Emily VanCamp joined the cast of "Brothers & Sisters" late in the first season as the secret half-sister of the Walker clan. As the show makes its second season premiere tonight at 10 p.m. on ABC, VanCamp's character, Rebecca, is no longer as much of an outsider. In fact, she's living in the house of Nora Walker (Sally Field) after a falling out with her mother, Holly, who had a two-decade affair with Nora's husband.
"I think Rebecca starts to familiarize herself and connect a little more with the family," Emily told me earlier this month at a party celebrating the DVD release of the show's first season.
Not only was VanKamp's character sort of a party crasher into the family, but the actress was joining a high-profile established cast: "It was really intimidating for me, as Emily, but also incredibly rewarding to be working alongside such incredible people. I'm just so grateful every day. I am learning so much. It's very hard to be the new girl and to [have your character] be causing all this trouble."

She has found it especially rewarding to work opposite Wettig, a three-time Emmy winner for "thirtysomething."
"They had looked a lot for the Rebecca character and [Wettig] just didn't feel like she had connected with any of them," Emily said. "I was really nervous because you never know if you're going to have that kind of chemistry or work really hard for it. But we had sort of this instant bond. We just got it. And she's got a 21-year-old daughter in real life. It's just foreworks as you could see in those first few episodes. It was pretty dramatic, crazy work."
What made Rebecca less of an outsider was the closeness she established with half-brother, Justin, who is still off serving in Iraq in tonight's season opener.
"He's the one Walker that Rebecca I think identifies with. He really sort of embraced her and welcomed her from the very beginning. They have a bond that Rebecca doesn't really have with the others. That friendship develops throughout this season as well. But this show is very character-driven and there's always twists and turns."

Meanwhile, Sarah Jane Morris' character of Julia is still recovering from giving birth to premature twins at the end of last season - one of which did not survive. The storyline has given the actress some her meatiest scenes since the series began. Julia is married to Tommy Walker (Balthazer Getty) and is not feeling up to seeing the boisterous Walker clan in the season opener.
"At the moment, I think Julia's trying to get better. She's not doing so well, not coping very well. I think Julia's still mourning. She feels like everyone's moving on. But I don't think she's as comfortable with the decision that was made about the baby as she maybe was last season. I think she realizes she's not being very rational about it. You can't help how you're feeling sometimes."
Although the current storyline is heavy, Morris says you only have to look at some of last season's shows to see some of the more comedic moments: "The first episode where I thought the show really started clicking was 'Northern Exposure.' It was when it really had that balance of the lightness and the drama. There's a lot of funny stuff that happens in that episode and a lot of touching and moving stuff. The outtakes and bloopers and stuff are just funny. You get to see everyone kind of being themselves instead of their characters."

OK, I've not gonna give you any big spoilers about tonight's episodes. But a few little tidbits never hurt anyone. Nora has a new haircut (don't worry, it isn't the hideous wig look she had in the season one flashbacks), Rob Lowe (Robert MacAllister) is REALLY tan in the episode. There's no explanation given but my guess is that Lowe had a really tropical summer vacation. And Kitty (Calista Flockhart) is being annoying with her "problems" which now involve her transitioning from being a political power player to a senator's wife. Poor Kitty.