The show opens with the introductions of Taylor (April Billingsley), who attempts to score some drugs, before her brother’s funeral the next day. While trying to consume the drugs, she is attacked by a monster, who forcefully injects her. She wakes up, with blood vessels visible all over her face. John Constantine (Matt Ryan) speaks with Chas Chandler (Charles Halford) about the map, which isn’t displaying any activity. Despite wishing to be alone, Zed Martin (Angelica Celaya) is tracked down by Constantine. John attempts to convince Zed to snap out of it and return to work. Afterwards, Manny (Harold Perrineau) arrives and tells John about Taylor. Manny suggests giving up the map and looking at the signs around him for trouble.

John gets the group into the hospital, by stabbing Chas with a screwdriver. Inside, they discover Taylor, who is experiencing black veins. Zed touches her and experiences a threatening presence. Constantine insists this wasn’t some man-made drug, before Zed has a seizure. Zed is given a CAT scan. Despite concerns from Chas, Constantine insists she is fine. Nurse Linda speaks to Morris (Michael Beasley), who got into a bar fight, which messed up his face. Morris demands to see Dr. Galen (Nick Gehlfuss), while John and Chas head to the morgue to have a closer look at Taylor’s corpse. After a spell is casted on Taylor, John insists it is a dark matter at work.

Zed receives a visit from Dr. Galen, when John enters. The doctor was able to discover a small mass on her temporal lobe. After the doctor leaves, John says the visions aren’t linked to the tumor. The maintenance man pays a visit to Morris, who demands the lights in his room to be fixed, but the man is attacked, when he goes for the light bulbs. On the rooftop, John is confronted by Manny and demands Manny fix Zed’s problem, but he says he cannot. John crushes a vial of air from Hades and puts a spell on Manny, which traps him in the doctor’s body, until he is willing to help Zed. Manny insists he loses all of his powers, when he is inside of a body, but John laughs and says he wasn’t using them anyway.

The pair begins to track down the dark matter, which attacked the maintenance man. John checks the man’s chest and finds a heart of darkness. The pair begin looking for the person, who holds a keycard and The Black Diamond. John tasks Manny with getting to a computer and looking up Taylor and the maintenance man, Duncan (Don Hartman). John returns to Chas and tells him about Zed’s brain tumor. John grabs a box, which contains a piece of the black diamond, while Manny gets help getting access to the computer documents. The nurse seems flirty and more than willing to help. She drags Manny to a private room and attempts to seduce him and he doesn’t disagree for long.

Chas agrees to become a test subject for John, as he allows the diamond to overtake him. He beings to enter a chaotic state and his veins begin to blacken. John takes the information to Manny, who expresses his embarrassment for engaging the nurse. Manny was able to discover that both of the victims were addicts. The pair look for a suspect, who is full of rage. Manny suggests Morris. The doctors offer Zed surgery, but she considers her options. Manny speaks to Zed and she is able to figure out his identity. Zed inquires about the source of her powers. Although Manny refuses to answer, he is able to convince Zed her powers come from a good, holy source.

Meanwhile, Morris attempts to smoke inside of the hospital, while Constantine tracks him down. Outside, Morris is attacked, by a creature, who looks just like him. John tries to intervene, but is knocked down. After John wakes up, he speaks with Manny and tells him that Morris isn’t their man. They discover Galen is the killer, since John’s Diamond came from The Gift of God, which refers to Baghdad.

Zed refuses surgery from Galen, when Manny and John enter. Manny suggests shards of the black diamond are inside of Galen’s body instead of shrapnel. The trio attempt to track him, by using the black diamond. Zed insists the light in her vision was the terrifying holy light, while John begins working to reverse Manny’s curse. The creature begins to attack, when Manny arrives and tells Thomas Galen it is time to come home. The pair disappear, before the black diamond rebuilds and seals itself in John’s box.

John and Zed head to church, where John explains his fear of everyone he cares about dying. Zed suggests she has made John’s list. Manny arrives and asks Zed about refusing the surgery. John insists Manny is Zed’s problem now, as he leaves and the episode ends.

Review


This turned out to be one of the best episodes of Constantine yet. Much of its success had to do with Zed’s health scare and Manny being grounded to Earth. Although the episode wasn’t frightening, it definitely brought some excitement and laughs. Of course, there is still the existing problem of no real narrative or central struggle for the group to battle. Still, a strong episode, which deserves a 7.5 out of 10.

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