BWW Recap: The Spectre and CONSTANTINE Do the 'Danse Vaudou'

CONSTANTINE adds another DC comic book character --the spirit of vengeance known as "The Spectre" when John and crew visit Papa Midnight's New Orleans stomping grounds in this week's episode, "Danse Vaudou." Sit a spell, won't you?

A drunken police detective (Emmett Scanlan) stumbles out of a Bourbon Street bar to relieve himself in the alley. A fashion student chats on her cell phone and passes him. She bumps into a woman wearing a surgical mask who asks her if the student thinks she is pretty. She answers truthfully and the woman takes a pair of scissors and stabs the woman. The detective unloads several rounds into the woman, who flees into the street and then vanishes

In the magic cabin, Zed (Angelica Celaya) is staring at the stigmata map and worries her powers are slipping. John (Matt Ryan) smokes a cigarette and tinkers away at a zoetrope and Chas (Charles Halford) sets the table for dinner. Zed watches the zoetrope and has a vision of woman teaching a boy how to fire a gun. A new drop of blood forms on the map. Turns out it was all a ruse by John. He needed Zed to establish a psychic connection to the map. And now the gang is headed to the spot on the map.

In the Big Easy, they investigate the murder scene. John wears a braclet that glows blue. He tells them it indicates a ghostly presence was in the area. The detective introduces himself as Jim Corrigan (aka The Spectre). Could the rest of characters from the comic book Justice League Dark be making an appearance this season? It's enough to make a fan boy pass out (or in the very least, keep watching). Zed recognizes him as the boy from her vision (which understandably creeps him out).

On a foggy road somewhere else, a man stops and picks up a hitchhiker (seriously?). The teen tells the man he's cold. The man proceeds to stroke the teen's leg in a TO CATCH A PREDATOR kind of way. Eerie music plays.

Back at the hotel, Zed and John wait for an elevator. The doors open. Zed sees the road where the hitchiker was. She steps into the world, only to be pulled out of it by John just before a car almost hits her.

Back in the car, the teen asks the man to take him to the city. The man asks if anyone is waiting for him. The boy vanishes before he answers. The man glances ahead to see the bloody ghost of the teen. The man swerves to avoid hitting the teen and crashes into a tree. The ghost teen leaves the man to die.

On that road the next day, Chas drives his bright yellow taxi up to the second crime scene. Corrigan arrives on the scene and arrests John. Seems John reported the accident before it happend. John tells Chas to dig into the bail fund. The fact that John has a bail fund delights me to no end.

In another alley in the city, Chas watches the braclet glow blue. He tells a man walking in the alley to get out of there. The woman with the surgical mask appears and asks Chas if she is pretty. He tells her yes. She takes off the mask to reveal a slashed and mangled face. He again tells her she is pretty. She stabs Chas several times. This isn't the first time Chas has "died" on the show and I suspect it won't be the last.

In the police interrogation room, John slips out of the handcuffs and begins to drink Jim's cup of coffee. Jim still isn't sure if he believes John. The surgical mask ghost was a model who had her face slashed by another model and then killed herself five years ago. The teen hitchhiker was killed three years ago. John figures someone had to summon them --how else to explain why both ghosts are back now. .

Back on the street, the EMTs arrive and pronounce Chas dead. He wakes up with a gasp and his wounds heal.

John and Zed go off to interview the model who slashed the other model and did time for it and the grandmother of the hitchhiker, respectively. Both have been seeing a man who summoned the spirits of the departed. That man? Papa Midnight (Michael James Shaw).

John phones Zed and tells her he is off to see Midnight. She asks him if he'll be alright and he assures her that "vodoo's nothing but a magical excuse for a party." And as fans of the comic know, John sometimes likes to crash a party.

Which he does here. Midnight is in the middle of channeling a woman's dead husband. John accuses him of resurrecting the dead, but Midnight tells him it isn't a resurrection spell. It would appear that Papa's lost some of his mojo, because his magic is out of control.

Midnight, still holding a grudge from "The Devil's Vinyl," blows some powder into John's face. Before John passes out, he tells Midnight to go see any of his clients and then he'll be begging for John's help.

Back on the deserted road, Jim catches up with Zed. Both are trying to prevent another deadly accident. Zed has placed flares to prevent anyone from driving down the road. Jim decides it's better if they try to pick up the hitchhiker themselves.

Midnight, meanwhile, asks a skull if John is telling the truth. The answer is enough to have him visit the woman whose husband he recently channeled. The same husband that is now hugging the wife in her home. Midnight tells her it won't end well. She coughs. Yeah, she's a goner.

Midnight returns to the car. John has gotten out of the trunk and is now literally and figuratively in the driver's seat. Midnight needs his help to put the rogue spirits down. John strikes a bargain with Midnight.

In the car, Zed is driving and Jim realizes he knows her. He asks her "when did you change your name." Before she can answer him, they see the hitchhiker and stop to pick him up. They make small talk, he does his vanish from car/appear on the road bit. Rather than swerve to avoid him (as the three previous fatal accidents did), Zed steps on the gas and drives right through him. Lesson learned: Zed does not scare easily.

Midnight and John arrive at the first of three burial sites of the ghosts they are trying to vanquish. Midnight decides John's plan is disrespectful to the dead. John counters the dead have blood on their hands because of Midnight. They steal the bodies and back in Midnight's lair, the pair combine their magical powers, but the bodies don't burn. They blame each other for the spell not working. They trade blows before John realizes it was each of the survivor's guilt that caused Midnight's original spell to go wrong. Jim brings the three women to John and Midnight. They finish the spell and the souls are once again released.

Back on the road, Jim confronts Zed. He used to work in missing persons and he never forgets a face. He kissers her hand. The minute they make contact, she see Jim's future self --the spirit of vengeance known as THE SPECTRE.

Back at Midnight's pad, Midnight make a counter-offer to let John speak with his dead mum. John tells him the deal stands firm. Midnight needs to get talk with his contacts in hell and find out what this season's big bad --the rising darkness-- really is. Midnight approaches the skull again. He calls it "sister" and then it begins to whisper in his ear. Midnight tells him he can't stop the rising darkness. Someone close to John will betray him.

Best ep of the season so far in my book. What'd you think? Comment below.

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