TV Review: CONSTANTINE: Season 1, Episode 10: Quid Pro Quo [NBC]

NBC’s Constantine Quid Pro Quo TV Show Review. Constantine: Season 1, Episode 10: Quid Pro Quo finally explored Chas Chandler’s (Charles Halford) background and how he was given his immortality curse. The entire episode utilizes some flashbacks showing the friendship between John Constantine (Matt Ryan) and Chas as well as what caused Chas to gain this mysterious ability that we have seen throughout the whole show.

The episode began with a mysterious cloaked figure putting a spell in the form of black smoke throughout Brooklyn. We spot Chas’ daughter Geraldine in her room getting ready for bed when the black smoke engulfs her. When Chas goes to visit Geraldine, he finds her on the floor and takes her to the hospital where he sees that many other people in the area are having similar symptoms. He calls for John and Zed (Angelica Celaya) for help in saving his daughter’s life. However, Chas’ wife Renee (Amanda Clayton) isn’t too pleased to see John saying that he would be a danger to everyone if he helped. Apparently, she blames him for splitting Chas away from his family.

This episode gave viewers a chance to know more about Chas when he was a family man and a dear friend of John’s. In the flashback, we see John and Chas having drinks at a bar having a guy’s night out. During a band performance at the bar, the place catches on fire and burns most of the people inside. Being a noble man, Chas decides to go into the burning bar to save a woman’s life, costing him his life. Chas wakes up in the hospital next to Renee and Geraldine. Renee tells Chas that the doctor was unable to save him but get relieved to know he was alive. After asking John how he managed to survive, the magician revealed to him that while they were drunk, John put a protection spell on him not knowing that it would work. It turns out that since 47 people died in the fire, Chas has 47 souls in him that get depleted when he dies, so basically he has 47 lives on him.

Chas feels the burden of having 47 souls on him, so John offers Chas a chance to use his curse to his advantage by helping him solve cases with the supernatural. Chas’ new gig does put a toll on his family as he misses out on Geraldine’s life, causing Renee to doubt whether Chas can be a part of their lives if he keeps working with John.

John, Zed, and Chas visit a medium named Fennel to track down where Geraldine’s spirit is. After tracking her, a spirit controls Fennel and seems to know John after seeing him. He tells John to butt out before burning Fennel to a crisp. With Zed’s visions, Zed manages to lead the team to an abandoned railroad yard that is actually under a cloaking spell.

The culprit behind these strings of comas is actually DC Comics villain Felix Faust (Mark Margolis), a dark mage who had a past with John Constantine. Seeing that he is responsible for putting everyone in a coma, John decides to make a deal with Faust in order to save Geraldine. Faust gives John the task in hunting a demon who has taken his souls. The whole hunt for the demon felt unnecessary for the story, especially since Faust refused to claim it after John captured it. It was good to see the connection between Faust and John as merely poker buddies and also mortal enemies in magic.

Thee were a lot going on in the episode, as there were many nods to the Hellblazer comics. What was really surprising is the connection with Merlin and King Arthur when John used the protection spell on Chas. Medium Fennel was a recurring character in the comics while Felix Faust made his live-action debut in the episode. It was real clever of Chas to trick Faust into making a deal with him in order to use a binding spell to blow them up with a grenade. Hopefully we will get to see more of Faust if Constantine gets picked up for another season because we don’t think we have seen the last of Faust. It would have been nice to know how Chas got resurrected after being blown up.

“Quid Quo Pro” turned out to be Chas’ episode as we learned more about him. It would’ve saved us some trouble if his family was introduced earlier, but at least we got to know them now. Adding Felix Faust as a villain did wonders for this episode as well as putting a different spin on a story based on one of the Hellblazer issues. The episode ended with Chas visiting Geraldine and a reveal from Zed telling John that she has spoken to his mother. Here’s hoping we learn more about that in the last three episodes of the season.

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