Old friends, older dangers.
What They Say:
A Feast Of Friends – John must take into consideration what exactly he’s willing to sacrifice in his battle with the underworld after an old friend accidentally unleashes a powerful demon with a killer appetite in Atlanta.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a couple of episodes that have worked to insert Zed into the series, we haven’t had really strong pieces so far. While fans of the character from the books can enjoy seeing him come to life, it hasn’t been completely compelling when you get down to it. Since the show pivoted after the pilot with what it wanted to do when it came to the character of Liv, shifting to bringing in Zed likely threw off some of the storytelling elements for a bit as it’s trying to find its way. With it working an episodic kind of deal to establish things, I’m more than willing to give it time to find its way because it’s doing some potentially fun supernatural stuff that could bring in a lot more interesting characters along the way.
The cold open for this episode has a man returning from an international flight that’s certainly suspicious after he’s been overseas in Khartoum and Sudan, which has him bringing back an interesting antique that has caught the eye of customs. While he gets questioned in private about it, it goes badly for the agent as the thing throws the room into chaos as he shakes when he grabs it and causes it to break, which leads to a whole lot of insects coming out of it – more than could certainly be in it – which in turn fills the agent through his mouth. That sets the stage well, which provides a parallel to the kind of beautiful thing that Zed is seeing while hanging out with Constantine as she starts to see pennies falling all around. Of course, that’s just the piece of pomp that Manny is using to make an entrance. Since Manny is looking for help from Constantine, he’s curious as to how much use she’ll be, so it’s good to see how Constantine makes it pretty straight that he’s more than capable of handling this and vouching for her.
When the show shifts to the two of them returning to their base of operations, things are pretty nuts there as there’s been a break-in. Gary Lester, from the opening itself, has made his way there and we learn that it’s the Khapra beetles that have been unleashed. Lester is already an interesting character as he was involved in the Newcastle incident, which is the first time that Zed has heard about it. That raises her interest, but Constantine is more interested in what really has brought Lester here. Lester’s tale is one that hells of his wandering around after Newcastle and when he ended up in the Sudan and came across a man that had all sorts of binding markings on him as he had been used to serve as a container for a demon. Lester looked at it as a way to atone for Astra and the events of Newcastle, which in the end had him putting the demon in the bottle that was destroyed. Which now has that demon walking around in the form of an agent that is terrorizing the airport in a big way with its consumption and anger.
While Constantine has prepared a new container for the demon, it’s moved along from its first host to another, all of which has it devouring like crazy all over the place. Amusingly, it gets played out on the news as a crazy viral outbreak, which feels like the first nod towards The Walking Dead coming to life in Atlanta where it’s all going down. With Constantine figuring out what kind of demon it is from this, he’s all set to go after it, though he’s not keen on bringing Lester with him considering their past in Newcastle. With him not going, it gives Zed a chance to learn some of what happened in Newcastle, and for the viewer it comes from a different point of view since Lester looks at it all a little differently. Zed ends up going a bit further than planned as well as when she ends up touching him, she gets a pretty rough look at part of his life as a junkie.
The show does some decent stuff as it moves along, with Constantine having his first encounter with the demon and realizing that it’s a pretty impressive one. One that requires him to get a lot more information about it in order to build a proper container for it. That has him going to visit an old friend named Nommo for a few clues about it, having gotten a little help from Zed about its previous origins. Nommo and Constantine have to do a little trip of their own in order to see what they can find out about the past of the demon. It’s a fun little psychedelic trip for the two of them, from the world bending and blending away to the threat level involved with what they’re taking. Part of what they discover is how a shaman in the Sudan worked to create a container himself, which is what Lester freed it from in order to try and half, and seeing how that all worked out is definitely interesting. It’s a look at the dark deal that power offers and the things you have to do in order to protect others with it.
There’s some decent character material here that works well, with how Gary uses Zed’s abilities against her to get out and try to help since he feels responsible. That takes her down hard since she gets all the downsides to the addiction and none of the upsides. But Constantine knows the truth that he’s just falling to temptation to get what he needs to feed his addiction. What it really ends up leading to is some good stuff between Lester and Constantint after he saves him from a couple of dealers. They have a good talk at a bar about part of what happened at Newcastle and what it all really means when it comes to how Lester and a lot of the others were with him largely to just ride his coattails and how he feels responsible for that.
Not surprisingly, everything moves quickly sa it goes into the final act, but there’s a lot of good stuff with the pacing of this episode. Bringing the final encounter with the hunger demon at the Fox Theater works nicely after they acquire the tool they need to deal with it as it gives it a larger than life feeling. But it’s also hugely personal with what Constantine has planned as it involves using Lester as the container. Which he ends up realizing pretty quickly as it all comes together. As we start to learn more about the crew that Constantine worked with ages ago in Newcastle and before that, they’re fleshing things out well there as it shows just what kind of people he draws to him. It’s a pretty interesting sequence to watch as they go through what needs to be done and there’s a lot to like in how it unfolds, with how Lester does his best to be strong for it all and as Constantine has to use him in this way as it’s the only way. It’s a rough sacrifice, but it’s also the only way.
In Summary:
With a powerful ending moment, the episode is definitely the strongest yet of the season in terms of providing what the show can do. The pilot had a lot of foundations to lay down and my interest has been more in seeing what the regular season episodes will do. The second and third episodes were decent, but this one feels like they’ve found their footing in terms of pacing, design and character to make it work well. Lester’s story, dealing with the hunger demon and establishing a little more of Constantine’s past works well, especially as we see Zed putting together some of the pieces as well. The story is straightforward to be sure, but it’s filled with the right kind of evil, sacrifice and danger that’s explored throughout it. It’s an episode like this that, while simple in a lot of ways, reaffirms my faith in the show as they get a handle on how to deal with presenting it.
Grade: B+
