Constantine Season Finale: Why John Constantine Deserves to Live

NBC may not be bringing the adventures of DC Comics’ John Constantine back for a second season, but as the season one finale proves, this show has a lot of life in it and deserves to find a new home.

Quick Recap

The “Constantine” season finale, “Waiting for the Man,” continues the show’s recent trend of ditching any side-stories connected to the supporting cast and focusing on telling just one story, a move that has greatly benefited this series.  The story opens in one of those creepy-as-hell amusement parks that should be nuked immediately, since nothing but evil is going to come out of letting it stand. A young girl who has run away from home is curious enough to take a look around, and in doing so she meets three girls her age who claim to be married to The Man – and who promise the same fate to our little runaway.

Meanwhile, New Orleans detective Jim Corrigan has called John Constantine in to investigate the murder of a fellow detective who was investigating the disappearance of three young girls.  JC comes to the conclusion that they are dealing with a satanist who is marrying the young girls as part of a sacrificial ritual.  That’s bad . . . but complicating things is the fact that a bounty has been placed on Constantine’s head by La Brujeria, and none other than JC’s nemesis, Papa Midnite, is looking to cash in.

It turns out that JC, Zed and Corrigan are too late to save the three young brides, but will they arrive in time to save The Man’s newest bride-to-be?  And who, exactly, is responsible for placing the bounty on John Constantine’s head?

Three Reasons Why The “Constantine” Season Finale Is Proof That This Show Deserves A Life . . . Somewhere

Every time I light up I have the bloody Surgeon General going on about lung cancer, but look at me! Fit as a fiddle!

1. Let’s start with the obvious: Matt Ryan has been phenomenal in the role of John Constantine all season long.  Early in the season, when the show was still finding its tone and figuring out a way to balance its characters’ story arcs, Ryan was an All-Star player on a cellar-dwelling team.  He was THE reason to tune in until around weeks 3-4, and performances such as the one he gives in episode thirteen have transformed John Constantine from a gruff anti-hero into a man who is conflicted, not because he questions whether he should continue fighting, but because he knows his fight will result in casualties of war.

2. While it’s not the first time the series has pulled material from the “Hellblazer” comics, and the DC catalog in general, “Waiting for the Man” is just further proof that the source material is too good to turn your back on.  For starters, this was the second episode that foreshadowed not only a bloody end for Jim Corrigan . . . but the rise of the Spectre, as well.   We’ve seen a reference to Doctor Fate, have already encountered Felix Faust, and obviously have a worthy adversary for JC in the form of Papa Midnite.

On top of the interesting cast of characters the show’s writers have to pull from, you also have great storylines that the show has been adapting.  This plot was just the most recent example, with the story being modified (the girl being seduced was originally John Constantine’s niece) in a way that both remains faithful to the original “Hellblazer” series while also giving fans of the character something new and fresh.

3.  Last, it’s the golden age of comic book heroes, and John Constantine is the most original one to hit TV yet.   We’ve seen Superman in “Smallville.”  We have “Arrow,” “Gotham,” and “The Flash.”  There’s even “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and “Agent Carter” cashing in on the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  And not a damn one of these shows involves heroes fighting the sort of pure, often ancient evil that we experience on “Constantine.”  This is truly dark content, geared more toward adults, and it deserves to continue weaving its dark spell, especially with the reigning king of things-that-go-bump-in-the-night storytelling, “Supernatural,” getting ready to vacate its throne.

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Where else are you going to find a story about a Satanist marrying young girls only to sacrifice them in a ritual?   A hero who encourages a detective to let the villain run, so they can shoot him down in cold blood?  A voodoo priest who murders one of his faithful so he can turn him into a voodoo zombie?  If you answered, “Nowhere,” you are correct!  Don’t stop it now!

With all of the talk about NBC Universal looking to relocate “Constantine” on a network such as SyFy, there is hope that the season finale will not also turn into the series finale, which is why I scored the episode so high.  Sure, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered at the end of “Waiting for the Man,” but you cannot hold it against the show’s creators, since this was never meant to be the final episode.  Instead, view it for what it is: another solid episode in a show that has just started to find its way, a show you should definitely tune into should it live to fight the darkness another day.