Episode Title: Lazarus Rising
Writer: Eric Kripke
Director: Kim Manners
Originally Aired: 09/18/2008
Grade: A+
I wasn’t just pleasantly surprised by how great the season 4 premiere was, I was pleasantly shocked. Supernatural has always been a hit-or-miss show, one that I watch more for the way Ackles and Padalecki play their characters than anything else. They’ve done some great episodes, but overall, I usually find the writing to be clumsy, and don’t even get me started on the often sexist portrayal of women on this show. But… this was a great episode. They did so many things right that I almost had to pick my jaw up off the floor.
The first several minutes of the episode, in which Dean crawled out of his grave and wandered around trying to figure out WTF was going on, were almost entirely without spoken dialogue, and it worked beautifully. Of course, if you’re going to have almost ten minutes of silence on a television show, it can’t hurt to do it with someone as gorgeous as Jensen Ackles…
They also got incredibly lucky with Misha Collins as Castiel. He’s not bad on the eyes, he has a quirky voice, he wears authority well, and something tells me he can bring on the hoyay.
Sam’s reaction to Dean’s resurrection was interesting. He seemed shocked at first, and we got the big hug, but he seemed to accept it and get used to it awfully quickly. Maybe they’re both just completely jaded with the dying and then coming back bit, but I still would’ve expected Sam to be doing a little more of the wide-eyed “I can’t believe he’s back” look in Dean’s general direction. The two of them sniggering about how Dean’s gonna get laid was cute in that special way that only they can pull off, but I just expected a little more emotion from Sam past the initial reunion. I don’t know if this was just poor acting and directing, or if this was a deliberate choice to tie into Sam being different and using his powers.
The only sour notes were Genevieve Cortese as the new Ruby meatsuit and Pamela, the tough girl psychic who wanted to have a threesome with the brothers Wincest—er, Winchester. Cortese’s Ruby has none of the narrow-eyed, vicious smartassery of Katie Cassidy’s Ruby, to the point where it seems like Cortese didn’t even bother to watch Cassidy’s performance in order to inform her own. The result is that it feels like a completely different character, and it’s far from an improvement. As for Pamela… well, her muscles were awesome, but the rest was the typical one-note “aren’t we clever for making the psychic a tough chick” trick that these writers are so fond of.
Those are minor quibbles, however, and they don't prevent the episode from being a wonderful jumping-off point for a new season. I'm happy that the writers didn’t dilly-dally with getting Dean out of hell and into the frying pan or with revealing that Sam is using his powers. They also didn't waste any time introducing the Heaven vs. Hell myth arc.
On top of all that, the episode creates a sense of urgency that can be carried into the next few episodes, which is something that the show has really struggled with in the past. I’m actually not a big fan of good vs. evil Biblical storylines, but this is still much better than the vague demonic plans of season 3, and the writing team can go wherever they want with this. They don’t have to follow the Bible to the letter, and Castiel could have, or develop, his own agenda.
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