Josh recaps Season 1 Episode 7 of Constantine, titled Blessed are the Damned, where Constantine and Zed head to Kentucky to investigate a preacher who has suddenly gained the power to perform miracles! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts on the episode.
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Episode Recap of Constantine, Season 1 Episode 7: Blessed are the Damned
Constantine this week begins with a “washed’ up Pentecostal-like preacher trying to reach his dwindling audience. His plan? To follow in his father’s footsteps, and have a demonstration with live, poisonous snakes. His sister warns him it is a bad idea.
Turns out it was a bad idea, as the sermon that night doesn’t seem to be reaching people, so he chooses to handle the venomous snake. It bites him, and he falls to the ground pretty quickly. The church freaks out, but to the amazement of everyone, he rises back up–alive and well, and somehow, a glowing feather appears in his hand. He pockets the feather quick, and stands up. Then he cures a man with missing a leg, and everyone celebrates the amazing “miracle”.
So we see Zed doing some like model art, when she is suddenly hit with a vision of snakes at her feet. Eddie, the model, hits on her, and asks her to dinner.
Zed heads back to John’s place, and the vision is explained–They are heading to Kentucky to investigate this preacher’s newfound ability.
At the church, the parish has grown so large, people are forced to wait outside to see the preacher. He cures a few people of blindness, and various ailments. The preacher begins chanting a strange language, which Constantine recognizes as the language of Angels. John is immediately concerned, as that power usually has consequences.
The man who re-grew his leg visits his doctor, who can’t believe what has happened. But of course this miracle is too good to be true, and the patient goes berserk, and murders the doctor.
John decides to have a chat with the new preacher, and Zed, after touching him sees a bright light which seems to stun her. John confronts the preacher about his new language, but the preacher doesn’t really have a good answer.
Meanwhile, the newly-berserk man who had killed the doctor winds up murdering a cop next.
Zed tells John about what she felt–that he seems to believe in what he is doing, and there is some sort of entity involved. She begins to defend him and this town, but John is still concerned that there is more going on here, and it isn’t good. They check out the surrounding area, and find that a lake has been poisoned due to this “magic”.
After some pleading and a ritual, Manny pays a visit to John. Manny gives him a tip, to face the sun when he hears the language, and that will help him understand what is going on. Suddenly the two of them hear something in the distance, and on the ground, they find an angel who seems injured.
Her name is Imogen, and she explains that she fell when trying to take a mortal (the preacher) to heaven and lost a feather, which is what the preacher has. John takes her to an abandoned farmhouse, to keep her safe. Manny makes another appearance, and checks on this angel. Manny tells John he has to get the feather back in order to prevent this angel from dying. John decides to cast a protection spell to keep evil away from this angel.
John decides to attempt to snatch the feather, but the feather puts a forcefield out, pushing John away. Outside, Zed is attacked by the berserk man, but luckily, John shows up, and is able to take the man out.
Back at the abandoned farmhouse, John tells Manny and Imogen about the “ghoul”, which he explains as a person affected by magic gone wrong.
The next day, at the church, Zed is able to convince the preacher to baptize her. During the baptism, she is able to snatch the feather. But more ghouls attack, causing a bunch of chaos. John does his best to protect everyone, and makes a run for it. Zed, John and the Preacher head for the church, but John tells Zed to get the feather to Imogen while he tries to hold off the ghouls.
Inside the church, the preacher is wallowing in misery. But turns out this preacher is a sinner and a murderer. This means that the preacher was bound for Hell, not Heaven, so getting the feather back to this “angel” turns out to not be the best idea.
Zed replaces the feather in Imogen, and the ghouls stop, but that turns out to be a bad thing. Imogen reveals her fallen self, and Manny realizes what is going on. Imogen tries to make her escape, but the protection spell keeps Imogen from leaving, so she grabs Zed by the throat. John pleads for Manny’s help, but he says he cannot interfere. However, he has second thoughts, and after inhabiting Zed’s body, rips out the heart of Imogen.
Back at the church, the parish has shrank back down again, but his sister seems proud that he has stuck to his morals.
Back home, Manny and John talk, and they are both worried about the “rising darkness”. Meanwhile, to finish the episode, Zed gets a call from Eddie, whose date she forgot about. But Eddie seems to up to more than just romance, as someone in the back of the car is disappointed she is not coming…
Josh’s Thoughts: Constantine, Season 1 Episode 7: Blessed Are the Damned
I really do not like the acting job for Zed. She just doesn’t seem convincing as a character to me. I actually thought this was a compelling story, and thought most of the acting was good this episode with the exception of Zed. Unfortunately, she was a pretty big distraction though, which sort of tainted the entire episode for me. So far the best episodes for the show have been the ones without her in it.
I kind of wish i knew the “rules” of Constantine a little more. It seems like every episode a “rule” is broken that Constantine wasn’t expecting. I would like the mythology to be more established, and actually follow the rules of it, rather than every episode having John be shocked that something has broken the rule that we haven’t really been introduced to yet.
I think the show would have done better off with a fairly simple, straight forward villain that gets people used to the universe the show takes place in, rather than throw us, the audience into a show where all the make-believe rules are being broken before we understand what they are. I get that it is a fantasy/fictional universe, but for me to find it believable, I have to have some understanding of what is supposed to happen in the show before stuff that isn’t “supposed” to happen begins to occur.
Sadly, I am still underwhelmed by the show, and it seems like NBC is too, as so far the network hasn’t announced anything further than the 13 episodes the show has already greenlit. We will have to see where the show ends up after that.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 7 of Constantine: Blessed Are the Damned
I know a lot of people have been saying that Constantine feels like a rip off of Supernatural (even though John Constantine was around in the comics waaaay before Supernatural ever existed), but I hadn’t really felt that way. To me, it just seemed like they both covered, well, the supernatural realm, which includes angels and demons and such. But this episode was the first time that Constantine really reminded me of Supernatural, because early in the series run of Supernatural, there was a similar episode where the Winchester boys investigate a preacher who claims to be performing miracles. I know it’s probably likely that this storyline may have already been covered in the comics ahead of Supernatural‘s time, but still, it felt almost cliche.
However, the actual storyline past the subject of the preacher was much different, and I found it quite interesting. It had its own little twist that I didn’t see coming, when the angel turned out to be a fallen angel dragging the preacher to Hell. It was kind of random how all the people that the preacher healed ended up essentially turning into monsters though.
It’s also kind of weird how they switch up whether the episodes include Chas or Zed, or both. It seems like the majority should include all 3 if they’re a team, not one or the other. I’m still not really liking Zed, but maybe she’ll get more interesting once we discover what her back story is, which at the end of this episode, it seems like we’re going to soon. Let’s see how this Winter finale goes.
Scenes from Constantine, Season 1 Episode 8: The Saint of Last Resorts
Here are scenes from next week’s Constantine episode titled The Saint of Last Resorts:
