Constantine, Episode 10: Quid Pro Quo
So this is the Chas (I may have misspelled his name for like nine episodes now) origin story. We learn about his backstory and his family life, which has been built up for quite some time now. Apparently Chas isn't just immortal -- he's got 47 lives stored within him all Full Metal Alchemist style. By the end of this episode, he has 30. Apparently a half-drunk Constantine cast a 'joke' spell from the ages of Merlin which, when Chas ended up being trapped in a burning accident, ends up sucking the souls of the other 47 people present (because he's a worthier knight than the rest) and, well, basically having the ability to return from the dead 47 times.
And apparently his wife and daughter are estranged simply because Chas keeps going off to help Constantine to fight Monkey Kings and shit, a far more mundane and non-mystical reason than I expected with this show... and while it's understandable and we don't get to see a lot of the interplay between Chas and Renee I felt that this angle could've really been explored further instead of just having Renee being upset because Chas missed a birthday party or two. Bringing up Newcastle and being afraid that Geraldine would end up like Astra is actually a good point, but after that one line of dialogue it ends up being shuffled aside in favour of the rather trite TV excuse of "you don't spend enough time with your family" deal.
The villain of the piece is Felix Faust, a classic DC villain that is the go-to villain when they need a sorcerer villain that's threatening enough but don't want to disturb the fringe properties like Hellblazer or Sandman or cheapen one of the bigger pan-series threats like Trigon or Neron or whatever. Felix Faust here is basically a pretty generic evil wizard, with Constantine consistently pointing out what a big loser Felix Faust is if not for the Rising Darkness. He's casting this spell that steals the souls of random people in Brooklyn -- Chas's daughter included -- to power him up for, uh, generic evil villain purposes, I guess.
I honestly didn't expect Felix Faust to appear in the show, so I was, well, pretty surprised that the big scary Fennel-possessing evil demonic voice was good ol' Felix Faust. He's dressed more like Emperor Palpatine than his normal quasi-Egyptian (well, Atlantean) garb from the comics, and looks far less menacing, though it fits for this particular incarnation on the character.
(Poor Fennel! Apparently he's an actual character from Hellblazer. In any case that was a gruesome death for someone who clearly wants no part in this)
Felix Faust's power boost does complicate things because he can threaten to kill Chas's daughter, and he sends Constantine to do his dirty work in hunting down the demon Karabasan (who looks like a lightning wolf). Random little fun fact here -- in real life, Karabasan is the Turkish version of the Germanic evil spirit Mare, who, like Karabasan in this show, attacks the sleeping. The spirit Mare is the origin for the english word 'nightmare', because unlike lightning wolf here all the Mares did was give you nightmares. The bit with Karabasan is honestly a bit unnecessary and merely a bit of padding for Constantine and Zed to have a couple of action scenes here before Chas steals the show again.
Anyway, Felix Faust just keeps altering deals and Chas makes the good point of why not just assault and beat Felix Faust right then and there, while Constantine doesn't want to take the risk of Felix Faust just snuffing out Geraldine's soul. Chas's lack of self-control is more than understandable considering all the warnings his wife has told him about staying away from Constantine, and, well, the fact that his daughter's soul lies in balance here.
Of course, Chas ends up knocking Constantine up in the head and making his own yolo gambit of trying to offer thirty-one (well, thirty after his demonstration) souls to Faust in exchange for his daughter's... and then altering the deal with a well-placed grenade. I thought having Renee come in just to see Chas blow up and then coming over to their way of thinking was a bit too overdramatic and didn't play off as well as it could've, but it's a fine little climax where Chas manages to remain the star of his own episode. Granted it's foreshadowed with Chas telling Constantine how if a mage dies all his spells go null and void, but with all the precautions Constantine seems to be taking over the whole situation you'd expect something more.
Felix Faust explodes, of course, but hey, this is DC comics. Faust can come back. If Constantine didn't get cancelled or somehow gets a season two, I would bet good money on Felix Faust returning. Sadly, though, poor Faust probably will only ever show up if they ever decide to do another crossover on Arrow.
We get a wee bit more on the Zed situation in the beginning and the end, with a nice little warm scene between her and Constantine to cap off the episode, with her telling Constantine how his mother didn't consider her death his fault, and a rare moment of vulnerability from the master of the dark arts. Zed also gives his daddy's organization its name, the Resurrection Crusade... though I knew this since two episodes ago when they debuted thanks to some people in the internet telling me. It's not much, but at least she's not keeping it a secret from Constantine and Chas and sparing us potential needless drama in the future.
Overall, though, as someone who amounts as a tagalong dead weight with a peculiar ability, Chas finally gets a chance to shine after ten freaking episodes of staying in the background and serving as black comedy whenever he dies. We get both an awesome flashback and a decent showing in the present day with him taking down a pretty big villain all on his lonesome. It's honestly a pretty basic episode without anything really refreshing or game-changing here, but the sheer novelty of a live-action Felix Faust and the awesomeness of giving Chas actual backstory and characterization elevate this a bit more than just being throwaway filler.
No comments:
Post a Comment