Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 12 - Angels And Minsters Of Grace

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

A tip from Manny leads John, Zed and Chas to a nearby hospital, where an overdosing drug addict shows signs of dark influence. When Zed becomes sidelined by seizures and Manny stays mum once too often, John grounds the angel - literally. Unfortunately, Manny is totally powerless when he is in a mortal body and Heaven's Light may be the only thing that can counter the darkness that they encounter.


Influences

The Garth Ennis run on Hellblazer (the idea of John binding an angel to his will & John's gambling to win various rare magic items) & The John Ostrander run on The Spectre (new mythology for Eclipso and The Black Diamond).


Performances

Angelica Celaya and Harold Perrineau play off one another beautifully as Zed and Manny finally meet in the flesh... so to speak.


Artistry

The fake out regarding the ultimate villain of the episode is very well played.


Pub Trivia

The title comes from a line from Halmet - Act I, Scene 4 - "Angels and ministers of grace defend us!".  The line is spoken by Halmet, as he sees the ghost of his father.

During the Garth Ennis run on Hellblazer, John was able to bind an angel to his will.  With the assistance of a succubus, John was able to remove an angels' heart.  So long as John held the heart, he could command the angel to do what he wanted. This binding was somewhat more permanent than what John does to Manny on the show, however.

The black diamond called The Heart of Darkness is a reference to the DC Comics super-villain Eclipso - specifically the re-imagining of the villain orchestrated by writer John Ostrander as part of his run on The Spectre. It was there that Eclipso was revealed to be the first manifestation of God's Wrath.  Eclipso became more obsessed with Revenge than Vengeance, however, and was imprisoned inside The Heart of Darkness.  The Heart was broken int 1000 pieces by a gem dealer, which weakened its power to hold Eclipso.  After that, any human who held one of the black diamonds would become possessed by Eclipso and turn upon whoever had made them angry.


Arcana

John's shopping list includes tannis root, adder's tongue and catnip.

Tannis Root is a fictional herb first mentioned in the film Rosemary's Baby.  In the movie, Tannis Root is used both as a reagent in dark magic and as way of devil worshipers marking one another by its distinctive smell.

Adder's Tongue is a name applied to a genus of about 25-30 different ferns.  Their leaves are used in the treatment of wounds by alchemists and white witches.

Catnip - in addition to being a recreational substance for felines - has a number of magical and medicinal purposes.  It can be used to sooth colicky babies or as a blood purifier for infants. Magically, it is often used in love potions and charm spells meant.

The Mill House contains a room that holds a sunny, outdoor meditation garden.  Zed's visions do not trouble her while she is in this room, for some reason.

Zed uses Ariadne's Thread to stop herself from becoming lost in The Mill House.  In Greek Mythology, Ariadne was the Princess of Crete, daughter of Minos. It was she who told Theseus the secret to navigating the great Labyrinth under Crete - using a great ball of string - and how to slay the Minotaur that lived there. Depending on the legend, Theseus either abandoned her once his quest was complete or was informed by Dionysus that he had already claimed Ariadne as his bride to be.

Manny tells John to go to a hospital named for St. Catherine.  There are a number of Catholic saints named Catherine, but the first was Catherine of Alexander who is the patron of nurses and maidens.

John knows a spell that can reveal the spark of life in living beings and dead bodies - aka Elan Vital. The spell produces a bright light capable of burning human corneas.  The spell also reveals the absence of that spark as well as the dark matter radiated by evil forces.

A vial of the air from Hades can be used to temporarily stun an angel while they are possessing a human body.

John apparently knows a siren and had a wild weekend with her once.  Sirens, in Greek Mythology, were creatures who attempted to lure men into danger with their beautiful voices. The myths differ on whether or not sirens had beauty to match their voices or if they had an appearance similar to that of a harpy, with bird-like body parts.  John's description seems to suggest the former.

Angels can be trapped in a human body if a magician can carve an appropriate sigil into the flesh of the human host before the angel can leave the body.

When possessing a human body, angels lose all connection to The Heavenly Host as well as all of their angelic powers.  To that end, a bound angel is little better than an ordinary human. In fact, given most angels lack of experience in managing emotions, they are likely to be more hindrance than help to the magician who binds them.

When an angel possess a human body, magicians will see the angel as however the angel wills their normal selves to look, albeit it dressed in the clothing of their human host.  Reflections will show the face of the human host and non-magicians will also see the possessed mortal as looking perfectly normal.

The Heart of Darkness is a black diamond made of calcified evil. Reportedly forged from the power of a dark sorcerer whose infernal powers once threatened the earth, the diamond was broken into many pieces by an angel's sword.

Since then, humans who came into possession of a piece of the diamond become possessed by darkness, becoming super strong and homicidal, acting upon whatever impulses enrage them most.  In this case, a doctor began killing people who wasted their second chances at a new life.

The presence of dark matter interferes with illumination, either causing lights to flicker or by extinguishing them outright.

The Mill House contains a piece of The Heart Of Darkness in a puzzle box.  Jasper's note says that the box was retrieved from "a gift of God".  John later realizes this was a literal translation of the place where the diamond was found - "bagh dadu" or Baghdad.

The pieces of the Heart of Darkness are drawn to one another like magnets.

The light of Heaven is the only thing that can destroy dark matter.


Dialogue Triumphs

John: Heroes are usually jerks at heart.

John: Hopefully I've got our psychic out of sensory deprevation.
Chas: She needs to rest.
John:Why don't we all just take a bloody holiday, eh?
Manny: (possessing Chas) Don't even think about it!
John: Oh, I forgot - angels.. they can't read sarcasm.
Manny: I can read it. I just don't have the patience for it.

Zed: The thing about Ariadne... Dionysus rescued her but she ended up dying anyway.

(As Chas gets ready to sneak out of his hospital room)
John: Yeah, that's a good idea.  Stay here and they're likely to experiment on you in the name of science.
Chas: Oh, like you did?
John: That was in the name of magic.

(As Manny throws up after smelling a dead body for the first time)
John: (deadpan) Oh yeah.  Go ahead.  That's great.  Just contaminate the crime scene.

John: (To Manny) Oh, and speaking of infernal power... can you use a computer?

(After Manny experiences the pleasure of the flesh)
Manny: I don't know how you get anything done.
John: Well, a little bit of denial and a lot of gin

Zed: My visions?  Are they a gift from God?  Or do my abilities come from somewhere evil? And the tumor is my punishment?
Manny:.Do you think your powers are evil?
Zed: Sometimes they feel that way. But since I've met John, I... I've been able to use them to save lives. And if this is my gift, I'll put up with the pain.
Manny: Exactly.
Zed: So my visions do come from God?
Manny: Like I said, John grounded me in this body. So I'm cut off from my power. But based on what you told me, Zed, you have all the answers you need.

John: I want to tell you something about me that nobody knows. I wake up every morning and for the first five minutes of the day... I imagine that everyone I care about is dead. I lie there and... I mediate on that. So that when it inevitably happens then uh... it lessens the blow.
Zed: Then what do you do?
John: I spark a ciggy and fry an egg.


Continuity

John once again makes use of his enchanted playing card as a fake ID.  It was last seen in 104.

John makes reference to the events of 110 and Zed pushing herself too hard in New York.  In a callback to the flashbacks from that episode, John refers to what he did to Chas to make him semi-immortal as being done "in the name of magic."

Manny destroys The Scry Map.

Zed is able to see Manny as John does by the episode's end.


Untelevised Adventures

John makes reference to a wild weekend he once spent with a siren.  At some point, he won a jar full of air from Hades from her.


John Screws Up

John's binding Manny very nearly gets him and Zed killed.

John also misidentifies the killer and is slow in figuring out what "gift from God" means.


The Bottom Line

The villain of the week is a bit crap and all too easily disposed of in the end - a waste of the potential for Eclipso from the comics.  But the build up and the fake-out are handled well.  And the business of the core cast - particularly the scenes with Zed and Manny playing off each other - are so good you won't mind too much.

Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 10 - Quid Pro Quo

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

When thousands of people - including Chas's daughter - fall into magically-induced comas, John, Zed and Chas must track down the dark forces responsible. But will Chas pay the ultimate price to save the day?


Influences

Hellblazer: Original Sins (Zed's background and the mention of The Resurrection Crusade), Hellblazer: All His Engines (a plot involving people in magical comas, including a member of Chas's family) and various Justice League comics involving Felix Faust, especially the recent Justice League Dark series where John fought Felix Faust.


Performances

Charles Halford is excellent throughout, as we see Chas pushed past his breaking point worrying about his daughter.  But for my money his best bit of acting in the whole episode is his wordless reaction to his ex-wife saying, "She's all I have left." regarding their daughter. Chas knows full well his marriage is over but actually hearing the words clearly affect him deeply.

Matt Ryan does a similar job of effective wordless acting later on, as he hugs Renee shortly after Chas blows himself up to stop Felix Faust. The expression on his face says it all regarding his feelings for Chas and how much John regrets having ruined his best friend's life by turning him into a weapon against the forces of evil, in spite of all the good they've done since then.

Finally, Angelica Celaya doesn't get quite as much to do as Zed in this episode but she steals what few scenes she has as we see her showcasing her compassion in trying to comfort Renee while defending Chas' decisions and in trying a new trick with her powers.


Pub Trivia

The episode title - Quid Pro Quo - is a Latin phrase meaning "something for something", referring to an exchange of goods or services where one transfer is contingent upon the other. Or in plain English - you scratch my back, I scratch yours.

The main plot of this episode comes from the Hellblazer graphic novel All His Engines by Mike Carey.  The novel also deals with a number of people being put into comas by a magical influence and John's attention being brought to the matter after a member of Chas' family is stricken. The key differences are that the novel is predominantly set in Los Angeles rather than New York City and that the victim is Chas' granddaughter Trish rather than his daughter Geraldine.

Zed finally drops the name of the group that seeks her - The Resurrection Crusade. She also tells John that the group's leader is her father.  All of this is straight from Hellblazer: Original Sins.

The song that trigger's Chas' flashback to how he gained a number of extra lives is Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear The Reaper.  Curiously, the album cover for the LP the song came from - Agents of Fortune - features a stage magician holding tarot cards, whom bears an uncanny resemblance to DC Comics' magical hero John Zatara.

According to Executive Producer Daniel Cerone, the nightclub fire in this episode was inspired by the Station Nightclub Fire of 2003 where over 100 people died due to outdoor fireworks being used as part of an indoor pyrotechnics display.

Lillian Axe - the band playing at the club - is a real band. Indeed, they were the first hard rock band to be inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

Thanks to John's protection spell, Chas gains 47 lives from the people who died around him when the nightclub collapsed. Lillian Axe - perhaps not coincidentally - have a song titled 47 Ways To Die.

At one point, John drops the name of Aleister Crowley. Described in the press as "the most wicked man in the world", Crowley claimed to be a powerful magician and certainly threw some fairly wild parties.  In the Hellblazer comics, John actually knows Crowley personally and knows where he has been hiding since faking his death in 1947.

As in the comics, Chas' real first name is Francis.  In the comics, he was given the nickname in honor of Jimi Hendrix's producer Chas Chandler.

As in the comics, Renee hates John Constantine with a passion.  In the comics, this was the case even before Renee left Chas during the Mike Carey run on Hellblazer.

Fennel is also the name of the psychic contact John seeks out in All My Engines.  And like in the show, Fennel in the comic is burned to death.  However, the Fennel in the novel doesn't work in an Army Surplus store.

John has never used a cattle prod before.

In All My Engines, the main villain is a demon named Beroul who blackmails John Constantine into dealing with his rivals in exchange for freeing Trish's soul as opposed to a human mage.

Felix Faust is a reoccurring enemy of The Justice League and various magic-using heroes in the DC Universe, who first appeared in Justice League of America #10 (March 1962). Originally a dark sorcerer in 5000 BC, Faust tried and failed to challenge the most powerful wizard of his age and his soul was summarily banished to another realm. In the 1920s, he was able to take advantage of another sorcerer's mistake, took over his body and adopted the name Felix Faust as he resumed his quest for ultimate cosmic power, repeatedly butting heads with The Justice League in the process.

John describes Faust as a lifetime apprentice and second fiddle to the greatest black magicians of his generation. This does match up with the regard most mages have for Felix Faust in the comics, where Faust makes up for his lack of raw power with a talent for research and a willingness to experiment in ways no sane wizard ever would, to say nothing of trading in souls with high-level demons.

As in the comics, John has a glass jaw and is easily knocked out with one punch by Chas.


Arcana

John weaves a Duplicity Spell around the Mill House.  Rather than making the house invisible, it causes people who are looking for the house to wander onto a path leading away from it.

In the flashback, John casts a spell of protection on Chas. Surprisingly, it works despite John being incredibly drunk.  We find out later the same spell was used by Merlin to protect specific knights at King Arthur's request.  If any knight protected by the spell was killed in the company of lesser knights, the spell would pass their lives on to the protected.  In this case, Chas was given the lives of the 47 other people who died in the club fire.

John owns a brush that belonged to Alister Crowley. He says that he always takes it with him on a case when he doesn't have a clue where to begin and later uses it to detect evidence of the soul leaving the body on an unconscious Geraldine.

John also has a leather cord made from the sinew from Achilles' Heel. According to John it is impervious to magic and has the highest tensile strength of anything in this world or any other. Used as a whip, it can cut off the circulation to someone's hand within seconds. John claims it is Chas' favorite trick.

Chapped lips are celestial burn marks and can signify a soul leaving the body.

According to John, separating a soul from the body is the Holy Grail of Black Magic for black magic practitioners and no mortal has ever managed it... until Felix Faust.

Water from the River Jordan can be used as a magical lubricant to ease communication with lost souls.

According to John, only five books contain the spell used to disrupt a seance and kill the medium that was used to kill Fennel, each scattered across the globe by an Irish High King. Zed uses her powers to locate the closest copy of the book.

John knows a spell that can dispel elementary cloaking spells. It involves an evocation to the five elements and six directions.

According to Felix Faust, Karabasan is a named demon who is stealing the souls he has captured. In Turkish folklore, a karabasan is a type of monster - a boogeyman - who preys upon people while they sleep and scares them to death. Karabasan is also the Turkish word for nightmare and the medical term used to describe Sleep Paralysis.

John Constantine and Felix Faust both take a blood oath to honor their agreement, "in the name of Dedi of Dejed-Sneferu - he who endures".  Dedi of Dejed-Sneferu is an Ancient Egyptian magician, who is a character in one story contained with the Westcar Papyrus.

According to Chas, once a magician dies any spells they have cast that are still on-going will be broken.

John makes use of a rock with a hole in it in order to track and detect Karabasan.  This rock is known as an adder stone, but is also known as a fairy stone, witch stone, hag stone or aggri.  Whatever the name, they are all the same thing - a rock that has had a hole worn through it naturally, usually by water.  Looking through an adder stone allows one to see invisible beings and see through magical illusions and glamours.

John knows a spell that can induce sleep. He uses this to put Zed to sleep so she can act as bait in a trap for Karabasan.

The Monkey King is a trickster figure from Chinese mythology. He was a monkey born from a stone who acquired supernatural powers through Taoists practices, including super-strength, great leaping powers and the ability to shape-shift into one of 72 forms. He was also a powerful warrior and no mean spell-caster in his own right.

Zed is briefly able to use her powers to act as a medium and communicate with Geraldine's soul.

The amount of time between when Chas dies and when he comes back to life varies depending on how violent the death was and Chas does feel the pain of each death fully.


Dialogue Triumphs

John: You've yet to flinch in the face of The Underworld. Why are you so afraid of a man from this one?
Zed: Because he's my father.

John: I've heard it said that nine-tenths of reality is perception. And in my trade, it's eleven-tenths.

John: All those people wasting away by your hand as life passes them by - that is not the legacy you want, Felix.
Felix Faust: And what would you know of legacy? A boastful, smutty, infantile boy? You create magic by accident and insolence while the truly devoted sweat and toil with no reward. You'll never know my magic, Constantine. You will know my pain!

Chas: I've watched other people suffer the consequences of your actions but this is my family! So I'm going to do things my way! Not yours!
John: Yeah?!  And how would you plan to do that?!
(Chas punches John and knocks him out cold. He takes John and puts him in the back of the cab)
Chas: My family's suffered enough because of you.

(As Chas wakes up after slitting his throat)
Felix Faust: A man of your word, indeed.
Chas: I wish that were true.


Continuity

John refers to The Resurrection Army's attempted abduction of Zed in 108.

By the episode's end, Chas is down to 30 lives.

Renee makes Chas a scrapbook fill of photos and stories about all 47 lives he absorbed.  He shows Geraldine the pictures and talks about the friends who are with him every day.

Zed apparently spoke to John's mother and he told Zed to tell John that he wasn't responsible for her death.


Location

Brooklyn, New York.


Untelevised Adventures

Felix Faust and John Constantine have had dealings in the past.

At one point before Chas and Renee were divorced, he missed Geraldine's birthday dinner due to his saving another family from The Monkey King.


John Screws Up

John gets his medium ally Fennel killed.

We find out that Chas' apparent immortality is due to John casting a protection spell on Chas that worked when he didn't expect it to.

(And now, a moment of silence for contemplation as we ponder how John can screw things up even by casting a difficult spell perfectly.)


The Bottom Line

The strongest episode of Constantine to date.  The script is wonderful, the cast is firing on all eight cylinders and everything comes off perfectly. The only downside is the loss of such a great villain as Felix Faust. Then again, it's not like Faust didn't die and come back more than once in the comics...

Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 9 - The Saint of Last Resorts: Part Two

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Bloodied and betrayed, John invites the demon Pazuzu into his body in order to heal his wounds. Now Chas, a harried Zed and an incredibly reluctant Anne Marie must work together to prevent the demon from escaping into the world and save John's life in the bargain.


Influences

Swamp Thing #37 (introduction of Anne Marie, The Brujeria and The Invunche), Hellblazer: Original Sins (John using a demon to heal himself, The Resurrection Crusade and Zed's background) Hellblazer #11 (references to The Newcastle Incident), Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits (John using demons to heal himself) and Hellblazer: Hard Time (John taking over a prison where he's been locked up). 


Performances

The entire ensemble does a fine job, as we get to see all of our cast together in a single episode for the first time.


Artistry

The direction on Zed's visions continues to be amazing.

The lighting throughout the episode is very atmospheric and moody without obscuring the action.


Pub Trivia

The idea of John seeking demonic intervention to heal his injuries is not without precedent. In Original Sins, John undergoes a blood transfusion using demonic blood in order to heal his injuries. And in Dangerous Habits, John forces three powerful demons to cure his lung cancer.

John's taking over a prison from the inside may be a reference to the Hard Time story line, where John did the same thing in an American prison while serving time for a murder he didn't commit.

John's nickname in prison is El Diablo - The Devil.


Arcana

The First of the Fallen offers temporary power to mortals, eventually turning them into his possessions.

John likens demonic permintion to the flu, noting there is an incubation period between the first infection and full possession. John estimates that he has a few days before Pazuzu can take him over but owing to Pazuzu's strength and/or John's overconfidence, it takes a bit less than that.

Chas notes that Pazuzu was the Assyrian god of famine, locusts and storms.

John has a tape-recording of himself reading exorcism rituals in 50 languages, including Assyrian in his kit.

John also possess a ceremonial Tibetan Phurba. A phurba is a ritual knife which symbolizes the destruction of obstacles.  It can also be used as an offensive weapon against hostile spirits.

Up until a certain point, Holy Water causes a violent reaction when sprinkled on a possessed person.

Nahash is the Hebrew word for 'serpent'. It is one of the names used to refer to the physical manifestation of earthly temptation. Other titles include The Trickster, The Tempter and - most recently - Vincente. He was the serpent in the Garden of Eden and was set free by the Brujeria purely so that he could aid them in destroying the world of Man with no other promises or expectations.

Nahash is a shapeshifter and it can take on the forms of people it has killed by slithering inside of their bodies.

When one of the Nahash's physical forms is destroyed, it breaks into a swarm of snakes.

Until they fully take over a human body, demons are vulnerable to anything that effects the physicality of their host. To that end, strong sedatives (i.e. enough heroin to kill a herd of elephants) can be used to disable a demon and its host.

Anne Marie is capable of crafting complex illusions with her magic. Either that, or she is able to change the appearance of her biolocation form. Either way, she uses some kind of power to create an image of herself in nothing but her underwear to distract the guards and she, Chas and John escape from the prison.

Pazuzu is too powerful to be warded off by a recording of John's voice. It takes true faith and conviction to banish a demon king.

Under normal circumstances The Roman Catholic exorcism ritual requires a fully ordained priest to perform. However, it can also be performed by any devout Catholic who has undergone a divine epiphany or otherwise seen first hand proof that Heaven and Hell exist.


Dialogue Triumphs

Manny: To save yourself from Hell, you acted without considering the consequences. It's not that I can't help you, John. I won't.

Manny: I've got to admit - I never thought you'd do anything THIS stupid.
John: I'm John Constantine. I do stupid in spades!

Zed: John talks to an angel.
Anne Marie: What did you say?
Zed: His name is Manny. He came to John for help. You kneel here, night after night, hoping against hope that Heaven hears your words. Well, guess what?! John has Heaven on speed dial! Someone up there thinks he's worth a damn and now he's dying because of you!

Zed: Should I be scared? For John, I mean.
Anne Marie: He's in a bad way. But John believes he has every situation under control and he makes you believe. That's his magic. And his curse.

(As John describes his plan to use a monster dose of heroin to knock Pazuzu out)
Anne Marie: And if you're wrong?
John: Well, then I'll go out riding the world's greatest high. With my first love at my side.


Continuity

Zed makes reference to 107, where she learned of Manny's existence.

Zed grew up near a prison and knows something about how hookers are snuck inside of them.


Location

Mexico City and Atlanta, Georgia


The Fridge Factor

Averted hard as Zed escapes from her captors on her own and Anne Marie proves essential to saving John Constantine.


John Screws Up

Granting that he was in dire straits, inviting a demon into his body in order to heal a bullet wound is foolhardy even by John Constantine's standards.


The Bottom Line

Not quite as intense as Part One, but the leisurely pace  does allow the entire cast a chance to shine as we get to see John's friends come to the foreground as Constantine is incapacitated for the better part of the episode.  A welcome return to form after the break.

Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 8 - The Saint of Last Resorts: Part One

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.





Plot

When something monstrous starts kidnapping newborns in Mexico City, an old lover of John's calls him for help. Reluctantly, as it turns out, as Annie (now Sister Anne Marie) was part of the Newcastle crew and her trust in John is as limited as the local police's ability to deal with the idea of a baby-snatching demon.  And as Chas and John head south, the past Zed has been running from finally catches up to her.


Influences

Swamp Thing #37 (introduction of Anne Marie, The Brujeria and The Invunche), Hellblazer: Original Sins (The Resurrection Crusade and Zed's background) Hellblazer #11 (references to The Newcastle Incident) and the writing of Alan Moore in general.


Goofs

While no reference is made to her exact age on the show, it seems unlikely that Anne Marie is older than John.  At least, she can't be old enough to speak about him having been a 15 year old kid when they met.


Performances

The chemistry between Matt Ryan and Claire van der Boom is quite good and the two really do come off as a pair of estranged ex-lovers.


Artistry

The direction and editing on this episode is top-notch, with some very effective "freak-out" moments.  The scene of John and Annie talking alone in the church is particularly well-framed and John's fight with Lamashtu at the fountain is truly terrifying with its up-close camera-placement simulating the claustrophobia of a drowning victim.  And the effects for The Invunche are film-worthy to say nothing of being really scary!


Pub Trivia

Much of the Arcana from this episode is taken from Swamp Thing #37, which was also the comic that introduced Anne Marie as a character.  This comic also introduced The Brujeria as a menace for John Constantine to fight against and The Invunche as their guard dog.

Not surprisingly, given his penchant for research and reputation as a scholar of magic, Alan Moore stayed very close to the original Chilote folklore regarding Invunche and Brujeria in his story.

In the original comics, John described Anne Marie as "fat, forty and secretly in love with me."  She was a psychic and a groupie for John's band.  The two never slept together.  Her counterpart on Constantine is younger and in better shape.  However, both became nuns as a result of the Newcastle incident.

Reference is made to the demon Pazuzu. While this is the name of a real demon in Babylonian mythology, it is also the name of the demon from The Exorcist.

In the first issue of the comic Warrior (1982) Alan Moore claimed to be possessed by Pazuzu.


Arcana

John says that Anne Marie has the power of bilocation - the ability to be in two places at once.  This ability is usually the province of saints, sufis and other holy men. In practice, what Anne Marie does seems to be closer to astral projection - the ability to send one's mind outside of the body - on account of Anne Marie isn't physically in John's house and the image of her body cannot be touched.

John identifies the strange creature that Zed draws as an Invunche - also know as an Imbunche.  Invunches are a creature from Chilote folklore.  They are similar to golems in that they are crafted magical beings.  However, invunches are inherently evil and created by warlocks as guard dogs for their lairs.

Invunches are created from first-born sons, who had not been baptized within nine days of their birth.  The baby would have its head twisted backwards and one of its feet sewn to the back of its neck.

John says there haven't been any Invunche since before the last great Biblical flood but is proven wrong about this point by episode's end.

John crafts a Purification Bowl for the trip to Mexico, saying he lost his last good one in Puerto Rico. A purification bowl can do the job of a priest and bless any water placed in it, turning it into holy water.

According to John, many wall-dwelling supernatural beings target children. Among these are Faeries, Duendes (a Latin American pixie, similar to a goblin) and nursery demons.

Rune stones can be used in conjunction with the right spell to identify various paranormal entities at a crime scene.  This generally works with most of the baby-snatching entities, as they aren't clever enough to cover their tracks.  However, powerful and clever entities can use magic to block the scrying and set the runes on fire.

John is mistaken for El Cuycuy - the Mexican equivalent of The Boogeyman - by one of the nuns.  The Cuycuy is also a kidnapper and eater of children.

Many cultures believe that burying the placenta of a baby under a tree on the family's property brings good fortune.

John knows a spell that can determine if a baby is still alive or dead using the placenta as a link.

According to John, the kidnapper is one of the demon goddesses of Hell - specifically, one of Eve's sisters who refused to submit to Adam and chose an eternity in Hell over a lifetime on Earth. He names four of the Sisters of Eve - Lilith, Durgia, Naamah and Lamashtu.

In Jewish folklore, Lilith was Adam's first wife, created from the Earth as he was. For this reason, she refused to be subservient to Adam and left the Garden of Eden. She would later copulate with demons and other spirits, giving birth to all manner of monster.

Durgia seems to be another spelling for Durga. Durga is one incarnation of the Hindu goddess Shakti, who is the personification of feminine creative power and motherhood.  Durga is perhaps best known to Western culture by the name of her most fierce aspect - Kali.

In Jewish mysticism, Naamah was a demoness who caused epilepsy in young children. A frequent cohort of Lilith - she, like Lilith, gave birth to a number of monsters and plagues.

In Mesopotamian mythology, Lamashtu was a demonness who menaced mothers and newborn children.  Whenever possible, she would kidnap babies that were still breastfeeding, suck their blood, eat the flesh and eventually gnaw on the bones.  John identifies her as the youngest of Eve's sister and calls her "a glorified vampire".

John's switchblade is capable of harming demons.

John knows The Brujeria as a legendary group of warlocks from Chile, who have existed since prehistoric times. John believes they died out a long time ago but the truth is that they have been in hiding for a long time.  Legend has it they were so wicked that not even Hell would take them in.

In the real world, Brujeria is a term for witchcraft and may refer to any coven of witches or warlocks.  It is not the name of a specific, larger group.

John quickly figures out that Le Brujeria are the rising darkness he has been recruited to fight.

John is able to craft an illusion using a raw chicken and Hugo's blood that makes the chicken appear to be a baby of Hugo's bloodline.

Pazuzu is the Babylonian demon king of the winds and a bringer of drought and destructive storms.  While an evil spirit, he is also frequently invoked by exorcists to banish other evil spirits.  His power is most frequently invoked by amulets carrying his icon and his sworn rival is Lamathsu.

Lamastu is in the employ of La Brujeria because they have figured out a way to break the boundaries between Hell and Earth, allowing the demons to openly walk The Earth without restriction.


Dialogue Triumphs

John: I always figured that one of us would flee to Mexico, but I thought there'd be tequila involved. Or skinny dipping.

Chas: (To Anne Marie) He'd rather risk your feelings than any other part of you. That's how... he deals with the pain. John has one thing that makes his life worth a damn and he can't do it if he lets anyone in too close.  Like he did with you.

(When trying to talk Anne Marie into helping him con a demon)
John: No price is too high to save the innocent.

Anne Marie: (To John) I can see it now. It's not that you don't care. It's that you can't care about anybody and do what you do.

John: No, no, no,  You shoot that, it's gonna attack us for sure.
Anne Marie: No, John. It will attack you.
(John looks at her shocked as she aims the gun at him)
Anne Marie: "No price is too high to save the innocent."
John: Oh, you're a quick study, love...


Continuity

Zed makes reference to still recovering from Kentucky, where she and John traveled in 107.

Touching a fallen angel's heart has inspired Zed to sketch Biblical imagery, including Noah's Ark during The Flood and a picture of an angel.

John reveals that Anne Marie was part of his crew for The Newcastle Incident and that he owes her a favor.

Zed speaks fluent Spanish. John does not.

The hideaway has magical traps that can protect whoever is inside from intruders. It also has a doorway that leads into a dark and stormy abyss.  Zed uses this room to get rid of one of her would-be captors.

John and Anne Marie slept together once.  We later find out that it was the night before The Newcastle Incident and that John left their bed to go bar hopping, looking for other girls to sleep with.

It was Anne Marie who brought John into the occult scene when he was 15 years old.

Anne Marie makes reference to Gary Lester, who we saw in 104 and Ritchie Simpson from 101. She also mentions another member of the Newcastle Crew - Judith.

Zed never took art lessons until recently.

John is good enough at reading people by the tones of their voice that he is able to figure out the gist of a conversation without understanding a word of it.

John makes another reference to the bloodline curse magic practice by gypsies, as he did in 102.

Eddie calls Zed by the name Mary. She reacts violently to it and makes reference to having been locked in a room for most of her life.

Eddie is killed by his fellow Crusaders, shot in the head after Zed threatens to slit his throat.

One again, John is seen smoking on the porch at Hugo's grandmother's house.


Location

Mexico City, Mexico


Untelevised Adventures

John lost his best purification bowl on a trip to Puerto Rico.


The Fridge Factor

Averted, for the most part.  Zed holds her own pretty well until she is snuck upon by a man with a hypodermic full of sedative.


The Bottom Line

As an adaptation of the original comics, it works quite well.  As an hour or horrifying television, it works VERY well. A wonderful episode with a truly shocking cliffhanger that will leave you in desperate need of Part Two..

Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 7 - Blessed Are The Damned

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

In the Kentucky town of Briarwood, a modern-day Lazarus has begun performing miracles in the church where he survived a close encounter with death while handling a rattlesnake.  Zed questions whether or not the Preacher Zachary is a willing pawn, but John doesn't care much either way. Because while the source of Zachary's power may be heavenly, the bill must come due eventually and someone will have to pay...


Influences

Hellblazer #5 (the theme of religious faith accidentally tapping into dark forces), Hellblazer #66 (the idea that angels can have their hearts cut out and they still beat until entirely destroyed) and The Sandman: Seasons of Mists (the idea that angel's become mortal if their wings are destroyed)


Goofs

The effects work for the ghouls look goofy as all get out, from the cheap make-up jobs to the lumbering ape-like movement of the actors.

It never is fully explained just why John was unable to take Imogen's feather from Zachary but Zed could. Zachary claims it is because John is evil, but Zachary is just as evil being a murderer, by classical Biblical terms.  Perhaps only evil people can handle a fallen angel's fathers but that wouldn't explain why Zed could handle it... unless she has a much darker secret in her past than we suspected.  It is possible that feathers can only be handled by one who has faith, which would explain why Zed and Zachary could handle it but John could't. This may not be a goof, but it is a confusing point.


Pub Trivia

John says that Chas is away visiting his daughter.  In the comics, Chas is indeed a father and his daughter's name is Geraldine.


Arcana

Snake-handling (or Serpent-handling) is a tradition practiced by some evangelic Christian sects, particularly Pentecostals in the American South and Appalachian regions.  The theory is that those who are truly strong in their faith will be uninjured by the snake's bite.  The practice is discouraged by most denominations in modern times.

Faith-healing is another power claimed by some religious leaders, though few claim to have managed anything so unlikely as regenerating severed limbs.

John possesses a scythe blade that he claims he took from The Grim Reaper himself.  It proves capable of killing ghouls

Enochian is the language spoken by angels.  The first record of Enochian was transcribed by Dr. John Dee (the court magician of Queen Elizabeth I) and Edward Kelley (a spirit medium who worked with Dee), who called the language Celestial Speech or Angelic.  The name Enochian was applied to it by later scholars, based on Dee's assertion that the last human to know the language before him was the Biblical patriarch Enoch, father of Methuselah.

Magic has laws similar to the laws of thermodynamics, in that energy cannot come from nothing or, as John might put it, everything has a price.  In this case, the energy Zachary is using to heal people is being taken out of the immediate environment, resulting in all the fish in a pond close to his church dying and the people Zachary heals turning into ghouls.

Angels can be summoned using a magic circle in the same way as demons.

Dried myrtle can be used to attract angels when attempting a summoning.  Saying please also helps, according to Manny.

Guardian Angels, such as Manny, are assigned to watch over several mortals at once.  Manny notes that he does have things to do besides watch over John.

Angels use echo-location when flying.

Angels are rendered physical when their wings are damaged.  This is the only way an angel can manifest physically on Earth.

Pulling the feather from an angel's wing is apparently enough for it to be "damaged".

According to Manny, angels are heavy compartmentalized and they do not typically coordinate.  This is why he does not recognize Imogen despite sensing her power once he meets her and why - despite John's assertion to the contrary - Manny could not have sensed the injured angel any more easily than John could have.

Manny also notes that angels can die but that unlike humans their souls are extinguished completely and they cease to exist.

John knows a magic spell that creates a circle of protection from evil.  It requires the use of running water, which is a frequent bane for evil magical creatures in mythology, such as the rule that vampires cannot cross running water.  It is also effective in creating a circle that evil creatures cannot escape from.

A mortal who takes possession of an angel's feather can use the touch of the divine within it to perform miracles, though these miracles do drain energy from the local environment and the healed will eventually become ghouls.

Ghouls, according to John, are zombie-like beings created when magic goes wrong.

Baptism is a ritual of purification and rebirth practiced by several Christian denominations.

Angels do not feel pain.

Fallen angels have black wings instead of white, though they are capable of disguising themselves. They are subject to the same rules as angels regarding physical manifestation on Earth.

Angels can possess mortals the same way demons do.  Manny does this with Zed to fight Imogen.


Dialogue Triumphs

(As John is packing his travel bag)
John: (as he places some kind of talisman in his bag) Must have protection.
(John pulls out a chain of condoms)
John: Of various kinds.
Zed: We're going to go visit a preacher in a church.
John: Hmmm.  That's a good point.
(John takes one condom off the chain and stuffs the rest in his bag)

Zed: Blind faith can he a dangerous thing.
John: Spoken from experience?

Zed: I have so many questions I want to ask them.
John: Good luck with that, love. They're real cagey types. What do you need them to tell you?
Zed: Where my powers come from, for starters.  Do they come from God or somewhere else?
John: Doesn't matter where they came from.  What matters is what you do with them.  And what they cost you.


Continuity

Chas is away visiting his daughter during the events of this episode.

We see John smoking before he puts the cigarette out just before entering Preacher Zachary's church.

Zed mentions that she saw a lot of false prophets claiming holy powers as a kid.

John cannot speak Enochian, but he can identify it by sound.

John once again notes that he was born in Liverpool.

While no specific religious denomination is mentioned, Zed is confirmed to believe in some Christian doctrine while John has little use for organized religion in general.

Zed is able to pitch a tent but she denies having been a Girl Scout.

We see Zed pickpocket Zachary to take the feather while she is being baptized.

John stores Imogen's heart in a jar.

Eddie - the model who asked Zed out - is working with the people who have been trying to track her down.


Location

Briarwood, Kentucky


The Bottom Line

As a character piece for Zed and Manny, it works very well.  As a monster-of-the-week episode, it's incredibly weak.  Of note purely for how it defines the rules for angels and fallen angels.  Beyond that, there's really nothing of note.  At least, nothing positive worth noting, with the goofiest monsters yet.  Still, the core cast manage to sell their scenes together.  It is only when the ghouls come out or John has to deal with Preacher Zachary that we see the wires holding everything up.

Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 6 - Rage of Caliban

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

John and Chas hit the road to investigate a mysterious murder that killed two parents but left their young daughter unharmed.  When the evidence points to a demon as the culprit and a tracking spell leads them to the next likely victims, John will have to face his own inner demons and conquer his fear of failure, lest he condemn another innocent child to Hell!


Influences

Hellblazer #11 (Astra's death & damnation is referred to) and many other stories from the Jamie Delano run on Hellblazer (details of John's past and Chas' past).


Goofs

The bed clothes of Henry's parents change between his first nightmare and when he is possessed.

John says he spent six months in the loony bin, yet in C101 he had only been committed to Ravenscar for three months and it was specifically said that The Newcastle Incident happened three months earlier.


Performances

This episode is a strong one for Matt Ryan, who gets to play John Constantine in all of his conflicted glory.  We see John the Rake in the first scene, as he flees an apartment just seconds ahead of a jealous boyfriend and we also see John at his most vulnerable, confronting a chance to repeat his biggest mistake... and rising to meet the challenge.  Ryan plays all of these moments to perfection.

The interplay between Ryan and Harold Perrineau as Manny also deserves mention and the best bits of the episode feature the two bantering.


Artistry

The sequence with John chasing the possessed Henry into a high-school haunted house is an amusing one while still being somewhat tense.


Pub Trivia

This episode was meant to be the second episode aired. It was delayed in order to hasten Zed's premiere on the show.

The climax of the episode takes place during Halloween night and was originally planned to have aired on Halloween Night in the United States.

The episode's title - Rage of Caliban - is taken from a quote from Oscar Wilde's preface for The Picture Of Dorian Gray. This is itself a reference to Caliban - a monstrous creature from Shakespeare's play The Tempest. The original quote involved the inability of the people of Wilde's time to cope with Realistic and Romantic literature, as they did not wish to see the world for how it was nor how it might be better than it was.

As this episode opens, John is seen being kicked out of a young lady's apartment before her boyfriend enters.  Such one-night stands are common for John in the original comics.

John has a contact who is a paralegal, who is able to get him information on the children whose parents died from Child Protective Services.  John won her trust by helping her dead husband to move on after he started haunting their house.

John's ley line map was penned by a man named Ken Ondaate. This was the true name of Map - a wizard colleague of John's in the comics.

The ley line map also has a note about Alex Holland.  This is likely a misspelling of Alec Holland - the human whose memories formed the being known as The Swamp Thing - a magical creature John Constantine has a long history with in the comics.

One of the magical items in the hideaway is The Sword of Night.  Wielded by the hero known as The Nightmaster, the sword allows the wielder to sense approaching danger, compel others to speak the truth and prevents the wielder from aging.

While holding The Sword of Night, Chas makes mention of someone named Renee he was unable to stop from leaving him.  This is a reference to Renee Chandler - Chas' wife in the comics.

John jokingly tells Manny to get him a gin and tonic while he is in jail. A gin and tonic is John's mixed drink of choice in the comics.

Manny makes mention of John's abusive father and that he had an older sister who tried to protect John from his father.  This is a spot-on reference to John's background in the comics and his sister, Cheryl Constantine.

The Halloween carnival the possessed Henry flees to is held at Veitch High School - named in honor of Hellblazer artist Rich Veitch.

One part of John's journey through the haunted house - his standing before a wall of skulls - resembles a famous painting of John by Hellblazer artist Sean Phillips.

At the end of the episode, John is seen lighting a cigarette while reclining on a car hood. This is the first time we see John actively preparing to smoke.


Arcana

John attempts to glean information from a magical crime-scene by sniffing around it like a blood-hound and licking the walls.

When humanity gained the power of Free Will, angels lost the power to directly influence events on Earth.  This means that Manny is limited in how he can help John beyond offering basic guidance.

John has access to a spell that allows him to see past events within a limited space.  The spell requires that John burn a pre-prepared scroll while chanting an incantation in Mayan.  The smoke created by the burning reshapes to form an image of the past event. (Thanks to @jade_kadir for the correction that the chant was Mayan - not Latin).

Malevolent human spirits are capable of possessing a body in the same way that demons do. They are capable of telekinesis (moving objects through force of will) and leave behind a smell of burning with no evidence of a fire.

The presence of malevolent spirits makes animals uncomfortable yet they have some ability to control animals as well, with Henry staring down a dog that barks angrily at him and commanding a raven to crash into a glass door in front of his mother.

According to John, most people who are possessed become quite chatty about the ordeal afterward and will know the name of the being that possessed them.  John also notes that any spirit can become malevolent upon death, provided they died in a horrible and/or violent fashion.  John also believes the spirits of children are the worst in this regard, "acting out like all brats".

Ley Lines are mystical pathways flowing with electromagnetic energy. Spirits can travel along them like a psychic railroad. John determines that all of the killings took place on the same ley line.

The Sword of Night compels whoever holds it to tell the truth.

John makes use of a magical incense burner to track the murderous child spirit.  The smoke made by frankincense flees away from malevolent energies.

Mandrake Root is a plant with a long history of mystical importance. According to John (and as backed up by Henry's reaction to it) malevolent spirits can't stand the sight of a mandrake root.

Forceful exorcisms of children are the most difficult to perform, according to John.

Three people are needed to hold a seance.

Without the name of a soul, an exorcist cannot free it so it can pass on to the next world nor bind it so it cannot harm others.

John knows a spell that lets him use a mirror to reflect a spirits attack's back upon itself.


Dialogue Triumphs

(After Manny startles him by manifesting behind his back)
John: You know, I've never punched an angel but you are begging for it, mate!
Manny: I could announce my arrival with trumpets. Used to have an entire horns section, back in the day.

John: And what makes me so special?
Manny: Nothing that I'm aware of.  Saint Peter. Ignatius of Antioch, Joan of Arc.... John, they were special.  You're more of a... desperation move.
John: Story of my life, mate!

Chas: So - now what?  We knock on the door?
John: Nah, that never works.
Chas: Why not?
John: "Oh, hello.  We tracked an evil spirit to your house. It might be inside your kid.  Do you mind if we take a look?"
Chas: Yeah, that won't work.
John: No.

John: Piss off. You made it perfectly clear you're not allowed to help me.
Manny: I said the exact opposite.  What, did the shock therapy destroy your hearing?
John: Alright then.  Go and warn Mommy and Daddy about their little demon seed, send it back to Hell.... oh, and make us a gin and tonic, eh?
Manny: Guidance, John, I can offer you guidance!
John: Aw, thank you very much. I made it through my life without any help from you.
Manny: Are you sure about that? How do you know I wasn't by your side when your father burned you with his cigarette? Or stayed you from suicide when your sister left you alone with him?

John: If humanity is what can save us, then overcoming the damage and weakness in my nature - that may be the part of this battle that I dread most.


Continuity

Zed does not appear in this episode. Chas says at the beginning of the episode that she had an art class.

Chas and John drive around in a beat-up pick-up truck, despite Chas getting his cab fixed in C105. (This is due to this episode being meant to be the second episode aired.)

John chuckles upon being informed he can find Marcello Panneti in a local mental hospital, noting he'll feel right at home - a reference to his voluntary commitment as seen in C101.

Chas has a wife named Renee, who apparently left him.

Manny implies that he was John's guardian angel as a child and refers to John's older sister and abusive father.

The killer is the spirit of Marcello Panneti, whose soul jumped out of his body shortly after he killed his abusive parents.


Location

Birmingham, Alabama


John Screws Up

John tries (and fails) to pose as Henry's school counselor.


The Bottom Line

A good episode that's best bits are the character moments that expand the relationships between the core cast and build upon the rules of how angels and demons operate in the world of the show.  This is not to say the main plot involving a murderous child spirit isn't interesting.  Indeed, the final revelation is an honest surprise!  But the interplay between John and Chas and John and Manny define the theme of the episode - and John's character - far better than this week's crisis.

Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 5 - Danse Vaudou

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

The Rising Darkness has come to New Orleans. The restless dead now walk the streets of The Big Easy and are killing random citizens. And John Constantine has put himself on the wrong side of Detective Jim Corrigan - a cop who witnessed one of the strange killings and has little use for supernatural explanations or British con-artists.

Fortunately, Corrigan is quickly made to see the error of his ways. Unfortunately, the trail of accidental resurrections leads to the last magician in the world John Constantine wants to see - Papa Midnite!  But like it or not, the two mages will have to work together in order to fight the shadow that has corrupted Midnite's magic...


Influences

Hellblazer: Original Sins (Papa Midnite and John Constantine unite reluctantly to deal with a larger threat), Hellblazer: Damnation's Flame (Expanded background for Papa Midnite, including his sister being given the name Cedella) and various American urban legends.


Performances

Matt Ryan and Michael James Shaw play off of each other wonderfully as Constantine and Midnite.

Angelica Celaya adds a flirtatious streak to Zed that gives the character a new sense of life. And she does a fine job playing up Zed's competence as she spends most of the episode without John backing her up or instructing her.
  


Pub Trivia

The episode title is French for 'Voodoo Dance'.

Detective Jim Corrigan first appeared in More Fun Comics #52 and was created by Superman co-creator Jerry Seigel and artist Bernard Baily. Corrigan was murdered by gangsters but this was only the beginning of his story. Because of this nature of his death, his anger over how it occurred and his religious upbringing, Jim was offered a chance by the archangel Michael to become an agent of justice against those who had defied the laws of God and escaped punishment. Jim agreed and became the human host of the Angel of Vengeance - The Spectre.

Jim Corrigan wears a green suit throughout the episode.  In the comics, Jim Corrigan is frequently depicted as wearing a green suit when he is not in the form of The Spectre, whose robes are also green.

Papa Midnite speaks to a skull who he addresses as Cedella, whom John refers to as "the hotline to Hell".  In the comics, Papa Midnite sold his own sister's soul to a demon, turning her into "a whore in Hell". His sister slept with various demon lords and, through her skull, told her brother about the events and goings on in Hell.  Apparently this is also the case in the Constantine TV Show universe.

Zed has a vision of Jim Corrigan soaked in blood and surrounded by green mist.  This is probably foreshadowing Corrigan's eventual transformation into The Spectre.


Arcana

John makes use of a zoetrope to put Zed into a hypnotic state.  He claims the one he repaired was used by Queen Victoria's personal medium to put people into trances at seances.

John and Chas both make use of a magical bracelet that can detect spiritual activity.  It glows blue if a spirit was nearby recently and green if one is in the immediate area.  John doesn't say precisely what happens when it glows red, save that "we wouldn't still be standing here".

John has some kind of ability to wipe people's minds after he's talked to them.

We see Chas' "survival skills" in action as he is stabbed to death by the masked ghost woman and is briefly left without a pulse. Later, his wounds seal up. Apparently Chas is truly being resurrected but we get no explanation for how it is happening.

Papa Midnite's ritual to speak with the spirits of the dead makes mention of Papa Legba.  In Vodou, Papa Legba is the spirit (or loa) who oversees crossroads, boundaries and acts as the intermediary between the spirit world and the world of man.  All Vodou ceremonies begin and end with an invocation to Papa Legba, whose permission is needed to speak to the souls of the dead or other loa.

Somehow, The Rising Darkness - using the guilt of living people regarding dead people they felt responsible for killing - manipulated Papa Midnite's spells to allow people to speak to the dead and used them to raise the spirits of the dead


Dialogue Triumphs

(As John & Zed are checking in at a hotel and the clerk says she'll return with the keys to their rooms)
Zed: Two rooms?
John: Oh, I'm flattered, love, but we really out to keep this professional, yeah?
Zed: Does that mean that you respect me?
John: (chuckles) I respect everyone I sleep with. But I usually like to get to know something about them first if you know what I mean?
Zed: You want to know something about me? Just ask.
John: Where do you come from? Why are you running? And how bad is it that risking your life every day with me seems like a pleasant alternative?
Clerk (returning): Can I offer you complementary champagne in your rooms?
Zed: No, thank you. I don't like champagne.  (To John) Now you know something about me.

Jim: How do you live with it? The knowledge that all this can be real? How?
John: It marks you. For life. But it doesn't change who you are.

John: Voodoo's nothing but a magical excuse for a party.

(Papa Midnite takes a seat in the back of his car)
Midnite: Pop the trunk. I need to question him.
John: (spinning around to face him from the driver's seat) Have at it, mate! Ask me anything you like!

Midnite: We have to stop this! We have to put these spirits back down!
John: Right.  So it's, ah... WE now, is it?  I could help you, for sure. But ah... I'm going to need something from you.
Midnite: ... your debt is erased.
John: Ta for that. And ah... I have a question. For your sister.
Midnite: ... only if we are successful.
John: Good enough.

John: You know that old song about the hammer that thinks that everything is a nail?
Midnite: No.
John: You may be Grand Poobah of voodoo, mate, but that's one very specific, very narrow modality.
Midnite: And what do you know? Jackass of all trades?  Master of none?

Midnite: Hear us, gods! This spell is of our own creation! We bow to you united!
John: Well, if it's come to that, mate, these are dark days indeed.

Midnite: You are a magpie of magic! A thief of tradition! You steal from other people's cultures and beliefs to suit your own purposes.
John: Oh yeah? Well.. whatever works, eh?
Midnite: It worked wonders on that little girl you sent to Hell.
John: Well, at least it wasn't my own bloody sister -


Continuity

Zed has a vision of Jim Corrigan as a boy, being taught to shoot a gun by his mother.

Chas prefers staying in chain hotels when he travels, apparently so he can build up reward points. John, by contrast, seems to prefer independently owned hotels and the more expensive they are, the better!

We see that Chas has finally fixed his cab, as he drives it for the first time since The Pilot.

John has impersonated INTERPOL agents in the past.

John is a talented escape artist and is capable of picking the lock on a pair of handcuffs and slipping out of police shackles.

Papa Midnite refers to the events of C103 and how John cost him the record with The Devil's voice.

Jim Corrigan recognizes Zed from a missing person's report, but notes the name Zed is not the one he saw on the report. He says the only other time Zed was spotted was on security camera footage when she stole an apple and a stale cheese sandwich from a gas station.

After consulting with his sister, Papa Midnite declares that John will not be able to stop The Rising Darkness.  More, it will be heralded by someone close to John who will betray him.


Location

New Orleans


John Screws Up

John doesn't consider that the guilt of the living might be responsible for the dead being unable to rest.


The Bottom Line

Probably the strongest episode of the series so far.  Most of the show's on-going mysteries get some exploration (Zed's past, Chas' immortality) and Midnite gets some development revealing that he is not quite as evil as he seemed in his first appearance.  Zed gets to stand on her own apart from John for much of the episode and John and Midnite snarking off each other works wonderfully on both the dramatic and comedic levels.  A must see.

Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 3 - The Devil's Vinyl

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

John Constantine has many faults but he does try to look after the few friends he has.  So when the producer on his first (and only) album turns up dead of an apparent suicide, John would probably feel the need to look into matters even if the location of the suicide weren't on his map of supernatural brush-fires. And since it is, John definitely feels the need to check things out.

With Zed in tow, John makes his way to Chicago.  Before too long, they are tangled up in a web of mysteries involving Faustian pacts, a legendary blues man and a cursed record that captured the voice of The Devil. And behind the curtain, an old enemy of John's lies waiting to strike...


Influences

Hellblazer: Original Sins (the introduction of Papa Midnite, all the information we have on John's band Mucus Membrane, and the expansion of Zed's background), Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits (mention of The First of the Fallen), Hellblazer: Damnation's Flame (mention of The Ace of Winchesters), The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (the plot is a supernatural detective mystery set in Chicago and Chas mentions getting help from a local P.I. buddy), the comic House of Mystery (the interior of John's hideout seems to match elements of the titular house) Doctor Who (John's hideout is bigger on the inside and John's enchanted playing card is reminiscent of psychic paper), The Sex Pistols' Anarchy In The UK and the American urban legend of a bluesman who sold his soul to The Devil for fame and fortune.


Artistry

The scene of The Devil coming for Willie Cole is truly terrifying.

The sequence in which John storms the radio station, armed only with a recording of Anarky in the UK is a perfect combination of thematic form and visual irony.  There's something darkly funny about John using punk rock to fight a literally evil album and trying to restore order to the world using a song about destruction.  All mixed with images of people fighting and Chas trying to destroy a radio transmitter.


Pub Trivia

The hideaway John and Chas have been using being bigger on the inside may be a reference to the House of Mystery.  A location in the DC Comics universe, the New 52 version of  The House is owned by the comics version of John Constantine and used as a base of operations by Justice League Dark.  The House is well known for having ever-shifting architecture.

The hideaway being bigger on the inside may also be a reference to Doctor Who, where The Doctor's time machine - The TARDIS - is also bigger on the inside than it seems to be from outside.

Another possible Doctor Who reference lies in John's playing card that looks like whatever the holder needs it to look like. This is remarkably similar to the psychic paper that The Doctor uses whenever he needs a fake ID.

There are a number of American tall tales and urban legends about various blues singers selling their souls to The Devil for amazing skill as a musician.  One of the most frequent targets of this legend is Robert Johnson,who was ranked 5th on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest guitar players of all time. Johnson died under mysterious circumstances at the young age of 27 and his legend seems to have inspired the tale of Willie Cole that lies at the heart of this episode.

John makes mention of having been lead singer for a punk band called Mucous Membrane.  This is indeed the name of John's former band in the Hellblazer comics.  He identifies Bernie as the producer on their first (and only) album - a single called Venus of the Hardsell.

The name of Bernie may be a tribute to Bernie Wrightson - the artist who co-created Swamp Thing and did the artwork on a number of classic DC Comics horror titles. Interestingly,Wrightson's first professional work was on the House of Mystery comic.

John can fake a Southern USA accent.

We learn a few more details about Zed's life in this episode.  Chiefly that Zed was a name she gave herself and that she has a cross necklace that she wears in private.  This fits with the background of Zed in the comics, where Zed adopted her alias after fleeing a Christian cult that was headed by her father.

Papa Midnite was a powerful magician, nightclub owner and New York City mob boss, who first appeared in Hellblazer #1. A reluctant ally and occasional enemy to John Constantine, Papa Midnite would work with John only to avert magical disasters that would endanger the world at large.  He was originally depicted as a tall, heavy-set, bald, clean-shaven man, who wore a grass skirt, white tail-coat and white top-hat when working his magic. He would later be killed indirectly by John's actions in the Damnation's Flame story-line.

In 2005, at around the same time the Constantine movie was released, Vertigo Comics released a Papa Midnite mini-series which resurrected the character and rewrote virtually all of his established background. The new Papa Midnite also had an appearance closer to his depiction in the movie, as played by actor Djimon Hounsou. His previous appearances were explained as his using magic to cause John to see what he expected to see when confronted with a voodoo priest. Most Hellblazer fans consider this story non-canon and it is telling that no Hellblazer writer felt compelled to use the new Papa Midnite in any story afterward.

Papa Midnite has returned in the New 52 Constantine comic book.  His background is still largely undefined past him being a practitioner of voodoo and his having a reluctant alliance with Constantine to deal with larger magical threats to the world at large.  The show's version of Papa Midnite seems closest to this incarnation, though John confirms that he is a drug dealer and a voodoo priest like the original.

John identifies The Devil by the title First of the Fallen.  This was the name used by Garth Ennis during his run on Hellblazer to separate his version of The Devil from the other beings who were said to rule Hell in other Vertigo series and other books by DC Comics.

Papa Midnite being a fan of Christian religious programming is not as contradictory as it might seem. In the real world, Voodoo or Voudon is an adaptive religion that has incorporated and absorbed many deities into its pantheon over time.  New Orleans Voodoo includes The Virgin Mary and various Catholic saints among the beneficial spirits who may be called upon to aid a practitioner.

The Ace of Winchesters is a magical gun from the DC Comics universe.  It was first referenced by Garth Ennis in Hellblazer #72. John attempted to buy the guy from an agent of Papa Midnite but wound up stealing the gun after the agent doubled the sales price in an effort to bleed John for more money. The gun later showed up in Garth Ennis' comic Hitman, where the full history of the gun was explained.

In Hitman (and in Hellblazer, presumably) The Ace of Winchesters was a magical rifle forged by a Texas Ranger who sold his soul to gain the skill needed to create magical guns.  It was forged using the bones of saints, gems from Hell and the steel of an angel's halo. Instead of having the ability to never miss its target, The Ace of Winchesters in the comics had the power to permanently kill demons.

Supernatural creator Eric Kripke said The Ace of Winchesters was the direct inspiration for The Colt - a revolver capable of killing demons - as well as the inspiration for the last name of series protagonists Sam and Dean Winchester.  This was one of many Hellblazer references worked into Supernatural, including the appearance of the angel Castiel being based on John Constantine.


Arcana

When we first see John in this episode, he is learning a spell.  The process for this requires John to be naked, covered in blood and chanting while standing in a chalk circle.

John's basic travel kit contains holy water, a police scanner, cemetery dirt and duct tape.

John also possesses several nails from the coffin of Saint Anthony of Padua - the patron saint of lost souls. The nails exhibit a magnetic attraction to one another and can be used as a magical tracking device, assuming someone can plant the nail on whoever or whatever they need to track.

John makes use of a Hand Of Glory to speak to Bernie.  A Hand Of Glory is the severed left-hand of a man who died by hanging, picked in amniotic fluid for seven years.  Once prepared thusly, the hand may have its fingers lit like candles and any dead bodies in the immediate area will come back to life for so long as the hand continues to burn.   The price for casting the spell, according to John, is a few days of his mortality.

John has a playing card that is enchanted to look like whatever the holder wishes it to look like.  He uses it as both a fake ID to get into a hospital after visiting hours and as a credit card in an attempt to bribe a homeless man.

Those who are near death can sense the presence of angels and "see the shadows" on bad people's souls.

The reason for why demons (and The Devil in particular) try to steal humans' souls is explained thus - a soul is basically a spark of creation and a bit of God's love given form. Since demons are denied that connection, they treasure being able to possess it and The Devil himself hordes souls as revenge for having been cast out of Heaven.  Given what we know in The Pilot of how angels react to the suffering of souls, we can only imagine that demons getting a hold of a soul is akin to giving a junkie in drug withdrawal a fix.

Soul Brokers are mortals who act as middle-men between demons and any party desperate enough to sell their soul. This is in keeping with the rule that demons cannot usually manifest on Earth unless specifically summoned.  Soul Brokers presumably receive some sort of benefit from this relationship, though the exact specifics are never explained. John describes Soul Brokers as the ambulance-chasing lawyers of the supernatural world and many of them do hang around hospitals, looking for people who will do anything to save a loved one's life.

A person who has sold their soul through a Soul Broker receives a scroll, written in blood, as a receipt of the transaction.  When the writing on the scroll fades, their soul is claimed.  The only way one can break the deal is by making their Soul Broker literally eat the contract. This act also causes the Soul Broker to lose their ability to contact Hell.

The Ace of Winchesters is a magical rifle that never misses its target.


Dialogue Triumphs

John: The Devil used to be an angel. That's why he's called the First Of The Fallen. You ask a holy type and they'll tell you the soul is the purest expression of God's love. The spark of creation. Every time The First takes a soul he's exacting revenge. Paying back The Almighty for casting him out.

(After waking up in bondage after being knocked out by Papa Midnite)
John: You're gonna have to respect my boundaries. I don't do zip ties without a safe word.

(As Midnite lays out his death trap for John)
John: I always took you for a voodoo priest with a flair for the dramatic - not a cold-blooded killer.
Papa Midnite: I do what's needed.  But I don't need to darken my soul tonight. Not with the situation firmly in hand.  (holding up a small drug bottle) A pharmaceutical dose of Vitamin K. This will stop the bleeding... if you can get to it. Consider it a show of professional respect. If you live, you'll have worked very hard indeed.  If you die, it will be alone with your many, many sins.

Manny: (laughing) What happened?  What happened to the John Constantine with the cajones to tell an angel to go to Hell?
John: Cut me loose and I'll show you, you celestial wank!

John: Thanks for joining us. You bring what I ask for?
Chas: (handing John each item as he lists them off) Headphones. MP3 player. Clean shirt. Orange juice.
John: Really?
Chas: You've got to get your blood sugar back up.
John: (rolling eyes) Alright, daddy.

(Regarding Zed's plan based on her latest vision)
Chas: I think we should do what she says.
John: Alright, but we don't have to just jump when she says it!
(John just stands there a moment)
John: OK. That's long enough. Let's go.


Continuity

Chas's cab is still broken, apparently not having recovered from The Pilot.

As in last week's episode, Zed pickpockets someone.

Chas notes that Zed's fingerprints aren't in any law-enforcement database.


Location

Chicago, Illinois.


John Screws Up

John's use of a Hand Of Glory winds up rising up an entire morgue full of dead bodies.

John gets captured by Midnite and left for dead.  His attempts to influence a homeless man into freeing him would have gotten him killed if not for Zed.

John fails to guess the most obvious reason why a busboy wouldn't be affected by the album and gets into a good frenzied yelling fit before Zed points out he is shouting at a deaf man.

John gets his headphones ripped off and would have fallen to the effects of the album were it not for Papa Midnite's intervention.


The Bottom Line

One hell of an entrance for Papa Midnite.  One hell of an episode all around. Easily the best episode of the series so far, as we see all of the cast coming together and things beginning to gel.

Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 2 - The Darkness Beneath

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

John makes his way to the mining town of Heddwich in Pennsylvania, following news reports of a mine boss who was burned alive in his own shower. It's not long before John runs into a drifter named Zed Martin, who claims to have dreamed of John.  More, she has dozens of sketches and paintings of him, though she has no idea why she keeps drawing him while having visions of the future and various monsters.

John is reluctant to trust anyone. Particularly strange women who claim to have seen him in their dreams. But John will need Zed's help to solve the mystery of what lurks in the mines under Heddwich and what is killing the people of the town.
  

Influences

Hellblazer: Original Sins (the introduction of Zed and her magical drawing powers), Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring (the line about the miners digging too deep and waking something up is paraphrased from the book and the whole affair is reminiscent of the Mines of Moria) and various Hellblazer stories where John turns the tables on a murderer by summoning the vengeful ghosts of their victims


Goofs

Not really a goof, as such, but you'd think John Constantine of all people would be forgiving of the urge to have sex in a desecrated church.


Performances

Angélica Celaya is off to a good start here as Zed Martin. Her chemistry with Matt Ryan is far better than what we saw last week between Ryan and Lucy Griffiths.  More importantly, she manages the difficult act of balancing Zed's inherent conflict.  On the one hand, she is capable of matching John in guile and grit but she still feels overwhelmed by her powers and has yet to fully focus them.  It's a tricky thing the script has set up - making Zed brilliant in most respects but turning her into the standard 'fainting seer' when hit by a particularly strong vision - but Celaya carries it off.


Artistry

The script does a good job of staying true to the spiritual oeuvre of  the original Hellblazer comics. A working-class mining town is a fitting setting for a John Constantine mystery, regardless of whether it is in Wales or Pennsylvania and the whole affair is very well researched in terms of its mythology.


Pub Trivia

As the episode opens, we find that John has been using his magic to win at gambling by divining lottery numbers.  This is quite frequently how John paid his bills in the original comics and Chas would frequently place John's bets for him, once word got out to the local bookies to never accept a bet from John Constantine if you don't want to lose a lot of money.

Chas notes that it's surprising John isn't an expert at capnomancy - the magical art of telling the future by watching the patterns of rising smoke.  This is another clever reference to John's smoking habit.

Before running into Zed, we can see smoke coming from in front of John as we see him walking from behind.  Apparently his smoking can be depicted, so long as we don't see his face while he's doing it.

Many of the paintings of John in Zed's apartment are taken from various cover paintings for the Hellblazer comic.

Zed knows how to pick pockets and is good enough at it to do it to John without him noticing.

When questioned how he knows so much about mining, John notes that he's from Liverpool.  This is John's hometown in the comics and a major mining town in the real world.

By coincidence, Liverpool's football club faced Newcastle on the day this episode aired in the USA. Respectively, Liverpool is John Constantine's hometown and Newcastle the site of his greatest failure. The match went to Newcastle, 1-0.

As in the comics, John isn't much of a fighter and is easily handed his arse after one punch from an older mining company executive.

Whenever John stays in a hotel, he always gets the Honeymoon suite. He likes the extra space.


Arcana

John practices capnomancy - a form of divination where one tries to foretell the future by observing the patterns made by rising smoke. John notes that it isn't an exact magic.

The abandoned church John visits is devoted to St. Aspha.  A servant of St. Mungo during his exile to Wales from Scotland, St. Aspha was credited with one miracle by his master and appointed as Bishop of Llanelwy when St. Mungo returned to Scotland.  Despite his miracle being tied to the burning of coal, he is not a patron saint of miners but he remains a notable figure in the history of Welsh Christians.

John identifies the knocking noise in the mines as Coblynau - a Welsh spirit said to haunt mines and quarries.  Gnome-like in appearance, some say they are born of the spirits of dead miners. John claims they are generally benevolent and seek to protect miners by warning them of danger  but the mythology also credits them with causing rock-slides and cave-ins when angered.  There are also stories of them guiding miners to riches when paid the proper respect.

The prayer John uses as a spell of protection when confronting the priest he thinks is stirring up the Coblynau is known as The Breastplate of Saint Patrick. It is one of the most common prayers used by Christians to protect against spiritual evils.

John ultimately traces the source of the town's trouble to a Romani woman.  According to John, Romani magic is the darkest of all the dark arts.  The real world mythology of the Romani does involve a good deal of magical curses and raising the dead.

John's turning the tables on someone trying to kill him by releasing the vengeful spirit of someone murdered by the same killer is a classic Constantine gimmick that he's used more than a few times.



Dialogue Triumphs

Zed: It's you. You're you.
John: That observation always ends in the same way and it's never in my favor.
Zed: I dream about you. I was starting to believe you weren't real. Who are you?

Zed: Have you seen an Englishman?  With a trench coat?
Priest: Stick you with a bar tab, too?

Zed: I've been waiting for you. And you found me. And I don't know what I've been waiting for. And you don't know what you've found. Question is are we going to help each other or not?
John: If you'll excuse me, I'm bloody knackered (passes out on bed next to Zed).

John: I suppose it could be liberating - to take a leap of faith. To shrug off the burden of proof for the promise of hope. It takes trust to turn darkness to light. And those who trust risk putting their faith in the wrong hands. Because there are those who pray for you. And those who prey on you. And no matter how careful you are, you just can't tell the difference.


Dialogue Disasters

John: You're Romani. And there's nothing blacker than Gypsy magic.


Location

Heddwich, Pennsylvania.


Untelevised Adventures

Chas refuses to travel to Pennsylvania, due to some incident involving a succubus, a freight train and a derailment that resulted in a warrant being issued for his arrest.


The Fridge Factor

Granting that she's several steps up from Liv, the version of Zed we see here is far less confident in her powers than her comic-book counterpart and requires John's assistance to help her focus her visions.


John Screws Up

It seems unlikely that John would try and sneak into the mine in broad daylight, as he does here.

John really shouldn't be astonished that a priest would know The Breastplate of Saint Patrick prayer.

John also misses the obvious fact that the miners themselves aren't being endangered - just the management of the mine.


The Bottom Line

A strictly standard supernatural series set-up, saved only by the chemistry of the two leads and a lore-heavy script.  Throwing John into a haunted mining town is a splendid idea but the direction of the episode and the resolution of the plot leave much to be desired.  Still, the interaction and banter between Constantine and Zed is fun and a welcome step up from what we saw between Constantine and Liv in the pilot.

Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 1 - Non Est Asylum

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

After receiving a message from a dead friend, Master (re: Petty Dabbler) in the Dark Arts John Constantine journeys to America in search of a woman named Liv Aberdine. John's friend was Liv's estranged father and it seems that Liv is about to inherit her father's magical talents for seeing the unseen. Problem is most of the bad things that are unseen don't like to be seen and that makes Liv a very inviting target unless someone can teach her how to escape notice and deal with the bad things that are already on her trail.

But John's problems go beyond paying debts to old friends and playing knight errant for newbie psychics. He's somehow attracted the attention of a guardian angel named Manny, who has a feeling something big and bad is coming and that following John may be his best chance at figuring out what the forces of Hell are planning.  Of course John has little interest in being a canary in the coal mine, until Manny suggests that John might have a chance of reclaiming his soul if he doesn't run away from this fight...


Influences

Various details of John's background come from the Jamie Delano run on Hellblazer. Specific references are made to Hellblazer #1 (the trail of roaches), Hellblazer #4 (the appearance of Zed), Hellblazer #7 (the appearance of Ritchie Simpson) and Hellblazer #11 (The Newcastle Incident and John's battle to save Astra). John's speech at the end comes, in part, from Hellblazer #41 - the first issue of the series written by Garth Ennis.  The appearance of a demonic version of John may be a reference to The Demon Constantine, who first appeared in Hellblazer #94.


Performances

Matt Ryan offers an impressive first outing as John Constantine.  He looks the part and plays the part perfectly.


Pub Trivia

In the comics, as in the show, The Newcastle Incident is what John considers his greatest moment of personal failure. In brief, John botched a magical ritual while trying to save a girl named Astra from a demon named Negral and the mistake cost John his soul and caused Astra to be dragged to Hell. A flashback confirms these basic details are true to the universe of the show, though it leaves out the fine points of how John came to find himself fighting to save Astra.

In the original comics, Astra was sexually abused by her magician father and she accidentally summoned a demon while wishing for something, anything, to protect her.  John and some of his friends summoned a second demon to try and fight the first one and the situation spiraled out of control.  The Newcastle Incident as described by Ritchie in the show matches up with these details, save that he says Astra was merely possessed by a demon and no mention is made of any kind of sexual abuse.

As this episode opens, it has been three months since The Newcastle Incident,

The doctor who interviews John is identified by his nameplate as Dr. Roger Huntoon. As in the show, he was the doctor who ran Ravenscar in the original Hellblazer comics. He also appeared in a number of other DC Comics, as the author of a pop-psychology book about the dangers of superheroes.

The episode opens in Ravenscar Asylum.  In the comics, this is the same mental institution that John bounced in and out of for several years. The biggest difference here is that John is self-committed in the reality of the show. In the original comics, John was committed after being blamed for Astra's death.  John suffered severe physical and mental abuse at the hands of the staff, who were ill pleased at having to care for a child-murderer they felt was getting off scott-free on account of an insanity plea.

Another big change from the comics is that John isn't held responsible for Astra's death by the police, though as in the comics he still blames himself and sees his failure to save her as his greatest mistake.

The scene in which John follows a swarm of roaches to a possessed woman is similar to a scene in Hellblazer #1.

Chas Chandler is introduced on the show as John's oldest friend. While this is true in the comics, there is quite a bit of difference between Chas on the show and Chas in the comics.  In the comics, Chas has lives a delightfully mundane existence as a London cab-driver and has no direct knowledge of magic and how it works. Comic Chas doesn't have the know-how to carve an Eye of Horus and he certainly doesn't have any "survival skills" that let him shrug off being impaled by a power line.

In the comics, Chas somehow managed to survive John Constatnine's friendship longer than anyone else but no explanation - magical or mundane - was ever given for this.

According to Chas, Liv's father died bravely but John cuts him off before he can give any details.

The song playing as the cab is hit by a semi-truck is Social Distortion's cover of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire.

One of the artifacts we see Liv handle in her father's hideout is the Helm of Nabu - a.k.a. the helmet used by a number of magician superheroes who used the name Dr. Fate.  It is sometimes also called The Helmet of Fate.

There is also a mask next to the out-of-sync mirror that bares a resemblance to The Medusa Mask - a magical artifact used by the villain The Psycho Pirate to alter the minds, moods and memories of his victims.

Another item we see in the background bears a resemblance to The Ibistick - the magical wand used by the Egyptian hero Ibis The Invincible.

The three-eyed skull in a glass case that we see among the items in the hideout looks suspiciously like the design for Pandora's Box in the recent DC Comics event Trinity War.

We see the phrase "MORE THAN THIS" written backwards on a black board in Liv's father's lair. This is likely a reference to the magicians in the DC Universe who are able to work magic by speaking or writing backwards, like Zatanna.

The name of Ivy University may ring a bell with DC Comics fans as the college with employs Dr. Ray Palmer a.k.a. The Atom.  Presumably this may be the Atlanta campus, as the original Ivy University was located in Ivy Town, Connecticut.

Ritchie Simpson is another of John's friends from the comics, who made his first appearance in Hellblazer #7. At the time of his first appearance in the comics, Ritchie was the only member of the group of John's friends present for The Newcastle Incident who was still alive.  He was British and worked in a factory. As in the comics, Ritchie is presented as a computer expert whom John recruits for a job. The show's version of Ritchie is an American who is employed as a college professor. He differs from his comics counterpart in that he has to be blackmailed into helping John.

We're told that John's mother died in childbirth and his father blamed him for her death. His nickname for John was "Killer" and he punched John in the head every night "for what you did to your mom."  This matches up with John's abusive childhood in the comics.

John also started studying magic as a teenager, trying to find a way to communicate with his mother's spirit. He was never successful.

We find out in this episode that the demon who took Astra was named Negral.  This matches up with the comics, where Negral was a demon who crossed swords with John on a number of occasions and The Newcastle Incident was Round One.

Once trapped in John's protective seal, Fucifer manifests as a demonic version of John he introduces as "locking eyes with the future".  This may be a reference to The Demon Constantine - a creature made up of the worst aspects of John's personality whom John created back in Hellblazer #94.

Reference is also made to The First of The Fallen - one of the many beings who claims to be a ruler of Hell in DC Comics and the one with whom John would develop a fierce antagonism during the Garth Ennis run of Hellblazer.

John gets into an argument with a bartender over who was a more influential band - The Ramones or The Sex Pistols.  In the original comics, John was a punk rocker before he got into magic and was definitely a devote of the Sid Vicious school of punk.

The final scene depicts a frenzied woman drawing a sketch of John. This is Zed - a character from the comics, who has already been revealed as a series regular.  In the comics, Zed was an artist with her own magical talents and she was a rare match for John in the wits and cunning department.

Some of the paintings we see in Zed's apartment were taken from cover paintings from the Hellblazer comic.


Arcana

Angels feed on the suffering of mortals. This feeding inspires feelings of euphoria in the mortal being fed upon.

Chas carves an Eye of Horus on Liv's apartment door.  The Eye of Horus in an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and good health.

Liv's ability to see lost souls and spirits is a unique talent few magicians have. John doesn't have the knack, despite Liv's father trying to teach him the trick.

Scrying is the art of locating things with magic.

The demon stalking Liv is named Furcifer. He draws his strength from electricity, lighting and tempests. This gives him the ability to control electronics and dead bodies. He also has some ability to create illusions, as he created a glamour of Astra to convince John to drop his seal

Angels have some limited ability to stop time.

John's Demon Seal is a proprietary design combining a Triangle of Solomon with some Elder runes and an Enochian script.

Under ordinary circumstances, demons cannot manifest without help and the more powerful a demon is, the more help they require. Somehow, the demons are breaking the rules and acting more overtly than is common, in regards to trying to kill Liv.


Dialogue Triumphs

Doctor Roger Huntoon: We're all powerless against demons.
John: Not all of us, chief.
Doctor Roger Huntoon: That's right. Before you checked yourself in here three months ago, you were working as (glances at John's business card) an exorcist, demonologist and "Master of the Dark Arts?"
John: That says Master, does it? Although I should really change that to "Petty Dabbler". I hate to put on airs.

(As John goes into a crater)
Manny: You shouldn't be down here.
John: I could say the same about you.

John: I'm okay! So flap off!

Manny: Now, I can't change your fate but I can ease your suffering...
John: Go feed off someone else's loss!
Manny: But yours is exquisite!

(After Liv screams at seeing a very much alive Chas Chandler)
Chas; It's okay!  I'm all right! Sorry to startle you.
Liv: But you're - you died!
Chas: Not exactly. It's... complicated.
John: There's a reason Chas is my oldest friend. He has survival skills.
Liv: No-no-nobody could survive what I saw!
John: Excellent!  If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.

Manny: You fail to grasp the stakes here, John. Liv's power is valuable!
John: So's her life!  If Liv was going to join our fight, she had the right to see the risks for herself. All I did was... give her a choice.  Which is more than Astra ever had.
Manny: You said OUR fight. That mean you're going to help us?
John: Well, it's what you wanted, isn't it? (chuckles) And you call ME a con man. (getting up) Pick up the tab, will ya?  You bastards are going to owe me.

John: My name is John Constantine. I'm the one who steps from the shadows, all trench-coat and arrogance.  I'll drive your demons away, kick them in the bollocks, spit on them when they're down and leave with only a nod and a wink and a wisecrack.  I walk my path alone.  Because let's be honest - who'd be crazy enough to walk it with me?


Dialogue Disasters

John's shout of "What's on the way?" while looking up at crane cam shooting away from him is incredibly campy.


Location

Ravenscar Asylum in Northern England and Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. We also see Newcastle, England in a brief flashback.


The Fridge Factor

Granting that she's meant to be our entry point into John's world, Liv comes off as a second-rate companion to Matt Ryan's Doctor.  Small wonder the show's producers decided to replace her.


John Screws Up

We get a brief flashback of The Newcastle Incident.

John nearly falls for a very basic illusion of Astra and nearly breaks the seal he set around Fucifer.


The Bottom Line

A solid start, comparable in tone to the pilot episode of Arrow.  There's enough meat here to give a taste of the magic-side of the DC Universe at large and a fair number of in-jokes for the die-hards. Yet the whole affair is easily accessible to newbies and horror fans who are ignorant of the vast mythology and they'll likely enjoy the series.  Really, the only weak point of the whole affair is the character of Liv and we already know she's out of the series.