Eric Kripke, I Heart You!

Season four of Supernatural premiered last Thursday night, and this Nice Girl didn’t get to watch it until two days later. Had I known what was in store for me in this season opener, I would have thrown the husband out with the children, grabbed my favorite Don’t Look! pillow and a glass of merlot, and donned my Hello Kitty fluffy slippers to settle in for an hour of pure adrenaline.

If you haven’t had the chance to see it yet, don’t read any further, because I”m going to be spoiling it.

The show opens with flashbacks leading up to Dean ending up in hell. It goes right into Dean waking up inside a coffin and literally clawing his way out. There are no marks on him from the hellhounds or the hooks that had him imprisoned in hell. However, on both of his shoulders we see scars looking like burn marks in the shape of hand prints. The camera pans out to an overhead view of Dean, standing by his grave which is surrounded by trees. The only thing is that the trees have all been blown flat. First gasp of the show.

Dean tries to call Sam, but the phone’s been disconnected. He calls Bobby, but of course, Bobby hangs up on him when Dean tells him who he is. Uh, wouldn’t you? Dean finds the gas station Bobby owns, and, finding no one at home, helps himself to food, drinks and cash from the till. Then the electronics in the shop begin to go haywire, and we fans who have been watching the show for three years now, know what this usually means. A high-pitched sound begins and all the windows are blown out. Second gasp of the show. Cut to Dean showing up at Bobby’s house.

Bobby tries to kill Dean, thinking he’s a demon. Throwing holy water in his face does not phase Dean, but it’s a funny moment. Bobby is finally convinced that Dean is Dean and he tells Bobby all he remembers, which is nothing at all. He remembers being attacked by the hellhounds and then waking up “six feet under”. Bobby tells him it’s been 4 months, he should look like hell. He looked mighty fine to me! Especially when he was washing up back at the gas station and he pulls his shirt up in front of a mirror to look for marks left by said hounds. It was a pause-worthy moment.

When Dean asks about Sam, Bobby tells him it hasn’t been easy – for any of them. He tells Dean he hasn’t heard from Sam in months. Reactivating his cell phone and the GPS system, Dean and Bobby locate Sam – he’s in the area around where Dean’s grave is. Now Dean thinks Sam pulled him out of hell.

They find Sam in a no-tell motel with a girl named Cathy or Kristy, something like that, Sam wasn’t sure either. The boys reunite in a moment that I thought was going to be a lot more emotional, but it really wasn’t. Not for me, anyway. We find out that Sam was not responsible for getting Dean out of hell, although he tried everything he knew. He even tries to cut another deal with a demon, but none would deal with him at all. I’m glad, because it would have been boring to revisit that one again. It’s been done twice. Eric Kripke knows when enough is enough.

So now, the question becomes who or what pulled Dean out of hell? The boys ponder this in a diner where, it turns out, the waitress is a demon, and she’ not alone there. Dean is back to his old, snarky, smart-ass self and mouths off to said demon. But She-Demon is afraid. What could make a demon tremble? Even after slapping her across the face a couple of times, She-Demon doesn’t touch him and neither does her friend, He-Demon. The boys want answers.

Of course, Bobby knos someone who can help. She’s a psychic. Psychic has been trying to find out what got Dean out, but has been unsuccessful, so she recommends a seance. During the seance, things get really intense and she calls out the name “Castiel”. Suddenly, her eyes burst into flames and she falls to the floor. Game over. Still no answers. Another gasp.

Back in their motel room, Dean is asleep and Sam sneak’s out of the room and into the Impala, heading for the diner with She-Demon. He’s going to confront her, but when he gets there, He-Demon is dead with his eyes burned out, like Psychic. She-Demon attacks Sam from out of nowhere, her eyes burned out as well. She thinks Sam and Dean did it. Does Sam destroy her using the Knife? Salt? Incantation? Nope, none of the above. He uses his super-duper Sambility that he promised Dean he wouldn’t hone and perfect. Dun-dun-duuun. It was pretty awesome. More gasping.

Who shows up at the diner at this point? Ruby! Double gasping! Not the Katie Cassidy Ruby, though, sadly. A new and brunette Ruby. Turns out she’s the one that’s been teaching Sam how to control his Sambility. Won’t Dean be happy to hear that one! But Ruby’s back! And this is one reason I heart Eric Kripke. She asks Sam if he’s going to tell Dean about Sambility, but Sam is choosing to keep that little nugget to himself. So now we have Sam being the one with the big-ass secret.

Back at the motel, Dean is once again awakened by high-pitched noise that breaks all the glass and mirrors in the room. Bobby helps him and they both head to a warehouse to get it ready to summon “Castiel” and face it head on. But nothing happens – at first. When it does, it’s the twist that launches the entire season. Castiel does, in fact, appear, but he is no demon. He’s an angel sent by God to Dean because God has a special mission for Dean! Did I mention that he’s the one who got Dean out of hell? Holy Moses! Or holy Castiel! Can’t gasp anymore because now need to exhale.

But seriously, folks, who didn’t see this one coming, if you really think about it? What is this show called? Hello? Supernatural beings are not only evil. Eric Kripke does not forget this. There has to be a counter to evil. What’s the only thing that could be? I was wondering about when they would touch on this side of the supernatural. It had to happen. it’s all part of the supernatural world. What’s the only thing that would make demons afraid? What’s the only thing powerful enough to pull someone out of hell? What can’t demons look at without being destroyed or maimed? The high pitched noise that shatters glass and blows out windows turns out to be the voice of Castiel. He tried talking to Dean, but oops!

Of course, Dean doesn’t believe Castiel is an angel. Dean doesn’t believe in such things. So we wonder why this situation is being visited upon Dean. Of the two brothers, he’s the one with no faith in anything whatsoever. Sam holds that one. But Dean needs this more than Sam, for that very reason. He needs to believe there is something other than evil in the world. Evil is all he’s ever seen and known. Maybe this is a journey he’ll be on this season. It will be interesting, and should be funny, at times.

So we are left with a whole boatload of new questions for this season. If Dean is working for God, and Sam is with Ruby, a demon, what will this mean for the brothers? I don’t believe Sam is going to turn evil-it’s not in his character. I think they’ll both be working towards the same end, just coming from different directions. I could be totally off the mark, but we’ll see.

What happened to Lilith? How did Ruby come back if Lilith sent her “far, far away”? What is Ruby’s story? What is the ‘mission’ for Dean? Are there others like Castiel around? There has to be, right? Why was Dean singled out? Did someone go to bat for him while he was in hell besides Sam? Obviously, Sam wasn’t enough. I have my suspicions, but what do you think?

The ratings for Supernatural’s season premiere were groundbreaking for the CW. According to BuddyTV:

The season 4 premiere of Supernatural, “Lazarus Rising,” pulled in 3.96 million viewers. That’s a whopping 33 percent surge over the season 3 premiere, and the best numbers the show has ever had on the CW. As far as the demographics go, Supernatural was up 42 percent among 18-49 year-olds compared to the season 3 premiere. That has to make the CW rather happy.

So, I’m not the only one who heart’s Eric Kripke. Thanks, for taking Supernatural to a whole new level. I am so there.