The Story of Constantine, Part 1
Right from the beginning of this season of Legends of Tomorrow, fans had guessed that this year's central arc and big bad would have something to do with whatever John Constantine was running from. The first episode had him lifted up bodily and slammed against his bedroom mirror and in the second, he joined the Legends and then actually went behind their back to attempt to bind a psycho fairy godmother to himself instead of sending her to Hell, all in a bid to escape his pursuer. However, while no other physical attacks have come to him since then, he has clearly been in a much worse emotional state than Constantine usually is, continually remembering a face... someone who I assumed was once a roommate and dear friend of his from a long (and better) time ago.
When we get the full story during episodes 7 and 8 however, it turns out the first part of that verdict was quite an understatement, and the second totally wrong. Desmond, the man from the visions was actually Constantine's lover and the first person he had actually loved in a while (which is really saying something), and their fling only started five months ago! Unfortunately, Desmond got caught up in Constantine's magical life when Neron, an especially wicked demon acquired the 'deed for his soul' (which had been damned since the Constantine series) and tried to use it to blackmail him. Knowing how evil and cunning Neron is, Constantine refused, even knowing how much more painful this would make his eternity after death. But there was the issue of his true love Desmond... the Demon was definitely going to try to use Constantine's love for him to his advantage, so he has to run.
Except Desmond (the fool, really!) doesn't run. Instead, because he loves Constantine so much, he gives him his protective medal and goes beind his back to make a deal with , binding himself to him in return for sparing John. But John's not buying it. He knows how eveil the Demon is and has to send him to Hell... a feat he can't perform without sending the now bound Desmond to Hell also. And he does, throwing him into under the crushing weight of heavy guilt.
In episode 7, John encounters Desmond's great grand mother Marie Laveau while tracking a new magical fugitive. Marie has very powerful magic of her own and sensed him immediately he arrives in the time. When they meet, they have a touching conversation that only serves to remind John of Desmond and pushes him to try to save him. So, when the team captures their magical fugitive (a possessed doll!!! Horror movie 101! Thanks guys!!!) and takes its charred body back to the Waverider, John grabs Charlie and sets off to change his past, promising her that if they succeed, he'll never join the legends, she'll have never encounntered him and would therefore, get her powers back. She gleefully agrees.
However, their first attempt doesn't work. Charlie, as Amaya distracts the John of the past form meeting Desmond, but when they get back into the pod, they see that nothing has changed. Well, something has. In the new timeline, John mets Desmonds a few weeks later. And he still sends him off to Hell. They want to try again, but Zari, as intuitive as ever, has gotten wind of their plan and instructed Gideon to bring them back to the Waverider. She gets the truth out of them and explains that John's meeting of Desmond might be so crucial to the timeline that it could be 'protected',a nd if they do change it, it would have disastrous consequences. Still, being s big-hearted as usual, she promises to try find a loophole for him, and gets to it at once.
But John has a different plan. He doesn't care about the timeline. He takes a timestone, loses his lojacked underwear, and tries a different approach: To get Desmond to leave him instead of trying to prevent their meeting. Charlie partially shapeshifts into John to cover up, but Zari quickly finds out. She calls John on Desmond's phone in that time and tries to talk him out of it, but he won't listen. He successful alienates Desmond --the plan worked! And as he does, all Hell breaks loose. A huge wave crests through time and hits everyone and everything. Zari barely has to to say 'He broke Time' before the effects reach her and Charlie heading towards Constantine in the jumpship. Charlie has her powers again... but Zari has been turned into a cat...
This episode 'Forbidden Love' was just the first part of a two-episode long storyarc, a storyarc which has so much I couldn't write about a lot of the subplots. Still, Constantine's story is the driving force, along with the theme of lost lost. I really loved this episode, eciting fom start to finish! And with a great cliffhanger to boot. Watch out for part 2 of this post, in which I'll review episode 8 nd the second part of the story.
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