In the nineteenth episode of the fourth season of Supernatural, I AM PAIN. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.
what the fuck what the fuck.
I suppose I understand the joke in the title now. The writers are poking fun at the absurdity of the very premise of this episode, but the truth is that THE JOKE IS ON US. The introduction of Adam Milligan – Dean and Sam’s half-brother – is certainly a shocker. And the show was clearly aware that adding another member to the family would probably earn such a reaction. But there is SO MUCH here that shows why this was actually a good idea – and why the ending is so RELENTLESSLY TRAGIC.
Adam
As Dean and Sam come to accept that Adam really is their brother, we have to watch them also discover that Adam’s life with John Winchester was… normal. Yes, Adam didn’t always see his father, but when he did, there was no talk of hunting or demons or spirits. John gave his son the chance for a normal life that he never gave Sam and Dean. And Dean in particular finds the idea more and more upsetting as this episode progresses, so much so that he can never truly warm up to Adam. He resents him! And you now, I don’t blame him for that. He never got to go to a baseball game with his father, but this kid – who seemingly came out of nowhere – has had an entire life with John that Dean can’t even imagine.
It’s heartbreaking all around.
Role Reversal
The biggest emotional aspect of “Jump the Shark” revolves around Sam and Dean switching places. It’s tragically ironic that it takes Adam to get Sam to fully understand John, while Dean finally comes to understand why Sam used to butt heads with John. Throughout the course of this episode, Sam is quick to accept Adam and include him in the hunt for what killed his mother. He mentors Adam, much like I imagine John mentored Sam and Dean, and it’s through this that he accepts that John’s worldview was the best thing John could have done for his sons. (Left suspiciously unmentioned? The fact that John thought it was acceptable to go start a new family without telling anyone about the other family he already had. He had already lost Mary, so of course it’s fair that he pursue another relationship. I just mean that I find it pretty upsetting that he’d have another son and never tell Sam and Dean about Adam.) Sam is at a point in his life where he understands the severity of the threat of evil in the world, and so it makes sense that he’d come to empathize with his father after all these years.
And at the same time, it makes sense that Dean, who is tired of fighting and tired of sadness and tired of losing everyone around him, would come to resent his father and resent Sam’s attempt to get Adam involved in hunting. I did believe Dean when he said that he accepted that this was just his life now, and I don’t consider that mutually exclusive with the desire for normalcy. Dean wants something he can’t have. It’s not a contradiction. But he understands now why Sam left years ago instead of choosing to hunt. It’s why he does something that normally I’d say was out of character. There’s that moment where he goes into the hidden tunnel inside the crypt all by himself. Now, we’ve seen multiple times over this season how much Dean desires to be prepared before taking on Lilith, and he’s increasingly become more and more careful about what he does. So why does he suddenly pursue a reckless option?
He’s desperate. He is so desperate to find this creature and kill it so that Adam never has to have this life. If they can kill it, then they can leave Adam behind, and there could still be a chance that he’d never become a hunter. He can have a normal life, one that doesn’t include this.
Revenge
The revenge plot is both a nod to the past and foreshadowing. But revenge fits into the narrative of season four anyway. I think it’s easy to read Sam’s motivation for killing Lilith as a revenge plot, you know? He want to get revenge because she was the one who killed Dean and sent him to Hell at the end of the last season. But the big twist here is that Adam and his mother are the real agents of revenge. Throughout “Jump the Shark,” we slowly learn how all of the current victims are tied to a grave robbing case from 17 years prior, which John assisted on. So, it seemed like whatever creature was snatching bodies was getting back at John and everyone connected to him. And we’re purposely meant to think that all of Adam’s talk of revenge is related to his desire to get revenge for his mother’s apparent death.
Lord, I fell for this one.
I was initially surprised by the ghoul reveal because…. well, the show has never featured the creatures before, and I actually forgot all the common mythology surrounding them. They are traditionally grave robbers, feasting on the flesh of the dead, but this episode adds a twist to that. Out of desperation and anger, the ghouls left behind after the ghoul John killed decided to dine on LIVING flesh, assuming the place of the people they consumed. It’s yet another gut-wrenching twist to this episode, which was already heartbreaking enough, I SWEAR. But the Winchesters never actually spent time with their half-brother; he was dead before they arrived. (Oh my god, this show kills off EVERYONE who ever shows promise EVER. WTF.) And the whole showdown at the end of “Jump the Shark”? It’s one of the bloodiest things we’ve ever seen on this show. LORD.
Basically, I’m sad. AGAIN. WILL WE EVER GET A HAPPY ENDING ON THIS SHOW? Of course not. OF COURSE NOT.
The video for “Jump the Shark” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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