Constantine
Episode Title: "A
Whole World Out There”
Channel: NBC
Director: Tom
Wright
Writers: Davita Scarlett and
Sneha Koorse
Genre: Fantasy,
Horror
Runtime: 43
min
Rated: TV-14
Original Air Date: January
30, 2015
It's
a solo John episode this week. I prefer the team all together, and
the excuses for them being separated are getting a little thin. I'm
not sure if it might be better at this point to just ignore Zed and
Chas when they're not around. Silence might be better than the
flimsy ways the writers have explained their absences. The solitude
does allow the audience a peak behind the curtain; John's facade is
stripped away and we get to see a man that is deeply troubled by the
decisions he's been forced to make. His brash and confident demeanor
is normally enough to make the viewer forget that although he's been
making the tough decisions, they're still tough and he still feels
them.
Bringing
Jeremy Davies back as Richie was a great decision. So far, of the
characters that have been introduced previously in single episodes,
he's been my favorite character, and the one most able to complement
John. Their back and forth bickering perfectly reflects the way that
two old friends, who've been through a lot, interact with each other.
One moment that really stuck out to me was during an argument on a
college campus; Richie is talking about the sacrifices that John has
made, and his reaction to them. Matt Ryan captures the facial
expressions during that exchange very well, there's pain and sadness
reflected in his face, without overdoing either. The well concealed
vulnerabilities that John exhibits are what make the character so
strong, yet relatable.
The
case itself revolved around a group of students that had discovered
how to spiritually leave their bodies and enter another plane of
existence created by a deranged killer, Jacob Shaw. This was
unfortunately where the episode began to fall apart. I don't know if
it was because the writers borrowed from so many other horror
stories, Nightmare on Elm
Street
being the foremost example, or if something important was left behind
in editing, but the conflict and resolution seemed like a cornucopia
of half-formed concepts. One bit of good news is that the pace
slowed down a little bit when John and Richie enter the dreamscape,
allowing for a couple of suspenseful minutes. Blood and gore aren't
the only ways to be scary, and those tense minutes felt like a decent
horror flick. The conclusion felt 'off'. After being told that in
his world Shaw was God, Richie somehow wrests control away from the
villain and wills
him gone, with barely an explanation as to how he managed it. The
attempt to tease the audience with Richie staying behind in the dream
world was a bit weak, we all know by now, that is no where near a
violent enough end for one of John's friends.
My
main gripe with this episode? There are two episodes left, and we
still have next to no information regarding the Rising Darkness. The
previews for next week show a continuation of the present arc, and
not a flashback as I had been half expecting, but that still doesn't
leave us much time to make significant progress regarding the story
before the finale. I'm afraid that the penultimate episode is going
to be of the 'information dump' variety.
Conclusion:
Richie's return hit all the right notes as far as the character
interaction goes, but the story itself felt weak. The weak villain,
and even weaker explanation of John and Richie's victory over him,
kept the story side of the episode from being as successful as the
character side. The superb acting of both Ryan and Davies couldn't
make me ignore the scripts faults
Rating:
6.75/10
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