Meet Anne-Marie, yet another member of the Newcastle team. Anne-Marie calls up Constantine for help after a woman is murdered and her baby is stolen. The turmoil between the two post-Newcastle is plain from the moment she contacts him. He heads out and Zed stays behind. She runs into the model who’d been attempting to get a date out of her and learns his motives for following her.
Constantine and Chas’s trip to Mexico featured a lot of things coming at them. Showing up in Mexico were the violent Lamashtu, an Invuche creature, and possible confirmation of the Brujeria. Spells and magic weren’t able to get Constantine all the way this week, and his reliance on his wits got true information out of Lamashtu. Finally, we know some true information about the Rising Darkness. Anne-Marie’s turning of Constantine’s own words and Zed’s encounter with the Resurrection Crusade left us with two cliffhangers, and we will have to wait to see it resolved.
Positives
Episodes where Constantine embraces its comic book roots even more seem to stand out from some the others. Finally bringing in the truth of the Rising Darkness in addition to the final moments with the Invuche helped to finally put Constantine on track for a true ongoing storyline, which is great to see. Incorporating the Resurrection Crusade will only amp up the upcoming plots even more.
Anne-Marie, though not totally identical to her comic counterpart, had an awesome dynamic with Constantine. The mix of her grief over Newcastle and her being spurned romantically by Constantine made for a truly stand-out dynamic between the two characters. Nothing highlighted their feelings for each other better than her turning his words against him to save the baby.
As annoying as cliffhangers tend to be, this one was really surprisingly effective. Both Constantine and Zed were in serious danger at the end, and it definitely amps up the intensity of the show. That added to the long-awaited addition of true ongoing plot made this an episode that was worth the wait.
Negatives
I’m not sure why Zed took her date back to the mill. If she was suspicious of the guy, why bring him to the one safe place? Also, how did the Resurrection Crusade guys hunting her get in? Did they lose some to the traps, or did Zed turn them off when she brought the guy in? Also, the fight in the mill could have been far cooler. There are magical gadgets and gizmos all over the place, and not a single one was used or activated. She just pushed one of them through the magic abyss door.
The unveiling of the Brujeria and the Resurrection Crusade don’t have nearly enough impact for the casual viewer. They won’t know that the Invuche is connected to the Brujeria (at first glance I thought it was the magic modified chicken got wrong) and nothing is known about the Resurrection Crusade on the show, even with the acknowledgment of Zed’s name being Mary. Dropping reveals like these is less impactful when they sit with no context for like a month.
The Verdict
Constantine’s midseason finale was quite a successful one. Hopefully, it can hold it’s momentum through January.
