TV Review: CONSTANTINE: Season 1, Episode 9: The Saint of Last Resorts Part 2 [NBC]

NBC’s Constantine The Saint of Last Resorts Part 2 TV Show Review. Constantine: Season 1, Episode 9: The Saint of Last Resorts Part 2 NBC’s Constantine The Saint of Last Resorts Part 2 TV Show Review. Constantine: Season 1, Episode 9: The Saint of Last Resorts Part 2 brought in the conclusion of midseason finale as we learn what became of John Constantine (Matt Ryan) after being duped by Ann Marie (Claire Van Der Boom) into leaving him for dead against the invunche.

We last left John fighting for survival after being cornered by the terrifying invunche down in the sewers. The former con man has one last trick up his sleeve where he uses the captured demon Pazuzu and embeds him into his body to cure his injuries and scare off the invunche. Manny (Harold Perrineau), however, doesn’t approve of John’s rash decision in saving his own life by choosing Hell over Heaven. Manny gets so upset that he breaks ties with mankind’s only savior to stop the Rising Darkness. After Manny abruptly leaves, Chas Chandler (Charles Halford) gets John out of danger. After telling what he has done, John tells Chas that the only way to stop the demon from taking over his body is to through self-exorcism. But if the plan doesn’t work, he asks his dear friend to kill him. It seems though that John has little time to stop the demon after it gains control of his body and knocks Chas away.

Meanwhile, Zed (Angelica Celaya) gets a vision of Ann Marie in pain and sees blood coming out of her eyes. After the vision, she wakes up in the back of a van all tied up. A member of the Resurrection Crusade has kidnapped her in order to deliver her to her father. As he tries to drug her, Zed gains the upper hand and knocks out her captor. After making her getaway, Chas gives Zed a call and asks her for help in getting John out of his demon dilemma.

After demon-possessed John went on a rampage, John wakes up and finds out that he killed some Mexicans and gets arrested by the police. Luckily, a British consulate named Stanley Gibson arrives to give some council, but it doesn’t go well for the both of them, so it’s off to the slammer for John. It gets worse as John ends up in the jail yard with the Santa Muerte after him for killing off their men. The only ally John makes is with Julio (Efren Ramirez). Before Julio takes John into the asylum for protection, Manny shows up again and tries to patch things up with John and agrees with what he’s doing in order to continue to fulfill his duties on Earth.

Chas and Zed meet up in Mexico to seek Ann Marie’s help to save John. At first hesitant, but later Ann agrees to help after Zed convinces her that John is communicating with Manny the angel on a mission to stop the Brujerias. Speaking of Brujerias, a mysterious man named Vicente chats with consulate Gibson after finding the whereabouts on John before devouring him whole.

Back in prison, John gets cornered by the Santa Muerte after Julio turns him in, but the Pazuzu gains control after the leader provokes it to possess John and kills them all. After scaring off all the prisoners after waking up, John gets a visit by Ann Marie through bi-location telling him that she, Zed, and Chas will help John get rid of the demon inside him. After finding an isolated place, the team get to work on exorcising John using his recordings to say the ritual, but the plan gets derailed after finding out that the demon has already sunk deep into his body. Vincente’s arrival made things worse as he went after John, but Ann saves him with the dagger meant to kill John if the plan went south.

The team manages to escape the authorities when Ann Marie uses her abilities in order to distract the guards by projecting herself as a topless woman in distress. After reaching the cabin, John has Ann Marie do the exorcism, despite not having much experience. All seems to go well until the demon provokes the team with their darkest secrets and Ann feels hopeless. Zed then tells Ann that she must forgive herself in order to restore her faith and finish the exorcism. The ritual becomes successful with John back to his bashful self. John says goodbye to Ann Marie, letting bygones be bygones. As Zed and Chas leave, John seems to be in doubt after getting the demon out of him. It’s uncertain if he will ever be the same after what he just experienced.

 It was fairly disappointing that Part 2 of the episode didn’t explore the Brujeria in depth and focused solely on John getting rid of the demon inside of him. Despite not learning more on the Brujeria’s plan for the End of Days, we did gets some emotional performances from John and Ann Marie as the two former lovers try to reconnect as John fights to stay in control. Zed’s storyline from the last episode was cut short after her quick escape from her father’s cult. Hopefully we will explore more of her backstory during the last five episodes of the supernatural drama’s short season. At least John, Zed, and Chas reunite without having one of them missing for a case.

Overall, the episode has really made the show come back strong after it’s midseason break. Matt Ryan has given an intense and emotional performance playing a demon-possessed John throughout the episode. With the team finally reunited, expect them to go back into basics with some cases for the next few weeks with some more secrets to come out from Zed and the Rising Darkness.

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