Chas finally gets the spotlight as he and Constantine must save his daughter from the sorcerer Felix Faust.

NBC

CHAS VS. THE WORLD

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

Wait, did that just happen? Did Constantine really dedicate an entire episode to fleshing out Chas? At long last, Constantine’s best mate/plot device has received the development and backstory denied to him throughout the entire series. While a bit cliché in some places, “Quid Pro Quo” did an admirable job of finally giving Chas some substance and adding much needed backstory to the character that has been ignored for so long.

“Quid Pro Quo” begins with people mysteriously falling into comas across Brooklyn, NY. One of those affected, however, is Chas’ daughter, Geraldine. After Chas arrives and finds his daughter comatose, he goes to Constantine for help, and the two discover her soul has been stolen by one of Constantine’s comic book adversaries, Felix Faust. Faust, a noted B-list mage, has been stealing souls to power himself up and is demanding that Chas and Constantine play by his rules in order to get Geraldine’s soul back. A series of flashbacks also showed how Chas gained the power to come back to life and became estranged from his family.

NBC

The flashbacks are a mixed bag, with the origin of his healing ability being the result of a spell that caused him to absorb the souls of those who died around him in a fire. It provides not only the reasoning for his multiple lives, but also why he continued to travel with Constantine in order to make the extra lives he’s been given matter. However, the attempts to show his strained home life bordered on cliché, with Chas’ wife Renee being the stereotypical nagging wife that wishes he’d dedicate more time to being home than helping people. The present day material fared much better, with Felix Faust providing a suitable dastardly villain for the duo to face as they fought for control of Geraldine’s soul. Seeing Chas out of Constantine’s shadow and on the warpath was interesting, and Constantine got some great scenes and opportunities to showcase more of his abilities and spells. A shame that Faust seemingly didn’t survive his final encounter with Chas, though. He would have been a valuable addition to Constantine’s small rogues gallery.

THE BREAKDOWN

Chas finally got his due in “Quid Pro Quo,” and although his backstory wasn’t perfect, it finally gave the character a solid foundation to stand on. Constantine, himself, remains an enjoyable presence, and the show did demonstrate it could portray a proper villain in Felix Faust. I hope the lack of a body means we’ll be seeing him again. For all its faults, “Quid Pro Quo” was a pretty solid episode, and proves that little by little, Constantine is upping its game.

What did you think of Chas’ origin? Was Felix Faust’s appearance wasted? Let me know on Twitter @MaxMielecki or perform your comment spells in the section below. Also, be sure to follow us @YouNerded.

70/100 – Good

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