Constantine, Episode 5: Danse Voudou
Been a while since I did my last Constantine review. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of horror shows and while this particular episode isn't bad in the jumpscare or horrifying imagery department, y'know, sometimes you just need to take a break. Plus, y'know, Jessica Jones is a gigantic distraction. But hey, Constantine is back for the three or four of you who read it.
Anyway, episode five and we already have the obligatory team-up between the protagonist and his arch-enemy against a greater threat! Constantine's setting of having his nominal arch-enemy as a voodoo priest slash mob boss makes it a rather unique situation where neither of them want to have these ersatz murdering restless spirits running around after a talk-to-the-dead spell by Papa Midnite went awry and start raising the spirits from the dead, killing off random people. It's a standard horror ghost story, starting off with two ghosts that kill with a pattern and it turns out that the regrets of the ones who brought them to life ended up anchoring them to the living world. And, well, the whole Rising Darkness thing that's been hinted since episode two is the main fault of this. We get a hint that someone will betray Constantine and bring about the Rising Darkness, and since no one's really developed enough to actually be suspicious... I'm guessing it could go either way.
On the surface it's a relatively straightforward monster-of-the-week episode, with elements that draw from Western hitch-hiker ghost stories and the Japanese urban ghost Kuchisake-onna (with a perfect transcription of how the ghost acts depending on your answers). It's not terrible, it's not exactly memorable, and in the grand scheme of things it'll just be one among the many episodes leading from Constantine's introduction to the big plot twists and ending at the end of the season. But I do like it! I don't think it's as strong as the previous episode which featured some actual hard character moments on Constantine's part, but it's still fun.
Constantine and Midnite are absolutely awesome scenery chewers, absolutely rocking it with some insane pieces of dialogue. "You're the jackass of all trades and master of none", and Midnite talking about how Constantine is a 'magpie of magic' who try to cobble together his own haphazard magic from multiple cultures instead of just trusting a single pantheon of old gods like Midnite's loa is a nice little touch, though how much this will be delved upon I'm not quite sure. Midnite also mentions his voodoo-head sister, Cedella, and apparently it's a 'hotline to hell'. Throw in some nice little hints about their past meetings, plus Midnite sending Cedella to hell just like Constantine did, and the two's relationship feels a lot deeper instead of just two episodes.
Also, Jim Corrigan, better known to DC fans as alter-ego to the Spectre, shows up! We also get a bit of a prophecy hinting (it's so easy to randomly throw it in shows like Constantine) that he is well on his way to suffer from a tragic death and be reborn as the green, speedo-wearing angel of vengeance. But DC knowledge aside, Corrigan is an entertaining cop, and while he doesn't get to do much here beyond being a cynical cop who later, well, believes in all the ghostly things going on and delivers some hints about Zed's past, it might set him up for future appearances! If he does this season. Otherwise people unfamiliar with the Spectre will just be absolutely confused at the random green mist and bloodied face he has at the end.
Zed and Chas also get fairly more screentime here, with Zed getting a not unsignificant amount hanging around with Constantine and Corrigan. Constantine and Papa still steal the episode, of course, but Zed dealing with the hitchhiker ghost and doing her own detective work that go way beyond Constantine's safe zone and hints that Corrigan has about a missing person's file or whatnot. Chas actually puts his immortality (well, resurrection powers) to good use by braving the Kuchisake-onna and allowing her to stab him. A lot. Before waking up.
Constantine also makes use of more wacky magical trinkets... though the ones here, like the tacky-looking glowing bracelet jewel thing, isn't quite as spooky or creepy as the ones we saw before.
There's a nice little change of pace in that there's no unleashed demon or evil gypsy practitioner that Constantine needs to hunt and put down -- yes, people die because of the ghosts, but the root of it all is still an accident. One perpetrated by Papa Midnite instead of Constantine himself, yes, but still, it does give us a breath of fresh air after the throwaway villains (plus one where Midnite was the main villain) of the previous few episodes. The whole 'fixing your own mistake' thing probably resonated relatively well with Constantine's own goals for his soul's redemption.
Overall, though, it's an okay monster-of-the-week episode. It's a self-contained story that lets our main characters shine and develop for a bit, an unexpected cameo from another DC character, and utterly vague hints at the Rising Darkness and a traitor in the midst, whatever the hell that is. Zed's the obvious choice with her mysterious past and unexplained powers, so she's definitely the red herring. Chas? Manny? That hacker dude whose name I forgot? Does Papa Midnite count?
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