The gang attempts to save a demon-possessed Constantine as the show’s first two-parter concludes.

NBC

DRIVEN BY THE DEMONS

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

Constantine returned from its holiday break this week with the second half of its midseason closer, “The Saint of Last Resorts.” (Happy 2015, guys!) While it’s great to see the show finally dipping its toes into the waters of longer-form storylines, the long break between episodes didn’t do the show any favors, allowing any tension from the cliffhanger ending of “Part 1” to dissipate over the weeks. I hope if there is another two-parter, NBC will schedule it better. The episode itself was good, following up on the threads from “Part 1,” however, not quite sticking the landing. Constantine is still improving, but it’s shown it can still have a few hiccups along the way.

Picking up right where “Part 1” left off, “Part 2” sees a desperate Constantine bleeding out in the sewers, with Annie escaping and seemingly leaving him to die. Saving himself by allowing the demon Pazuzu into his body, Constantine is able to escape, but reveals that he’s only got a few days before Pazuzu takes control of his body. This storyline was entertaining, if not a little underwhelming at times, with John’s Bruce Banner-esque struggle to keep Pazuzu contained offering some nice material. (A dark comic sequence won’t be spoiled here.) Annie’s doubting presence continued to be a welcome addition to the show, and the whole affair just felt paced a lot better than the usual Constantine adventure.

NBC

However, there were a few missteps elsewhere in the episode. The conclusion of Zed’s capture by a mysterious cult ended up pretty anticlimactic. She simply escaped the van and was done with it, and a La Brujeria demon provided a fairly superfluous secondary antagonist. While the focus on John was nice, it would have been better to see Zed’s storyline resolve in a way other than “Oh, some dudes tried to kidnap me. No worries. So, what are we doing here?” Constantine’s exorcism itself proved slightly underwhelming. While the idea of Pazuzu taunting each member of Team Constantine with the ways John has destroyed their lives is a great one, many of them (namely Chas) simply didn’t have the backstory needed to give Pazuzu’s words the punch they needed.

THE BREAKDOWN

“The Saint of Last Resorts” conclusion has some great material, but a lot of the build up from its great first part is wasted by the second. Still, the character work being done with the core cast and new villain in La Brujeria is vastly improving the show, and Matt Ryan continues to turn in a stellar performance as the dabbler of the dark arts. With only a handful of episodes left in the first season, here’s to hoping Constantine can levy the groundwork laid down here and finally make Constantine the show it deserves to be.

What did you think of “Saints” second half? Did you think the cult story was cut short? Let me know on Twitter @MaxMielecki or perform your comment spells in the section below. Also, be sure to follow us @YouNerded.

78/100 – Good

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