Lazarus Rising Review

ACDC pounds over a recap of the past 3 seasons ending with Dean in hell. This season begins with Dean digging his way out of a coffin and into a circle of felled trees.

With nothing to tell him what’s happened and how long he’s been in hell, Dean takes off down the road and breaks into a gas station to pick up some essentials. While cleaning up, he finds a burned imprint of a hand on his shoulder but no other signs of injury. The shredding he took from the hellhound is gone like it never happened. He blows through the store picking up water and travel food when a noise builds and the electronics flicker. He runs a line of salt over the window but the noise builds into piercing scream that shatters the windows and sends him to the floor.

He picks himself up and tries calling Sam. Sam’s number is out of service so he calls Bobby. Bobby doesn’t believe it’s him and attacks him, making him prove he’s really Dean. The two of them go after Sam.

Sam denies having anything to do with getting Dean out of hell. He tried everything including making deals but nothing worked – someone big wanted Dean to remain in hell and even Sam’s newly found immunity to Lilith didn’t frighten them into cutting a deal with him.

Bobby takes them to a psychic, Pamela Barnes who’s eyes are burned out when she tries to see an image of Castiel, the being she tracks down as the one who got Dean out of hell.

Dean and Sam head to a café where they run into a trio of demons who may hate the brothers, but are afraid to attack Dean. They won’t discuss the being who may have pulled Dean out but they are definitely afraid of it. The boys leave with more questions than answers. Sam pushes to kill them but Dean refuses to try and send them back to hell whether or not they’re afraid of him.

That night Sam takes the Impala and goes to kill the demons without Dean. Dean meanwhile has Bobby help him summon the entity that pulled him from hell. Sam finds two the demons dead with the eyes burned out, the third attacks him, her eyes are gone but she’s out for blood. He uses his YED given ability to yank the demon out of her.

A rather clean cut looking man shows up to Dean’s summons and puts Bobby down with a touch. Dean plunges the demon killing knife into his chest, he looks at it and calmly pulls it out. He reveals himself as an angel who’s been trying to contact Dean since he pulled him out of hell.

Castiel tells Dean that he pulled him out of Hell because God Himself commanded it. "We have work for you,"

The season opener posed as many questions as it answered, setting up a definite change in the relationship between the boys and a change in the myth arc of the show. For the first time an angel has appeared. This is new as we haven’t seen any other holy entities fighting on the side of good. This opens up the possibility of help being out there and it also opens up the questions why hasn’t God sent his help earlier? Castiel’s revelation of having work for Dean also gives a balance to the brothers. Sam has been marked as special since the beginning and now Dean has been tapped for some purpose.

Sam’s ability to kill demons, or at least send them back to hell shows that he is growing his gifts, using them and practicing them. He’s also in contact with the demon Ruby and not letting Dean in on it.

Overall the episode was solid. Not spectacular, but a good setup for things to come. It didn’t give me everything I wanted to see, but it didn’t disappoint. I give it a B+.