Mark Watches ‘Supernatural’: S04E01 – Lazarus Rising

In the first episode of the fourth season of Supernatural, WHAT ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY BECAUSE THINGS HAPPENED AND I CAN’T DEAL WITH ANY OF THIS. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.

HE’S HERE. HE’S HERE AND THAT’S NOT EVEN THE ONLY SHOCKING THING IN THIS EPISODE.

So, look. “Lazarus Rising” is a good episode. It (sort of) answers the question of how Dean is still in this show if he was just killed and sent to hell. It develops Sam’s characterization since Dean’s death. And then it goes from “quite good” to WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED in the final ten minutes, and y’all, this whole show just changed. There’s no denying that the very framework of Supernatural has been altered, and with the introduction of Castiel, the mythology of the show has to change.

Well, and other things. LIKE SAM. AND RUBY. AND WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!

Let’s start at the beginning. I think it was smart of Kripke not to give us an answer at first, and the bulk of the dramatic tension in “Lazarus Rising” is because of this. All we see is Dean claw himself out of the earth, alive and not torn to pieces. We see how the forest surrounding him has been felled by some mysterious force. (For real, go watch Kim Manners’s work on “Tunguska” / “Terma” in season four of The X-Files. THOSE EPISODES ARE SO GOOD. Oh, fuck it, GO WATCH THE WHOLE THING.) And all of this unfolds in silence. It’s one of the more unnerving parts of the opening because we never quite know if this is really happening or it’s a vision or a trick. The silence works to unsettle us, to force us to question whether what we’re watching is reality or not. On top of that, I constantly expected something to happen. Someone would pop out and shoot Dean, or it would be revealed that the gas station was some elaborate torment in Hell, or the show would cease fetishizing Asian women. (Seriously, all writers everywhere: don’t.) Even when the television and radio turned on, I thought I had this all figured out. The demon was coming for him!

HA.

HA.

Truly, that fuels the momentum of this episode. Things seem familiar, but you can tell something else is lurking beneath the surface. That sure as hell looks like Dean, but what’s the catch? THERE HAS TO BE A CATCH. This leads to the beautiful, wonderful, and hilarious sequence where Bobby tests Dean’s humanity, and I loved that moment where Bobby had a touching reunion with his friend and then THREW HOLY WATER ALL OVER HIS FACE. Hey, you are not allowed to get mad at Bobby, Dean. YOU WOULD DO THE SAME THING.

Of course, it would be ill of me to ignore how touching it was to watch Bobby realize that this really was Dean, especially after Dean just told him that Bobby is basically the closest thing he has to a father. HEY WOW, THANKS FOR THE KICK RIGHT IN THE HEART, SUPERNATURAL. Even with Bobby’s acceptance of Dean, we’re still left with a lot of unanswered questions. Namely: HOW? How????? How is it even possible that Dean is alive? How come he has no injuries or scars? HOW COME HE CAN’T REMEMBER HELL? How did he get that mark on his arm? How is Sam going to react to Dean’s resurrection?

Let’s be real here: That’s actually the most important question. Supernatural doesn’t disappoint, either. There’s some subtle development on the part of the characters who survived Dean, including Bobby’s struggle with alcoholism and Sam’s… well, I’ll get to Sam’s bit soon. Even if we got a glimpse of what Sam’s life would be like in “Mystery Spot,” I needed to see more. I wouldn’t say that “Lazarus Rising” actually shows us all that much, but that’s only because the episode is designed not to. IT’S SO MUCH BIGGER THAN THAT. Instead, we get Sam’s shock, his anger, and then his UTTER JOY, and Bobby watching on, which is yet another thing that IS NOT OKAY in this episode. Also, there’s a random woman watching the whole thing??? I assumed that this was an attempt to hint at Sam’s own changes since Dean’s death. Was he trying to become more like Dean and distract himself with one night stands? Oh god, he was, wasn’t he?

Even with the tear-filled reunion, things still aren’t quite right. If Sam didn’t make a deal with a demon (THOUGH HE TRIED OH GOD I BELIEVE EVERY WORD OF THAT), and he didn’t use whatever power he had that helped him survive Lilith’s attack, then… what? HOW? Oh god, we’re back at HOW again. So, Bobby suggests using a psychic friend of his, which ends well when the being they summon BURNS HER EYES OUT AFTER NAMING THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING DEAN OUT OF HELL: Castiel. I am actually quite interested in what this experience was like for those watching this in real time because… well, Cas is the only real spoiler I knew about this show. I knew he was an angel and he was played by Misha Collins? (I just noticed in the video that I missed his name in the credits because I was looking at that pointless sign, ha!) That’s not to say it ruined his entrance for me at all because SWEET MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS HOLY. But I know that his name probably didn’t mean anything to y’all at the time.

Still, Kripke didn’t give me a whole lot to go on. Castiel burned the eyes out of a psychic and a couple of demons; the demons were TERRIFIED of Castiel as well, convinced that Castiel was bringing about the end. HOW? I DON’T UNDERSTAND. (I still don’t, for the record.) But then I’m left speechless (again!) by this show when Sam exorcises the eyeless demon.

with

his

fucking

mind

HE CAN EXORCISE DEMONS WITH HIS MIND

THAT IS A THING THAT JUST HAPPENED

WHICH HAS SUCH HORRIFYING IMPLICATIONS, MADE ONLY WORSE BECAUSE RUBY IS STILL ALIVE AND IS IN A NEW BODY AND SAM IS WORKING WITH HER????

WHAT

JKSADF

FASDKJH;LKASFDKLJFDSA

ASFDKL;JASDFKLJ;ASFDKJL

Obviously, this is going to be a huge source of conflict between Dean and Sam. Dean didn’t trust Ruby prior to his death, and he’s certainly not going to leap at the opportunity now. I’m guessing that he’ll believe that Ruby is manipulating him since Sam didn’t tell him the truth outright. And look, I get why Sam hasn’t said anything about this to his brother. Dean hasn’t historically been all that supportive of Sam’s weirdness, and now Sam has some terrifying new power that he’s using for… for what? Sam outright questions whether he’s doing good right to Ruby’s face. AND I DON’T KNOW. I DON’T KNOW IF RUBY IS TELLING THE TRUTH. She’s a demon, she lies, she manipulates… and that’s what all of this could be.

But let’s just talk about it: Castiel’s entrance. Y’all, that was so cool. From the way that the camera is framed above the doorway, to the way that he’s showered in light, to the eerie, detached way that Misha Collins portrays an angel sent on a Godly mission… I’m intrigued. I’ve never seen any footage of Castiel before; I only knew who played him. And Collins certainly isn’t playing him as a human at all. While I definitely want to see more of this in the coming episodes, I’m also so fascinated by the instantaneous growth of the show’s fictional world. I wondered during the episode “Faith” how much of Christian theology was real; if demons are real, then how much of Christian belief is too? This episode kind of answers that, but it suggests that there’s an entire heavenly world that’s violent, unknowable, and clearly VERY INTERESTED in Dean Winchester. But why? Why did God command Castiel to pull Dean from Hell? Is Dean ever going to accept that he’s worth it PROBABLY NOT BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS SO SAD EVERY TIME HE DOES THAT I BREAK A LITTLE MORE ON THE INSIDE.

It’s not lost on me that we now have both Winchester brothers with some sort of otherworldly guide at their side. Will Dean keep Cas a secret from Sam? If not, will Ruby and Cas ever interact? Is Sam part of God’s plan, too? IS JESUS GONNA SHOW UP, BECAUSE DOES THAT MEAN JESUS IS REAL? Oh my god, I have so many questions that I need Supernatural to answer right now. But y’all, I MADE IT. I MADE IT TO CASTIEL. HE’S HERE.

The video for “Lazarus Rising” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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