'Brothers & Sisters' plans a big surprise

[Brian Damage]

ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" returns with its first new episode since the writers' strike Sunday at 10, and cast member Emily VanCamp promises a whole lot of drama.

"The writers had to jam-pack the stories from nine episodes into four episodes, so they are just filled with humor and drama and so many twists and turns it's amazing," she said.

"Brothers & Sisters" centers on the Walker family and their lives in Los Angeles. VanCamp plays Rebecca, who, it was revealed in the first episode, is an illegitimate daughter of the family's late patriarch, William, and his mistress, Holly Harper, played by Patricia Wettig.

The show also stars Sally Field (who won an Emmy for her role), Dave Annable, Calista Flockhart, Balthazar Getty, Rachel Griffiths, Rob Lowe, Sarah Jane Morris, Matthew Rhys and Ron Rifkin.

When the show left off, Rebecca was questioning whether she really was William Walker's biological daughter or if her mother's former boyfriend, David Caplan, played by Wettig's real-life husband, Ken Olin, could be her father.

"It gets resolved, but then it brings up something that no one will see coming," executive producer Monica Owusu-Breen told Entertainment Weekly. "So there's a surprise in store for the Walkers. When Greg [Berlanti, another of the show's executive producers] pitched [the idea], we were dumbfounded for 10 minutes. It's just amazing."

VanCamp agrees.

"There's going to be a very big transition coming up in Rebecca's life," she said.

The 21-year-old actress says that working with the big and talented cast of "Brothers & Sisters" is like going to school every day.

"It's like college," said VanCamp. "I'm the baby of the group, so I just sit back and observe all of these actors doing their thing and take it all in. They have so many things to offer, and to work opposite them is pretty incredible for me. I'm star-struck basically every day I go to work."

Though "Brothers & Sisters" is categorized as a drama, it also has humorous moments, and VanCamp appreciates the opportunity to show her range.

"I love doing it all," she said. "It's fun to sink your teeth into some good dramatic work once in a while, but it's also a great time to just be able to lighten it up and keep things funny."

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