Lazarus Rising

 is the season premiere of Season 4. It aired on September 18th, 2008.

Synopsis
In the fourth-season opener, Dean has been freed from Hell and reunites with Sam and Bobby, but the three don't know how he returned.

Plot
The episode starts with harsh breathing, and then a lighter is lit. Dean is in a pine box. He calls for help, but his throat is dry from no use and his voice is raspy and quiet. He looks around as best as he can, and finally breaks the top of the coffin. He digs himself out, and emerges in a field. All the trees have fallen, radiating out from his grave. He walks until he finds an empty gas station, where he eagerly drinks some water. He also examines himself for signs of the hellhound attack, but finds that he has completely healed with no trace of the attack. While examining himself, he finds a raised, red handprint on his shoulder. It appears to be burned into his skin and he does not seem to recognize where it came from.

Dean grabs some more water, protein bars and a copy of Busty Asian Beauties. As he prepares to leave, a TV and radio switch on. Thinking it is a demon, Dean starts to pour salt along the windows, but he is soon crippled by a piercing sound that shatters all the glass in the building. Then, as quickly as it started, the sound stops.

Dean tries to call Sam from a pay phone, but his number is out of service. He calls Bobby and identifies himself, but Bobby immediately hangs up. He tries again and Bobby threatens to kill him if he calls again. Frustrated, he looks around and eyes an old car. He hot-wires it and takes off.

When Bobby finds Dean on his doorstep, he assumes he's either a shapeshifter or a revenant and tries to kill him with a silver knife. After a tussle, Dean wrestles the knife away and proves his identity by cutting himself with it. Bobby is amazed and embraces him. Bobby then checks once more to see whether Dean is possessed by throwing holy water to his face. After there's no demonic reaction, he relents: "Sorry, can't be too careful." He finally believes that it's Dean, resurrected from Hell.

Dean asks where Sam is. Bobby tells him that he hasn't talked to him in months. Dean admonishes Bobby for not looking after Sam; Bobby fires back that he tried to, but that they both have had a really hard time since Dean died. He took off and doesn't return phone calls; he's tried to find Sam but couldn't, because he doesn't want to be found. Bobby says he hasn't seen Sam since they had to bury Dean. He asks why they didn't burn his body, as is ritual for hunters, and Bobby says that Sam was dead set against it. Sam insisted Dean would need his body because he was going to find a way to bring his brother back. Dean concedes that he's glad Sam won that argument, and confesses that he would have done the same thing. But, he's worried.

He tells Bobby that his grave site looked like a nuclear blast site, and tells him about the presence he experienced at the gas station. Dean then shows him the large red handprint deeply branded on his left shoulder. Bobby is horrified. They deduce that it might be the mark of a demon that yanked him, or rode him, out of Hell. The only reason a demon would do that, they decide, is to keep up its end of a bargain.

Dean tracks Sam using the GPS in his phone. They find him in a town very near the place Dean was buried.

Bobby and Dean arrive at Sam's hotel room. The door is answered by a scantily-clad girl. Sam rounds the corner and has the same reaction to seeing Dean as Bobby did. Dean and Bobby, believing that Dean's resurrection is the result of some deal that Sam made, are surprised by his reaction. Bobby has to restrain and convince him that it's really Dean. He's finally convinced, and they have a tearful hug.

The girl asks whether the boys "are like, together??" but Sam tells her they're brothers. The girl says, oh, she should probably leave then, and Sam agrees that would be best. It's an awkward moment as she departs, as Sam calls her by the wrong name.

After Dean physically challenges him to confess, Sam promises Dean he didn't make a deal to get him out of Hell. In fact, he is extremely apologetic that it wasn't him that saved Dean, because he tried everything he could think of to bring him back and couldn't do it. Dean relents, sadly telling him that he doesn't need to apologize; he believes him. Dean asks why he's in the same place where he was buried, he tells them he was following a pack of demons who lead him here; he figured Lilith might possibly be around and he was eager to dish out some payback. Bobby suggests they get on the road to visit a psychic he knows, to see if they can find out how Dean got out of Hell. They need to know who, or what, did it and what the cost is.

Sam takes Dean's amulet off his own neck and returns it to him. Sam asks Dean about what Hell was like; he lies and says he doesn't remember a damn thing. They set off, after a little jab at Sam for "douching up" Baby, by installing an iPod jack.

On the road, Dean tells Sam that he's been perplexed by the fact that Sam survived the night he was sent to Hell, since Lilith really wanted to kill him. Sam replies that she did try to kill him, but her burning demon ray didn't work on him. Apparently, he was immune to it. Sam says that he and she were both shocked, and that she vanished pretty quickly after her failed attempt. Dean looks confused and inquires about Ruby's whereabouts, Sam replies that she's either dead or in Hell. Dean asks him if, now that he knows he's "got immunity, whatever the hell that is," has he been using any of his "freaky E.S.P. stuff?? " Sam adamantly denies having done so, claiming that he's honored Dean's practically dying wish that he wouldn't go down that road. Dean doesn't look completely convinced and says "Yeah, well, let's keep it that way." They both look back toward the road with worried faces.

Bobby and the boys arrive at the home of Pamela Barnes, an old friend of Bobby's. After flirty interaction with the boys, she starts a séance to reveal who saved Dean. She conjures a being called Castiel. As the  she says the being is warning her to turn back, but she responds "No, sorry, Castiel. I don't scare easy." Bobby suggests that maybe they should stop, but Pamela refuses, saying she's "almost got it." When she finally makes visual contact with the being, she lets out a blood curdling scream and falls to the floor; the guys rush to her. Her eyes have been burned out.

Later at a diner, Dean and Sam get a call from Bobby letting them know that Pamela is out of ICU. Dean laments that it's their fault that she's blind, and they debate about what to do. Dean recklessly suggests they summon "Castiel, or whatever" and "work him over." Sam points out that Pamela got one peek at him and her eyes were burned out of her skull as a result; a face-to-face with him is a very bad idea. Dean challenges him for a better one. Sam says they should just find the demons he followed to town and find out what they know. Just then, their waitress sits down beside them and reveals herself and the other people in the diner to be the demons Sam was trailing. She addresses Dean by name and threatens to drag him back to Hell after he smart-mouths her. He trumps her, pointing out that obviously something with a lot of juice wants him in play, and since neither of them know who that is, an underling like her wouldn't dare touch him unless she's ready to be smited. He slaps her twice for effect. She does not retaliate. He hisses: "That's what I thought." The demons back down and the boys leave, hurriedly. Although Sam wants to stay and slay the demons, Dean points out that the place was full of them, and that they only have one demon knife between them.

Later that night, Sam sneaks out after Dean falls asleep. Dean wakes up when the TV switches on, as it did at the gas station and at Pamela's seance. He arms himself. The piercing sound that he heard in the gas station begins and intensifies, and he is floored. Bobby bursts in just as all of the glass in the room shatters.

Dean and Bobby are on the road. Dean calls Sam and sternly asks him what he's doing. Sam is surveilling the diner, but lies and says he just went to get a burger because he couldn't sleep. He asks Dean what he's doing and he lies and tells him that he and Bobby are just going out to have some beers. Dean tries to persuade Bobby that that they need to try to summon the being that is haunting him.

Sam goes into the diner and finds one of the demon vessels lying dead with his eyes burned out. The possessed waitress attacks Sam. Her eyes are also gone, and she screams that everyone is going to die. Sam asks what it was that she saw, but the demon refuses to answer. Sam lifts a hand and silently exorcises the demon. The host dies in the process. As he finishes, the girl who was in his hotel room earlier enters. It is Ruby in a new body. She and Sam had performed an act when Dean and Bobby arrived at his hotel room earlier, as if she was just some girl he'd picked up. Sam has been working with her for some time, developing his powers.

They talk about Dean and how he could have come back. Sam demands that she tell him what's going on in this town; Ruby claims she doesn't know. No demon has the power to pull a human soul out of Hell and put it back in its body that easily. They then discuss what they're going to say to Dean about what they've been doing the past few months. Sam tells Ruby he will tell Dean what he has been doing when he figures out the right way to tell him. She points out that he will find out, and that if he doesn't find out from Sam," he's gonna be pissed". Sam is well aware that Dean will be pissed anyway. He knows, though, that Dean is so hard-headed about " this psychic thing" that he'll only try to stop him. Sam believes that his powers are saving humans and he feels good about that, even though he doesn't completely trust Ruby, and tells her so. But, he decides that he wants to keep going on with their covert activities.

Meanwhile, Dean and Bobby are in an abandoned barn gearing up for a summoning ritual, although Bobby has persistently declared that it's a bad idea. After the summoning, a man in a trenchcoat appears, causing the lights to go haywire. He walks over the Devil's Trap and is unharmed when Bobby and Dean shoot him with rocksalt. Dean asks who he is and the man says, "I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition." Dean thanks him then stabs him with Ruby's Knife. It has no effect. Bobby tries to attack from behind, but the man easily wards off the attack and then renders Bobby unconscious so that he can talk to Dean alone.

The man reveals to Dean that he is Castiel, an Angel of the Lord. Dean doesn't believe him, so Castiel reveals a pair of shadowy Angelic wings that emerge briefly from his back. When Dean angrily berates him for burning Pamela's eyes out, Castiel states that his true form can be overwhelming for humans, and that he did warn her to turn back. He also explains that he tried on two occasions to talk to Dean in his true voice, as certain people can hear him. Dean, however, turns out not to be one of them, so now Castiel has taken control of a "vessel" - a willing human host who desired to serve Heaven. Dean asks why an angel would rescue him from Hell. Castiel slowly approaches him, staring into his eyes intensely, and says "You don't think you deserve to be saved." Dean winces, then asks him again why he did it. Castiel tells him that he saved him from Hell on God's command. They have work for Dean to do.

Main Cast

 * Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester
 * Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester

Recurring Cast

 * Misha Collins as Castiel
 * Jim Beaver as Bobby Singer
 * Genevieve Padalecki as Ruby
 * Traci Dinwiddie as Pamela Barnes

Featured Supernatural Beings

 * Angels (Castiel)
 * Demons (Ruby)
 * Revenant (Mentioned)
 * Shapeshifter (Mentioned)

Featured Music

 * "You Shook Me All Night Long" - AC/DC
 * "Fight Song" - The Republic Tigers
 * "Vision" - Jason Manns
 * "Wrapped Around Your Finger" - Martyn Laight
 * "I'm So Blue" - Katie Thompson

Continuity

 * Dean was dead from Season 3's finale, until now.
 * Four months have passed since the end of No Rest For The Wicked.
 * Ruby has acquired a new meat suit.
 * At one point Dean jokingly refers to himself as the "smarter brother." While this is meant to be in jest, the later episode "Metamorphosis" reveals Sam feels Dean behaves condescendingly towards him because the latter deems the former to not be wise.

Trivia

 * Apparently the Winchesters are Star Wars fans. When Dean is trying to get the location of Sam's phone, he says his name is "Wedge Antilles." Wedge Antilles is a recurring X-Wing pilot in all three original Star Wars films, and a minor hero: he was the last one in the Death Star trench with Luke, one of the only pilots to down an AT-AT on Hoth, and was piloting the X-Wing that fired the first shot at the second Death Star's core.
 * The episode's name comes is derived from stories of Lazarus of Bethany who was restored to life four days after his death by Jesus. This is mirrored slightly different in this episode.
 * The date on the newspaper Dean looks at in the first scene is the date the premiere aired.
 * This season marks the start of Genevieve Cortese and Jared Padalecki's courtship. They met and fell in love on set. This is later laughed at in The French Mistake. They're married now and have three kids.

Goofs, Bloopers and Continuity Errors

 * Ruby tells Sam that no demon can pull a soul out of Hell and put it back in its body, however, the Crossroad Demon in Crossroad Blues offered to do just that by bringing John back from the dead in exchange for Dean's soul. There was no indication that the demon had been lying, and the way she threw it in Dean's face after he turned the deal down gave every indication that she could have done it.
 * Dean uses the silver knife to cut his arm to prove to Bobby that he is not a Shape Shifter or a Revenant, however just a minute or 2 later when Dean shows Bobby the Handprint on his shoulder the cut has vanished.

International Titles

 * German: Lazarus erhebt sich (Lazarus Rising)

Quotes

 * Bobby: "Dean, your chest was ribbons, your insides were slop, and you'd been buried four months. Even if you could slip out of Hell and back into your meats --"
 * Dean: "I know. I should look like a "Thriller" video reject."
 * Bobby: "What do you remember?"
 * Dean: "Not much. I remember I was a hellhound's chew toy...and then lights-out. Then I come to six feet under. That was it."


 * [Dean sees the modifications Sam has made to the Impala]
 * Dean: What the hell is that?
 * Sam: That's an iPod jack.
 * Dean: You were supposed to take care of her, not douche her up.


 * Waitress (Demon): "Tell me, what makes you so special?"
 * Dean: "I like to think it's because of my perky nipples..." (awkward pause) "...I don't know."


 * Dean: Who are you?
 * Castiel: "I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition."
 * Dean: Who are you?
 * Castiel: I'm Castiel.
 * Dean: Yeah, I figured that much. I mean what are you?
 * [Castiel turns to face him]
 * Castiel: I'm an Angel of the Lord.
 * [Dean stares at him in disbelief]
 * Dean: Get the hell out of here. There's no such thing.
 * Castiel: This is your problem, Dean. You have no faith.
 * [Lightning flashes. The shadows of a pair of Angel's Wings emerge from Castiel's back]
 * Dean: You mean the gas station and the motel. That was you talking? Buddy, next time, lower the volume.
 * Castiel: That was my mistake. Certain people, special people, can perceive my true visage. I thought you would be one of them. I was wrong.
 * Dean: And what visage are you in now, huh? What, Holy Tax Accountant?
 * Castiel: This? This is... a vessel.
 * Dean: You're possessing some poor bastard?
 * Castiel: He's a devout man, he actually prayed for this.
 * Dean: "Why'd you do it?"


 * Castiel: "Because God commanded it. Because we have work for you."