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Still Waiting – Recapping Constantine's Finale: 'Waiting For The Man'

By Rich Epstein

So, was the double meaning of this episode intentional? As the final episode of the first season is airing, we are all wondering what NBC will decide to do. We are waiting for the man to decide whether there will be a Season 2 or not. The episode opens at night with a man going upstairs to where three girls in a bed wait for him. It's really creepy, as we don't know what is going on. The girls are all different races, maybe 10-15 years of age, but they don't recoil from the man. Is he their father, cult leader, captor? I'm guessing not father. We move outside, where a redheaded girl about the same age is in an abandoned playground. An old man walks up and tells her she is going to die, when those three young girls from the bed, still in their nightgowns walk up and tell him to leave the redhead alone. The old man runs and the three girls start talking to the redhead. As they talk, the three girls stroke the redhead's hair, and tell her about the man they are married to. Ok, cult leader it is.

When the redhead says how she always wanted to get married, and even stole her mothers wedding ring, the three offer to show their wedding rings. When Red says yes, they pull the neck of their dresses down to reveal strangulation marks. Red asks if it hurt, they say at first, but then they became a family. They ask if Red wants to marry the man, and Red says yes. Cut to Cultleader in his truck saying "there's my girls" as a police officer walks up and offers to help the man jumpstart his car. As the officer bends over to get his cables from his trunk, Cultleader strangles him. That was the creepiest opening on this show yet. Kids in a cult are always good for an easy scare, kids in a cult that have been strangled even more so. Girls in a cult that have been strangled recruiting a new teenage or preteen bride for their husband? Really, really disturbing.

Jim Corrigan (Emmett J. Scanlan) has a dead body that seems odd, so he brings in his old friend John Constantine (Matt Ryan). The mummified body belongs to a detective that was tracking three missing girls. The body has markings on it, looks like it may be a pentagram.

The cultleader is in the home of the officer that he abducted. He heats up a branding iron to put the markings on the officer. The symbol actually is a crown above a triangle with an x through it.

Corrigan is flirting with Zed Martin (Angélica Celaya) while John tries to break into the crypt to see the body of the dead detective. Corrigan touches her, and she has a vision of a bloody Corrigan surrounded by a green aura. John puts some holy water on the body and is able to see the symbol clearly. He tells Zed and Corrigan that the girls have been taken by a satanist, most likely for a sacrifice. Corrigan gets a call and John asks Zed if she's ok. Before she can answer, the dead body sits up and says it's Gary. He's there to warn John that there is a bounty on his head, a large one.

Papa Midnite (Michael James Shaw) is getting ready to punish a man for murdering his wife. Midnite wants the bounty on Constantine, and plunges a knife into the man's heart.

Red wakes up in a room with no furniture, a bare light bulb, a mostly boarded up window and some really ugly green carpet. Probably not the honeymoon she had always dreamed of. She walks through the house that she is in, it smells bad and there are flies and strange (satanic) markings are all around the house. She runs into the three amigas and doesn't remember how she got to the house. They tell her that sometimes when they wake up they can't tell if it's real life or a dream. She tells them her name, and they lead her away.

Jim, John and Zed go to visit Red's mother. Zed picks up Red's teddy bear hoping for a vision, but doesn't get anything. Zed is taking Gary's warning a lot more seriously than John is. He tells her that "We can all shape our destiny but none of us get to escape our fate. So, when my time's up, that's it." He then asks her what's really going on and she tells him about seeing Corrigan dead in her vision. Manny appears, only this time, he appears to Zed. She asks why he came and he tells her that she asked nicer than John does. She doesn't remember asking, but he tells her that she communicates on a different plane than most people. She tells Manny about the vision of Corrigan, and Manny says that he envies her. "It's not all heart's and halos for us. We have rules to follow. But you have choices. You can act on your visions if you choose to. Now that's a gift."

John take's some of Red's hair from a brush and her toothbrush. He then chants some words, puts the toothbrush and hair in his mouth (nobody said magic wasn't gross) and electrocutes himself using a lamp. Hey, nobody said magic wasn't painful either. He gets visions of Red and the playground she was taken from as well as the cult-leader. Is it still a cult if it's only four girls? As blood pours from his eyes, John tells Zed and Corrigan what he saw.

Back at the house of horrors, it's wedding time. Red is putting on the dress that the man's mother wore at her wedding and the triplets are preparing her. She complains about the smell and the girls recoil. She wishes her mother was there to see her wedding. She is completely brainwashed by these three. Every time they start talking she looks like she has taken a lot of drugs.

Midnite has been busy. The dead man now has been cut more and is back from the dead. And strong. His eyes are completely white, and his mouth is sewn shut. Midnite sends him off to hunt for Constantine. I like the contrasts in magic. John electrocutes himself to try to save a girl while Midnite takes the life of another to try and kill. I do wish Midnite was a little more complex, however. The second time we saw him, he wasn't a typical villain doing evil things for evil reasons. He thought he was helping people, and when his spells went wrong, he worked with John to try and fix it. Now, he is killing John for a bounty. Pure selfishness. Although I am really curious what the bounty is. I assume something of power, not money.

Constantine, Corrigan and Zed get to the playground and see the officer's car. Corrigan talks to Zed about why she won't look at him or talk to him. He grabs her hand and she has the vision again. John goes off on his own, and Midnite's walker is there. It kicks the crap out of John. Midnite speaks through the zombie's voice and tells John that "I want you to understand that killing you brings me no real joy, however, we do what we must." John punches the zombie in the balls, but to no effect. Corrigan shoots the thing, but it keeps coming until he shoots it in the head. That stops it. Luckily, Corrigan is a fan of The Walking Dead and knows exactly what to do. From his lair, Midnite recoils in pain when the zombie is shot through the brain. John tells them that Midnite will keep coming, it's time for Zed to push through whatever issues she has and get a vision. She does. She sees blood, the officer covered in markings. He looks up at her and writes something on the floor in blood. Zed puts it onto a paper, and it's backwards writing. She looks in a mirror and finds an address.

Midnite uses a crow to be his eyes and search for John. As John and crew get to the officer's house, the crow is there watching, which John takes notice of. They are too late to save the officer, he is crucified with markings all over the body. John tells Corrigan and Zed to go as things are about to get messy with the crow. As they leave, John tells Corrigan to keep Zed safe. Based on her visions, I don't know if he'll be in any position to do that.

It's creepy wedding time. The girls wait patiently with Red in the wedding dress as their husband (I may have thrown up a little typing that) comes home in his vest and baseball hat. He lifts the veil, says "awww yeah" (have I mentioned ewwww?) and asks her name. She tells him, and he takes her hand and then puts it over his heart, then on his face, and asks if she is going to marry him and stay forever. I get the feeling forever means forever. She says yes, and her soon to be sister-wives seem less than thrilled.

Midnite shows up to do battle with John brandishing a shotgun. I guess he isn't planning on a magic duel. He starts up the stairs when he sees John come out of another room and shoots him in the heart. Midnite tells John "Your next words will be your last so choose them wisely." John tells Midnite about the girl in the hands of the serial killer, that John is the only chance she has. He asks Midnite if he really wants that stain on his soul. "I gave up on my soul a long time ago. I'm sorry for the girl, but yes the bounty is worth it. Your sacrifice will free my sister's soul from eternal damnation. A life for a life." Ok, so Papa isn't being entirely selfish. John realizes that nobody could have the power to do that other than the Brujeria. As John tries to talk him out of it, Midnite shoots him right in the face. As soon as he does, the face becomes that of the officer and John comes down the stairs and starts punching Midnite. He knocks him out and takes his cell phone and car keys.

Corrigan is able to figure out that the abductor is the same man who killed his wife six years earlier claiming that Satan made him do it. They text the address to John and he heads over there.

Red is at the altar with the man when she has second thoughts. The man tells her to kneel down at the altar and she does. He goes to give her the "wedding ring", and she screams no, gets up, throws a candle to the floor starting a fire, and runs outside.

John shows up at the address, shotgun in hand. Of course the lights don't work. There's that smell again, as he heads into the bedroom to find the corpses of the three girls rotting in the bed. Outside, the man is looking for Red. He tells her he will look all night, "ain't got a lick of quit in me." Red is hiding in a boat as John searches the house. Just as I'm wondering where Corrigan is, he and Zed show up. They finish searching the house and move out to the grounds. Not a moment too soon, as Red decides that, rather than continuing to hide, she'll get up and try to run. Of course she is caught right away. Luckily, before the man can do anything, John and his shotgun arrive. The man throws red to the ground and runs as John checks on her. Corrigan raises his gun to the man, and when he puts his hands up, Zed begins whacking him with a shovel. Did she change her visions? Corrigan cuffs the man, but John convinces him that a trial isn't the way to go. Corrigan takes the cuffs off and tells the man to run. As Zed leads Red away, they hear a shot. The girl wants to look back but Zed tells her to keep walking.

Corrigan and Zed go for drinks, and she tells him about her vision. She tells him that she didn't want to tell him, to give him that burden, but she felt she had to. She doesn't know when it's going to happen or where, but there's nothing they can do to change it. He doesn't let such a great pickup line like "If I'm going to die soon…" go to waste and kisses her. John walks in during the kiss, makes eye contact with Zed and walks away. He goes to take a piss under an overpass as Manny appears. He realizes that John is jealous of Jim, but that there is something else bothering him. John's scared. He has seen human evil plenty of times, but combining that with the Brujeria is something different. Manny tells John that they can win this war, he has to trust. John tells Manny "Of course we can. You know me, I don't play if I can't win. All I'm worried about is how to spend the rest of my days after I've driven every last bastard demon back where it belongs."

Midnite is being driven away by the police when time freezes. His door opens and he walks out. He demands to know who it is, and Manny appears, telling Midnite that he is in no position to make demands. Midnite asks why he is free, what's the catch? Manny tells him "You will never be free. You gave up any hope of that when you went to work for the Brujeria." He says that he is canceling the contract, Constantine is off limits. Midnite asks him if he works for the Brujeria, but Manny says "No, the Brujeria work for me." before he spreads his wings and flies away.

This was a really good episode. It was creepy and fun, exactly what I was hoping this show would be, except for the absence of Chas. It took a little while, but the show has really hit its stride, the past four or five episodes have shown a lot of improvement from the first half dozen or so. Too bad they didn't get to finish out the season as I am really curious where things are going. Manny's heel turn was a little out of the blue but raises a lot of interesting possibilities. I assume that it has to be legit, as I doubt actual angels can lie. He says the Brujeria are working for him, but is he working for someone else? Lucifer? Or is he lying and actually some third party, that is hoping to capitalize on the chaos of the fight between good and evil? Why would he have John get involved in the fight against the rising darkness in the first place?

Unfortunately, we may never find out. The very low ratings combined with the fact that NBC didn't pick up the back nine makes it pretty unlikely that Constantine will be back on NBC next year. There have been rumors that NBC may move it to SyFy for next year, where it would be one of the higher rated shows. While it would be good to see more of the show, I worry about the effects that the lower budget that would go along with a move to SyFy would have on the show. Hopefully, if it comes to pass, the creators of the show could make it work. This is a very talented cast with great source material, and it would be a shame to see it end so abruptly.

Rich Epstein writes for Bleeding Cool.  He can be found on twitter at @kaspe_r11. 

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