Warning: There are some spoilers in the recap portion. You have been warned.
On this week's episode of Constantine, a pastor from a snake handling religious sect comes back to life after dying from a snake bite. He then has the ability to heal people, like giving a one legged man his leg back. Zed has visions of snakes. Constantine and Zed head to Kentucky to investigate the pastor. They discover that the pastor has no bad intentions, but since he's connected to the Scrye map, something bad has to be going on. The church is a front for something darker.
There's something sinister with the people the pastor is healing. Nate, the man whose leg was healed, has killed two people and the police are looking for him.
After a talk with Manny, Constantine and Zed discover an angel on Earth. There's something evil inside of them now. The angel tells them that when she, the angel, was taking a mortal to heaven but he pulled a feather from her wing and she fell to Earth. Constantine and Zed know they need to get the feather back.
Constantine confronts the pastor about the feather. Something blasts Constantine with a force. Crazy Nate makes his way to the camp and attacks Zed, but Constantine saves the day. The angel tells Constantine and Zed that more will turn if they don't act now.
Zed gets the feather back, but it's too late, the crazies are coming! Constantine finds that the pastor had a mortal sin on his conscious and he was going to hell. The angel is fallen and she has her feather back. Constantine finds that the angel planned this all to come to Earth. The angel holds Zed hostage so Constantine will reverse a protection spell. Manny steps in and helps, killing the fallen angel.
There's only one real problem I had with this whole episode. How come Chas or Zed are always off doing something else in quite a few episodes? Why can't all three of these characters ever work together? Are the writers capable of writing three characters at the same time? Ok, that may be a little mean, but there's a chance to build a great team dynamic here. Zed has come a long way from being a moral roadblock to actually standing out on her own, and Chas is pretty dang awesome.
Even moving forward from there, Manny is a huge part of this episode and although only Constantine can see him, he's important to the story and a guiding voice. He's actually a character to look forward to every week, even though he spends most of the time frustrating Constantine because he's not supposed to interfere, even though in this episode, he has to.
Zed really grew on me, in this episode. She's shown she has worthwhile capabilities in the past, but she's a big part of this whole episode. Without her, the angel never would have gotten her feather back... Wait... that's actually a good thing. Nevermind. I actually enjoyed her few moments with Constantine, discussing angels and religion in general. This was the first time in the season where I feel like she was written really well and not just as a piece of scenery with a mouth. Yes, that's harsh but 100% true.
This week's story was my second favorite story of the season, but as far as overall execution goes, this was the best of the season. Blessed are the Damned really keeps the viewer on their toes. There's lots of great twists here and it's not just for shock value. Everything is carefully set up in the beginning and as we go on, we learn more and more about what's happening. The story tells itself naturally to the audience and it's incredibly smooth.
Matt Ryan deserves more credit for his work as John Constantine. He's really captured that character, even though some things have been watered down a little bit between HELLBLAZER and the NBS show. He has the cynic tone down perfectly, but he always delivers the quick one-two jokes extremely well. Ryan's performance is the strongest on the show. This was great casting and Ryan just dominates the screen every week.
Blessed are the Damned is the best episode of the season, thus far. I'll try not to get all angry again about the bad time slot, the non promotion, and the terrible night this show is on again, but oops, too late. Constantine stands tall as one of the best comic book adaptation shows on right now and that's saying a lot since the deck is so stacked. The show could easily reach out and grab a mainstream audience because of the mass appeal. Here's to hoping it doesn't get cancelled... Seriously, I want a second season.