Supernatural Recap: Episode 4.01 Lazarus Rising

4.01 - Lazarus Rising
Original Air Date: 18 September 2008

Of course, I enjoyed this episode. Marlee gave me a hard time for my not telling her how bad Dean’s death was. I didn’t think I downplayed it too much. I really thought it was brief, and much easier for the audience than I had expected. Dean’s return from Hell, though, was so stunningly fast. I cannot complain about that!

Let’s recap…

Dean is in the Hell that we saw him in at the end of last season. Very quickly, though, he awakes, in his coffin. He doesn’t seem as fazed as I would expect. He breaks his way out of the coffin, and digs his way out of the ground. [Ahem, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 6.]

Dean breaks into a nearby, closed, filling station for some cash and supplies. He looks in the mirror to find no visible marks, except for a suspicious burnt-in hand print on his left shoulder. After snagging some water, food, and the latest issue of Busty Asian Beauties, the television turns on and flakes out, and he hears a growing squealing sound. As he’s putting salt around the windows, the noise grows unbearably loud, and the windows burst inward.

Dean tries to call Sam –disconnected. He calls Bobby, who hangs up on him, twice. So, Dean hotwires a car and makes his way to Bobby, who doesn’t believe it’s him. Dean manages to convince him that he’s really Dean, and only Dean. They debate how he got out of Hell Free, and agree that Sam must have made a deal. [I love Bobby's throwing holy water into Dean's face, even after hugging him, and listening to his explanation. Oh, that and "Thriller video reject."

Dean is dismayed that Bobby let Sam go off by himself. Bobby also tells Dean that he wanted to salt and burn his body, but Sam said he needed a whole body when he came back. Dean shows Bobby the hand print on his shoulder.

Dean uses Sam's cell phone GPS to track him down --in Pontiac, Illinois- near where Dean was buried. They find him in a hotel, with a strange woman (Genevieve Cortese). After a shorter disbelieving reunion, Sam dismisses the woman, and has trouble coming up with her name --Kristy. Dean confronts Sam about selling his soul, or "something worse". Sam vehemently denies succeeding in making a deal, though he wishes he were the one to have brought him back.

The question remains, then. Who or what did pull Dean out of Hell?

They talk about who did it. Bobby says he knows a psychic that might be able to conjure up the thing that brought Dean back.

Dean tells Sam that he doesn't remember a thing about being in Hell. Then, of course, he starts to have brief flashbacks.

The boys hop in the Impala to visit Bobby's psychic friend. Dean is disappointed to see an iPod set up in front of the dash. "I told you to take care of the car, not douche it up."

Sam denies using any psychic abilities for the past 4 months.

The three boys show up at the home of Pamela Barnes --the psychic, not the Dallas Oil Heiress from the late 70s/early 80s. She conjures up a demon named Castiel, who warns her not to look up him. She doesn't heed his words, and her scéance ends in her screaming, and her eyes burnt out of their sockets.

At "Johnny Mac's Diner", Sam tells Dean that Bobby reports Pamela is doing fine. Dean wants to go face-to-face with the demon. Sam thinks it's crazy, given Pamela's fate. Then, others in the diner reveal themselves to be demons. One questions Dean about who pulled him out of Hell. He ends up punching her, and calling her bluff. It's obvious that the demons are afraid of whatever might have done such a thing.

As they leave, Sam wants to take them on, but Dean thinks they should wait. After Dean falls asleep at the hotel, Sam sneaks off in the Impala. Dean awakes to Castiel's effects on the television and radios, again. As the place seems like it's going to collapse on Dean, Bobby bursts in a pulls hime out.

Bobby drives Dean. Dean calls Sam, to check up on him, but doesn't tell him that he wants to summon Castiel.

Sam goes back to the diner, and finds the demons from earlier with their eyes burt out of their sockets. Sam pulls some mojo out and casts the demon out of the waitress. The woman, though, is dead. Just then, Kathy... err... Kristy enters. Sam addresses her as Ruby.

Bobby and Dean set up a quonset, covering the inner walls with demon controlling and containing symbol. Bobby does an incantation to summon Castiel, then they wait.

At another diner, Ruby and Sam talk about "what [they're] doing.” Sam says he’s saving people, and he wants to do good.

Back at the quonset, Dean and Bobby are interrupted by the roof being stripped, and lightning. Castiel shows up in a trench coat. After pulling Ruby’s demon-killing knife out of his chest, and putting Bobby to sleep, he talks to Dean. He says he’s God’s messenger. He pulled Dean out of Hell, “because God commanded it, because we have work for you to do.”

Okay, Wedge Antilles? That’s great!

What did you think of Lazarus Rising?

Come back later on Friday for more discussion of Supernatural and the Season 4 premiere Lazarus Rising.

Tags: 4.01, 4x01, dean in hell, episode, kristie, kristy, lazarus rising, recap, review, supernatural