Constantine Episode 4 Recap, Plus Promo for Episode 5

Constantine’s old chum, Gary Lester, shows up in Atlanta. Gary was a rich kid who idolized John and was with him at Newcastle. Gary is also a drug addict who turned to heroin after Newcastle. He went on a bender that led him to the Sudan where he found a young man with containment markings etched into his skin. As a way to atone for his cowardly part in the Newcastle incident, he decides to free this young man of the demon trapped inside him. A swarm of beetles rush out of the young man and into an antique bottle. This being a post-9/11, Ebola-plagued world, Customs agents pull Gary aside and check out the bottle. The bottle explodes and the beetles swarm into the agent.

Gary goes to John, tail between his legs. Between Gary’s story and the news reports on TV, John has figured out that this is a hunger demon. It makes its host eat obsessively until it kills them, then it goes on to a new host. It’s funny: that simple description does not do justice to the violent, disgusting nature of this demon. Anyway, John inscribes a new bottle, then follows the news reports to track down the host. John finds him in a meat factory and attempts to exorcise him, but the demon is too powerful to be contained in a bottle. It bursts immediately. Using a cow carcass as cover, John manages to avoid infection and locks the beetles in the meat locker. It is only a temporary solution, but it will do until he can figure out what kind of crazy demon he is dealing with. Naturally, the beetle demon escapes.

John goes to his shaman friend with drawings of the original Sudanese man (which Zed saw when she touched Gary). The shaman and John take an extremely potent psychedelic and the shaman recounts the tale of a hunger demon who was causing famine across the Sudan. It was too powerful to be contained, so the town shaman had to make a choice to sacrifice a human being. This young man would be eaten by the demon, then the demon would have no choice but to consume itself. Unfortunately, this young man escaped the hut he had been tied up in and made it to the street, where Gary found him.

Knowing this, John returns home for Gary, finally deciding to let him “help,” but finds Gary has left. John knows where to find him: a dark alley, trying to score, and instead getting beaten up. John scares the dealers away and takes Gary for a drink before they head to the Fox Theater, where the most recent victim has holed up. Upon arriving, John informs Gary that the only way to get rid of the demon was to seal it up in a live human sacrifice. Gary picks up what John is putting down and agrees to be the human sacrifice. It seems like he is doing it to assuage his guilt over the Astra incident, but as far as I’m concerned, he should have to be the sacrifice because it was his fault the demon got out in the first place. Anyway, John starts the chant, the beetles swarm into Gary, then John uses a kusa knife (stolen from a museum) to etch the containment symbols onto Gary’s face. He passes out from the pain, but he still needs to be kept someplace secure until the demon eats itself. He takes Gary back to the house, where Zed accuses John of using his friend. John insists it was Gary’s choice and reminds Zed that the people around him tend not to live very long. Gary was aware of the risks of being John’s friend. Zed backs down, and John takes Gary into a room at the end of the secret hallway, and holds his hand as he screams and spasms while being eaten alive.

You can check out the promo for episode 5 of “Constantine” in the player below. Titled “Danse Vaudou,” it is officially described as follows:

“In New Orleans, Constantine’s unusual knowledge of a string of crimes gets him into trouble with Detective Jim Corrigan. He must form an unholy alliance with Papa Midnite when a voodoo ritual to help people communicate with their dead loved ones takes a deadly turn.”

“Danse Vaudou” is set to air November 21. “Constantine” airs Fridays at 10 p.m. on NBC.