Lazarus Rising



 is the opening episode of Season 4.

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
We hear 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 been felled, 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, candy and a copy of Busty Asian Beauties. As he prepares to leave, a TV and radio switch on. Thinking it is a demon, Dean pours salt along the window, but he is soon crippled by a piercing sound that shatters all the glass in the area. As quickly as it started, whatever it was stops.

Dean tries to call Sam from a payphone, but his number is out of service. He calls Bobby and identifies himself, Bobby hangs up. He tries again and Bobby threatens to kill him if he calls again. He steals a car from the gas station 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." After that he finally believes that it's Dean, resurrected from Hell.

Dean asks where Sam is; he tell's him that he hasn't talked to him in months. Dean admonishes Bobby for not looking after Sam;  Bobby fires back the he tried to, but that they both have had a really hard time dealing with Dean's death. Sam took off and doesn't return phone calls; he's tried to find him but couldn't. Bobby says he hasn't seen Sam since they had to bury Dean. Dean asks why they didn't burn his body, as is ritual for hunters, and Bobby says that Sam was dead set against it. He said Dean would need his body because was was going to find a way to bring him back. Dean conceeds that he's glad Sam won that argument, but he's worried. He tells Bobby that his grave site looked like a nuclear blast site, and tells him about the presense that he experienced at the gas station. Dean then shows him the large red handprint deeply banded on his left shoulder. Bobby is horrified. They deduce that it might be the mark of a demon that yanked, or rode, him out of Hell. The only reason a demon would do that, they think, is to keep up its end of a bargain.

Dean tracks Sam using the GPS in his phone and finds him in a town 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 ressurection is the result of some deal that Sam made with some demon, are suprised by his reaction. Bobby has to covnince him that it's really Dean, and then they have   a tearful hug. The girl asks whether the boys "are like, together??" but Sam says they're brothers. The girl says, oh, she should probably leave then, and Sam agrees that would be best. There is an awkward moment as she departs, as Sam calls her by the wrong first name.

Sam promises Dean he didn't make a deal to get Dean out of Hell, or use his powers. In fact, he is upset that he was unable to save Dean. 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.

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 tried to kill him, but her burning demon ray didn't work on him. Apparently, he was immuned 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 since he's "got immunity, whatever the hell that is,"  if he's been using any of his "freaky E.S.P.  stuff"  as well. Sam adamantly denies having done so, claiming that he'd 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 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, and contacts someone called Castiel. The house and its contents begin to go haywire, and Bobby suggests that maybe they should stop. Pamela refuses, saying she's almost there. When she finally sees the being in her mind, she lets out a blood curdling scream and falls to the floor. Her eyes have been burned out.

Later at a diner, Dean and Sam discuss what to do, when the waitress reveals herself and the other people in the diner to be demons Sam is looking for. She threatens Dean, but doesn't take any action, and doesn't seem to know anything about his escape from hell. The boys leave, although Sam wants to exorcise the demons.

Later that night, Sam sneaks out while Dean is asleep and heads back to the diner. When Dean wakes up, he again hears the piercing sound that he heard in the gas station. Bobby returns as it stops, and Dean convinces him that they need to summon the thing that is haunting him. He calls Sam, who lies about being at the diner. Sam tells Dean he went to get a burger. Dean tells him he and Bobby are getting a beer.

Sam goes into the diner and finds one of the demons dead with his eyes burnt out. The possessed waitress, although also blinded, attacks Sam, and warns him that everyone is going to die. Sam asks what it was she saw, but the demon refuses to answer. Sam lifts a hand and using only his mind exorcises the demon, though the host dies in the process. As he finishes, the girl who was in his hotel room earlier enters. It's Ruby. Sam has been working with her for some time to develop his powers. They talk about Dean and how he could have come back, and Ruby claims that 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 the time is right.

Meanwhile, Dean and Bobby perform a summoning ritual and 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. 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, was not 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 tells Dean that he saved him from Hell on God's command, and that God has work for Dean to do.

Featured Supernatural Beings

 * Angels
 * Demons

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.

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.

Goofs, Bloopers & 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.

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."