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Visceral and vibrant, Supernatural’s premiere is the best since the pilot.

The episode begins with Dean awaking in the shadow of a wooden coffin, gasping for breath and pleading for help in a hoarse voice. Breaking through the wood, he is again enshrouded in darkness as dirt falls upon. What follows is Dean rising from the grave George A. Romero style – though strangely without the decay (and thankfully without the taste for brains). But Dean quickly discovers every tree around his grave has been flattened like a blast radius.

Dean stocks up on water, supplies and cash at an abandoned gas station. He also looks in the mirror. As stated before, he is completely alive – his torso, previously ripped to threads by hellhounds is entirely healed, and there is a huge hand-shaped burn on his shoulder. Soon, the entire gas station exploded with glass shrapnel as a piercing sound fills the air and electronics go on the fritz.

Dean calls Bobby on a payphone, but Bobby remains unconvinced of Dean’s identity and hangs up. Making the drive in a stolen car, Dean turns up on Bobby’s doorstep. Bobby, however, remains unconvinced and makes repeated attempts to drive a silver knife down Dean’s heart. After confirming Dean is not a shapeshifter, relevant or demon, the two have a tearful embrace. Bobby tells Dean that Sam – who isn’t answering his phone – is alive “as far as he knows”, but it’s been a rough four months since Dean’s death, evident by the amount of liquor bottles littering Bobby’s house.

Tracing Sam’s cell phone, Bobby and Dean drive to Sam’s rundown bachelor pad. Forget Jessica – Sam barely knows the name of the girl he’s sleeping with. But Sam’s reaction to Dean is the same as Bobby’s – attempted murder followed by tears of joy. However, Dean isn’t all joy – he’s convinced Sam sold his soul to raise Dean from the grave. Sam thoroughly denies it, but Bobby suggests an alternative – a sexy psychic named Pam. On the way to Pam’s, Dean also reconnects with the Impala – though he’s none to happy to find an iPod plugged into the dash with pop music loaded.
After flirting intensely with both Sam and Dean, Pam holds a séance to discover what ripped Dean out of Hell. Pam gets a name – Castiel – but also gets her eyes burned out of her skull for getting too close.

At a dinner, Sam tells Dean Pam is going to be okay – despite her blinding injury. The waitress takes a seat with them, after one awkward moment, reveals her and one other patron to be demons. But these demons aren’t any more sure what brought Dean back than the hunters are, and despite a fair amount of blurring, are more than a little scared. Leaving the confrontation, Dean decides to face this Castiel head on by summoning him. Sam is vehemently against him, but both Sam and Dean sneak out during night – Dean to confront Castiel with Bobby, and Sam to face the demons at the dinner. 

Dean and Bobby pull out all the stops in arsenal to summon Castiel to a barn, while Sam finds the demons at the dinner already dead – right before he is attacked by a surviving demon, who claims to be able to smell his soul - all while having her eyes similarly burned out. After several cryptic and ominous warning about Castiel, the demon tells Sam to go to hell, prompting Sam to telepathically rip the demon right out of her body, despite telling Dean he was through with his psychic abilities earlier. Sam confirms the host is dead, while a fury of wind heralds Castiel’s approach at the barn.

An ordinary-looking man walks into a barn and withstands Dean and Bobby’s gunfire as well as their attacks. He then puts Bobby asleep with one touch and reveals himself to be not a demon, but instead, an angel of the Lord – complete with wings. The man – Castiel – reveals the ear-piercing screeches were his attempt to contact Dean. Of course, Dean isn’t buying any of this. At the dinner, Ruby appears – in another body – and talks to Sam, who is intent on telling Dean about his powers eventually, and intend on continuing his one-man psychic crusade, under Ruby’s tutelage.

The episode ends with Castiel telling Dean he has been saved virtually by the grace of God, who apparently has some work cut for Dean.

My friend Luke has repeatedly asked me “When are they going to do angels?” I’ve told him I didn’t think they ever would, fearing doing so would break the blue collar ambiguity at the heart of Supernatural. But Castiel’s appearance is thankfully true to Supernatural – unlike Ruby’s artificial insertion last season. From the flattened tree line to the wailing siren pitch, the angel was in the details – one thing Supernatural excels at. Castiel’s presence draws from Biblical books like Isaiah and Ezekiel in framing the appearance of a truly cosmic angel so otherworldly it’s frankly bewildering.

The episode with this has a very sparse and visceral quality to it, reminiscent of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other mid-70’s horror – a perfect feeling for Supernatural’s dry Americana. Fortunately, the humor is in rare form. There are several golden moments, my favorite being Dean’s reaction to the iPod, flicking it into the backseat, and by doing so, establishing this is Supernatural we all know and love first and foremost.

I have one minor complaint, but the new actress playing Ruby didn’t sparkle like Katie Cassidy. I’m not a big fan of Cassidy, but she captured the bitch from Hell attitude good, and perhaps here it wasn’t even the actress’ fault so much as the writing. At no time during her short appearance did Ruby say or do anything which exemplified the spunky attitude which excited and infuriated fans. Without this quality, this character seems more and more like dead weight.

Overall, “Raising Lazarus” is an exciting kick-off for Supernatural’s fourth season, and easily one of its best episodes yet. And with a slew of (mostly dead) guest stars turning up next episode, you can bet “Supernatural” is hitting the ground running as fast as ever. 

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