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Now That's More Like It – Recapping Constantine: 'The Saint Of Last Resorts'

By Rich Epstein

This was more like it. With the show's fate hanging in the balance, Constantine delivered its best episode to date, finally fulfilling much of the potential that it has shown thus far. Now we can only hope that it's enough to earn the show another season.

The Saint of Last Resorts opens with a nun, Anne Marie (Claire van der Boom), at a convent with a couple that has just had a baby. Anne Marie leaves and the mother asks the father, Hugo (Jose Pablo Cantillo) for a glass of water. When he leaves, something enters and slices the mother with its claws before taking the baby.

At the cabin, Zed (Angélica Celaya) is drawing a demon called an Ivunche that she has been having nightmares about. John Constantine (Matt Ryan) believes her nightmares are from touching the heart of the fallen angel, Imogen, as the Ivunche have not been around for millenia. Nice to see the show acknowledge what happened in past episodes. Anne Marie shows up looking for John. Zed wonders how Anne Marie was able to get through the cabin's defenses. The answer is, she didn't. Anne Marie is actually in Mexico, and what Zed is seeing is the result of a spell that allows Anne Marie to appear in to places at once. A nun using the black arts? Already you can tell that there is a lot more to Anne Marie than meets the eye. She tells John what happened to the baby. Anne Marie doesn't like John, in fact she wishes she could go to anyone else for help, but he owes her. She was at Newcastle.

John tells Zed she needs to stay behind, after last week's events she needs a rest. He tells her to stay inside and not wander around. She stays, and Chas (Charles Halford) joins him in Mexico. Okay, I am seriously starting to wonder what is going on here. They were both in the episode, but not in the same scenes. Does one of the actors have a restraining notice against the other or something? I mean, we are at episode 8. Zed has been in 6 of those episodes, and I think she has had like four total scenes with Chas.

John goes to see Anne Marie. They bicker, he cracks jokes, but she doesn't join in the banter. After seeing what happened to Astra she is all joked out. She has been living at the convent to repent for their sins in Newcastle.

Zed hears some noises and goes to investigate. She opens a door and nearly falls into an abyss as the door leads to nowhere. Literally. I'm glad the show is finally exploring the cabin. It has the potential to be really fun.

More bickering between John and Anne Marie. I didn't realize how much of a dick John was. Apparently, he left Anne Marie's bed to go down to a bar and talk to other women.

Anne Marie tells John that the local custom is to bury the placenta after the birth. John plans to use it to locate the missing baby. He and Anne Marie begin to dig it up, when John pulls a fruit from a tree. A fruit made of human skin. He pierces the fruit and blood begins to drip from all the fruits in the tree. Gross, but major points for originality. At least the bloody fruit means the baby is alive.

John tells Hugo that one of the sisters of Eve took the baby. Apparently, Eve wasn't Adam's first choice, just the first that said yes. See, this show is not only gross, it's educational. Bad news, the sister took another baby.

Zed ignores John's advice and goes to buy some art supplies. There, she runs into her model from last week, Eddie, and they go out for drinks. She touches his hand and gets a vision of the model in a white suit in a vault.

John finds out that the father of missing baby number 2 is Hugo's son. A clue! Both babies are from the same bloodline. John acts like a jerk to Anne Marie before doing a spell to figure out which sister of Eve is taking the babies. Chas attempts to explain to Anne Marie, John deals by not letting people in. Before John can do the spell, he is interrupted by another nun in the convent. It's the sister, Lamashtu, in disguise, and she tries to kill John, but he manages to fight her off.

Zed brings the model back to the cabin. She beats the crap out of him and asks why he is following her. He calls her Mary and tells her that her father wants her to come home. Wow, actual information about her background. It's a welcome change, and delivered well. Rather than having Zed just give John her life story, we listen as she and Eddie talk about the cult.

Hugo asks his grandmother why something would be targeting his family. It was a group of warlocks, La Brujeria that was hiding in Chile. The grandmother's grandfather was one of them, until he ran away. I'm guessing you aren't really supposed to do that. John thinks that the warlocks were destroyed long before but realizes that if they are back, they could be behind the rising darkness. Yay!!! We finally have some movement with the overarching plot.

Anne Marie realizes that John can't let himself care while continuing to fight as he does. He plans to lure Lamashtu out by disguising a chicken as a baby in the cop's clan by infusing it with the cop's blood and putting a glamour spell on it. He attempts to trick Anne Marie into making the offering like he did with Gary Lester a few episodes ago, but she sees right through it. When John tells her that no sacrifice is too great to save the life of a child, Anne Marie agrees to make the offering.

More about Zed's background. She grew up in a cult, and is somehow tied to its salvation. She spent most of her childhood in a locked room. Two other cult members show up, one with a gun. Zed threatens to kill the model, so the cult members do it for her. Ummm….What happened to the cabin's defenses? Remember seeing Gary Lester hanging from midair? These people just walk in, completely uninvited with no repercussions. Did Zed somehow shutoff the alarm system when she went out?

Back to Mexico for more background. Anne Marie brought John into the occult rather than the other way around. They make up before she goes to meet Lamashtu. Hugo blows it, jumping out and shooting at Lamashtu. She flees, and John, Chas and Anne Marie go after her.

Meanwhile, Zed is desperately trying to evade the cult members. She manages to lure one towards the Abyss Room, then pushes her in. One down, one to go.

John and Anne Marie find the babies, but Lamashtu catches them before they get out. John threatens to kill the baby that Lamashtu needs if she doesn't give him information. La Brujeria have figured out how to break the barrier and make Hell and Earth into one. That sounds rather unpleasant. Luckily, John happened to have an amulet that can stop Lamashtu. He uses it, and he, Anne Marie and Chas start to leave the sewer.

Meanwhile, Zed is trying to find the other cult member. She may want to turn around, as he is following behind her. He manages to drug her, knocking her out.

Before John and Anne Marie can escape another demon, an Ivunche, appears. John has no idea how to stop it. Anne Marie gives the babies to Chas to get to safety. She raises a gun and turns towards the demon. John tells her it won't do any good, but she has another plan. Anne Marie shoots John, leaving him for the demon and giving her and Chas time to get the babies out. It's not personal against John, but like he said, no price is to high to save a baby's life. John tells her that she's learning, and the episode ends.

For probably the first time this season, Constantine gave us two distinct story lines, and they both worked. Zed's was shorter, but it advanced her character farther than the previous five episodes that she's been in combined. First, she kicks some serious butt. Yeah, she gets captured, but it takes three people to do it and she takes out the first two. Plus, we get real, concrete information about her past rather than just hints. So far, everything that John has faced has been a real other-worldly threat. It will be interesting to see what he does against a group of crazies, assuming he gets the chance.

Anne Marie was a very welcome addition to the show, even if she isn't a regular. One of the things that makes Constantine such an intriguing show is the rich back-story they have to work with. They not only have the entire bible, but they have a man who has somehow become immersed into the world of the occult. Anne Marie gives us a compelling character to explore that past. She is smart, capable, and a legitimate match for John. Compare that to Gary Lester who existed for no other purpose than to be manipulated by John.

The ending was fantastic. Not only was it dramatic, but it made sense. We are dealing with two characters who spend their lives trying to atone for their role in the damnation of a child. So you can absolutely believe that Anne Marie would be willing to sacrifice John to save those children.

This isn't to say the episode was perfect as there were a few problems. First and foremost, can somebody explain exactly why John happened to have the one item that can stop Lamashtu? When he went to Mexico, he had no idea what he was facing, but he happened to bring an item that is useless against everyone except for one being in the known (and unknown) and that happens to be the monster of the week? And I really would have liked to have seen Zed explore the cabin a little more. There is so much potential for cool visuals in a house of magic and I would love to see more of it. Plus, it would help give a little suspense to the chase through the house later. When we only see one room in the entire cabin, and it's a bottomless pit, then there is a chase through the cabin later, we kinda know somebody is falling in. My final complaint about the episode is Chas. He really needs to do more. He was barely involved, other than a quick conversation with Anne Marie. He has some kind of interesting back-story seeing as how he doesn't die, so put him to use.

The problems with the episode are minor, however, and shouldn't take away from the fact that for the first time the show really feels like it is making strides. Last week's episode was good, but I thought this was better and it did much more to advance the overall story. I am looking forwards to the next episode more than I have at any time since the pilot. Of course, we have a couple of weeks to wait with the holidays approaching. I suppose I should be grateful that we don't have to wait until March like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Rich Epstein writes for Bleeding Cool.  He can be found on twitter at @kaspe_r11. 

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