My Review of Constantine's 1x10: "Quid Pro Quo"

Written by Brian Anthony
Directed by Mary Harron

Chas (to Constantine): "I've watched other people suffer the consequences of your actions but this is my family, so I'm gonna do things my way, not yours."

After ten episodes we finally got a backstory for Chas and I have to admit, it was probably in my least favourite episode so far. I mean, there's a fair bit going for this one but after the previous three for some reason, this one felt like a bit of a dip in quality in spite of the stuff we learned in this one.

Keeping with the positives, I did like that we learned a bit more about Chas's immortality and I also liked the focus on his wife and daughter - Renee and Geraldine as the latter's soul got stolen by Felix Faust and with the former we saw how her relationship with Chas broke down due to his friendship with Constantine.

Loads of episodes have alluded to Constantine being a bad friend and we've seen the consequences of that with both Gary and Anne Marie during the season but for a moment, I really thought that Chas was going to lose everything due to Faust's reluctance to release Geraldine. There was even a point when even Zed seemed like she might not have made it out of this one alive.

It was nice to finally get an exploration and insight into John and Chas's friendship but Renee was mostly a pain in the ass throughout the episode, even though she had a right to be. The show's characterisation with female characters hasn't been great but Renee was probably one of the worst we've had for some time though.

- Chas's real name is Francis and his immortality was shown after the outcome of a concert that went seriously wrong.
- Zed briefly met Constantine's mother and passed onto John that his mother didn't blame him for her death. That was a nice scene to end the episode.
- Felix Faust was actually a good guest villain but should've been saved for a better episode.We also met Constantine's other friend - a medium named Fennel.
- The Resurrection Crusade are the ones after Zed. They're led by her father. Chas also has 32 out of 47 lives left.

Probably the weakest episode for me now. "Quid Pro Quo" deserves points for giving Chas more to do but aside from a few choice moments, I largely found myself drifting in and out of this episode a little too much at times.

Rating: 5 out of 10