The second episode of Constantine "The Darkness Beneath" opens with a miner who is burnt in his shower. Constantine is aware of what has just happened and so he decides to learn the truth by going to Pennsylvania. There he meets Zed, the mysterious painter of the pilot. Both of are interesting in finding out more about each other. He starts to investigate on the case and he finds out that inside a cave a demon is hidden.
Constantine uses Zed in order to obtain more information about the miner’s incident and he discovers that something is hidden inside the church. Then he goes after Zed to get something from her. After some researches they arrive at the mine and they kill the demon, letting the place explode. The case seems to be solved, but there is a final plot twist that we didn’t see coming. The wife of the dead man was controlling the demons in the first place, and so she is the secret killer. Constantine fixes everything, killing her.
What I was asking myself at the end of The Darkness Beneath was: how can Constantine as a powerful sorcerer be tricked by a gypsy witch? It seems a bit unrealistic to me, that he didn't sense anything strange in the first place. Zed is clearly a nice addition, better than Lucy Griffith character. She is darker, and more confident and so helpful in the entertainment of the story. John has not the role of the guide or of the father figure: they are partners in crime and they have a nice chemistry.
What I appreciated about the pilot was the minor focus on the case of day in comparison with the introduction of Constantine's mythology. We don’t need to see another Supernatural procedural, we want to learn more about our “ dark hero”, more about his past. The second episode wrongly doesn’t delve into his backstory as the first one. The development of the episode is too traditional, it’s not intense enough to grab my attention.
It is also a step behind the pilot, too slow paced. Matt Ryan is stunning as always, portraying John Constantine perfectly. But it’s not enough to attract the right amount of attention. The show needs to find quickly his focus, avoiding too many filler episodes. Costantine’s ratings are worrying, if it doesn’t raise steam and attention, NBC won’t have so much pity over this possibly-interesting new tv series.
Don’t miss The Devil’s Vinyl this Friday at 10/9 c on NBC.
