Supernatural: Lazarus Rising
July 13, 2021 3:56 AM - Season 4, Episode 1 - Subscribe

Sam tries to move on without his brother and becomes hardened and more reckless in the way he hunts. Bobby and his medium friend Pamela try to contact the other side to find out more about Dean's ultimate fate.

Bobby: [On phone] Hello?
Dean: Bobby?
Bobby: Yeah?
Dean: It's me.
Bobby: Who's "me"?
Dean: Dean.
Bobby: [Hangs up.]
Dean: [Calls back.]
Bobby: Who is this?
Dean: Bobby listen to me...
Bobby: This ain't funny. Call again and I'll kill you.

Bobby: Dean. Your chest was ribbons. Your insides were slop. And you've been buried *four* months. Even if you *could* slip outta hell and back into your meatsuit...
Dean: I know. I should look like a "Thriller" video reject.

Sam: I assume you'll wanna drive? [tosses the keys to Dean]
Dean: [seeing the Impala for the first time since he escaped hell] I almost forgot. Hey, sweetheart. Ya miss me? [He climbs in, shuts the door and settles into the driver's seat]
Dean: Ohhh. [He looks at the dashboard.] What the Hell is that?
Sam: That's an iPod jack.
Dean: You were supposed to take care of her, not douche her up.
Sam: Dean, I thought it was my car.
Dean: [starts the car]
iPod: [plays pop music]
Dean: Really?
Sam: [shrugs]
Dean: [throws the iPod into the back seat]

Pamela:[Bends over to get something out of a cabinet, revealing a tattoo on her lower back reading 'Jesse Forever'.]
Dean: Who's Jesse?
Pamela: Well, it wasn't forever.
Dean: His loss.
Pamela: Might be your gain.
Dean: [quietly, to Sam] Dude, I'm so in.
Sam: Yeah, she's gonna eat you alive.
Dean: Hey, I just got outta jail. Bring it.
Pamela: [to Sam] You're invited too, grumpy.
Dean: [to Sam] You are not invited.

Demon Waitress: So, you get to just stroll out of the pit, huh? Tell me, what makes *you* so special?
Dean: I like to think it's because of my perky nipples.

Dean Winchester: [to Castiel] And what visage are you in now, huh? What, holy tax accountant?

Trivia:

This episode marks the debut of Genevieve Cortese, now Genevieve Padalecki, as the second incarnation of demon Ruby, and also the first appearance of the angel Castiel, played by Misha Collins.

When Bobby takes the boys to see Pamela Barnes, the psychic, he greets her with the phrase "You're a sight for sore eyes!" This expression becomes, um, rather painfully ironic a few minutes later.
posted by orange swan (10 comments total)
 
Sam: Uh, yeah, I'm sorry, Bobby. I should have called. I was pretty messed up.
Dean: [holding up the pink-flowered bra "Kristy" left behind] Oh yeah. I really feel your pain.

Jensen Ackles, who would have been 30 at the beginning of the 4th season, has finally lost that baby-faced look he had at the beginning of the series. And while I never thought Misha Collins aged much during the run of the show, my goodness does he look young here.

Ruby's correcting Sam on her [fake] name as she was leaving their hotel room was pretty funny. Nice convincing detail on the charade they were playing that she was just some random hookup.

How on earth would Dean have dug his way through six feet of earth with his bare hands without suffocating? And becoming much dirtier than he became?

Dean's first act after rising from the grave was to knock off a convenience store, load up on porn, and hot wire a car, because of course it was.

I remember being horrified by Pamela's injuries when I first saw this episode, and I'd come to think it was some other more powerful, less principled angel she had seen, but no, it really was Castiel. You'd think Castiel could have found a way to keep that from happening.
posted by orange swan at 4:08 AM on July 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


This is just such a pretty episode and a great entrance.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:25 AM on July 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


They wanted to have John Constantine show up in Supernatural but couldn't finagle the rights, which is why Castiel dresses like him.

(Later the attempt to adapt Hellblazer to TV ran into problems that were part "John Constantine is a bastard who we have to soften or mainstream TV audiences will hate him" and part "Superntural basically stole our setting, how do we not come off as a ripoff to people who didn't read the comics?")
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:44 AM on July 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


Since we're talking DC characters, this is Dean's big Jason-Todd-clawing-himself-out-of-his-own-grave moment.
posted by sardonyx at 10:09 AM on July 13, 2021


This version of Ruby is good, but I still prefer the first one. I don't know how accurate this, it, but it certainly seems that based on the two actresses people in these posts have identified as his girlfriends, he has a preference for a certain physical type.
posted by sardonyx at 10:12 AM on July 13, 2021


The Astoria Hotel [maps.google] - not the greatest neighbourhood.

And there's that arm cutting thing again.
posted by porpoise at 10:20 AM on July 13, 2021


I remember being horrified by Pamela's injuries when I first saw this episode, and I'd come to think it was some other more powerful, less principled angel she had seen, but no, it really was Castiel. You'd think Castiel could have found a way to keep that from happening.

All I can think of is Alan Rickman as the Metratron in Dogma, explaining that he's God's messenger because direct exposure to the glory of God will do terrible things to the human body, ending with "We went through three Adams before we figured that one out."
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:44 AM on July 13, 2021 [3 favorites]


Of course, Constantine does eventually cross over with Supernatural--sort of.
posted by sardonyx at 10:46 AM on July 13, 2021 [3 favorites]


I really like this episode, and I love the opening sequence. Kim Manners was so so good. An angelic visitation at an abandoned gas station that plays like a UFO fly-by is the exact kind of thing this show can just nail when they want to.

Ruby really saw Dean out of Hell and did not miss a beat pretending to think he's the pizza guy. Nobody was ever scared enough of Ruby. (And pretending Sam forgot her name! an artist.) That scene's interesting to me, because Sam and Ruby were hanging out waiting for dinner to show up, it's not like they would have had a cover story planned for if they ran into someone they knew. Ruby decided to lie the second she opened the door, but Sam went along with pretending she was a stranger as soon as he believed Dean was really Dean, and as shellshocked as he is, he's unsettlingly good at lying too. And of course, Dean's lying to him like twenty minutes later.

Pamela's fun and she was trying to help. Whether Castiel was genuinely compelled to show himself or if he just didn't appreciate some random squishy human trying to compel him, it's pretty brutal what happens to her. But introducing angels with the blast craters and broken glass and burned out eyes that will follow them everywhere they go was a nice touch.

Bobby was extremely correct that summoning Castiel then and there with zero information, and just assuming whatever they happened to have in the car would protect them, was SO reckless and Dean could easily have gotten them both killed. It was interesting that they both admit it's dangerous, Bobby thinks it's also a lousy plan, Dean won't bring Sam along, and neither of them seem to question that Bobby's coming anyway.

Castiel is visually John Constantine (more or less; maybe they sensed a chainsmoking angel with a five o'clock shadow would be a little much for the character as he's introduced.) John Constantine was visually modeled on Sting, because his creators were fans and wanted to put Sting in their Swamp Thing comic, and thirty years later a second-order Sting riff played by a guy who was a White House intern with Monica Lewinsky was the first crush of god alone knows how many theater kids. What a relentlessly bountiful harvest of weird this show was.
posted by jameaterblues at 9:42 PM on July 13, 2021 [4 favorites]


This is a strong entry into a strong season. I don't know if it's because the team thought they might be heading into the home stretch or if everybody has finally been together long enough to gel together. I can't really offer up any more insightful commentary than has already been posted, but I just wanted to add in my appreciation for this episode.
posted by sardonyx at 11:27 AM on July 14, 2021


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