I saw a short synopsis of a fanfic that stated the reason Adam was no longer on the Ponderosa was because he had died. Is the title of the episode a clue to Adam's fate?

P.S. The way Johan looked at his sister was not very brotherly!

"Dead and Gone" airs (season 6 episode 27) was the last episode Pernell Roberts filmed, the broadcast order has him appearing in two further episodes. The last episode he appears in is "To Own the World" (season 6 episode 29). If they really wanted to be snarky about his leaving, they'd have put "Dead and Gone" as the finale for the season.

As he's mentioned on the show as being in other places and doing other things after season six, the door appears to be left open, with no intent for his character being killed off at any point. That's despite the thoughts of his colleagues. I remember reading once that Dan Blocker thought Adam should've been killed off, because it would've made good stories for them to hunt down Adam's killer. Television didn't really work in seasonal plot archs back then, but he had a good point, if true.

Fanfic is a great place to play around with the what ifs and draw on implications that may or may not be, such as an episode title. Or in the case of my own, a brief mention of Adam being in San Francisco in season 7 (I believe that's the correct season) becomes the basis for my building a life there for him.

@CareBear Thank you for the clarification!