Constantine: Season 1, Episode 8

Constantine

Episode Title: "The Saint of Last Resorts”

Channel: NBC

Director: T.J. Scott

Writer: Carly Wray

Genre: Fantasy, Horror

Runtime: 43 min

Rated: TV-14

Original Air Date: December 12, 2014

There are two stories being told in “The Saint of Last Resorts.” Zed gets left behind on his case, she's suffering some ill-effects from having handled a fallen angel's heart in last week's episode. John and Chas go off to confront an evil entity that's terrorizing newborns and mothers at a convent. This isn't a case of splitting them up needlessly though, as both have exciting things happening during the show.

John tells Zed to stay in the mill until they get back, so we knew that there was little chance of that happening. She runs into Eddie again, and after touching him realizes that he's way more than he first appeared. She gets him back to the mill and ends up interrogating him. We learn a lot more about her past in these scenes; her name is actually Mary, and her family needs her to return to save them. It's clear that they're members of some sort of strange religious sect, but their intentions for her are still a mystery.

John and Chas end up in Mexico, chasing down a snatcher of newborns. In addition to meeting Anne Marie, another of the Newcastle crew, we get a lot of lore concerning the bad guys of the Constantine universe. There's Lamashtu, one of Eve's sisters, who does the actual kidnapping. There is also some sort of Chilean warlock called a Brujería, and the Invunche. The Invunche is a twisted evil thing from before the time of Noah's flood, immensely powerful and we're given the impression that if John thought it possible for one to be around even he'd be frightened of it. The Brujería, we are told, is also an ancient evil; one that John is clearly scared of. The introduction of these two baddies is an interesting turning point in the show, because up to this point Constantine has seemed confident in his ability to deal with whatever he's up against. He admits that he knows of no way to defeat a Brujería.

The episode ended with Zed trying to fight off her would-be captors. This part felt a bit contrived as the tricks she used to defeat one of her father's underlings were things she had just discovered earlier in the episode. I would have preferred it if she'd discovered some of these secrets that the mill contains during the confrontation. As it was written the audience immediately knew upon seeing those rooms the first time that they'd come into play again. In Mexico, John and Anne Marie rescue the babies and confront Lamashtu, discovering that somehow the Brujería is behind the 'rising darkness.' As they flee an Invunche picks up their trail and Anne Marie shoots John, leaving him behind has a distraction. It seemed like a cold blooded move on her part, but John almost seems to respect it; he did tell us in the beginning that she was no saint. Both situations seem quite dire, and when the show picks back up it looks like we'll be getting two stories running concurrently, a welcome respite from the case of the week episodes we've been seeing.

Conclusion: “The Saint of Last Resorts” leaves us with a huge cliffhanger going into the holiday break. Manny's absence leaves me wondering if we're going to find out what kind of punishment he'll be receiving due to his actions last week. Aside from the clumsy writing of some of Zed's story, this was one of the better episodes in Constantine's short history.

Rating: 8/10