http://safiyabat.tumblr.com/post/91455224166/hiatus-rewatch-lazarus-rising
"Lazarus Rising" starts the whole Apocalyptic storyline of the show. It
introduces angels - who have shown up (the Trickster being Gabriel) but
not been outed as such - and it moves the Winchesters from being
regular hunters to players in a much larger game. I should say that it
moves Dean from being a regular hunter to being a player in a much
larger game - Sam stopped being a regular hunter once the secret of his
being psychic became known and other hunters decided he was fair game
back in "Hunted." The episode introduces a pile of questions so deep
you could drown in them, and of course as fans we delight in the
drowning, but the question that has never been addressed and that I’d
love to see someone ask at a con is this:
Why did Sam drive over 200 miles from New Harmony, Indiana to Pontiac, Michigan to bury Dean?
Lazarus Rising: The Episode
"Lazarus Rising," as I mentioned, gives us a whole new species to play
with. This is our first cognizant meeting with Castiel, and while it is
visually impressive and dramatic in every way Castiel gives us all
kinds of red flags right from the start that he is not here in anyone’s
best interests but Heaven’s. Well, first of all he resurrects Dean but
leaves him buried alive in a coffin. Who does that? And he tells Dean
point blank that he pulled Dean out of Hell "Because we have work for
you." That’s not even subtle. We pulled you out for our reasons, not
because you didn’t deserve to be in Hell, and now you owe us.
We see Bobby, and Bobby’s reaction to Dean’s resurrection is markedly
different from his reaction to Sam’s resurrection. We have to remember
that when he encounters Dean he quickly believes that Sam must have sold
his soul to accomplish the task, just as Dean sold his soul to bring
Sam back. When Sam was resurrected he was repulsed by Sam, didn’t want
to get near him. Once he accepted that Dean was in fact Dean, Bobby was
overjoyed.
We meet Pamela Barnes, one of fandom’s favorite figures even though we
only see her a few times. She is a psychic, but somehow she is a “good”
psychic like Missouri and not a “bad” psychic like Sam. I’m not
entirely sure what the basis is for the line between “good” and “bad”
psychics but that shouldn’t be held against Pamela, who prefers Dean but
is at least friendly toward Sam.
We also have Ruby, in a stunning new body. She has some fun as she
pretends to be some random girl Sam picked up, but it’s clear both that
she and Sam have been together for some time and that she is unwilling
to try to separate the brothers. Her end game - which we know, in
hindsight, involves Sam freeing Lucifer - does not involve her and Sam
alone together.
Dean Winchester
On the list of things I don’t want even for my worst enemies: buried
alive. Maybe it’s a phobia of mine. I’m not alone. Some Victorians
had elaborate contraptions intended to ensure that they did not meet
that very fate. Dean waking up alone in a coffin underground terrified
me, and I don’t like him at all. Who resurrects a guy and then leaves
him in a coffin underground? I mean, really, who does that? (I keep
saying this, but it clearly upsets me.)
Anyway, Dean tells Bobby and Sam that he doesn’t remember anything from
Hell but we know he’s lying. We see in his coffin that he has
flashbacks, we see him having flashbacks in the motel bathroom.
So Dean gets resurrected from Hell and he breaks into a gas station
store. The electronics start going haywire around him. We know now of
course that it was Castiel, but I kind of wonder why Dean didn’t assume
that it was him? I mean, he’d just escaped Hell. Why would he not
assume that there was some kind of supernatural influence at work, that
he had been changed somehow?
He learns that Bobby has been drinking heavily since Dean’s death, which
is unsurprising. Dean was Bobby’s favorite after all. He is quick to
enlist Bobby’s aid in tracking his brother down, and he’s quick to
enlist Bobby’s aid in summoning Castiel. He doesn’t pay much heed to
Bobby’s reservations about summoning Castiel, either. This should be
surprising but it isn’t. Dean respects Bobby more than he respects
other people, but he’s still Dean. He’s going to do what he’s going to
do, even though it’s already gotten Pamela blinded.
The encounter with the demon waitress is indicative of two things about
Dean. The first is that Dean had no idea that the waitress was
frightened of Sam. He completely failed to pick up on the fact that she
kept glancing at Sam and seeming nervous, attributing all of her fear
to whatever pulled him out of Hell and possibly to his time with
Alistair. The second is - well, it’s Dean’s time with Alistair. They
haven’t talked about Dean’s time as a torturer yet, but they show the
effects here. Dean shows himself to be perfectly willing to smack the
waitress around, knowing that she won’t respond. This is something he
wouldn’t have done before he went to Hell.
Dean is unimpressed initially by Castiel. He can’t bring himself to
believe in angels, and he gives a lot of sass back to the angel. He
also stabs him in the chest which usually puts a damper on first
meetings. He cannot bring himself to believe that an angel would save
him, of all people, and of course we know why. He was a torturer. He
enjoyed it. We don’t really judge him for it, because it’s Hell and
Hell burns away your humanity and when you’re being tortured eventually
you’ll break. But Dean does see himself differently.
And that line, that “we have work for you” line, should have been a huge
clue that the angels were using him and leading him around.
Sam Winchester
"Lazarus Rising" marks a turning point in the show’s treatment of Sam.
This is the point when it becomes significantly more difficult to talk
about Sam without talking about Dean.
Apparently Sam drove Dean’s corpse to Michigan, buried it in a simple
wooden coffin with Bobby after retrieving the Samulet, and then parted
ways with Bobby. We learn in later episodes that he tried to sell his
soul and was rejected, picked fights with demons he couldn’t beat, and
basically gave “suicidally reckless” a new poster child. He ditched his
phone and got a new one. We know he hooked up with Ruby again, in
multiple ways, and he started using a new side to his psychic abilities.
This may have something to do with his avoidance of Bobby - Bobby did
not approve of his use of any of his abilities and was frankly repulsed
by them.
Here’s the thing though. Bobby states that he tried calling Sam
repeatedly but doesn’t say that the phone was turned off, he doesn’t
seem to realize that Sam got a new phone number. He says that Sam
“don’t want to be found” but it’s hard to say how much of an effort he
put in. It took Dean five seconds to find him. Remember that location
spell Bobby used to track down Lilith? If he could find Lilith so
easily, how hard would it have been for him to find a drunk and suicidal
young man who wasn’t really trying to hide himself?
It doesn’t stop him from castigating Sam during their confrontation
about Sam’s activities during the hiatus. When Sam admits that he was
going after Lilith Bobby snarls, “All by yourself? Who do you think you
are, your old man?” There are multiple layers of meaning there.
First, it’s an insult to Sam’s abilities. John Winchester’s skill as a
hunter are well renowned. Sam of course could never measure up in
another hunter’s eyes. Then it’s an insult to Sam’s relationship with
his father. And then there’s the control aspect. Neither Dean nor John
ever intended for Sam to hunt alone, they expected that he would always
be following someone else’s direction.
It is left to Sam to apologize for not involving Bobby, but considering
Bobby’s cold behavior to him over the course of their acquaintance I
can’t really blame him for not turning to Bobby as an ally or resource.
It wasn’t hard to see that Bobby was Dean’s friend.
Sam tries to talk to Dean about Hell. I can’t help but suspect that
there are multiple reasons for that. Obviously he wants to offer an
opportunity for Dean to open up. I think he also has concerns about his
own fate. He knows about his own heritage, after all.
Which brings me to the secret confrontation with the waitress in the
diner after hours. The other demons have been killed by an angel,
presumably Castiel. He encounters the waitress, who has somehow managed
to survive the smiting, and when she talks about what she encountered
she says “We’re dead, we’re all dead.” She is including Sam in that statement. In her estimation Sam’s abilities, or his blood, make him sufficiently demonic to count as damned if angels are present.
As a point of pride, she mentions that she “could smell your soul a mile
away.” Sam Winchester’s soul is just that bright and beautiful.
Sam meets up with Ruby and they discuss his progress. They also talk
about his relationship with his brother. He is afraid to talk about his
activities with Dean, but Ruby encourages him to do so sooner rather
than later. This is good advice. He also says that he’s not sure that
what he’s doing is right but that he’s saving people and stopping
demons, and that feels pretty good. It’s about saving people. Not
about grasping for power or wallowing in power here. It’s about saving
people, saving people from a fate he himself has experienced.
Winchester Family Dynamics
The first thing Dean does when he rises is call Sam. When he gets to
Bobby’s he is concerned to find Sam, and he’s upset to find that Bobby
wasn’t “looking out” for Sam. This seems touching, but of course
looking out for Sam means controlling Sam. Right now Sam is completely
uncontrolled out on his own. His parting injunction to Sam was that he
needed to follow the John Winchester Way, and if no one is forcing him
to do so Sam could be getting up to all kinds of things.
Dean is also truly blind to Bobby’s favoritism. He doesn’t see it,
which is why he was so shocked to find Bobby hadn’t been keeping Sam
close. Dean did this with their father too - he honestly believed that
their father preferred Sam over Dean despite the fact that Sam ran away
repeatedly and the fact that their father treated Sam more harshly by
Dean’s own admission.
The brothers’ reunion is happy and enthusiastic but it soon turns to
confrontation. At first Dean is angry that Sam sold his soul and
refuses to believe that Sam did not sell his soul. Sam is forced to
confess to his attempts to get Dean back, all of which were mired in
failure for reasons he doesn’t yet know but that were out of his
control. He has to confess to his feelings of inadequacy:
BOBBY
That’s exactly what we think.
SAM
Well, I didn’t.
DEAN
(intensely) Don’t lie to me.
SAM
I’m not lying.
DEAN
(advancing) So what now, I’m off the hook and you’re on, is that
it? You’re some demon’s bitch-boy? I didn’t want to be saved like this.
SAM
(standing, angrily) Look, Dean, I wish I had done it, all right?
DEAN
(grabs SAM by the front of his shirt) There’s no other way that this could have gone down. Now tell the truth!
SAM
(breaking DEAN’S grip) I tried everything. That’s the truth. I
tried opening the Devil’s Gate. Hell, I tried to bargain, Dean, but no
demon would deal, all right? You were rotting in Hell for months. For
months, and I couldn’t stop it. So I’m sorry it wasn’t me, all right?
Dean, I’m sorry.
DEAN
(relenting) It’s okay, Sammy. You don’t have to apologize, I believe you.
After which Dean seems almost as disturbed that Sam didn’t get him out. There’s glaring and posturing.
Once that confrontation is over nothing Sam says or does is adequate.
Dean finds a bra in Sam’s bag (because he was poking through Sam’s
bag?) and decides that plus the presence of “Kristy” on his arrival
means that Sam wasn’t mourning him.
SAM
Uh, yeah, I’m sorry, Bobby. I should have called. I was pretty messed up.
DEAN picks up what he’d seen
a pink flowered bra. He holds it up.
DEAN
Oh yeah. I really feel your pain.
In the car he finds out that Sam was immune to Lilith’s attack and far
from being happy that his brother couldn’t be killed by Lilith he went
on the offensive about his “freaky ESP crap.” This is really kind of
important. He hasn’t been alive a week - more than a day or two - and
it’s like his mistrust of Sam has been dialed up to eleven.
When they discuss the problem of the demons in the diner Dean objects to
confronting them because there are three of them. Sam points out that
he’s been killing a lot more demons than that lately and Dean doesn’t
even bat an eye. ”Well, not anymore. The smarter brother’s back in
town.” Let’s think about that for a moment. Sam has just revealed that
he’s been doing something great, something Dean should approve of, and
he’s been doing it with extreme competence and exceeding the standard
set before Dean’s death. Is Dean proud? No. Is Dean happy? Not even a
little bit. He demands that Sam hold himself back to assuage Dean’s
ego. That’s all that is there. ”Well, not anymore.”
Dean dislikes change. He comes back from the dead and he expects
everything to be exactly the way they were when he left, and conforming
to his perception of the world. In Dean’s mind Sam couldn’t find sex
without Dean’s help and active participation, so he’s upset by finding
Sam to be sexually active in his absence. Sam cannot be allowed to be
competent at killing demons. It’s not okay that Sam was immune to
Lilith’s abilities. When he finds the iPod jack in the car he actually
develops a facial tic even though Sam had no reason not to modify the
car to suit his needs, given that he believed Dean to be permanently in
Hell.
Sam, of course, is lying to Dean about his abilities. He has reason to.
He is afraid of Dean’s anger and disapproval in that order. When he
discusses the possibility of confessing with Ruby it is Ruby who
recommends coming clean - about the abilities, about them - sooner
rather than later.
RUBY
Sam, he’s going to find out, and if it’s not from you he’s going to be pissed.
SAM
He’s going to be pissed anyway. I mean, he’s so hardheaded about this psychic stuff he’ll just try and stop me.
Sam knows better than to have any hope of Dean’s understanding or
acceptance. He knows that he needs to sneak around and work behind
Dean’s back. At the same time, he feels good about what he’s doing.
He’s saving people.
The thing is, both brothers are sneaking around in this episode, lying
to each other about where they are and what they’re doing, and they both
wind up meeting up with the supernatural being who will lie to them and
lead them around by the nose to help push them toward starting the
Apocalypse. Sam’s reasons seem a little more valid to me, because he’s
doing it out of fear. But I suppose someone else’s mileage may vary.
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