window with surprise number two, the fantastic double reveal as Sam and Dean both found out just what was going on at the same time.
Ghouls! I was right with Sam that it wasn’t really Kate (Dedee Pfeiffer — nice casting), but when Adam turned to say, “I know,” it totally caught me by surprise. The following torture scene was pretty grisly, and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I kept thinking, “You don’t want to make Sam angry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.” Kate’s little comment about his blood tasting different opened the door for dark Sam to make an appearance. Alas, it wasn’t to be, but the big showdown, complete with a ghoul head being blown completely off, was outstanding.
There wasn’t a lot of bigger picture to the story. At least not where Castiel, the seals, and the coming apocalypse are concerned. But we did continue down the long slow trail of the changing Sam and Dean. It was interesting that both of them saw Sam in Adam, but had wildly differing reactions. Dean’s felt like a logical extension of how he once felt about Sam, tempered with all that has happened since he returned. And Sam’s felt like the ratcheting up of the tensions that are pushing him in what is becoming a more and more destructive direction.
While I came into this one with rather low expectations, I left quite impressed. Supernatural is just so good right now. How can you not be excited to see where this season ends up? It looks like we’ll get back to all of that bigger picture stuff next week, complete with Castiel and Anna.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Apr 24, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
The outcome of these storyline really caught me ungarded,and really LOL about all the speculation in the web about these new brother. The supernatural writers are genious!!! :)
How sad is it that Sam and Dean really did have a brother and never got to meet the real Adam? I understand why he did it, but it was kind of colossally crappy for John to not tell the boys that they had a brother. The ripping out of the journal pages makes it a deliberate lie too, not just a sin of omission. I wonder when exactly John did that? Before the brothers got possession of the journal in the Pilot episode? Or maybe just before he let Azazel kill him in the season 2 opener?
What makes this even more interesting are Sam and Dean’s differing reactions to Adam. Sam immediately goes all John Winchester, teaching Adam to shoot and trying to get him to be a hunter. There’s something callous and slightly scary about the way Sam tries to groom Adam for hunting, IMO. He doesn’t count the cost, as they say. Dean is horrified and recognizes that the reason why John kept the kid a secret was to protect him from that life. But who’s right? While my heart says Dean (and John) were right to want to keep Adam from “the job”, you have to wonder if John had taught the real Adam how to hunt, maybe he would have been able to protect himself and his mother.
The sadness of the final scene was really powerful. With the back drop of burning Adam’s body, eerily like the season 2 scene where they burned John’s body, Dean says that Sam is more like John than he will ever be. Sam says he’ll take it as a compliment, and Dean replies “You can take it any way you want”. As you said, this episode highlights how much Dean and Sam have changed from season one. Once upon a time, Dean comparing someone to his father was heaping praise, but Dean’s feelings about his father have really soured in the past couple of years.
In some ways, what’s happening to Sam is similar to what happened to John. He was a good man once, but hunting for Mary’s killer consumed everything that was good about him, leaving a reckless, sometimes heartless, madman who put nearly everyone who came in contact with him in grave danger. Sounds like Sam, no? Sometimes I wonder if Sam even remembers Jessica, the initial reason for him becoming a hunter, or if she has been completely supplanted in his mind by his desire for revenge and his need to win.
When I saw the preview for this episode, it sounded like the kind of thing bad fanfictions are made of. After watching it, I think it’s one of the strongest episodes of this season. It hit the right notes, it wasn’t overly sappy-it was sad, but not melodramatically so.
It reminded me why I like this show so much. Thanks for another great review Brett, the Cousin Oliver tip was especially helpful.