What They Say:
Blessed Are The Damned – During art class, Zed has a vision of snakes that leads her and John to a preacher in a small town who has gained a mysterious new ability.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Constantine has definitely moved past the first couple of awkward episodes after the packed pilot and really found itself in a good way. The last two episodes in particular have been pretty great in showing Constantine doing his thing and dealing with some unusual situations while shifting between who he works with a bit. We get to know a bit more about everyone as it goes on and seeing more of how the rising darkness is affecting a lot of things. Now that we’re at the halfway mark for the show, there’s a general hope that it’s found its legs well enough that it’ll finish strong and build itself into something that can hit the ground running with a potential second season. With NBC willing to work with Friday night shows and give them some time, as we saw with Grimm and Hannibal, I’m hopeful for the same here.
The cold open for this episode takes us down to Briarwood church in Kentucky where we see a man named Zach trying to honor his dead father by doing the same kind of sermons, which involves using snakes in a big way. Revival meetings are a tough sell in a lot of ways if you don’t have the right personality for it. Zach is showing that he doesn’t at the start here as he’s practically putting everyone to sleep. It’s only when he grabs out the rattlesnake with its poisonous venom and playing up that danger that things start to pick up. Unfortunately for Zach, he gets bit – no surprise there – and dies on the spot. It’s a quick tragedy, but one that doesn’t last long as he ends up revived in a big way, which converts man to him in an unsurprising way. With a little something extra in his hand though that he hides, you know there’s greater danger here. But there’s also a draw as we see him regenerate a man’s missing leg almost instantly when he lays hands upon him. It’s certainly quite the power, but what’s the catch?
All of this eventually catches the eye of Constantine, including Zed as she ends up with a vision herself during art class of snakes. With Chas off doing stuff with his daughter, Zed gets to be the driver and partner for this particular investigation, which takes them to a now very crowded and busy revival church. Zach has totally taken to the role and is doing it well with the right kind of flourish to draw more people in. Zed and Constantine are interesting in how they talk about it all, looking for the con in all of this, and being pretty jaded about it all. But as we see more of it go on, Constantine is realizing that there’s more to it here than a typical revival meeting and that’s even getting through to Zed and her disbelief. But for Constantine, it’s when he hears Zach talking the language of angels that he gets worried about the whole thing considering his past experiences with angels.
We do see the con of it all elsewhere though as the man who had his leg regenerated does the smart thing and visits his doctor. But as the exam goes on, something inside has taken over him in a violent way, unleashing something evil upon the world. Using the language of angels and the power of hope, evil has found a new door into the world to cause more trouble. The more people saved by Zach, the more people that are used as a part of the rising darkness and its own nefarious plans. It’s definitely interesting to see how things go for this particular guy as he makes his way from the doctor’s office and causes more death while having Zed back at the revival doing some hands on time with Zachary and getting her own vision of angels through him. Constantine is still obviously in the disbelief camp and is just trying to get a feel for how and why Zachary is doing what he’s doing.
While we see Zed wanting to believe, he show her how it’s all just a front for something evil as the nearby lake is showing the real price being paid by the land with a whole lot of dead fish surfacing. Bringing Manny into things definitely works in a fun way as Zed wants to see this for herself, but after a bit of work, he does manage to get Manny there – but using Zed’s body to do it. Naturally, Manny speaks in the usual riddles but there’s enough there for Constantine to work with by using Zed herself afterward to clue them in on something really creepy – angel echolocation. Having it lead them to a redheaded angel laying in the leaves? Completely unexpected. And especially for Zed who can’t believe that she’s helping such a creature – that it even actually exists. She’s almost giddy when you get down to it. Introduces as Imogen, it turns out that she was taking Zachary to heaven only to be pulled down to Earth as Zachary grabbed onto her feather and pulled on it, which is what gives him his power.
With the plan now revolving around getting the feather back, there’s some decent conversation between Constantine and Zed about the reality of angels and religion since so much of her past has been about moving beyond a lot of this. It’s respectful to a degree, but Constantine also makes it clear that evil can’t just be prayed away and must be dealt with head on, which is one of several reasons he has a distaste for organized religion. He certainly prefers the direct approach to things and that plays into his attempt to get the feather back after protecting Imogen for the time being. So when he goes to Zachary in the evening to basically ask for it back and then take it back by force, well, it doesn’t go as smoothly as Constantine would have hoped. But he knew it was likely to go this way anyway since people don’t give up power easily once they have it.
Amusingly, they don’t need a really cunning plan to get the feather back, just a little deception. But in doing so, Zed takes on the feather at the same time that more of those that have been healed and taken over by ghouls are now on their way to get it. And to take out whoever gets in their way, which means a lot of believers are turning into collateral damage. There’s some decent little twists along the way as it goes on as Constantine holds back the horde while Zed runs off to get the feather back to Imogen. Manny and Imogen are interesting in how they talk about what her experiences as someone that has crossed into this plane, , but it also comes as Constantine realizes that Imogen is no angel but rather something else as Zachary was not on his way to heaven due to a mortal sin on his record.
Revealing that Imogen is actually a fallen angel isn’t a surprise to the viewer, but it plays out beautifully as her wings and outfit turns black and Manny realizes just how tempted he was by one of the fallen. The situation has some good moments as it goes into the final minutes with the way she reveals that this was all her plan to be on this plane and to gain access to the world. With Zed threatened, it has Constantine demanding that Manny actually get in the game for once and work with him to bring all of this to a close. It’s a good moment because Manny can’t stay on the sidelines as he was and to actively do something. It’s not something you expect to happen a lot, but it’s good to see this small change in the dynamic between the two.
In Summary:
Constantine has a delicate line to walk for a lot of people when it comes to dealing with real devils, angels and heaven itself and it does it pretty well here. With the investigation of the revival preacher and discovering what he thinks he has that’s giving him a whole lot of power, we see the way it comes at a price and just how much it affects. But when we get to the real trick of it all, it’s even darker and scarier when you get down to it. As Manny says, thanks to the rising darkness, the barrier between hell and earth is thinner than it’s ever been and that’s just going to be even more of a problem as time goes on. Constantine and Zed are definitely working well together here with what’s going on and the back and forth has them at a near balance, at least in terms of the mysteries they each contain. The series continues to be an utter delight every Friday night.
Grade: B+
