Episode Title: The Saint of Last Resorts Part 2
Original Airdate: 1-16-14
Constantine comes back after a rather short hiatus with the second half of the cliffhanger which left him shot, bleeding out, with a demon coming after him. John being who he is, instead of asking for help he does the first thing that comes to mind and releases the demon king Pazuzu into himself in order to heal his wounds and chase off the demon. Unfortunately he will only be able to contain the demon for a few days before Pazuzu takes control of his body completely and his soul is pushed out into hell. But meanwhile, Pazuzu still manages to have a little bit of fun when John’s defenses are down and dismembers a handful of Mexican gang members while Chas is left in the cold. It’s a race against time with John’s soul on the line and his friends have to take matters into their own hands to perform an exorcism before it’s too late.
It feels like this episode really gets to the heart of what John Constantine is all about. Instead of waiting for someone to help him, he does the first thing that comes to mind that will get him by in the short run without thinking about what it will do to him in the long run. Instead, he puts faith in himself that he will manage to figure out a plan before it’s too late, and if not, he has a puts a contingency plan in place that will result in his own death, but also will save the world the release of Pazuzu. Meanwhile, his friends manage to put more faith into him than he has in himself. Anne Marie comes through as one of the stronger characters as she comes through in more ways than one in order to save Constantine. She also gets one of the funniest moments in the episode when she has to use her ability to translocate to distract a guard by placing herself on the other end of the yard without any clothes except for her underwear. Above all else, this episode does have some great comedic and darkly comedic moments, like when we get to see Constantine wake up from his demon-induced blackout surrounded by five dismembered bodies and a few police cars.
The one complaint that I might have with this episode is that it didn’t really feel like Zed needed to be there at all. She does have a few helpful moments, but most of the time it’s just to convince Anne Marie to help them and Anne Marie is the one that ends up doing all the heavy lifting. Meanwhile Zed just gets a nice little moment of badass-ness at the beginning when she escapes her capture rather quickly and conveniently and it’s only casually mentioned again near the end of the episode. The actual exorcism itself is somewhat anticlimactic, with some spittle, some very astute observations, and some implications of the futility of their actions. I will say that I thought that Manny’s involvement in the end was a little misplaced. I loved his speech near the beginning about how Constantine was trying to drink from both the cup of God and the cup of the Devil, but at the end when his exorcism was successful (as if there was any doubt to that) he merely has a subtle smile and walks away. Still overall a decent episode, but not one of the best.
Channel: Superhero 