Lazarus Rising - The New Season of "Supernatural"

Supernatural starts off this season with a bang. Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) rises from the dead and crawls out of his lonely gravesite, uncertain of where or when he is. He finds that he has no recollection of hell and four months have passed. During the show, Dean experiences a few flashbacks of hell which will probably be expanded upon in later episodes.

The name of the show has more than one meaning. Lazarus was a man that Jesus raised from the dead in the New Testament. After three seasons of fighting demonic spirits and supernatural horrors, Dean faces an angel of God, or at least that is the claim by one of this season's newest characters. The angel says that he brought Dean back from the dead because Dean has a mission to fulfill. It will be interesting to see how this turns out, whether it is a trick or the truth from an angel. The plot touches on a previous episode where Sam encounters a priest's ghost who masquerades as an angel. That particular episode ended shrouded in mystery as to whether or not the priest was truly acting out God's will. Future episodes didn't touch on angels.

In fact, the word heaven is never mentioned in any episode. When the Winchester boys watched their father escape hell, they simply referred to his departure to "a better place."

So how much will religion and faith play in this season of Supernatural? And whose concept of religion will be portrayed? The episode of the ghostly priest depicted the Catholic Church. Will the Catholic Church play a part this season? Or will the show be fairly general in its use of religion as a plot element, using the idea of angels as a universal thought and not focusing on a particular religion?

Dean himself appears to be the same Dean as he was at the end of last season. His resourceful nature comes out immediately upon his waking from the dead. He crawls out of his grave and seeks help at a local gas station. He picks up one of his favorite magazines, Busty Asian Beauties. This scene is used not only for its humor but to show the audience that Dean is still Dean and his four month stint in hell hasn't changed his true nature.

Sam (Jared Padalecki) has a secret that he's withholding from Dean. Despite Dean's dying wish, Sam has been using his psychic powers to kill demons. Sam's character has undergone changes in the four months that Dean has been gone. Bobby and Dean find Sam in a seedy hotel room with a girl whose name he can't remember. He even calls her by the wrong name. The behavior mimics something more that Dean would do rather than Sam.

Bobby and Ruby are back, although Ruby is now played by a new actress. Genevieve Cortese plays Ruby this season. Her performance during the first episode was short and will probably cause mixed feeling because last season's Ruby was played by Katie Cassidy. The actress was cut from the show because of budget constraints. Will this Ruby live up to last season? We'll have to wait and see.

The beginning of this season of Supernatural appears promising. And the preview for next week's episode looks intense and action packed. Aren't we glad the Winchesters are back? It was a long summer without them.