4.19 Jump the Shark
Title | Jump the Shark |
Episode # | Season 4, Episode 19 |
First aired | April 23, 2009 |
Directed by | Phil Sgriccia |
Written by | Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin |
On IMDB | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1222605/ |
Outline | Sam and Dean meet a young man who reveals himself to be their brother. |
Monster | Ghouls |
Timeline | |
Location(s) | Windom, Minnesota
<googlemap lat="43.933506" lon="-95.107269" zoom="11" width="300" height="300"> 43.87403, -95.117714, Windom, MN, USA </googlemap> |
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Contents
Synopsis
Sam and Dean are waking up by a lake, "Two hours from anywhere" when they receive a call on one of John's Cell Phones that Dean has kept. It is a young man named Adam Milligan looking for John, and claiming to be his son.
Sam and Dean travel to Windom, Minnesota. Sam does research and confirms that Adam actually exists. John's Journal confirms John visited there in 1990, but the following pages have been ripped out.
Dean is unimpressed and assumes Adam is possessed or some sort of supernatural creature, but Adam doesn't react to Silver or Holy Water Dean discretely tests him with. He and Sam come to believe that Adam is human and their brother. In January 1990, Adam's mother, Kate Milligan, met John Winchester in Windom, Minnesota when he came into the hospital where she worked as a nurse, when he was injured during a hunt. Adam was born on 29 September, 1990 although he didn't have any contact with John until he was twelve.
Adam's mother has gone missing, which is why Adam was trying to contact John. At Kate Milligan's house, Dean finds scratch marks leading to a vent under her bed, and in the vent finds human remains. Sam checks local papers and finds out that in 1990 John Winchester was in town investigating the 17 grave robberies in the town. In the old news photo, John can be seen in the background. Recently the grave robbing has recommenced along with the disappearance of Kate and a local man - Joe Barton. Dean learns from his widow that Joe was a police officer on the grave robbery case 17 years ago and had helped John killed the thing responsible for the robberies.
Dean is envious of the time John spent with Adam, but when he recognizes that John tried to shield Adam from hunting, he clashes with Sam who is keen to train Adam as a hunter. Dean goes to investigate the graves while Sam starts to train Adam.
While crawling deep into the crypts, something traps Dean. While trying to escape, he finds the bodies of Joe Barton and Kate and Adam Milligan.
Adam and his mother were killed by Ghouls in revenge for the killing of their parent ghoul by John Winchester. One of the ghouls took on Adam's form and memories in order to lure John to the town, only to find out that he died. The ghouls had decided to kill Sam and Dean in John's place.
The ghouls attack Sam and start to drain his blood. Dean returns and blasts the head of Kate ghoul and beats in the skull of the ghoul that looks like Adam.
Dean insists that the real Adam is given a hunter's send off in the form of a funeral pyre similar to that given to John by his sons.
Characters
Definitions
- Ghouls
- Salt
- Holy Water
- Silver
- John's Cell Phone
- The Journal
- The Journal (decoding)
- The Journal (diary entries)
- Supernatural: John Winchester's Journal
- Photo Album
Music
A Lttle Btty Tear by Burl Ives plays while Dean is at the bar.
Quotes
Sam: Dean killed it.
Adam: So, it's over?
Sam: I'll take that as a compliment.
Trivia & References
In a TV Guide interview Eric Kripke said of the episode title:
- "When we were breaking the story about the third Winchester brother, we knew the fans would scream that we had jumped the shark. Of course, adding a new sibling or relative to an established series is a classic and cherished shark jump, Cousin Oliver being the patron saint of the practice. Anyway, it became clear that we should beat the fans to the punch and title the episode, 'Jump the Shark.' Though rejected titles included: 'When Leo Joined Growing Pains,' or 'The Raven Symone Episode.'
- "For fans who are worried that we are truly jumping the shark... watch the episode, decide for yourself. Personally, I don't think we're gassing up the motorcycle quite yet, but you tell me. And stay tuned for next season, when the boys take trips to London and Hawaii (haunted Tiki dolls!) and Sam and Ruby get married. And Ted McGinley joins the cast as the thoughtful (but hot!) college professor."
See also
- Definition at TV tropes
- Jump The Shark on TVGuide - how your favourite show jumped the shark.
Adding a young kid to a cast is called doing a Cousin Oliver and is often seen as a sign of the show jumping the shark.
On the wall of Cousin Oliver's cafe are a number of photos of waterskiers, as well as a poster advertising a waterskiing stunt show starting a Fonzerelli. This is another more specific Jumping the Shark reference, namechecking Arthur 'The Fonz' Fonzerelli, who 'jumping the shark' was named after.Minutiae
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
Promotion
- Kripke talks about the episode title and the episode concept from TV guide
- Promo pics
- Casting and plot spoiler from TV Guide
- Promo Clip