Well, it’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, hasn’t it? Turns out, when I looked up the air date of this episode when the first part aired and was told it would be the weekend after, I was just straight up lied to. So, my assumption that Constantine would be running through the holidays while everyone else took a break made me look a bit of a fool, didn’t it? No matter as, while it took a little longer than I thought it would, Constantine has returned with the second part of ‘Saint Of Last Resorts’.
For those of you needing a catch up on the first part, here goes: in order to investigate the disappearances of newborns in Mexico City, John Constantine is summoned by old flame Anne-Marie. They find that a Goddess of Hell was behind it all and it’s revealed that a cult of prehistoric Chilean warlocks called La Brujeria are behind the Rising Darkness plaguing John throughout the series. In order to save the newborns, Anne-Marie shoots Constantine and leaves him as prey for the demon summoned by the Goddess of Hell. And that’s pretty much where we find Constantine now, bleeding out in a sewer. Just a regular Tuesday, then, right?
With everyone caught up nicely, let’s dive right into our five thoughts on Constantine‘s ‘Saint Of Last Resorts Part 2’. But beware all ye who enter here for there be spoilers ahead.
1. That Pazuzu That You Do
As I mentioned in my fifth point of last episode’s article, the thing I was excited for the most going into this episode was the fact that in order to save his life John Constantine invites himself to be possessed by the demon Pazuzu. For those of you playing at home, that is indeed the same Pazuzu, Babylonian king of the demons of the wind, used in The Exorcist. Because when you pay homage to a classic, you go whole hog. But that’s not my point, my point is that this is the episode where Matt Ryan finally outdoes himself in his portrayal of John Constantine. He’s proved in previous episodes that he is game for anything and is great at selling even the goofiest seeming rituals and incantations, but here he is given a range more than any other episode has allowed.
Jumping from the terrifying, possessed John to a John who is all too aware that he’s running out of cons and that his time might be up to a desperate John willing to do anything, including taking over a Mexican prison, to keep in control to a John even willing to accept his own death, Matt Ryan infuses the character with a mortality and desperation that we haven’t seen before and digs deep to the humanity hidden beneath the Scouse swagger. This is his best episode yet and if this series is remembered for one thing, let it be Ryan’s performance.
2. Surprisingly Self-Contained
One of the things that I noticed with this episode was that, while the last episode went out of its way to set up things to come for the series in its upcoming final episodes with the reveal of La Brujeria and Zed’s b-story, this episode was entirely focused on the whole possession story. That’s not surprising as it’s a big story and I’m really glad they didn’t skimp out on that, but I was surprised at how little the episode focused on the revelations of the previous episode. It almost feels like the previous part was less of a first half of a two parter and more of a set-up for the rest of the season as a whole while this episode was a more self-contained story to not only let established viewers catch up, but allow new viewers to tune in without being too lost.
It’s an interesting move as it stops the episode from being bogged down with too much exposition about La Brujeria and how they play into the finale of the season that can easily be rolled out over the next few episodes. It also, like I said, gives Matt Ryan much more room for his performance to become the centrepiece of the episode instead of being shoved to one side or resolved in half an episode.
Continued belowHowever, it did end up causing a lot of plot threads to be dropped (more on that next point) as well as ones in the episode to go nowhere and be rather overshadowed by the main story. I’m thinking mainly of a story thread throughout most of the episode where a character who seems like they should be pretty important given who they’re revealed to be is hunting Constantine only for them to be immediately dispatched as soon as they find him. It’s a plotline that, looking back on it, I almost forgot even happened because it amounted to so little. It’s things like this that I have to wonder why they went with calling the two episodes a two-parter when they’re barely connected.
3. Dropping Threads
The biggest casualty of this episode being much more self-contained than the last and dropping more than a few plot threads along way is Zed’s b-story from the last episode. For those of you who don’t remember, the mid-season finale paid off a developing plotline across the previous two episodes where a nude model from Zed’s art class asks her out only to be hired by her father, the head of a religious clan called the Resurrection Crusade (which, if isn’t already, would make a great band name), to capture her and bring her back to him. The episode ended with her, in fact, being capture. However, that goes literally nowhere as in one scene Zed is able to escape her captors and then bugger off down to Mexico to help John deal with his problems. Well, that was… anticlimactic.
I mean, sure, as I said it was cool to see Matt Ryan get an episode to really showcase the range of his performance as Constantine outside of swagger and chanting, but I didn’t want it to be at the expense of Zed’s storyline. I get that it will likely be something that’s brought up in the upcoming episodes (or, at least, I sure hope it will be), but it just seems strange that they’d have that thread set up over multiple episodes and have that cliffhanger in place only for it to be resolved in literally one scene. In fact, it seems really messy and I have to wonder if the show blew its load a little too early on that one just for the sake of a mid-season cliffhanger…
4. Mythologies, Or I’m Running Out Of Clever Titles For These Things
We’ve had angels. We’ve had demons. We’ve even had named demons originating from Babylonian mythologies. We’ve also had Goddesses of Hell. We now have prehistoric Chilean warlocks and literally the serpent from the Garden of Eden showing up. This is a show where the mythology is fair game from pretty much any culture and writing, creating a mishmash of intersecting and interacting mythologies that fall under the nice and neat umbrellas of Rising Darkness and, well, everyone else because everything has to come down to good and evil. Now, I get that this is the first season and the show hasn’t really gotten its sea legs enough to even juggle two plotlines at once nevermind multiple mythologies, but as the show moves forward, I would really like it to explore just what parts of the world’s mythologies and pantheons and occult writings exist in this show.
Maybe I’ve just seen too much Supernatural, but the last thing I want for this show to be is a show where the occult the supernatural are real, but only the Judeo-Christian is important while the rest just gets lumped together. The fact that they’ve made such a big deal out of La Brujeria is helping this, but the fact that the side of good is primarily just Judeo-Christian angels is what’s making me worry. Ok, so I’ve definitely seen way too much Supernatural, I just want other mythological figures from other cultures to show up on the side of good for once.
5. Going Forward
So, where do we go from here? This episode tied up many of the loose ends from the last episode, brought them back to the central hub of the series in Atlanta (did they seriously drive from Mexico City to Atlanta or did I just miss something because I haven’t slept yet?) and has set up both La Brujeria and the Resurrection Crusade as threats to come in the future. Not to mention the end of this episode teasing Chas’ history with John and what exactly the deal with the whole ‘coming back to life’ thing is all about. And, hell, that’s not mentioning the fact that the show still hasn’t gone back and shown what happened in Newcastle, which surely must be coming as they mention it every other episode. With only four episodes left of this season and the future of the series still up in the air, I wonder if the show bit off a little more than it could chew and if front loading the show with so many one-and-done episodes is backfiring a little.
We’ll see in the coming weeks whether or not Constantine can stick the landing, but this episode definitely felt more like the start of the season in terms being unsure in its own storytelling which is a shame as the last episode promised so much and not a whole lot was delivered.
