Constantine delivered its final episode, “Waiting for the Man,†of its first season Friday night. There were definitely too many unanswered questions for this to be the end of Constantine. The actors have done such good jobs in portraying these characters that I would hate to see this be the end of our Hellblazer. There’s still hope that someone will be smart enough to give Constantine a second chance. With an already passionate fan base in tact, it would be a missed opportunity to discontinue Constantine. That being said, the season finale delivered a lot of great scenes while only partially satisfying our curiosities.
First, let’s start with the case of the week. Three young girls wearing what appear to be wedding dresses are awoken by a man. They find a young girl, Vesta, who is upset with her mom. With a little persuasion, Vesta goes with them to also become a wife to “The Man.†They tell her how wonderful it is to “Marry The Man.†I love the irony in this statement considering “The Man†in this instance is a backwoods Satanist who murdered his wife because the devil asked him to do so.
Jim Corrigan brings the case to John and Zed. Again, this episode is missing Chas which is upsetting, but at least we get to see Jim again. Jim, Zed, and John go to Vesta’s house where her mom is distraught. Zed tries to get visions while in Vesta’s room but can’t seem to get anything. Feeling defeated, Zed retreats to talk with the mother. Manny appears to comfort Zed. It seems that he does a better job talking with Zed than he ever did with John; this is true partly because Zed always seems happy to see him.
Since Zed can’t get any visions, John helps out in apparently the only way he knows how. He uses Vesta’s DNA, electrocutes himself, and gets a short vision of what happened on the night of her disappearance. This leads them to the house of “The Man.†When they finally find him, Zed takes the girl away to safety while John and Jim deal with him. Jim cuffs the man and is prepared to take him into custody. John wonders if that is the best way to deal with him after he already murdered his wife and three young girls before attempting to do it again. We see Jim remove the cuffs and tell “The Man†to run. Moments later, we see Zed still taking Vesta away when they hear a gunshot. Presumably, Jim and John dealt with “The Man†the only way they saw fit, which was to make sure he could never hurt anyone again.
Speaking of Jim Corrigan, it was great to see his return. Once again, Zed had many visions of Jim dead. She spoke with John about it wondering what she should do. Throughout the episode, Zed had a hard time even looking at Jim. Knowing she was avoiding him, Jim tried to get her to talk with him and grabbed her hand, which only caused her to see her vision of him dead once again. By the end of the episode, Zed decides that she has to tell Jim what she’s been seeing. Surprisingly, Jim doesn’t seem completely freaked out. He only comments that he should make the most of being alive and proceeds to kiss Zed.
Jim is a great character, and he had so many good scenes in this episode. I hope that Constantine can find a network for a second season to explore the depths of these smaller characters. Jim seemed to completely accept the depths of evil that are in the world. He also worked well with both Zed and Constantine, trusting them completely. He is the perfect ally for Constantine.
The last great recurring character this week was Papa Midnite. Papa Midnite was brutal as always during his search for Constantine. Papa Midnite knows about the bounty placed on John’s head, so he tries to get it for himself. First, he uses some poor man to kill Constantine. Papa Midnite kills the man and reanimates him as a Voodoo Zombie. Papa Midnite controlled said Zombie and attempted to kill John until Jim shot it in the head. At least Jim was smart; always shoot zombies in the head.
Then, Papa Midnite takes matters into his own hands by using a bird to be his eyes in finding Constantine. When he does, he kills John. All right, he only thinks he kills John. Luckily, Constantine knew what Papa Midnite was up to and used a glamor spell to make Papa Midnite think he had finished him off. Before knocking out Papa Midnite, John got Papa Midnite to reveal that he wanted the bounty because the brujeria would agree to trade John’s soul for his sister’s who has been damned.
Now to end the episode, we meet back up with Papa Midnite who has been arrested. Constantine set Papa Midnite up to go to jail, but someone intervened. While Papa Midnite was in the cop car, all of a sudden, everyone froze. We only know of one “person†who has that kind of power, Manny. Manny lets Papa Midnite go and tells him that Constantine is off limits. When Papa Midnite asks if he works for the brujeria, Manny laughs and says that the brujeria work for him. Talk about a cliffhanger. Now we are left wondering if Manny is a bad guy. If the brujeria work for him, then is he responsible for the rising darkness? Also, Zed kept wondering if her visions were from good or evil. If Manny’s reply was that he was there are we now to interpret that as being that her powers are actually evil? Now, I’m starting to see things through an entirely new perspective.
