Supernatural: Lazarus Rising

Like a Halo, Only in Reverse
by Sylvia Bond
Supernatural Episode Review – Season Four, Episode One
“Lazarus Rising”

My heart was pounding just as the Premier Episode for Season Four of Supernatural was starting, while under my breath I muttered the Geek’s Prayer, which has a whole bunch of powerful words and then ends with “And please don’t suck, amen.” I also went into this ep veritably spoiler free, for except for the title, the basic knowledge that Dean was getting out of hell, and a few early pics, I had NO idea what was going to happen. I did not know (and still don’t) what Show’s intentions were and are, and was not swayed by any quotes about direction or character development or anything. In light of that, this review is pretty pure because without the influence of interviews or video clips of the production team, the blood artists, directors, writers, Show’s Creator, everything came at me like a freight train. (In retrospect, though, I would have liked to have gotten the heads up from the Lighting Guys about how creepy everything was going to look, to the degree that it set me on edge the whole time. Kudos, boys!)

I like the fact that Show didn’t mess around and gave us Dean back RIGHT AWAY because if I had to wait for it, it would have sucked. The cool part was watching Dean claw his way out of a pine box, through the earth, and into the sunshine, voice cracked from disuse. Dean is beautiful here, covered with his OWN grave dust, smudged and looking tired. His hair seems a little darker (there’s no sun in hell to strike the tips golden, I guess), and his skin a little paler, grey, almost like he’s a ghost, and it makes an interesting and logical change from his usual hale and hearty self.

The moment where he stands at his own graveside amidst a circle of fallen trees that seems eerily similar to Tunguska, shoulders rolled forward, eyes narrowed against the brightness, is an excellently done bit of filming. There is no wind, no sound at all, adding to the creepy, other-worldly feel to this scene. Plus, Show didn’t rush it, because DEAN wouldn’t rush it, he’s going to take in his surroundings before he makes a single move. It gave off the odd feeling that maybe he was the last man on earth, which of course brought up the next important question: Where is Sam?
Dean on his own watches like apocalyptic fanfic reads, with no people around, bare armed, marching like a soldier along an empty, grass-lined street, wearing dark colors, browns and blacks and dulled blues, like the earth or a smoky sky. I love the clip of him walking down the road, shirt tied low over those lovely slender hips of his, he’s jaunty and determined and did I say BARE ARMED, which you almost never see, and part of my prayer is coming true because this scene definitely doesn’t suck.

Dean finds an old gas station, and unlike last season’s question as to whether Sam was 100% Sam, Dean is showing his true colors: first water, then food, then pornography. Go, Dean! He washes up and checks himself out: he’s unmarked, remarkable in light of how bad off he was at the end of Season Three, except for mysterious and blistery handprint on his shoulder. (As he lifts up his shirt, to my fangirl eyes, his torso looks mighty fine; nothing’s worn and it’s as good as it ever was. Plus the anti-possession tattoo is there, hurray for continuity!) Before I have a chance to drool much, Dean is confronted by the TV and radio that turn on by themselves, and a high-pitched screaming sound that has him clapping his hands over his ears and falling to his knees. There’re lots of satisfying crashes of glass as Dean struggles to get out of the way and the weirdness goes up a notch.

There’s an old junker car that just HAPPENS to be there, and which I suspect is a Chevy of an unknown year that Dean sexily hotwires to go in search of Sam and finds Bobby instead. Bobby who has a fixed address, Bobby who naturally thinks that Dean is a demon, a revenant, some kind of ghost, or whathaveyou, and is determined to destroy Dean right from the start. Dean manages to convince him in short order (the holy water in the face was pure funny, and Ackles looks good wet, he just does, plus I love it when he spits, don’t ask me why). Here, Dean’s biggest concern is that Sam is alive, hasn’t done anything STOOPID on Dean’s behalf which would piss Big Brother off to no end.  At which point they begin to discuss Sam. At LAST!

Bobby says that Sam went off on his own after insisting that Dean be buried. This does not surprise me, not at all, and I picture it in my head as a solitary task that Sam set for himself, building the box, choosing the spot (so no one would find or disturb it), digging the grave (a good six hours or more), and finally lowering Dean into it while the tears and snot ran down his face. If I thought the funeral pyre for The Dad was sad, this one rather takes the cake. (The clothes Dean is wearing are not the ones that he had on when the hell hounds got him, which also implies that Sam dressed him in for burial, complete with, as we see, a lighter.)

Bobby and Dean go to find Sam, which they do, in the heart marked hotel room in what is obviously a grotty part of Pontiac, Illinois. Padalecki has bulked himself up over the last year, bursting through the seams of his lovely t-shirt, his neck muscles showing, arms ready to punch and swing and do a lot of damage. (And wearing, at one point, the lovely, ugly paisley shirt from seasons past!) The Samhair is parted in the middle, scraped back from his face like that’s the last thing he’s been thinking about, although by this time you think he’d know that I have an unhealthy obsession with it and would like it if he let a little bit of it fall into his eyes. (I will be consulting my Samhair-O-Meter to see how it develops.) Sam seems changed, not just physically, but emotionally. And he’s got facial hair, which is a real physical sign that the Baby of the family is growing up! When he sees Dean, he’s got a wonderful expression both of having gotten his hand caught in the cookie jar (there is a chick in the room, and suggestive overtones of consensual relations having recently occurred), and of being at the same time shocked to see Dean there.

It’s a wonderful scene, drawn out nice and long, full of looks, and shudderings, and soft hellos. The boys look at each other the way you’d think they would after four miserable months apart, sharing a huge, silent moment, and just as I suspect they’re about to kiss or something, Sam lunges at Dean, bursting into motion like an explosion because he naturally thinks what Bobby thought, that Dean is something evil, something to be destroyed. Sam is not and has never been someone who I’d want angry at me, to watch him fly at his brother like this was pretty effective, fists at the ready, and that expression on his face that always indicates that he’s about to take a life and won’t be counting the cost after.

But when he realizes that yes, this IS Dean, his beloved brother, then, yeah, THEN I get what I’ve been waiting for all summer, what I’ve longed for, what I comforted myself with ice cream and wine waiting for, and that was The Hug. Not just any old hug, not a little hug, but THE hug, the Reunion Hug, a full body contact, rib crushing, almost weepy hug. Not completely weepy, no, because Dean has no sense of time passing and while Dean has been away, Sam himself has become somewhat colder. But it’s a good hug, and it lasts for a good long while, taking up precious minutes of screen time but for the right reasons.

I would have preferred Bobby to give the boys a minute alone, but he doesn’t. There’s beer and dithering and the ep takes a comfortable little slide into the familiar, with the three of them sitting there, jawing, talking what the hell is going on. Not least of which was how Dean managed to get out of hell. As they talk, and Dean pushes Sam with questions, I got the creepy feeling that Sam was hiding something. Yeah, Sam’s probably being perfectly honest that he didn’t make a deal, that he wanted to, that he couldn’t, and that he’s very sorry. But I think there’s something he’s not telling us, and only time will tell us what that is. Sam’s been four months without Dean, as well, so his ability (or willingness) to fall into line and obey his big brother seems somewhat precarious at this point.

One particular piece of dialog that I thought was rather nice, me being me, was where Sam’s explaining about being on his own and Bobby says, “Who do you think you are, your old man?” Sam’s silence at this remark is telling, because of course, as fangirls have known for a while, Sam is very much like The Dad and I appreciate that Show is carrying on the tradition both of acknowledging this AND, yeah, bringing up The Dad, who, though dead, continues to be a long shadow on the boys’ event horizon.

Another good bit of dialog was where Sam asks Dean what it was like in hell. Not, as you might think, what he remembers, but what it was like. Like you do when someone tells you they were held hostage and part of you wants the grotty, unsavory details to titillate yourself with; you almost can’t help being interested in the darker side of the human condition. That’s what it feels like Sam is doing here, he’s only human after all, but Dean says he can’t remember a thing. Which isn’t exactly true because we get the little bits where Dean is remembering, his face is covered with blood, his eyes are wide open looking for danger. All summer long, I hated thinking of him down there, just hated it.

The bit with Dean’s necklace got to me more than I’d like to admit, because it also speaks to Sam’s careful preparations of Dean’s body for burial. In spite of that, I find myself somewhat dissatisfied by the reunion aspect of this ep. Considering that Sam thought Dean was dead and suffering in hell, I expected a bit more brother love here. I wanted to see more care and concern between the brothers and less “let’s get to business.” Oh sure, the HUG (see above) was spectacular, but there was something missing, which could be explained by the tenseness because it feels like both Sam and Dean are lying to each other. Still, you know?

Bobby suggests a visit to a psychic (not a sidekick) he knows; Sam and Dean drive there and dither (I love the fact that the Impala had a scene, it would have been sad had Dean’s best girl been left out), and it’s classic stuff that warms my heart with its familiarity even as it creeps me even further out by the fact that Sam still seems to be holding something back. His protestations about Dean’s dying wishes seem to ring false, though I did get a HUGE laugh on account of the Ipod. Naturally Sam, thinking the Impala was his (and how weird that must have felt) would have added it first thing. Dean’s love for his car feels good though, like a warm hand on a cold day. Favorite line from the Impala is the moment when she starts up, rumbling beneath Dean’s hands like a sassy mountain pony who’s eager for a good, long run. (This doesn’t offset the creepout factor that’s been building all along nearly enough, in fact, it only throws the creepout into higher relief.)

The psychic turns out to be a strongly cast, dark-haired female in a black tank top and enough moxie to flirt with Dean and Sam at the SAME TIME. Which not only proves she’s got great taste, but guts, because Sam doesn’t say no, even though Dean cutely tells Sam he’s not invited. (My fangirl brain asks, “Has he EVER been invited?” and I know I’m not the only one wondering this.) The séance carries on, as they do, somewhat cheesily with candles and handholding (which makes my fangirl’s heart sigh with the beauty of it because Sam and Dean are sitting right next to each other), and much mutterings by the psychic. She calls to someone named Castiel, which reminded me instantly of a kind of soap and it’s all I can do not to think of bubbles and bathtubs.

But the coolness comes when Castiel BURNS out the psychic’s eyes, which instantly proves the situation’s serious. I like it that Show actually showed us the consequences of messing around with this Castiel character, instead of just having the psychic fall to the floor a little dazed and confused and only needing a glass of water. No, her eyes have been burned from their sockets, horribly, and no 911 call that Sam makes is going to change that. (Watching Sam run for the phone is like watching a bull in a china shop, so just get the HECK out of his way!) Plus, it rather implied that the guest stars are going to be a dime a dozen this season, so watch out!

In spite of this total grossout experience, Sam and Dean visit a diner that looks suspiciously like the diner from the disaster at the end of Season Three, where Dean had sent Sam in to get him some pie. This time, however, Dean and Sam get pie together, which is what they like and which is safer. Only, yeah, the diner is occupied by demons who want to scare the boys (and us, I presume) only I’m not scared because there’s been SO many demons on Show it’s getting a little old. Plus, Dean, he’s got an attitude towards demons and starts smacking one of them around, but I guess that’s what happens after four months in hell, everything else pales in comparison. (The demon Flo, a funny little shoutout to the old show “Alice,” wants to know why Dean got out of hell. His answer is ADORABLE and totally Dean. Of course his nipples are perky! Was there any doubt?) As the boys leave, Dean has a brutal attitude (and who could blame him), but leaves her a huge tip anyway and thanks her for the pie.

In the next scene, Dean is fast asleep on the foldout couch (a perfect and ugly velveteen lime green in the most suitably tacky of hotel rooms, complete with mirrors on the ceiling, which makes me wonder about Sam), and Sam leaves to go do his thing, which logically, by this time, he’s used to doing. But to continue with my reunion complaint, it would have been nice to see Sam watching over Dean while he was sleeping to make sure he was okay. Just for a minute, just for a little minute. It wouldn’t have taken long to write the scene, or to film it, would it have KILLED Show to give us this? Plus, why is Sam sneaking out JUST when his brother is returned from HELL? He’s snuck out before, the naughty boy, and it has NEVER, EVER, EVER ended well.

The Sam’s character has gone through ch-ch-ch-changes over time, as it should do, and where he once was a lonely princeling unsure of himself, now, having learned to live and do without Dean (twice now, if you include his Mystery Spot experience), Sam seems quite confident. On his own, Sam goes back to the diner to visit the demons from earlier, and finds that although Flo’s eyes have been burned out, she can smell his soul. I thought this was an interesting concept, that a soul had a smell, and imagined that Sam’s smells (and tastes) just like pink cotton candy, although I’m sure the demon would disagree.

He faces the demon, fights her off, and starts asking questions. Then it gets weird, really weird. Not in a bad way, because given the direction Show has been taking with this particular arc, but in a strange way. Sam holds out his hand and sends the demon back to hell just with the power of his mind. While I miss the sound of Latin passing over his lovely lips, I like the way Show did this, and feel it’s been a long, logical buildup to this point. Sam’s not 100% there yet, the smoke coming out of the demon is limp like yesterday’s fish, and it takes him a while, concentrating, his eyes closed, but he manages it. My first thought was that when DEAN finds out? He’s going to be taking Sam’s hide and nailing it to the wall.

When Sam finishes, for a second I’m sure Sam’s eyes go black, with only the barest hint of light in them to indicate that while he’s not gone totally darkside, I’m positive he’s already on that slippery slope and has been since Dean got dragged to hell. Plus, the mind exorcism is proof that Sam is a lying liar who lies, he’s been working on his mad, bad skills while big bro has been away, in spite of his protestations to the contrary. Now, I’ve always know he was good at lies, but it almost seems that he doesn’t even realize how hip-deep he is in them at this point; it’s almost like he doesn’t consider them to be lies.

With the dead bodies piled all around Sam, (which seem to bother the boy not at all, as it would have in the Before Time), in walk the dark-haired chick from the hotel room earlier, who, voila, turns out to be Ruby! (Not so strongly cast as the psychic, I’m afraid; the actress who played the psychic would have made a much better Ruby.) I do remember mutterings and grumblings over the summer about a love interest for Sam, that Sam was going to be in the sack with some chick, and resigned myself to the fact that Sam is a red-blooded, All-American male and deserves to get his shimmy shimmy on, especially in light of the fact that his brother was dead and burning to a crisp in hell.

Since I’m twisted like that, I took a slow-me-down to look at whether Sam has been sleeping with Ruby. I think that, reexamining the scene in the hotel room, Dean and Bobby, not having called first like polite folks do, caught the pair unawares. They covered as best they could, which also explains the Kristy/Kathy issue, with Sam calling Ruby by the wrong false name. While this may have looked kinky, I don’t think that Sam is having sex with Ruby, not only because he doesn’t trust her, but also, since demons possess humans against their will and it being a little like rape, it’d be like raping her twice, and I don’t think Sam would go that route. It also sheds an interesting light on her “You are you two, like, together?” question, which, since she knows Sam and Dean are brothers, for all her protestations about not wanting to come between them, means that she was getting her digs in while she could.

Their conversation also proves some of my earlier suspicions, that Sam is up to something of which his brother would not approve. That he feels good because he can rescue people is almost a cliché at this point, but it seems that at the same time, Sam is visiting the places he Ought Not To Go. Sam’s statements of wanting to do good come across as uber-eerie, maybe it’s his voice, or his absolutely still expression, but while he may think he’s doing good, he’s going down a darker path than his brother. I fear for Sam, I really do, because, to quote the Scarecrow, “It’s going to get darker before it gets lighter.”

Back at the hotel room, Dean’s on his own, and when the TV and radio start screaming at him, he does this very smooth move, getting the sawed off and rolling off the bed in one motion. Being in hell hasn’t dulled his senses any, I’d say. The point at which the blood shows up on his face, I thought his ears were blown, and had a real feeling of fear ripple through me. I know it’s just a TV show, but my heart was thumping pretty hard here.

While Sam is messing around with Ruby, and lying to Dean about where he is, likewise, Dean lies about where HE is, so I see much trouble abrewing between the boys, which should make for some interesting conversations and, one hopes, much wall slamming. Dean and Bobby go of to raise Castiel, and it was at this point that I felt I’d had enough of Bobby. Bobby is a great character, but I was getting tired of him, because to me it was too much Bobby and not enough Sam. Throw rotten fruit if you must, but it’s the Dean and Sam show, not the Dean and Bobby show. Throughout the entire ep, he delivers too many lines that could have been delivered by either Winchester boy, and in spite of the fact that he’s supposedly the closest thing Dean has to a father (which I don’t believe), Bobby is NOT The Dad, and he is NOT Sam, and I just wish Show would realize that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. The boys have grown utterly dependant on Bobby in general, and the dynamic between Sam and Dean becomes weakened as a consequence.

At any rate, Bobby and Dean set up a barn for the invocation of a demon they shouldn’t Ought To Be Messing With, and with all the scribbles on the walls, the only thing I could think of was how long it had taken the Set Dressers to decorate it. I imagined they had a good team and were quite efficient, but I’ll wager if they’d given a tagger a can of spray paint, he could have done it in half the time.

So thusly comes the spell, and the waiting after, which was kind of funny because usually these things happen in quick succession, and the doors open. In walks a young republican or an accountant or something like that. Maybe he’s a tax lawyer, but he certainly doesn’t look like anything I should worry about. Not quite ugly, not quite handsome, just your average guy on the street. He walks right past the symbols of protection, the salt, and is untouched by the Knife of Power – all of these things are meant to protect from evil, but he’s not affected. He still comes across like someone who’s spent too many years out in the noonday sun without a hat, if you see what I mean. I was made more nervous on account of the clock was ticking down and no secrets had been revealed as of yet.

I’ll admit I was glad that Castiel knocked Bobby out so that the conversation could be JUST between him and Dean. Dean returns to his stance from the beginning of the ep, with his shoulders rolled forward, skin a little on the pale side, and his eyes narrowed against the brightness. The conversation goes back and forth a bit and then Castiel announces that he’s an angel of the Lord. (At which point I decide that he reminds me a little bit of William Defoe, who some time back in the “Seventh Seal” set the standard for what unearthly beings such as angels should look like.)

To quote Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, “That we were not expecting!” It has long been Show’s stand that while it would admit to the existence of and dally with demons, ghosts, revenants, spirits, shapeshifters, vampires, werewolves, hookmen, wendigos, zombies, black dogs, poltergeists, and so forth, it wasn’t going to go into the realm of heaven, God, or angels. So what is Show thinking, reversing itself like this? Plus, there’s a whole lot more history and backstory and people who BELIEVE, at any rate, it’s a lot to take on, and I don’t envy Show this burden.

Dean, to his credit, and in keeping with his character, does not believe. I like it that he snarls and snorts and curls that delicious lip of his in derision. Even when the “angel” curls out its black wings (and I can just hear the pages of wingfic piling up as we speak), he doesn’t believe. Once long ago, The Mom told him that angels were watching over them, and since this turned out to be NOT true, he’s not believed it ever since. (What angels have black wings? Bad ones, I’m thinking. So I poked around, and yeah, angels with black wings mean that the angel is fallen, or that it uses its powers for darkness, it’s a warrior angel, and its coming does not bode well for the boys.)

What I found interesting, in spite of my surprise and feelings of dismay over the whole angel business, was what the angel had to say to Dean. Well, two things actually. The first, I liked, and the second almost made me cringe. The angel explains to Dean that the screeching TV and radio noises were the result of it trying to talk to Dean in its own voice. (Apparently the angel is currently using a modulated frequency so humans can hear it.) The angel is saddened to discover that Dean can’t hear him, but what’s cool is the fact that it EXPECTED that Dean could have. That Dean’s the kind of human who can hear angels, that Dean is connected to something holy and powerful in this way, something, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. (I had to laugh when Castiel says, with some disbelief, to Dean, “You don’t think you deserve to be saved.” To which I, and any fangirl you’d care to ask, could have told him, “Duh! We knew that in Season One, where the hell have YOU been?”)

However, the second thing, where the angel reveals that he pulled Dean out of hell because “the Lord my God” told me to rather stunned me and not in a good way. I had flashblacks to Sunday School and little voices singing “Jesus loves me, this I know,” and hours wasted inside a church on a spring day when through the windows the bounty of the Universe awaited me. Dean certainly seems as shocked as I am, and looks pale and beautiful and perfectly dismayed as the screen fades to black.

Here are some of my thoughts on the whole angel business. The Mom said angels were watching over the boys, but she didn’t say which kind, right? Wasn’t Azazel a fallen angel? And isn’t this Castiel guy an angel, albiet a bit dubious? So maybe angels were watching over, just not the nice ones. (I certainly hope that the Castiel is not totally on the up and up because that will make him more interesting.) And in spite of what Castiel says, I suspect God had very little to do with any of this. At least I hope not, because that would put Show smack dab in the middle of the kind of religious territory where there are a whole lot more Rules than Show currently operates under, and give it the tone and taste of a sermon rather than the gritty, urban-legend dotted roadtrip that we have heretofore this been accompanying the boys on.

I got pulled right into this ep and enjoyed it, and just when I thought I knew where it was going, Show went somewhere else. It was a roller coaster for my emotions, to say the very least. There were overtones of future potential conflict between Sam and Dean, where Sam has dark powers on his side (and a demon whispering in his ear), whereas Dean has God Himself making requirements and an angel (albeit with black wings) telling him he’s got a job to do. Some have mentioned Cain and Abel, but this isn’t a struggle between two brothers vying for their father’s love. More, it speaks of something more epic, where they might be pawns in someone else’s game. Overall I thought it was MUCH better than the premiere for Season Three, though not quite as fun as the premiere for Season Two, which, because of the fact that Dean wore his jammies for the entire time, would be a little hard to beat. For the moment, I will retain judgment until the next ep, all the while muttering, “Please don’t suck, amen.”

Sylvia Bond is a ten-year technical writing veteran with too many degrees under her belt to count. She lives in Colorado, but does not ski, preferring instead to spend her money and time at the annual Great American Beer Festival, taking road trips across the United States, and reading historical fiction from the comfort of her fluffy green arm chair. She has been involved in fandom since 1993 and been writing fanfic since approximately 1993. What she finds most amazing about fandom (besides the open heartedness of fans and the sheer amount of creativity) is how visible fandom has become. “In my day,” she says, “we had to hide behind P.O. boxes to get fanfic. But nowadays, people wear t-shirts that shout their affiliation and share their shiny toys on the internet.” It’s a wonderful world.

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