One Winchester brother may be bringing a little Heaven on Earth, and one may be bring a little bit of Hell, but in the fourth season of Supernatural, one thing is the same: Sam and Dean have got work to do.
The fourth season picks up months later with Dean (Jensen Ackles) coming back from Hell thanks to Castiel (Misha Collins), an angel who tells the elder Winchester that God has a plan for him. Sam (Jared Padalecki), on the other hand, being going down a dark path due to his alliance with Ruby (Genevieve Cortese, Wildfire): using his psychic powers to kill demons and pull them out of their human hosts as preparation for his battle with Lilith.
Season four is about the End of Days, as the war of all wars is about to abrupt: the classic battle between light and dark, good and evil, God and Satan with Sam and Dean in the middle. Though they may not have faith in God, the brothers’ faith in each other is tested — leading to an explosive confrontation in the penultimate “When the Levee Breaks” and the climatic “Lucifer Rising”.
“In the Beginning”, another pivotal episode, finds Dean back in time to meet his future parents and grandfather (Mitch Pileggi, The X-Files), where he learns more about his family, and what led to him and his brother into the world of demon-hunting.
Though it doesn’t start until this week, season four wasn’t all about the title fight. The powers over at Supernatural show they still had a sense of humor and wasn’t afraid of self-parodying with “The Monster at the End of this Book”, about an author who writes his books about two familiar brothers traveling across the country: saving people and hunting; Sam and Dean discovering there could be another Winchester joining the family business with “Jump the Shark”.
In “Afterschool Special”, they go undercover to investigate a ghost seeking revenge at one of their old high schools, where Sam reconnects with his favorite teacher, as the brother’s flashback to their teen years.
The Book of Supernatural has yet to write the final chapters, but it has finished another incredible volume with season four — currently available on DVD.
