Constantine: A Father’s Love and 47 Souls

Courtesy of NBC

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Last week we saw John returned to himself. No demon driving his meat-suit, but one thing was made abundantly clear. What we had seen to that point may have served as the origin of a bigger story yet to come. And if Chas and Zed were planning on sticking around, they would need to prepare themselves for what is to come. I’m pretty sure that Chas was not prepared for this.

A young girl, older than five but younger than ten, stands in the middle of her room brushing doll hair. While talking to her doll she turns slowly as if she heard something. When she turns all the way around, she discovers that she is surrounded by black smoke. The doll falls to the floor and we all know that means. The girl’s name is Geraldine. And Chas is her father.

At the Mill House, Zed is packing. I’d say frantically packing but let’s not get carried away. John has put a spell on the Mill House that will lead any visitors away from the house. Zed references the last time he put a protection spell on the house. As was pointed out by a viewer of ours (credit to Keiran), the moment she left the house, that protection spell was broken. Anything that came as a result of that, is on Zed, not John. This new spell does little to put her at ease. She does reference ‘them’. Insinuating that if they will always find her. So running is somehow favorable to hanging out at John’s place. Then John inquires further.

John: Look, you kept your cards close about your past and chose not to push, but I am pushing now.
Zed: They call themselves the Resurrection Crusade.
John: And what do they want with you?
Zed: They’re fanatics. Completely bent on their leaders vision. Their leader? He believes I’m crucial to the vision.
John: So, you found yourself in the crosshairs of a cult… … …You have yet to flinch in the face of the Underworld. Why are you so afraid of a man from this one?
Zed: Because he’s my father.

It’s important to note that there have been a handful of vital questions that have gone unanswered. That’s alright. It’s part of the allure to this show and overall product. The Newcastle thing is unfolding layer by slow layer. As seen above, we are starting to see into Zed’s past. The most important question in my opinion and the one we know the least about is Chas. What we know is that he is John’s associate. He can handle himself. He is remarkably loyal (something the mother of his child seems to not appreciate), and he can’t die. Why is that? Hopefully before the conclusion of this season, we will get an answer to that. For now, a flashback will have to suffice.

Two years earlier, Chas is in a bar. From the looks of the table, Chas is between 3 and 7 beer deep. Constantine is drunk and leaving with a lady. John puts a spell (or at least attempts to) on Chas. Moments later a band takes the stage, before they get to the second verse, the stage is on fire. Chas single handedly worked to get people out of the burning building. During this flashback, Chas is driving and listening to “Don’t Fear the Reaper” which cannot be a coincidence.

At the Mill House, John packs for Brooklyn. There are two important references. The first of which is about what looks like the beginnings of a shaving kit that belonged to Aleister Crowley. It wasn’t familiar to me so I did a little research. What I found was intriguing. We don’t have the time tonight to go into that, but if you have any interest Google “Aleister Crowley”. A very interesting person to reference on a show like this at the very least. The second deals with Achilles. A short rope or cord-like tool that was fashioned from Achilles’ heel. The rope when wrapped around a part of a person, renders it numb.

Chas is met with resistance by his daughter’s mother. He ignores it and goes upstairs to give his daughter a gift. He opens the door to discover that she is lying on her back and motionless.

John and Zed meet Chas at the hospital. After hearing about the how, John attempts to conclude the what. He pulls out the Aleister Crowley brush and swipes it along the child’s lips. It reveals celestial burn marks. Which are only present when a soul departs its vessel. The door opens as John turns. He’s facing the child’s mother, and the tension is palpable. This is now the second woman to tell Zed to run away from John.

After brushing off Rene (Geraldine’s mother), Chas wakes up in another flashback. This time it Chas in the hospital bed. The overall tone of the respective relationship between father/daughter and husband/wife is much more loving. The conclusion is that he should have died in that fire (referring back to the previous bar scene flashback).

Our faithful three arrive at an old warehouse full of strange items. Inside is a medium that John hopes will help them. They are met by hostility immediately. John with a shotgun pointed at his chest. This man claims he will never help John Constantine. Then swiftly Chas relieves him of his shotgun, flips it around the other way, and strikes the man in the face with the butt end of his own shotgun.

The ritual works as planned. The medium is able to channel the child’s inner thoughts. John attempts to get Geraldine to look around and convey her surroundings. Before she can comply, the medium’s body goes limp and the connection is lost. The medium’s body ascends until it is looking down on the table. The medium appears to wake but it is no longer him. Whatever is pulling the strings is familiar with John. The figure controlling the medium begins and incantation and burns the medium to death, remotely.

John hands Zed a notepad that has a spell written in it. She uses that to instigate a vision. Cauldrons, books, and a sign. “Haskins Railroad Yard”. A railroad yard that apparently doesn’t exist anymore. At the last second, the image of a cloaked man emerges from the smoke just in time to swipe a knife in Zed’s direction as she snaps out of the vision.

They arrive at the Haskins site to find nothing. Chas is frustrated and Zed is confused. John knocks off a hub cap and throws it like a Frisbee toward the nothingness. There is a ripple and the hub cap is swallowed. John begins reciting an incantation and a massive building reveals itself.

The cloaked man is Felix Faust (played by Mark Margolis, whom I know from Breaking Bad and Oz). A lifelong apprentice and perpetual second fiddle. Now working for himself. Chas tries to assert himself. Assuming that if you end the sorcerer’s life, his spells release their grip. Faust plays with Chas from ten feet away like it was child’s play.

Faust offers a deal. There is a demon circumventing Faust’ efforts. Cyphening power from the stolen souls for his own us. If John casts said demon back to hell, relieving Faust of the headache, he will release Geraldine’s soul. Faust and John extend their hands and recite the same incantation. This opens a gash on either man’s hand. They shake hands to finalize the deal.

Chas returns to the hospital to be with his daughter. He’s too close to this one and it could compromise the task at hand. Chas falls into another flashback. ALAS! we have an answer to one of the big questions (or so I think). This flashback takes us to the day after the fire. Chas informs John that he didn’t leave when John did. He was in that fire. Overnight, and his injuries were healed.

(Chas drops a newspaper that reads, “47 victims of Nightclub Fire Released”)
John (chuckling): It bloody worked.
Chas: What worked?
John: The protection spell I cast on you at the bar.
Chas: You were mumbling. That wasn’t magic, that was…pathetic.
John: You don’t understand. That spell is a myth. A legend. Merlin created it and cast it on the crest of King Arthur. If a Knight of the Round Table were killed by a lesser Knight, he would absorb the lives of those around him.
Chas: What are you saying?
John: The spell not only saved your life, but you gained the lives of all of those lost in the fire as well.
Chas: You’re saying I can’t die?
John: On the contrary, you most certainly can die. 47 times to be precise.

John and Zed don’t have any luck drawing out the demon. Zed volunteers as bait. John will have to put her under a spell, wait for the demon to enter a circle they’ve created, break Zed’s spell and light the circle all before the demon gets wise. It doesn’t go exactly according to plan but John makes it work. When he and Zed return to the hospital, there are more people suffering from Geraldine’s affliction.

John informs Chas that the deed is done and they try to leave. Rene interjects. She knows about this other side that Chas and John operate in. She demands to come. John rejects the idea and slaps John. Hard. She also reveals that John is in some direct or indirect way responsible for Rene and Chas’ divorce. Zed then reassures her the job will get done and that she will need to be here when her daughter wakes up.

John and Chas pay Faust another visit. They think its payment time. Faust chooses to renegotiate the deal. The demon was destroyed not banished to hell. Semantics, but a detail Faust is going to use to further leverage the payout for this particular soul. John reluctantly accepts the new terms. Chas finds this unacceptable. At the point in the conversation where John is open to suggestion, Chas knocks him out cold, puts John in the back seat of the cab, turns and says, “My family’s suffered enough because of you.”

Chas presents himself to Faust offering 32 souls in exchange for his daughter’s. Faust doesn’t believe him. Even threatens to take Chas’ soul right where he stands. Faust can’t see that Chas is carrying more than the standard issue one soul. So Chas tries to prove it to him and slices his own throat.

At the hospital, Zed reveals her abilities to Rene and even offers to attempt to communicate with Geraldine telepathically. It actually works momentarily. Then Zed is instantly thrown into excruciating pain. In the chaos including doctors storming the room, Zed’s purse falls and with it falls the address of Faust.

Chas wakes up from his not quite suicide attempt. As does John from getting knocked out. Inside Chas is willing to sacrifice 31 souls including his own and in return, Geraldine’s soul will be returned to her body and safe until her natural death. John runs in just in time. Chas and Faust shake, but uses the cord from Achilles Heel and wraps it around both of their hands, then pulls the pin on a grenade. Theory being, if Faust is destroyed the souls would be returned.

In the aftermath of the explosion, Rene gets up and is inconsolable. John tries to explain that this is what he does. Her screams reveal only the phrase, “because of you”. Following the break, John apologizes to Rene for what she’s witnesses and tries to explain. Rene’s view is narrow. She only sees what Chas’ role does to her and their daughter. John tries to convey the good Chas does. Then sends her off to be with Geraldine.

In another flashback we see the moment that Chas presents John with his divorce papers. Chas begs him to reverse the spell, but John can’t (or so he says). John gives him the hard sell on what he could mean for the fight against evil. Chas agrees to his higher calling.

Chas returns to Rene’s house to the warmest welcome he’s had in our exposure to he and Rene. They exchange pleasantries and she hands him what looks like a photo album. Chas smiles, leans in and hugs Rene with one arm and races upstairs. The photo album is filled with the pictures of the 47 people who correspond to the souls he was imparted with. Rene, essentially, gave him permission to tell Geraldine what Dad does and why.

John sits on the hospital bed that now hold Zed. She starts to stir and John softly explains that she blew a fuse. It takes years of training to do what she attempted. She starts to roll over and utters something a very great importance to John.

Zed: One more thing. About your mother.
John: What about my mother.
Zed: She said her death, wasn’t your fault.
(a long pause)
John: You saw my mother?
(John lies down next to Zed in her hospital bed and eventually cracks a smile of relief)