Constantine Episode Recap, Season 1 Episode 10: Quid Pro Quo

Episode Recap of Constantine, Season 1 Episode 10: Quid Pro Quo

The episode begins with a mysterious hooded figure casting a spell which conjures up dark smoke. The smoke enters a house and engulfs a little girl.

At Constantine’s mill house, Constantine informs Zed that the house is now safe due to a spell he cast around it. Zed tells Constantine more about the cult that was after her, The Resurrection Crusade, whose leader believes that Zed is crucial to their vision of the future due to her visions. The leader is her father. Zed looks at the scry map and sees that the dot over NYC is bleeding. They book their flights to head there, which is also where Chas is driving to right now, since it’s his weekend to see his daughter.

In a flashback to two years ago, Chas and Constantine are at a bar. A drunken Constantine starts to leave with a girl, but first throws some salt toward Chas and casts a protection spell. He leaves just as a band starts playing, which Chas goes over to watch. As the band starts their set, they have some special effects involving fire. But it soon gets out of hand, and the fire quickly spreads throughout the club, trapping people inside. Chas tries to save a girl, but he, too, collapses, as the roof caves in.

Back in the present, as Zed and Constantine are packing up and getting ready to leave, Zed informs Constantine that there are 12 people in Brooklyn that have fallen into unexplained comas. Constantine packs a couple of tools, including a brush and powder that came from Alistair Crowley, and sinew from Achilles’s heel that is impervious to magic.

Chas arrives to see his daughter, but his (ex?) wife, Renee, scolds him for being late. When he goes upstairs to his daughter’s bedroom, she is collapsed on the floor with blood coming from her nose. It’s the little girl from the beginning of the episode.

Zed and Constantine meet Chas at the hospital and go in to see Chas’s daughter, Geraldine. Constantine uses the brush and powder on Geraldine’s lips and they see that celestial burn marks have been left behind, which happens when a soul has left a body. Constantine says that her soul is being used for a dark purpose, and she doesn’t have long, maybe a day or two. Constantine says he’ll do everything he can to get her back, as long as Chas promises to do everything he tells him to.  They go to see a friend of Constantine’s who’s a medium, bringing Geraldine’s doll. On their way out, Renee comes in, angry that Constantine is there.

In another flashback, Chas is in the hospital following the fire at the club. His wife and daughter are surprised to see him wake up, because they had been told he was dead when they pulled him out of the fire. He hugs them both close.

Constantine, Zed, and Chas go to an army surplus store, where the medium, named Fennel, works. At first Fennel refuses to help, but Chas takes Fennel’s gun and turns it on him. Fennel, Zed, and Constantine sit around a table with lighted candles and begin the seance. Fennel speaks some words, and Constantine hands him Geraldine’s doll. Then Geraldine begins speaking through Fennel. She says that she’s alone and scared. Before they are able to get any more information out of her, someone else takes control of Fennel, lifting his body into the air. This other person seems to know Constantine. Then he speaks some words, which cause Fennel to burst into flames.

Constantine explains that the seance was hijacked by a powerful mage. He says that only 5 spell books contain that spell, and if they can locate the spell book, they’ll be that much closer to getting Geraldine back. Zed touches the book containing the spell, and has a vision of a warehouse, and sees the words Haskins Railroad Yard. Then suddenly, in the vision, a hooded figure swings a knife at her, making her leave the vision – but she has a cut on her arm in real life.

The three of them go check out Haskins Railroad Yard, which has been long shut down. There’s just an empty field there, but Constantine quickly figures out the warehouse is invisible by way of a cloaking spell, and makes the warehouse reappear. They go inside and find the hooded figure. Constantine introduces them to Felix Faust, 2nd fiddle to the greatest black magician of his generation. He boasts how he alone figured out how to separate soul from body, and that those souls have given him immense power. Chas lunges at Faust, who easily stops him and hurts him just by waving his hand around. Faust makes a deal with Constantine: if Constantine casts a certain demon to hell that’s been leeching off of his power, then he will free Geraldine. They make a blood oath and shake on it. Faust tells Constantine where to find the demon, and gives him a special tool to help see it.

As they leave, Chas questions why they aren’t killing Faust, since a magician’s spells are broken if he dies. Constantine says that Faust is stronger than him now, thanks to the Rising Darkness. Constantine tells an angry Chas to go to the hospital and be with Renee.

Constantine and Zed go to the warehouse to find the demon, and set up a trap to catch it. He uses the tool Faust gave him to look around for it, and finally spots it. They decide they’ll need to lure it to them.

Chas returns to the hospital and brings Geraldine’s doll back to her. In another flashback, we find out that 47 people died in that club fire. Constantine is pleased to realize that the protection spell he put on Chas worked. It was a spell that Merlin placed on King Arthur. He explains that the spell not only saved Chas’s life, but that he also gained the lives of the others who died in the fire as well. In other words, Chas can die 47 times.

Constantine’s plan is to place a spell on Zed which will put her to sleep and lure the demon to her. Constantine hides, waiting for the demon to appear. When it does, Constantine’s lighter doesn’t work. He breaks Zed’s sleeping spell just as demon gets right up above Zed’s face, and she wakes up and screams. Constantine has to use an electricity bar to stun it and save Zed, and the electricity also kills the demon.

They head over to the hospital to get Chas before they go back to Faust. Renee insists on coming too, and slaps Constantine. Zed convinces Renee to stay, and says she’ll stay there with her.

However, when Constantine and Chas return to Faust, Faust says the deal was for Constantine to cast the demon back to hell, but Constantine destroyed it by energy dispersion. Therefore, Faust refuses to uphold his end of the deal. Constantine and a very angry Chas leave, and Chas says he gave Constantine a chance, but now he wants to do things his way. Chas punches Constantine, knocking him out, and puts him in the the backseat of his taxi.

In another flashback, Chas gets home with a birthday cake for his daughter – but he missed her party due to helping Constantine save a family. Renee is getting upset about Chas caring more for other families than their own.

In the present, Chas goes back to see Faust. He tells him that he can give Faust 32 souls in exchange for his daughter’s. Faust doesn’t believe that he has any more than one soul to offer. However, to prove his point, Chas slits his own neck, killing himself.

At the hospital, Zed comforts Renee, telling her there’s nothing she could have done. Zed offers to try to communicate with Geraldine, and is successful for a moment – but then Zed holds her head in pain. The doctors come in to help. Meanwhile, Renee sees a note drop out of Zed’s purse with the address to Faust’s place.

Back at Faust’s warehouse, Chas comes back to life. Faust believes him now. Outside, Constantine wakes up in the back of the taxi, and heads into the warehouse. Faust agrees to return Geraldine’s soul in exchange for Chas’s soul and the other 31 souls he’s carrying. Constantine runs in just then telling Chas not to do it, saying that if Chas surrenders those souls and his own, he will die.  Chas grabs Faust’s hand – but uses the Achilles’s heel sinew, which wraps around  Faust’s wrist. He says he’s changing the terms of the deal – they’ll both die, but only one of them is coming back. He then throws a grenade, and Constantine begins to clear out. However, Renee shows up at that moment, but Constantine gives her cover right as the grenade explodes. They’re both fine, and Constantine explains to a shocked Renee that this is what Chas does, and tries to comfort her.

In the flashback, Chas tells Constantine that Renee says he’s broken her trust, and begs Constantine to reverse the spell. But he says he’s been trying to, and he can’t. Constantine tells Chas that he can choose to either shoulder the burden, or wield it as a weapon by his side. Either way, Constantine says he’s with him every step of the way.

In the present, Chas goes to Renee’s house, and she is happy to see him alive. She gives him a scrapbook that he had asked for. Then he goes upstairs to see Geraldine. He opens the book and shows her pictures of his “friends” and tells her stories about them. They are the people who died in the fire.

Constantine visits Zed in the hospital. He lightly scolds her for baring her soul to the spirit world, which takes years of training. As she rolls over to go back to sleep, she tells him that his mother said that her death wasn’t his fault. He tries to inquire further, but Zed is already asleep. Then he lays down in the bed next to Zed.