About:
Supernatural S4.E02 “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Dean…”
Hey hey, superfans, it’s week thirty-one of the rewatch, and that moment we’ve all been waiting for—the beginning of Season 4! The Heaven/Hell mythology expands as does Bobby’s role, we’re introduced to our favorite John Constantine lookalike AND Chuck the Prophet. If none of these things sound familiar, then you’re in for a treat. If they do, darlings, then join me in rejoicing. As usual, a new season means tweaking the drinking game rules.
Cheers to higher stakes!
The Official FYA Supernatural Season 4 Drinking Game
Take a drink every time:
- There’s a corpse
- A demon possesses and/or makes a deal with some hapless schmuck
- Dean refuses to discuss Hell
- Dean crams his face full of junk food
- Sam drinks demon blood
- Anyone is tied up
- Either brother picks a lock
- Someone employs a Titan of Classic Rock as an alias
- The Glorious and Faithful Impala is damaged in the line of duty
4.1 “Lazarus Rising”
Monster of the Week: Angel
The season opens with a bang as Dean is suddenly pulled from Hell, waking up in a coffin! He calls for help in a raspy, broken voice, but when it’s apparent none is coming, he claws his way out of his own pine box, Beatrix-Kiddo-style.
As he surfaces, he sees the forest around him has been ominously flattened. He makes it to an abandoned gas station where a newspaper tells him four months have passed. He checks himself out in a mirror, discovering that while his glorious abs have been restored from the hellhound’s shedding, he’s got a brand new scar.
He barely gives it a moment’s thought before raiding the gas station of all its’ candy bars and the latest copy of Busty Asian Beauties. But then the television starts going haywire, and the windows burst inward, showering him with glass! Dean flees, hotwiring the nearest car and heading to Bobby’s.
Bobby gives him a proper hunter greeting.
After Bobby confirms he is neither demon nor shapeshifter nor any other beastie, there is hugging! He tells Dean that Sam’s gone a little whackadoo since the whole hellhounds incident, dropping off the grid after refusing to allow Dean’s cremation on the grounds “he’d need a body when he came back home.” This convinces Dean that Sam made a deal with a demon to bring him back.
They track him to a seedy motel room where he’s staying with a pretty brunette. Once she’s shooed away, and Sam too is convinced Dean isn’t evil, there is more hugging! He says he has no idea how Dean’s back. He tried to sell his soul for him, but no demon was buying. So instead he’s been hunting Lilith, looking for revenge.
To figure out how exactly Dean got his get-out-hell-free-card punched, Bobby takes the boys to see his psychic friend, Pamela. They hold a séance, where she compels Castiel, the creature who left the handprint on Dean, to show her his face, over said creature’s warnings to turn back. The result?
The boys think it must have been a pretty hardcore demon to have burned out Pamela’s eyes just with a glimpse of its face. But then they run into a diner full of demons, and none of them have any idea of how Dean got out of Hell.
Bobby and Dean summon Castiel after painting an abandoned shack with a buttload of devil’s traps. He appears, walking easily through their devil’s trap as they shoot him and stab him with the demon-killing knife to no effect. He gently touches Bobby who drops down asleep and tells Dean he’s an angel of the Lord. And then he shows off a little.
Castiel says that he didn’t mean to blind the psychic, but only certain humans can perceive his true form without damage. He says he pulled Dean out of Hell because God commanded it. Because they have work for him. Ooo, darlings, I think things just got interesting.
Brotherly Angst Quotient: Sneaky
Dean is cagey about being in Hell, telling Sam he doesn’t remember what it was like, though flashbacks let us know that he does.
With their joyous reunion complete, Dean begins to wonder how exactly Sammy survived the encounter with Lilith. When he hears that her powers simply fizzled in Sam’s presence, he’s disturbed, questioning his brother about whether he’s been using his Azazel-given powers. Sam says of course not.
But he’s lying. Later, he sneaks off and heads back to the demon-filled diner where he exorcises the demonic waitress using only his mind. Then he meets up with Ruby in her brand new body. They’ve been working together for months, increasing his powers. Even Ruby thinks he should give Dean a heads up before he finds out himself. Sam insists on keeping it a secret.
Paradise Lost of It All
God is real, so are angels, and they want Dean Winchester working for them. This is sure to lead to fascinating consequences, darlings.
How Drunk Are We?
Respectably! Take three drinks for Dean’s face-stuffing and hell-denying.
The Quotable Winchesters
“You were supposed to take care of her, not douche her up.” –Dean, on learning Sam has equipped the Glorious and Faithful Impala with an iPod attachment.
Moment Most Likely to Inspire Troubling Fan-Fic
Even Ruby’s a slash fan.
Notable Cameos
Technically no, since our newest additions are both known primarily for Supernatural. But a big welcome to Misha Collins as Castiel, and Sam’s own real-life-wife, Genevieve Padalecki as the new Ruby.
4.2 “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Dean…”
Monster of the Week: Lilith by way of angry revenge ghosts
A hunter friend of Bobby’s is murdered horribly by ghosts she seems to recognize. After Bobby and the boys find her body, they realize three other nearby hunters are also dead. Things go from bad to worse when the Winchesters and their grizzled father figure start seeing ghosts of their own.
Agent Henriksen appears to Sam, saying it’s their fault that Lilith killed him. Even as a ghost, he’s got a mean right hook and starts kicking ass until Dean shows up with the rock salt shotgun. Bobby’s also got some ghosts on his tail. Some way scarier ghosts.
Dean, meanwhile, is haunted by the ghost of Meg Masters. Not the demon version, the real life girl whose body was possessed. As she simultaneously guilts him for not saving her and punches him the face, he notices a burned symbol on her hand. He manages to get away by banishing her through clever use of an iron chandelier.
Sam saves Bobby from his little girl tormentors, and the hunters head to Bobby’s ghost-proof iron panic room in the basement that comes complete with weapons, devils’ traps and Bo Derrick poster. There, they do a little research and realize the burned symbol is the “mark of the witness”, which, according to a prophecy in the nonstandard version of Revelations, is a sign of the apocalypse.
Luckily, Bobby’s got a spell to send the witnesses back. They leave the panic room to collect the ingredients, running into Ronald, the loony bank-robber, the twins, Henriksen, and Meg on the way. Meg in particular, chastises Sam for hanging with Ruby, who has possessed and ruined girls just like her. Henriksen notes that Lilith tortured them for forty-five minutes. The boys barely manage to hold them off while Bobby performs the spell. Just before he finishes, Meg plunges her arm into Bobby’s chest, squeezing his heart in her icy grip! As he falls to the floor, Dean completes the spell, and they disappear, leaving Bobby still breathing.
Brotherly Angst Quotient: Philosophical wrestling
Dean doesn’t want to believe in God. Why? According to him, “If [God] doesn’t exist, fine. Bad crap happens to good people. That’s how it is. And no rhyme or reason, just random horrible, evil. I get it. Okay? I can roll with that. But if He is out there, what’s wrong with Him? Where the hell is He while all these decent people are getting torn to shreds? How does He live with Himself? You know, why doesn’t He help?”
He poses these questions to Sam, Bobby, Castiel, and none of them have a good answer. Meanwhile, all the hunters have to deal with ghosts from their past, and not one of them seems to forgive themselves for not being able to save everyone, all the time. Sheesh.
Paradise Lost of It All
Castiel appears to Dean in a dream, laying it all out for him. There are sixty-six seals that keep Lucifer bound to Hell (one of which was the rising of the witnesses) and Lilith’s trying to break them. Angels are fighting that war on multiple fronts, Dean’s only one of their weapons, and Castiel reminds him that he can throw him back in hell anytime.
Meanwhile, when Ruby hears that Dean’s been palling around with an angel, she is freaked, what with demons and angels being natural enemies and demons being the asthmatic mathlete to the angels’ prom king linebackers. She implies Sam should also be scared of them.
How Drunk Are We?
Not really. Take two drinks for hunter corpses shown.
The Quotable Winchesters
“Dude, when have I ever forgotten the pie?” –Sam (who later forgets the pie).
Moment Most Likely to Inspire Troubling Fan-Fic
Dean, a stack of books and pie? That is the sexiest basis for fic I ever heard, darlings.
Notable Cameos
None
About the Contributor:
Amanda Klase likes her heroines brash, her romantic leads snarky, and her video games Triple A. When she’s not re-enacting her favorite TV monologues, she’s getting up to all kinds of shenanigans with the San Francisco FYA Book Club.
