Episode Recap: Constantine, Season 1 Episode 12 – Angels and Ministers of Grace

Episode Recap of Constantine, Season 1 Episode 12: Angels and Ministers of Grace

This  episode of Constantine begins with a woman walking down a pretty run down street. Her name is Taylor, and she is back because her brother was murdered it seems. A man offers her some drugs, and it looks like she was into some nefarious activities before. She gets the drugs, and begins to inject herself, and the power lines go nuts. She is then grabbed by a dark figure, who takes both syringes of drugs and plunges them into her as she screams.
The next scene shows the police investigating her death, and she has red streaks across her body. The cops are perplexed how she died–when she suddenly awakens.

John and Chas look for demons to hunt, and seem to come up empty. John pays a visit to Zed, seems to be working on her meditative abilities.

Manny shows up for a visit, and tells John about the woman from the beginning of the episode. Manny seems testy with John, and burns John’s handy-dandy map. Manny tells him he needs to use his instincts better. So off to the hospital this woman has been taken to.

John identifies this Taylor woman, and Chas provides a distraction, so John and Zed can examine Taylor closer. Zed has a vision with her, seeing a shadow of an angel, surrounded by a bright light. The woman goes into cardiac arrest, and the doctors try to help her. Zed then reacts, and begins seizing. After snapping out of it, Zed is given what looks like an MRI. Taylor seems to have died, and John wants to get a closer look at the body. Using his fancy card trick, he provides a fake ID, and gets into the morgue. John recites some incantation, and we see Taylor has a “dark” body, and John describes it as “dark matter”.

Chas tells John to check on Zed, but John seems to be avoiding her. Back with Zed, a doctor shows her the scans, and John does actually show up. It looks like Zed might have a tumor in her head, and the doctor wants to perform a biopsy. The doctor seems to think the mass could have been causing the visions. John thinks otherwise about the visions though.

Another patient gets a visit from what appears to be a janitor. He heads to a supply closet, and begins drinking some beverage. The entity from the beginning of the episode has returned, and isn’t too keen on his drinking habits, and kills the janitor.

Outside the hospital, Manny pays John another visit, and John is upset that Manny has known about Zed’s tumor. Manny says he can’t help her, and tells him to focus on what he can control. John then smashes a jar, which is apparently a breath of air of Hades, and it knocks out Manny, and puts a marking on Manny’s chest. The spell seems to make Manny stay stuck in the body he inhabits, but Manny says that he loses his angelic power.

Back in the hospital, Manny and John find the dead janitor. John digs into the body, and finds a “heart of darkness”. Manny indicates that a “black diamond” caused this. To further their investigation, John has Manny look into the history of the two victims. He does so, and seems to be having some feelings for a female doctor, which he is clearly finding odd. Turns out she has feelings for the body she is inhabiting, and she pulls him into supply closet for some….fun.

Heading back to base, John looks for something to help him. Chas learns about the brain tumor. After some looking, John seems to have his own fragment of the black diamond, which he thinks will help him. John decides to have Chas play guinea pig, and touch the black diamond to see what happens. Chas grabs it, and…his veins turn black, and John tells him to drop the stone. He seems unable to, until John hits him with a stun baton.

John returns to the hospital, and tells Manny about his experiment. John realizes what Manny has been up to in the closet though, and gives him a hard time about it. Manny was able to get the patient files, and it looks like both were substance abusers. Manny suspects one of the patients as a possible culprit.

Zed, meanwhile, is visited by the doctors again, and they are wanting to schedule the biopsy. Manny pays a visit to Zed, and Zed wants to know where her visions come from. Manny doesn’t give her an answer, but seems to lean towards her powers are for good.

This patient that John is investigating, named Morris, heads out for a cigarette. John looks around for him, but the man is attacked by the mysterious entity we have seen this episode. John finds them, and tries to save Morris, but the entity takes John out. John wakes up, and Manny has shown up. After some discussion, it turns out Zed’s doctor seems to possibly be the evil being. He approaches Zed, to protest her refusal of the biopsy. John and Manny approach the doctor, and he the doctor takes off.

John and Manny pursue, and Zed joins in the pursuit as well. John decides that he is going to reverse the spell on Manny, so angelic Manny shows up. Manny takes the doctor into the “light”, and he disappears. The black diamond fragment that caused the doctor’s transformation, combines with the pieces John had.

The episode finishes up with Zed and John having a heart to heart. Manny shows up too, and now Zed can see him. John seems content with letting Zed be enamored with seeing an angel, and the episode ends.