Comic Vine Review

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Constantine #110 - Quid Pro Quo

3

Chas' daughter is in a coma. The team heads out to find out who did this to her.

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Recap

Warning: There may be some spoilers here in the recap.

On this week's episode of Constantine, Zed says the Resurrection Crusade is after her, even though Constantine has the Mill under a protection spell. Zed finds that the map is bleeding again, and Chas is off to see his daughter in New York City, where the newest drop of blood is located.

Two years prior, Chas and John are at a show, but John takes a lady home, but before he leaves, he drunkenly puts a protection spell on Chas. As the show starts, the stage catches on fire. Chas tries to save people, but gets caught in the blazes.

Chas makes it to his ex-wife's place and his daughter is already asleep. He sees his daughter is in a coma. In the hospital, John and Zed show up and find Chas' daughter is being used for dark purposes, but they don't know why or who is doing this yet. Renee shows up, Chas' ex and she hates him.

Back in the past, Chas wakes up in a hospital bed after the fire. Apparently, he was dead when he was pulled out of the fire.

John, Chas, and Zed visit a medium in an Army surplus store. They hold a ritual to find out what happened to Geraldine, Chas' daughter. They contact her and whomever has taken Geraldine's soul warns Constantine to stay away. John can't figure out who it is. Zed uses her powers to find the place where this evil has started. It took place at a rail-yard. They get to the railyard and there's no building there. John says it's all about perception. The railyard is being hidden by magic. They enter and find Felix Faust. Felix wants John to work for him because a demon is preying on his souls and John has to cast it out. John agrees and they are off to hunt this demon. John sends Chas off and he and Zed find this invisible beast.

Back to the past, Chas confronts John about the nightclub. John says the spell he cast was a myth and it saved his life and he absorbed the lived of the 47 people who died around him. Chas can die 47 times before meeting his final fate.

John uses Zed as bait for the demon. John uses a taser on it. John and Zed head to the hospital to get Chas and Renee demands to go with them. Zed convinces her to stay. At the rail yard, Faust backs out on his deal because John didn't banish the demon. Chas knocks out John and puts him in the cab.

Chas runs in and offers a deal with Faust, but Faust is one tough sell. Chas wakes up from death and Faust is impressed. Faust says if Chas gives him all his souls, Faust will return the soul to his daughter. Chas double-crosses Faust and blows him up with a hand grenade. Renee sees him "die" and freaks out. She and John talk outside and John tells her that Chas does a lot.

Chas returns home to see his daughter and shows Geraldine a picture book of the souls of the people inside him.

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Thoughts

It's great to see a story that gives Chas a lot more depth. Thus far, he's been a great character and asset to the show, but mysterious. Why does he keep coming back to life after he dies? A show giving a glimpse into his backstory really adds a lot to the overall show. We also know how many times he can die as well. His backstory is pretty cool as well. The final moments of the episode where he shows his daughter the photo album was fantastic.

I'm really digging on Mark Margolis as Felix Faust. He may not have that viciousness that his counterpart from the comic book has, but Margolis makes this character his own. I wish he could have gone a little more decrepit with his voice, but what we got was a pretty solid adaptation of the character. A mystic character who never reached his potential in his younger years and even though he's stronger as an older man, he's angry and full of vengeance.

Story wise, it's a pretty bland episode. The parts about Chas' past are utterly wonderful, but the Faust story fell a bit flat. It's a bit uninteresting. This is the first time, in quite some time, where I wasn't really excited while watching an episode of the show. Sure, it had Felix Faust and we get some great back story for Chas, which was MUCH needed for the show, but there's nothing here to really be pumped about.

John holds a cigarette in his hand. He doesn't take a drag, but that's fine. This is a fanboy, nit-picky thing, but having John drinking and smoking and picking up ladies here and there feels like the writers are really trying to get some of the sleaze-bag essence of the character into the show.

Quid Pro Quo was one of the weaker episodes in this series. It wasn't a bad episode by any means. I'm still loving the series and if anything, this is an episode fans need to see just for all of the Chas backstory, which was crafted extremely well. All-in-all, this is still my favorite of the comic book shows on television.