Just finished watching Constantine. Let me start off by saying I was a fan of the movie that had Keanu Reeves in the starring role – and I haven’t, as of yet, read the comics. I am planning on rectifying this as soon as possible. The tv series seems to be trying to keep closer to the Hellblazer comics storyline. So let’s get a little background. John Constantine’s mother died in childbirth. John’s father never forgave him for this and, (I’m going by the tv show now) took to calling John ‘killer’ and giving him frequent beatings. John is committed to finding his mother and that is the reason, in the tv show, for starting his interest in the occult. Obviously dabbling in this type of work wears on a persons soul, so when John wants to forget he voluntarily admits himself to the psychiatric hospital for some electric shock treatments. This is where we begin.
John is at the Ravenscar Psychiatric Facility receiving his self prescribed shock treatments. He meets with the director who tells him, in a calm voice that demons aren’t real. John wants the director to make him believe that. When he reads John’s business card it states John is, among other things, a ‘master of the dark arts’. John uses his snarky wit saying he’s got to change that. During the group session John follows a trail of cockroaches to a dark room where a girl is furiously painting at a wall covered in the bugs. John realizes she is possessed and takes care of that, destroying the room in the process. When the bugs have cleared we see the message “Liv Dies” on the wall. John walks out of the room saying, “She did that” to the stunned hospital staff.
Atlanta, GA. Two coworkers are checking their futures with fortune cookies. The girl, who we find out is Liv, opens hers and it is blank. “Great” she says, “I don’t have a future.” Aha! Liv dies. She takes a cookie for the road and goes out to the car. The back up cam keeps detecting something she can’t see. Liv gets out to check and the car revs its engine and then shuts down. As Liv walks across the parking lot all the lights start going off. Never a good sign. The ground starts rumbling and then opens up in front of her in a fiery mess. Nothing emerges from the hole. John Constantine shows up in an old school yellow cab and attempts to help Liv. She is understandably upset and tells him to scram. He gives her a business card and she comments about the ‘master of the dark arts’. John walks towards the hole saying, “I’m getting new ones made.”
An angel appears while John is checking out the hell hole. John is not thrilled to see him. This angel, Manny has been sent to watch over Constantine. John just sees this as more trouble and tells Manny to “feck off”. I was super surprised they left this in there. I think it’s great but it does sound pretty much exactly like what it’s supposed to sound like. It was awesome. Anyway, Manny tells John that he kind of owes the angels. He damned a girl to hell and in doing that he damned his own soul. Neither of these things sit well with John although he is more upset about the girl. Manny lets John know something big is on the way and he might be able to save Astra. Then the cops show up and Manny disappears.
Liv’s friend from across the hall, Dahlia, picks her up and brings her home. We see a man entering the building with a knife. When the girls are safely locked in their apartments Liv opens her last fortune cookie. It simply says, “trust him”. Bright helicopter lights wake her up some time later. She opens her door only to find that Dahlia has been brutally murdered. When Liv turns to go back in she notices a symbol carved on her door. There is also a white half circle on the floor surrounding her door. The coroner takes Dahlia’s body away. As he’s driving, the body bag begins banging around violently in the back of the van. The poor driver thinks Dahlia is actually alive and opens the bag. He is staring into the face of a dead Dahlia possessed, and is torn apart.
Liv meets up with John outside of her work. They are talking about what happened to Dahlia. Liv said she saw a man in her building and she thinks he is the killer. John’s friend Chas steps out of the taxi and tells Liv he’s glad she’s safe, then gets back in the car. John lets Liv know that Chas is the one who carved the symbol on her door. It’s the Eye of Horus and it is used for protection. It worked, but Dahlia suffered the wrath of the demon. John is telling Liv how he was her father’s friend and promised to protect her when, the medical examiners van goes flying past them straight into Liv’s workplace. It plowed right through her desk. Dahlia’s body is lying on the hood of the van. She has been possessed. John tries to get some answers out of her but no dice. The demon takes off. So does Liv.
Liv heads to her mothers to confront her about her father. Liv had thought her father died before she was born. Her mother is reluctant to say anything when Liv shows her the amulet that John gave her. As Liv is holding it she sees her nana behind mom. Then nana looks at Liv and black goo is oozing from her mouth and eyes. Liv runs back to John to get some answers.
John tells her that her father could see the world as it really is. Lots of parallel planes of existence all happening around them. While they are talking on train tracks Liv tells him a train is coming. To prove his point John holds Liv on the tracks until the train passes through them. Chas is driving the taxi and Liv and John are riding in the back. Liv tries to get more answers about her father out of Chas because she thinks John is asleep. Not so much. John stops the questions and tells Chas to turn down the radio. Ring of Fire by Suicidal Tendencies is playing and getting louder and louder. As Chas is distracted by the radio a semi truck plows into them hard.
John sees Astra, a young girl who’s name has come up a couple of times in the episode. We don’t know anything about her yet, just that John couldn’t save her. Astra is asking John for help when a huge demon appears. John holds Astra, telling her not to worry when the demon rips her out of his arms and tells John he can’t save her. John keeps hearing someone calling for his help and it’s Liv. She and Chas are still trapped in the cab. John gets up and has to hold a demon-controlled live wire off by reciting incantations. Chas gets Liv out of the car. While he’s trying to escape Chas is impaled by the live wire. Liv and I both yelled NO! I really liked Chas.
John takes Liv to an unassuming cabin in the woods that belonged to her father. It is an awesome headquarters full of just about anything you want to know, and a lot of stuff you don’t, about the occult. John immediately gets to work figuring out which demon is after Liv. While he is doing that Liv is checking out a map of Atlanta. This is a map her father drew that shows things as he, and now Liv, can see them. She is holding the amulet over the map when it pierces her and blood drips down. When the drops hit the page they disperse and mark place where trouble is going to occur. John has figured out the demon that is hunting Liv is Furcifer. A demon that gains its power from lightning and electricity.
John is on his way to see a friend when Manny appears. Manny and the angels need information and want John to get it. John doesn’t want to help them, seeing as they damned his soul to hell. Manny says that if John helps them, there may be hope for his soul. Then Manny takes off. Never giving John any answers.
John has gone to see Ritchie Simpson. He’s a man with the answers, albeit a nervous and socially awkward one. He keeps an eye on all the suspicious or bad things happening and ties them together. Now John wants his help with Liv. Ritchie says no way, after what happened in Newcastle with Astra. Whatever happened to Astra must have been horrible and these men all had some part in it. John uses blackmail, saying it would be awful if the cops new Ritchie was at Astra’s death. Especially since they are still looking for the killer. Ritchie is seriously upset and agrees to help but lets John know he wishes John had been the one taken. John says, “You and me both”.
John and Liv are back at the cabin preparing the plan when, Chas walks in and startles Liv. Isn’t he dead? He was impaled!, Chas tells Liv that not everything is what it seems and he has a particular set of survival skills. I was very happy to see him back. John must have been too because he told him to fire up his rack of lamb. No one should fight demons on an empty stomach.
John and Liv go to top of a building to await Furcifer. John pays the attendant downstairs an extra hundred to call him on his cell if this lightbulb he hands him should start to glow. The lightbulb isn’t plugged in. John applies a sigil to the roof of the building. It will protect Liv and when Furcifer steps into it, it will contain him so that he can be destroyed. While they are waiting for the demon to arrive Liv gets John to tell her about his mother and his quest to find her.
Furcifier has arrived in the guise of the attendant. Poor guy is dead. This show has a decent sized body count. When Furcifer steps into the circle John begins the exorcism. Furcifer turns into a demon Constantine. He tells John this is his future and all the demons are rooting for him. Whoever stands at John’s side dies. While it looks like this might be the case with Liv too, John fires a flare into the air. Ritchie is waiting in a car on the street and uses his computer to shut down the power grid. Furcifer is screwed. Knowing this he sinks even lower and brings Astra into the circle. He tells John that if he lets him have Liv, he will give him Astra. John tells Liv he’s sorry and with tears in his eyes begins an incantation to release Furcifer. Liv takes her fathers amulet in her hands and sees Astra for who she really is, a demon. Constantine is pissed. He expels Furcifer and the other demon back to hell. Constantine screams that he will come for Astra and will destroy Nergal. When the demons are gone John collapses on the ground. Physically and emotionally spent. Liv tries to talk to him but John tells her to go.
Ritchie is driving Liv home when she asks about Astra. Astra was the daughter of a friend. A demon possessed her and was making her do awful things. John thought that if he raised this other demon, Nergal, that demon would expel the one possessing Astra. Instead Nergal killed almost everyone, including ripping Astra apart and then dragging her soul to hell. This is what is tormenting Constantine and all of his friends.
John is at the bar trying to erase some of the recent pain of Astra. Chas stops by and tells John, Liv is going to California and she’s not coming back. Before she left she said she wants them to keep fighting. Liv also used her blood to point out the trouble spots on the scry. After Chas leaves the bartender turns into Manny. John admits that he paid Ritchie to take Liv past a place where she knew there would be trouble. He wanted her to see the death and danger that is a part of this work. He wanted her to have a choice whether or not she wanted to be a part of this life. Constantine tells Manny he’ll help the angels and makes him pick up the bar tab.
At the end of the episode we see a dark room with papers scattered everywhere. They are all pictures of Constantine in different scenarios. A woman sits on the floor in the middle of it all furiously finishing another drawing. All the pictures are signed Zed Martin.
I really enjoyed this new show. When I started this recap I was going to try and compare and keep up on the differences with the show and the comic. After finding out some of the changes they are going with I’m strictly writing from a television point of view. I am still going to read the comics, but I’m going to enjoy them as two different entities. Just like I did with True Blood. I hope you enjoyed the recap and will check out the show if you haven’t yet. Fantastic Friday night television.
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