Jim has a case for Constantine and shows him pics of spontaneous combustion and the man being mummified. Constantine talks of the lunar tetrad involving the blood moon. Constantine sees Zed and Jim flirting and she has that same vision again. Not of death but of change.
During the thirteenth century, Devil's branding was used to torture witches. The blood moon is a sacrifice for a welcome new cycle.
Gary awakes in the body of the DB as an animated corpse warning Constantine there's a price on his head - his warning. [What price Constantine? A question we may well ask for as long as he doesn't get his own show back!]
Constantine's comment of how little girl's loving their fathers no matter what they do - Zed doesn't though. Constantine also telling her everytime he lights up he thinks of the surgeon's bloody warning and he's still here. (Yeah til he gets to that comic issue.) "We can shape our destiny but we can't really escape our fate." Fate mentioned here aptly re Dr Fate's helmet, or perhaps not.)
Manny envies Zed it's not "all harps and halos, we have rules to follow." Zed has a choice and she can act on her visions if she wants to. Constantine does a yukky spell using the missing girl, Vesta's hair and tooth brush, which he describes as "piercing the veil according to Tibetans."
Constantine is attacked by one of Papa Midnite's zombies. He advises Zed to move past her distractions, viz Jim. Her visions never lie and she says what I said earlier, Constantine doesn't even have a phone.
Midnite gave up on his soul, but the bounty on Constantine is worth it - his sacrifice will free his sister's soul from eternal damnation. Constantine saying that only the Brujeria have that power. Obviously Constantine appearing to Midnite wasn't actually him. Constantine: "added a glamour spell nifty 'ey."
Danie Cerone tweet: "closed Marriott amusement Park Atlanta. Our best location ever."
After they find the missing girl, Constantine wonders what if that man like him doesn't get to prison cos he's not really a man. Zed tells him of her vision since he deserves to know.
At the bar Constantine watches them snog and all he gets is the taste of a cigarette and as he walks away once more into that night, there's his longer trenchcoat at the end! A better fit.
Daniel Cerone tweeted: "Matt Ryan always wanted a longer coat per #Constantine #Hellblazer. We busted it out int his scene. Will be permanent if we get season 2." Why?
Constantine: "be an angel, come over here and hold it for me will ya!"
This line tweeted Daniel Cerone "was pitched on set by our fine script supervisor Cheryl Starbuck. It takes a village."
He tells Manny. Spent time with Constantine, "I felt betrayed seeing other people now." Manny says Constantine is jealous of Jim with Zed. But he just hopes she can handle it.
Constantine: " stare into the face of evil every bloody day...this is different - not evil in any realm, more dangerous than the Rising Darkness."
Manny reassures they can win this war. "trust me."
Constantine: "you know me I don't play if I can't win...worrying about how to spend my last days after I've driven every last bastard demon to where it belongs."
Our last scene with our beloved anti-hero and the ensuing battle continues somewhere on some plain, but not on our TV screens...!
Daniel Cerone: "This scene kills it. It's Matt and Harold being awesome backed by Christine's stellar writing."
Manny releases Midnite who tells Manny he will never be free as he works for the Brujeria.
Manny: "...cancelling the contract on John Constantine - he's off limits - the Brujeria work for me."
Constantine's reference to fate and destiny - something similar to what I used to say - re fate already written for us and destiny is ours to change or do as we wish. See also Dean and his version - he doesn't believe in either?/
With regards to the spell and the hair, as said in 1.4?? it's what Sam and Dean did in 3.10 Dream A Little Dream of Me with Bobby's hair. Used here for different reasons.
And again it's mentioned he doesn't have a phone (in the vein of Longmire.) But hey is it cos they're more trouble than they're worth especially with all that digital tracking etc and well he's been around (and in the comics) even before the dreaded mobiles were even invented. But he uses Midnite's phone here which came in handy.
Daniel Cerone tweeted: "that's um human hair John put in his mouth in case the camera missed it!" EEwww!
Jealousy is a trait in Constantine that wasn't so very apparent. The final reveal though - that this Brujeria work for Manny - as an angel or his capacity in something more evil. And why even bother with this when he wanted Constantine's help to win the war and what reign supreme. It doesn't appear to be some sort of test for Constantine.
This episode was based in some form on Hellblazer #4 Waiting for the Man.
A not so much monster of the week ep, but a creepy evil one where Constantine and Dean Winchester both hate such cases - since humans are the worst sort of evil predators to cross their paths.
Constantine's mark revealed on Disyree's mummified chest is a 'Diaboli Cauter' - tool for interrogating or torturing witches. Lo and behold it's Gary Bloody Lester warning Constantine on his head.
Zed uses psychography to locate the address and scribbles it on paper. Sister Cadella is Midnite's sister with his hotline to hell.
The first time Jim manages to shoot the perp as he's killed so many people and again Jim makes the point of 'the man' not being a demon or a ghost. Thus he's likely to escape. Or get off on some "mental technicality" as I put it.
Constantine: "Tibetans call it ‘Piercing the Veil’. DNA, the right words, a dash of cardiac arrest, and it gets you into the bardo state. Allows you to connect with the subject’s spirit."
Piercing the veil was a concept with lots of references in Supernatural. Especially the Hallowe'en episode, It's The Great Pumpkin Sam Winchester. The veil being where ghosts, etc, dwell. Demons and angels inside vessels can pierce this veil interacting with spirits etc. Ancient Celts believed 31st October was when the veil was the thinnest between the dead and the living.
Used loosely, "bardo" is the state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth. According to Tibetan tradition, after death and before one's next birth, when one's consciousness is not connected with a physical body, one experiences a variety of phenomena."
Daniel Cerone: "Believe it or not every spell is genuine, written with the consult of our REAL demonologist advisor Christopher Charon." I always wondered if there was any fall out from this. But Matt said he hasn't really experienced anything. See in Constantine section for more.
Hozier's Worksong plays when Zed and Jim kiss. Oh and I won't forgive Matt anytime soon for making me have Hozier's Take Me to the Church in my head for weeks on end after he said it was one of the current songs back in 2014 he was listening to!!
In the comic, Vesta is actually Constantine's niece, Gemma Masters.
Next blood moon we had (during writing this) was 31 January 2018 when it was a #SuperBlueBloodMoon.
Of course the ep would end with a cliffhanger and a never-ending one at that - just as Manny's true purpose was revealed. After all the cryptic comments from him - the final ep was perhaps by far the most unresolved and intriguing: i.e Manny's 'end-game.'
It was a pity that Gary was utilized very little, if at all, but under the circumstances it was the only 'time' available in which to give him the message. Secondly, it kinda absolved Constantine from any guilt he was still wallowing in especially the couple of past eps) but this was a new message to drive home how his soul always will remain in danger - and for other purposes; for the show to have continued at least for the remainder 9 episodes it should have been given to get to a total of 22 for season 1.
The chemistry was there between Zed and Constantine - but perhaps too early days to have gotten anything serious going on between them. They marvelled in joking about their pasts - the mysteriousness of who they really are.
Angelica: "Both believe in the greater good of humanity against the Rising Darkness but because Zed believes in mankind - that people can be good and they deserve a second chance - that's when they butt heads and John thinks with his head while Zed thinks with her heart and she will stand up to him for what she believes in." That's why 1.13 Constantine hates people but prefers demons.
As said even with the Manny reveal that the Brujeria work for him - doesn't per se signify that Manny is all bad - this purpose may be perfectly 'innocent' and why cancel the bounty on Constantine so abruptly. It's like Zed's visions; what she sees doesn't necessarily happen at times in the way she sees them.
Daniel Cerone commented that "John's entire life was an origins episode and we wanted to explore it all. Golden Boy is my favourite. Heartbreaking. We just need a second season." I second that!!
Neil Marshall - director of 1.1 stating how he felt, "a wrong needed to be righted. This a comic character who his origins are, he meant to be. But, he's meant to be blond, he's meant to be a bit of a rogue."
The important aspect of Constantine was to ensure his character was on par and the rest: - stories, other characters, would just fit into place around him.
Daniel Cerone tweeted: "Told U this episode was dark and no wonder we don't play cuddly with Midnite. He's badass. Not afraid to kill."
"Yes we shot John twice now. But it's just so much fun and this felt organic to the story cause Midnite comes a packing."
"Yeah so John pretty much hit up there and smoked all the way into the house."
Waiting for the Man ep was an early Constantine story where he wrestles a 'deranged' man rather than anything supernatural. In the comic this was where John had a date with Zed which went awry with the news John's niece, Gemma, had been kidnapped. You see in the comics, Gemma's family were in league with the Resurrection Crusade [in the TV show it was the church looking for Zed and that's where they had a falling out and Zed was was kidnapped.] The crusade were against paedophiles, forming the basis of the story. John realizes Zed's hiding something and needs to find out what that is. With numerous hints towards The Spectre and Jim's fate.
Then there's John's story where he doesn't have lung cancer at this point - a reference for future (see Matt's comments elsewhere.) Where he does succumb to this, but then tricks a demon into saving him from death. This story took place in Hellblazer #4 written by Jamie Delano entitled Waiting for the Man.
Mass murderers in the US, called The Bloody Benders (hence the title of the this episode, rather than the UK critics going gung ho over the use of the name ‘Bender’ since it has a completely different meaning here. In England, ‘benders’ is an offensive term for someone who is gay.)
This episode was a bit of a time out from hunting demons and supernatural phenomena and turned into Sam and Dean being “hunted” by none other than humans. Demonstrating that even humans can be demons once they surrender to their dark sides, or some in general are just freaks of nature and know no better than senseless killing. Which is why Dean prefers demons, at least you know their motives, always evil, never chopping and changing.
Daniel Cerone tweeted:
"Seriously how awesome will it be to watch Harold as Manny now that we know he's connected to Rising Darkness."
Manny and Midnite. I've got chills. #Constantine 14/2/2015 [Yep Valentine's Day! ha]
"John doesn't walk off into the sunset. He walks off into the pouring rain. Fitting #Constantine" [That's what I said re rain.]
"Love watching Matt and Harold work together. It's a dance."
"That's John's new longer trenchcoat. If we get another season you'll be seeing a lot more of it."
"Proud to say @mattryanreal and @EmmettScanlan pitched the #Spectre justice ending. Was written as an arrest. This is better."
"John can see dead people. John with another fresh ciggie."
"All sorted." Straight from the #Hellblazer. Love his lingo."
"Series over. John dead. OH well. #Hellblazer"
"Real bird or CGI you decide. {As I said Hitchcock's The Birds}
"Headshot in the family hour we're not pulling punches tonight."
"#Spectre vision."
"Good to see #Constantine and #JimCorrigan together."
"Reports of our demise greatly exaggerated. Season finale - darkness will reign." Sadly not!!
My Matt Ryan book. Yeah I know a lot of you are fans in name only which is fine and are only fans of Constantine but this was a labourious one to write so do check it out!! And there's plenty Constantine in it too!!
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