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 | Jump the Shark |
Outline | Sam and Dean meet a young man who reveals himself to be their half-brother. |
Monster | Ghouls |
Timeline | |
Location(s) | Windom, Minnesota |
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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 the silver or holy water Dean discreetly 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 after he was injured during a hunt. Adam was born on September 29th, 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 he finds human remains. Sam checks local papers and finds out that in 1990 John Winchester was in town investigating 17 grave robberies in the town. In an 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 kill 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. Ghouls take on the form and memories of the last person they ate, so the Adam ghoul had called John's phone in order to lure him to the town, only to find out that he died. They decided to kill Sam and Dean in John's place.
The ghouls attack Sam and start to drain his blood. Dean returns in the nick of time, blasts the head of ghoul-Kate, and beats in the skull of the ghoul that looks like Adam. Dean insists that the real Adam be given a hunter's send-off in the form of a funeral pyre similar to that given to John by his sons.
Characters
Definitions
- Acting in Unison
- Alcohol
- Aliases
- Braided Rug
- Costumes & Disguises
- Dean's Amulet
- Dean's Bracelet
- Dean's Leather Jacket
- Gank
- Ghouls
- Holy Water
- Holy Water in the Face
- Hunter's Funeral Pyre
- Impala
- John's Cell Phone
- John's Journal
- Law Enforcement Officers
- Monsters
- Photo Album
- Rock, Paper, Scissors
- Salt
- Sam's Bracelet
- Sammy
- Shapeshifter
- Silver
- Son of a Bitch
- Unconscious
Music
- "Reaching Higher" by Nathan Williams
- (plays when Sam and Dean meet Adam at the diner)
- "A Little Bitty Tear" by Burl Ives
- (plays while Dean is at the bar)
Quotes
Dean: He can't come to the phone. Can I help you?
Adam: No no no—I really—I need to talk to John. This is Adam Milligan. He knows me.
Dean: Well, sorry to be the one to break this to you, pal, but John died more than two years ago.
Dean: Who is this?
Dean: Well, now I’m thinking about Dad sex. Stop talking.
Sam: Maybe he slipped one past the goalie.
Sam: Yeah, well, turns out Dad was right.
Dean: Since when?
Sam: Since always. Dean, when I look at Adam, you know what I see?
Sam: What makes Adam so special?
Sam: He's a Winchester. He's already cursed.
Kate: You know, I find that term racist. Mmm. Fresh meat. So much better than what we're used to.
Sam: Maybe we can bring him back. Get a hold of Cas, call in a favor.
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."
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 café are a number of photos of water skiers, as well as a poster advertising a water skiing stunt show starring a Fonzerelli. This is another more specific jumping the shark reference, name checking Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzerelli, who jumping the shark was named after.Dean: Godzilla's just a movie.
- Godzilla is of course the King of the Monsters.
Minutiae
Adam: With a homemade flamethrower?
- Sam is referring back to 4.04 Metamorphosis where he killed a Rugaru with a flamethrower.
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
Promotion
- Episode Promo: 4.19 Jump the Shark
- Kripke talks about the episode title and the episode concept from TV guide
- Casting and plot spoiler from TV Guide
Episode Meta
- 4.19 Jump The Shark: Take It Any Way You Want by bardicvoice (April 2009); archive link, spn-heavymeta
- Bond, Silvia. 2009. Thursday, I'm In Love: "Jump the Shark" Season 4, Episode 19. Pink Raygun, April 28; archive link, spn-heavymeta
- Chan, Suzette. 2009. Supernatural Talk: Tarts talk about Jump the Shark. Sequential Tart, June 1; archive link.