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A Man Of Many Souls – Recapping Constantine 1.10: 'Quid Pro Quo'

By Rich Epstein

This week's Constantine opens with a hooded sorcerer speaking an ancient tongue in a deep, raspy voice when smoke appears from his hands. In other words, every bad cliche of a sorcerer. It's a shame, because one of the things that makes John Constantine (Matt Ryan) such a great character is that he is a fully-formed, original character. He is a chain-smoking, bisexual, foul-mouthed sarcastic jerk who happens to fight demons. Anyway, the smoke goes into the room of a little girl, and the doll she was playing with drops to the floor.

John tells Zed (Angélica Celaya) that he added an additional protection spell to the millhouse. Zed finally lets John know about the Resurrection Crusade, and says that she needs to go on the run again. John promises that he won't let Zed's father take again. At this point, the conversation is interrupted as Zed notices that the map is indicating trouble in New York. Chas (Charles Halford) is already on his way there, and Zed books plane tickets for her and John.

We go to a flashback…two years earlier, Chas and John are at a bar in New York. John goes home with a girl, sticking Chas with the tab, but not before slurring some words in a foreign language at him. Chas stays to watch a band, which catches on fire. Yes, the band catches on fire. Chas helps save a woman before succumbing to the smoke and falling to his knees.

Back in real time, it appears a dozen people in Brooklyn have suddenly fallen into comas.

Chas is late to pick up his daughter. He and his wife, Rene (Amanda Clayton), have split, and it's his weekend for custody. He goes to wake his daughter, only to find her on the floor. It's the girl from the opening scene.

John and Zed arrive at the hospital and meet with Chas. He tells John that he doesn't trust anyone else with his daughter. John examines the girl and discovers that her soul has departed from her body. They only have a day or two to get it back. Rene doesn't like John, and knows about the events in Newcastle.

Flashback…Chas wakes up in the hospital, with his wife and daughter looking at him. He thought he was going to die, the doctors said that Chas was dead when they brought him in. Nobody knows how he is alive, but it doesn't matter.

John takes Chas and Zed to meet with a medium, Fennel, in order to help find Chas' daughter. Fennel makes contact, but before they can find out where she is, the sorcerer interrupts, taking control of Fennel. The sorcerer knows John, says that he has been warned, and then begins to chant. Fennel is suddenly lit on fire, but doesn't scream or writhe. He looks completely at peace as he burns to a crisp.

John has a copy of the spellbook that the sorcerer used. Zed takes hold and sees a vision; it's a sorcerers laboratory, near a train station. The sorcerer appears in a flash of smoke and lunges at Zed with a knife. He slashes at her and she steps out of the vision only to find that her arm is cut in reality.

They head out to the train station to find that it has been gone for some time and there is nothing but an empty field where it should be. Or so Zed and Chas think. John does a spell, and the train station appears. They step inside and find the sorcerer, Felix Faust (Mark Margolis). Chas charges at Faust, who flicks his hand and causes immense pain for Chas. Faust has figured out a way to steal the soul from the body, something dark sorcerers have been trying to figure out forever, and it has given him tremendous power. John asks Faust what he wants, and Faust says he wants Constantine to serve him. A demon has been siphoning off his power, and Faust wants John to fight the demon rather than risking his own life. If John casts the demon back to hell, Faust will release Chas' daughter. John agrees, but Chas doesn't like it. He wants to fight Faust, but Faust is too strong. Chas won't listen, and John forces him to go to the hospital.

Another flashback…Chas tells John that he survived the fire. John is amazed because the protection spell that he put on Chas worked. Chas absorbed the lives of those that died in the fire…each time he dies, one of those 47 lives is lost.

John and Zed go to banish the demon. It feasts on sleeping victims, so John puts Zed to sleep in order to lure it out. John's lighter fails at the wrong time so he can't close the circle and trap the demon. Instead, he uses a cattle prod. Have to wonder though, with all the magic that John knows, he has nothing that can light some candles? There's no fire-starting spell? Seems like it would be a pretty useful and basic thing.

John picks up Chas and they go to see Faust and finish the deal. Only Faust won't give up the soul, he wants more from John. Chas tells John that he's had enough, John failed again. Chas knocks out John and says he is going to do it his way. Go Chas. Maybe, just maybe, Constantine shouldn't have put so much trust in the word of a dark sorcerer who steals souls for power? Just a thought.

In the flashback, Chas misses his daughter's birthday because he was busy helping John. Chas feels a duty to the 47 lives that he gained to use his life to help others. But that doesn't do much to console the family that he is neglecting.

Chas meets with Faust, and tells the sorcerer that he has 32 souls inside of his body which he will trade for his daughter's soul. Faust thinks Chas is full of crap, so Chas slits his own throat.

At the hospital, Zed acts as a medium for Rene. She makes contact with the daughter, but then begins screaming in pain.

Chas comes back to life, and now Faust believes. He agrees to make the deal, and when they shake on it, Chas secures Faust to himself with a piece of Achilles' tendon, which is impervious to magic, and takes out a grenade. John and Rene appear just in time to witness Chas blowing himself up.

In the last flashback, Chas asks John to reverse the spell so that his daughter doesn't grow up without a father. John can't, but says that he would understand if Chas decides to stay with his family rather than travel with Constantine.

Chas returns to his family, who are very happy to see him. Chas tells his daughter about the souls inside of him.

Zed wakes up in the hospital to find Constantine watching over her. He tells her she blew a fuse and asks her why she did it. She tells John that she couldn't stand the thought of a little girl at the mercy of a madman. She then tells John that his mother said her death wasn't his fault before she falls asleep.

While this episode wasn't quite as good as the last two, it was another solid episode. The show is delivering on a weekly basis, unfortunately, it may be too late.

I really like the fact that John failed and it was Chas who succeeded. Constantine isn't a perfect character, he is stubborn and overconfident and can be an ass at times. Chas has complete and total faith in John and is willing to be the second fiddle, but at the end of the day, John doesn't always know best.

So, we got a lot about Chas. We finally know why he doesn't die, although, it doesn't really explain why his wounds always heal. I mean, he doesn't just not die, he comes back completely healed. Does he use up part of a life if he breaks an arm? It would still be interesting to see why Chas started hanging around with Constantine in the first place.

The show took a break from the rising darkness this week. It seems pretty clear that they were hoping for an X-Files / Buffy the Vampire Slayer thing with an overarching plot mixed in with some demon of the week episodes. At this point, you just have to wonder if they will have time to finish up the rising darkness plotline with only three episodes left, or if we are all going to be left hanging.

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

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