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The Stakes Are High – Recapping Constantine: 'The Saint Of Last Resorts' Part 2

By Rich Epstein

When last we left our hero, John Constantine (Matt Ryan), he was facing off against an unstoppable ancient demon. As if that wasn't enough, he was doing it with a bullet hole in his stomach. So how does he get out of it? By inviting another demon in. That does the trick and scares the ancient demon away. Only one problem…now John is possessed. Our resident angel Manny (Harold Perrineau) appears, and tears John a new one. Seems angels aren't too big on a mortal putting his faith demons rather than God. Manny tells John that he could help him, but he won't.

It would be nice to see Manny actually do something here, either to help John or to stop him. He is really a waste of a character. His whole purpose is exposition; whenever the writers are afraid that the audience missed something, Manny pops in and has a talk with John. It was a nice change of pace two episodes ago when Manny took action to stop the fallen angel Imogen. It seemed as though Manny's character had changed, that he had made a decision to be active and was willing to face the repercussions. But here we are, two episodes later, and Manny is all talk again. Either let Manny do something, or stop putting using him in the show so much.

We then turn to our other protagonist in need, Zed (Angélica Celaya). In Part 1, she was kidnapped by members of the cult that she grew up in. She has visions of Anne Marie (Claire van der Boom), first in a cage and then with blood pouring from her eyes, before she awakens in the back of a van. Zed overpowers her captor, and escapes in the van.

Chas (Charles Halford) finds John in the caves, and is less than thrilled to learn that John is possessed. John tells Chas that he should have a couple of days before he is fully possessed, there's an incubation period first. John is going to try a self-exorcism, and if it doesn't work, he is going to need Chas to kill him. He even has a special mystical knife to do the job. Before they can begin, John starts foaming at the mouth and the demon takes charge. So much for the incubation period. John awakens surrounded by cops and dead gang members, covered in blood. So, was John randomly attacked and the demon protected him, or did the demon seek out men to kill? In any case, that's five men that would be alive if John didn't risk freeing a demon to save his own skin. It will be really interesting to see him deal with this down the road.

John, now in jail, meets with the a member of the British consulate He is told that there is no way he is getting out in less than a few weeks and goes on the attack. Manny comes by, and they have a conversation about the Brujeria.

Chas and Zed go to meet with Anne Marie. She calls John a selfish wanker, which is pretty accurate in this case. Zed is rather protective of John, and tells Anne Marie that praying is nice, but John is out every day fighting on the front lines. When Zed mentions that John is working with an actual angel Anne Marie's interest perks up.

So, remember that consulate member that couldn't help John? Turns out that someone bribed him to make sure that John didn't get out of prison. Only it wasn't someone, it was something, namely a demon who is looking for a new body.

We return to John who is in jail for killing some gang members, and that isn't really a good thing. One thing there is no shortage of in prison is gang members. Three of them trap John seeking revenge. Lets see, guy goes to jail for killing five gang members with his bare hands, so three more try to take him on? Why not try something when he is asleep or something? You know, surprise him. Instead, the three try to take on John, who goes demon on them.

John comes to in the yard and finds the person who set him up. While he is talking to him, Anne Marie shows up via astral projection. Zed bribes her way inside, and Chas uses the more direct method to get into jail…he attacks a couple of guards. Zed meets with John, and Anne Marie shows up. John excuses himself to change, and Anne Marie warns Zed that she should leave John if they survive.

Just as they have John strapped down and are ready to begin the exorcism, Consulate demon shows up. It's a trickster demon, there to prevent them from curing John. Anne Marie has the mystical knife ready to kill John, but uses it to kill the trickster demon instead. It works, but the knife is destroyed and now there is no way to kill John. The only way to cure him is to bring him back to Jasper's cabin, and hope that the mystical energies there can help the exorcism. Chas doses John with a ton of heroin in order to try and keep him knocked out for the drive. They still need to get past the guards, so Anne Marie projects a topless version of herself to distract them. Needless to say, it works.

Back at Jesper's cabin, Chas straps John down and they prepare for the exorcism. John tells Anne Marie that she will need to do it; the demon is too strong for John's tape. It will take someone with true belief to do it. Anne Marie tries, but fails. Zed tells Anne Marie that she needs to forgive, not John but herself, for all that happened. Anne Marie tries again and this time she succeeds.

A bit of a lackluster ending, but otherwise an enjoyable episode. It wasn't a bad ending, but it's something we've seen too many times in other shows. Someone dealing with an issue of faith has too much self-doubt/self-loathing to succeed until someone tells them whatever happened wasn't their fault.

The rest of the episode was exciting with good bits of humor mixed in, such as Anne Marie's distracting astral projection, Chas telling Zed that John is "prone to over-confidence" and John telling the rest of the inmates that "Now I run this place! Now sod off!" The stakes were high throughout the episode, with the demon taking control of John to kill several people.

We also got a little more advancement on the main plot, with the Brujeria and those that serve them taking active steps to stop John. It will be interesting to see what happens as the writers try to wrap this up in the few remaining episodes.

Unfortunately, given the low ratings, it is unlikely that the show will get renewed. It has really been improving the past few weeks and I am really enjoying it. Hopefully, the +3 and +7 ratings will be high enough that, should NBC not renew, someone else will pick it up. With Netflix in bed with Marvel, maybe Hulu or Amazon will try to make a deal with DC. Constantine is just starting to find itself and it would be a shame to see it end now.

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

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