Will there be one less sibling on "Brothers and Sisters"?

Now, if you're not as into "Brothers and Sisters" as I am, you probably don't care about this week's dramatic who-will-die-and-who-will-live two-hour episode. Fair enough. I didn't either until I started getting wrapped up in the world of the Walkers, the wine-swigging, gossipy clan that I'm glad every week I'm not related to, but sometimes wish I were.

The living part is easy enough -- it seems that Kitty Walker (Calista Flockhart) and Sen. Robert MacAllister (Rob Lowe) will finally get their adopted baby. Cue the clash between new family and Robert's aspirations to become Governor of California. (Also, how meta is it to have an actor run for governor of a state that already has an actor-governor? Deeeep stuff, man).

The dying, well not so much. For months the rumor has been that it will be Tommy Walker, even through actor Balthazar (awesome name) Getty's rumored exit from ABC's "Brothers and Sisters" may not be all true.

Getty, who plays the black sheep Tommy, has been plagued in the tabloids about his not-so-secret affair with serial homewrecker Sienna Miller. In the current plotline, Tommy has delved into some illegal business dealings in an attempt to wrest control of the family business from his father's ex-mistress, Holly Harper (Patricia Wettig). This week's 2-hour episode seems to indicate a "death" in the family. Will Tommy die or go to jail?

Personally, I hope jail. Although few fans really like Tommy, I believe every family needs a black sheep in their midst. Tommy is the only brother or sister who seems to be playing out his father's legacy with his on-screen affair last season and his shady business dealings in this one. For those of you non "B&S" fans, the clan's patriarch William Walker died in the first episode, revealing a Pandora's box of secrets: two mistresses, an illegitimate child and a pension-skimming scheme that makes Bernie Madoff look cutesy.

While this season has been remarkably less full of pizzazz as the first and second seasons were -- partially because Nora (Sally Fields) and Holly have put their wife-mistress feud aside for the time being -- it's still a throwback to those great prime-time soap-dramas like "Knots Landing," thirtysomething," "Picket Fences" (well, Picket Fences sans the total David Kelley-inspired weirdness).

Here's my one of my very favorite clips:



"Brothers and Sisters" airs on ABC at 9 p.m. The first and second seasons are available on DVD.

--Malavika Jagannathan, mjaganna@greenbaypressgazette.com