My Review of Constantine's 1x06: "The Rage Of Caliban"

Written by Daniel Cerone
Directed by Neil Marshall

Constantine (to Henry/Marcello): "You're not the only one who had a rough growing up, boy. This world's dark, full of pain for everyone, only most people don't leave a trail of dead bodies, shattered lives and retribution."

A child possession episode. It's been done a couple of times on other shows and while there was an interesting twist at the end here with this one, I hate to admit that this was my least favourite episode so far with the show. A part of me was just bored with it and it also felt a little off as well but more on that in a bit.

The first kid to be possessed was a little girl whose parents were subsequently murdered and I thought that she was going to be the focus of the episode until another kid named Henry was possessed and then he became the focus of this one. While his parents actually survived the episode, it did get a little touch and go at times though.

I found the concept that the spirit possessing Henry (a boy named Marcello who suffered brutally at the hands of an abusive father) still had a very alive body of a catatonic man was a nice enough twist and I did like the confrontation between Constantine and Marcello in the scary amusement ride but other than that, this sort of story has been dealt with better on others shows (Angel being one of them).

There were some positives to the episode. Delving more into Constantine's childhood and the scenes he had with Manny (probably the character at his best used so far), particularly when the former was briefly imprisoned were nice and Chas seemingly had more to do in this episode, compared to previous ones.

- The reason for this episode being off was the fact that it was originally meant to be the second episode.
- Zed didn't feature in this episode. Much as I like her, I don't think she was needed either.
- If we're going to see Constantine in bed with women, can we also see him in bed with men too? Come on, writers/NBC.
- This episode also took place during Halloween and we saw Chas holding onto a very revealing sword at one point in this one.

Probably the weakest of the bunch so far. "The Rage Of Caliban" didn't really float my boat aside from a few select scenes but given when it was originally meant to air, I can understand.

Rating: 6 out of 10