Note: I've changed the episode number format in the titles to match how the NBC website is listing them. Since they started with episode 100--are the NBC execs former software guys?--that confuses my numbering scheme a bit. Hopefully the episode titles keep everything straight through this anal retentive (on my part) shift to a uniform numbering scheme.

Overview:
Journeyman ramps up the family tension this week by exploring Dan's relationship with his brother, set none-too-subtly against his "putting right what once went wrong" task.

Jack drops any pretense of his quiet snooping this week, determined to find proof of Dan reverting back to past behavior (his gambling, drug addictions, etc.) One scene has him unapologetically rifling through Katie and Dan's mail, despite the fact that Katie is standing right in front of him. Over the course of the episode, we learn that perhaps Jack is a little less of an untrusting curmudgeon than a concerned brother.

Meanwhile, Dan visits the past to prevent unabomber clone from killing two people in an office building which originally began a string of "serial bombings." He enlists the help of the would be bomber's older brother, and gains a little insight into what its like for an older brother struggling to help his younger, spiraling out of control sibling.

We also get a little more of the time line firmed up this week. It seems Katie and Dan did get together soon after Livia's apparent death are engaged about a year and a half after the same event--because she becomes pregnant with Zack. While still in the past, Dan eavesdrops on Jack convincing Katie to accept his proposal, something she wasn't apparently jumping up and down over.

Thoughts:
So basically we learn that Katie wasn't exactly planning to run off into the sunset with Dan when she got pregnant the first time with Zack. This could prove an interesting point as the series began with some tension between Dan and Katie over having a second child. Perhaps Dan's sudden "problem" was not as ill-timed as it seemed.

The subtle reference to the 1986 challenger disaster was a nice touch and continues the trend of anchoring Dan's trips to real life events. I thought it was clever how they just touched on it this week. As the scene began--and I saw we were in 1986 and there was a reference to a rocket--I worried for a few moments that Dan would be struggling to avert some tangential effect of the Challenger disaster. While that might be fun for a few episodes, I think that type of storyline could become exhausting and distracting. I'm glad the writers went smaller this week.

So we dealt with the father / son dynamic last week, and now the brother / brother dynamic this week. One hopes Dan doesn't leap back to help a young Dr. Phil establish his first "Man Camp" next week. While these related themes do give the feeling that the writers are working down some sort of self help book inspired check list, I think the strength of the story holds it up.

We see the first evidence of time effects this week. Dan changes the past, but seems to be at least partially immune from the cascading changes going forward. At one point (in present time) Dan is chewed out by his boss a concerning the story he was writing about the brothers and their involvement with the unsolved bombing. By the end of the episode, after Dan has changed history to prevent anyone from getting hurt, that conversation could never have happened--the case being closed back in 1986 after Dan's intervention. Interestingly enough, though, Dan recalls the conversation while his boss doesn't.

Great Moments:

• "Time travel doesn't work." Right. I don't think we've seen the last of the genius brother.

• The whole "hiding in the stairwell / should I marry Dan?" scene was amazing. We see Jack convince--if only marginally--Katie to accept the proposal, Dan realize that his brother isn't the jealous bastard he's taken him for over the past few years, and Livia quietly watch as her fiancé moves on.

• I loved the genius brother catching on about Dan traveling through time. As this show continues to show fluidity from episode to episode, I hope we see more of this. Maybe a quiet network of people well aware of the fact that these guardians from the future are moving through time, putting right what once went wrong. Perhaps even a group that isn't quite happy about it?

Journeyman airs on Monday nights at 10:00pm on NBC