“If you want to save a child, John, just remember what it was like to be one.”
- Manny
Things kick off pretty much in the action this week as a couple is found brutally murdered while their young daughter is unscathed. A female cop is trying to reassure the girl when one of her male co-workers gets in her face. The little girl’s eyes go black and a coffee mug explodes. Yeah, she’s totally possessed. But Constantine and Chaz are on the job. As soon as Constantine slips out the window of the girl he slept with whose boyfriend has just arrived. You bad boy, you. But hey, shirtless Matt Ryan is definitely a bonus. He gets back to the house and he and Chaz head off to investigate the latest case. Inside the house, Constantine is interrupted by Many who is there to draw up battle plans. But Constantine isn’t interested. He just wants answers to what happened and why the little girl was unscathed. He does a little bit of magic and we see that the little girl was indeed possessed by the spirit of a child who is likely hunting for another host. And it finds one later that night in a little boy named Henry who is scared of the dark. He’s much more outgoing now with the spirit inside of him and he’s rather creepy, too. He draws his dad out into the front of the house and lays out light bulbs. Dad trips on them and cuts up his feet as a few other bulbs flash. Henry acts like he just came in but you just know he was waiting. I’m betting that’s just the beginning of the torture possessed Henry has in store for mom and dad. I’m not sure I like that they are using kids as carriers for the demon spirit but I guess it was bound to happen. And it will be interesting to see how Constantine handles it with another possessed child. Hopefully he doesn’t have to deal with another Astra.
Meanwhile, Constantine is doing work at his favorite place, a bar. A perky blonde paralegal who he helped out by getting rid of her poltergeist husband gives him a wealth of information on the present case and a bunch of related cases from thirty years ago. While he won’t be able to get near the kids of the recent attacks, he does go to see the first survivor, a boy (now a man) named Marcello. Unfortunately I don’t think Marcello will be saying anything. He’s rather catatonic and appears to be missing a few fingers. Oh dear. I have a feeling Constantine is going to need to work quite a bit of magic to get the name of the spirit out of this guy. I’m also assuming it won’t simply be as easy as saying the spirit’s name to release it from this world.
Constantine and Chaz head back to home base to do some more research on what they’re dealing with and that involves snooping around the stuff that Jasper left behind. Constantine also discovers that the houses of all the attacks are on the same ley line which he explains makes sense since it is simple for a child spirit to travel. The rest of the research also leads to a bit of a funny thing with Chaz picking up a sword that only allows you to speak the truth. Oh boy. And things aren’t going well with Henry either. He chokes a dog on his way to school that was barking at him and he hacks up some pumpkins with a big ass knife and then makes a bird fly into the window in front of his mother and leaves a giant bloody crack. Gross. Constantine finds the device he needed and they go find the house and they’re going to sit and wait for crazy stuff to happen because as Constantine points out, it’s a little awkward to just go up and ask to see the possessed kid.
The next morning, Constantine is watching Henry at school and he tries to get a teacher to break up a fight between Henry and another kid but it just ends with the other kid getting telekinetically thrown into a spinning merry go round and fracturing his skull. Constantine tries to go and pretend to be a school counselor to clue the parents in to what’s going on but the dad just punches him in the face and gets him locked up. Constantine then gets a visit from Manny who points out that to save the kid, he needs to remember what it was like to be one. We also get a few tidbits about Constantine’s childhood, including that he considered suicide when his sister left him alone with their father and that his father used to burn him with cigarettes. I have to say I really do feel for him. He had a hard childhood. He doesn’t get much time to snipe at Manny before the angel disappears and Henry’s mom comes to bail him out. She and her husband were arguing and Henry freaked out and broke a bunch of stuff and she saw the darkness in his eyes.
After Constantine explains that her son is possessed and they need to get it, she agrees to participate in a séance to save her son. She drugs him and then she and Constantine go meet Chaz at the house of the first attack (Marcello). They try to hold the séance but it doesn’t work. All they get is interrupted by a three legged deer. Constantine isn’t sure why the séance didn’t work but Henry’s mom is insistent that they get back because the drugs she gave Henry will wear off soon and she doesn’t want him to hurt her husband.
It’s Halloween night and he’s all dressed as a freaky zombie when his mom and Constantine show up. His dad is having none of the possession stuff and when the adults start to argue, the spirit comes out. Constantine manages to deflect one attack back on Henry before he dons his zombie mask and heads out into the street. Chaz tries to stop him but gets pinned by a car so Constantine has to go chase him into a haunted house for the final showdown. Because of course he does.
It turns out that the spirit is Marcello and after going through some of the haunted house and getting tossed into walls, Constantine manages to send the spirit back to its body where it belongs. And as he does a voiceover about overcoming his own inner demons, he takes a swig and lights a cigarette. Bring it on Rising Darkness. Bring it on.
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