It’s been a long summer for fans of Supernatural. Four months ago, we saw Dean (Jensen Ackles) dragged off to the depths of hell by Lilith’s hellhounds with Sam (Jared Padalecki) powerless to stop it from happening. It was one hell (pun intended) of a season finale, and so this week’s fourth season premiere had a lot to live up to. So let’s get started.

"Lazarus Rising," the biblical title of the episode was appropriate in more ways than one, especially as the first shots we see are of a dead man rising again. Yes, after a few red-tinged flashbacks, presumably of hell, we join Dean as he’s attempting to dig his way out of a coffin. Luckily Dean doesn’t share my fear of being buried alive, or else he’s a lot better at hiding it than I would be. When he reaches the surface, he notices the area looks like some sort of supernatural bomb had gone off, with trees flattened all around the gravesite. There’s also a conveniently abandoned gas station, stocked with water, food and copies of ‘Busty Asian Beauties’ that has me thinking that Sam might’ve had a hand in preparing this area for Dean’s resurrection… but that may not be the case, as we find out later on.

The date that Dean checks on the newspaper is September 18, 2008, so it seems that Dean’s been gone for four months. The other intriguing thing we see happen at the gas station is the mysterious noise that turns on TVs, and breaks glass. But that’ll come up later in the episode.

This whole first sequence is beautifully shot, from the lighting to the set layout and direction, and I’m glad that there’s a director of Kim Manner’s caliber able to direct episodes like these. Also as an aside, I’m really digging the new title credits, which really fit with the theme the show seems to be going in this year.

After the credits, it’s time for the core emotional section that Supernatural seems to have a lock-on. There’s a nicely understated scene where Dean meets up with Bobby (Jim Beaver), who, after a little convincing (and a splash of holy water), finally accepts that Dean is walking among the living again. Bobby hasn’t seen Sam since Dean died, but with some cell-phone tracing technology, Dean is able to track down his brother’s location. After a misunderstanding where Sam tries to knife Dean (which, is kind of understandable), we’re treated to a Winchester brother reunion, with all the manly hugs, jaw-clenching, and blinked back tears those words imply.

Going back to the show, Dean’s upset with Sam, because he thinks Sam made some kind of deal to bring him back from hell… but Sam swears he didn’t, that no demon would take a deal with him.

So, if Sam didn’t bring Dean back from hell, then the million dollar question is, who did? Bobby, Dean and Sam decide to visit Pamela (Tracey Dinwiddie), an old psychic friend of Bobby’s, to try and figure it out. That ends about as well as you’d think, with Pamela getting her eyes burnt out of her skull when she tries to get too close and ‘see’ the shadowy figure, which is calling itself Castiel.

While Bobby’s busy at the hospital with Pamela, Sam and Dean run into a group of demons that Sam had been tracking down before Dean showed up. There’s a stand-off, but neither group ends up doing anything, despite the fact that Sam later tells Dean that they should’ve taken them on. Looking back on this part, I think this is one of the first clues we see that Sam has changed a lot in the four months Dean has been gone.

It’s also a clue that there’s about to be a split between Sam and Dean, and that things aren’t about to go back to the way they used to be before Dean went to hell. We see this right away, as both Dean and Sam start keeping secrets from each other. There’s Sam with the huge secret that he’s been working with Ruby (sadly, not being played Katie Cassidy anymore, thanks to budget cuts) to develop his psychic powers, which he uses to exorcise the demons they let walk away before. And Dean doesn’t invite Sam along when he and Bobby are trying to summon Castiel.

Despite the horrific results from before, Dean and Bobby succeed in summoning the mysterious ‘Castiel’, who turns out to be a creature we haven’t had proof actually existed in the Supernatural ‘verse before this episode – an angel. Who pulled Dean out of hell and now tells him, "We have work for you to do."

And there it is, in the last few minutes, we see what I think is going to be the theme of this season: good versus evil on a level above anything we’ve seen before on Supernatural. And possibly with the Winchester brothers on opposing sides.

While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I’m excited about this development, and I can’t wait to see where the show is going with it. This might just be Supernatural’s most epic season yet.

Supernatural 4x01, "Lazarus Rising"
Writer: Eric Kripke
Director: Kim Manners
Guest Stars: Misha Collins, Tracey Dinwiddie