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Jensen complained later, he was cleaning Oreo crumbs out of his ears for a week. They built a box at camera level, with an opening in the back for him to crawl into. There was a narrow "sleeve" that led to the surface, which had been dressed to look like grass and weeds, just a thin layer for him to break through. And the rest of the box was filled with crushed Oreos, to look like black dirt.

It was a welcome and dramatic reappearance. So good to see him marching bowlegged down that dirt road. I loved the outtake of the scene in the gas station of Jensen giggling, surrounded by glass fragments and having Kim Manners holler, "Suck it up, Ackles!" when he cut his arm. The reunion scene of Bobby finding Dean on his doorstep and putting him through every test to prove it was really Dean. Loved the look on Sam's face, unable to believe it was really Dean--and a few minutes later, devastated at having to confess he wasn't the one who got Dean out of hell. Lazarus Rising was a welcome return to the living for both Dean and the show itself.

Season four brought an expansion of magnitude for the SPN 'verse, opening up canon to global and hell-and-heavenly scale. It introduced examples of angels, and put forward the notion that they were nothing more than "dicks with wings." The thought process behind the decision to take the show in this direction was explained and expounded on in the extras on the S4 DVD set. I found the decision more understandable after seeing those extras.

High points--

"I'm just trying to take this *curse* and make something good out of it!"

"Come on! I don't want ten years, I don't want one year, I don't want candy! All I want is to trade places with Dean!"

Alastair, the Hand of Ipecac, "the least of any of you", Pamela, Colin Ford, Smith and Wesson, Adam, Titannic handprint on the window, "I can't talk about that", "Don't you say that to me", "You didn't need the feather to fly", "I'm sorry."

It was an amazing season.