Blessed Are the Damned

"Blessed Are the Damned"
Information
Episode number	7 of 13
Original airdate	December 5, 2014
Written by	Sneha Koorse
Directed by	Nick Gomez
Chronology
Preceded by	"Rage of Caliban"
Followed by	"The Saint of Last Resorts"

"Blessed Are the Damned" is the seventh episode of Constantine. It aired on December 5, 2014.

Synopsis

While in art class, Zed has a bizarre vision of snakes that lead her and John to a small town where a preacher has mysteriously gained the ability to heal his congregation.[src]

Cast

Starring

• Matt Ryan as John Constantine
• Angélica Celaya as Zed Martin
• Harold Perrineau as Manny

Guest starring

• Patrick Carroll as Zachary
• David A. Gregory as Eddie
• Juliana Harkavy as Sarah
• Megan West as Imogen

Co-starring

• Mann Alfonso as Michael
• Christopher Johnson as Nate
• Stephanie Adelheid Albanese as Nancy
• Jody Thompson as Tom
• Terry Dale Parks as Officer Culver
• Marty Stonerock as Instructor
• Charles Green as Blind Man
• Bill Murphey as Doctor

Plot

Zachary.

Briarwood Preacher Zachary came home with a chest with a rattlesnake inside. The sister warned him to be careful with them as she had not yet squeezed out the venom. The man, however, got angry and said that their father used poisonous reptiles and he would do the same to honor him. He felt that their father would be disappointed to see that the faithful had dropped. True to belief, Zach took the serpent to a sermon where he could not express himself. So he seized the animal, wanting to prove that God had marked him and that he would not run away from death, he would not be afraid. The serpent, however, killed the preacher during the sermon, and his venom killed the man after a while. However, he woke up after a while with a pen in his hand, which he quickly put in his pocket. Believers were delighted, considering the event a miracle. So a legless man approached him, wanting to feel God as well. Zachary touched the limb to grow back, to the delight of people.

Meanwhile, Zed was in a painting school, and like many of the other members, she was painting a naked model - Eddie. Suddenly she saw in a vision the snakes entwining her legs and she started screaming. For this reason, the teacher decided to order a fifteen-minute break, and the model in a bathrobe approached the artist, whom he invited for a date. She initially refused, but after reflection decided to meet a nice man. Soon after, she returned to the mill, where she tried to tell about what had happened to John. The exorcist became interested only after a friend mentioned the vision. So he saw a connection between the stain on the bloody map at Briarwood and the preacher who had risen from the dead and began to work miracles. So together they decided to investigate the whole matter, despite Martin's lack of faith.

After reaching the town, they walked to the church where Zachary was preaching. They have witnessed the things he does, including the healing of the old man's eyesight. John also noted that Zed was an unbeliever, but their discussion of faith was interrupted by a preacher who began speaking in Enochian, the language of angels, which made Constantine suspect the preacher's power. After mass, they decided to line up to Zach only for Zed to touch the man and learn more through the vision. So it happened and the girl saw the hand extended towards the angel. This made Martin believe that the preacher's actions were right, but John showed otherwise by going to the great pond where all the animals in it died. For he knew it was a sign that something was wrong here.

An angel feather.

The preacher made his way through the crowd to the church, where he began arguing with his sister. For Sarah wasn't sure if they were doing the right thing by using something that they could get their hands on and could be dangerous. Zach, however, was not going to give up and emphasized that they could not question a gift from God. Meanwhile, Constantine was surprised by Zed's efforts to summon the angel. The girl jokingly thought that he should ask nicely, and not perform rituals. When Manny finally showed up and found out about the Enochai-speaking preacher, he gave John a little hint, bending the rules of the Most High, then disappeared. Thus, the exorcist with the help of the confused Zed, using echolocation, tracked down Imogen - the angel whose pen was torn out by Zachary, and she fell to the ground. They took her to a safe place, where Manny appeared after a while. It turned out that if the angel did not get her feather back, her soul would expire and she would cease to exist. So they decided to get them back after putting a protective spell around the shed.

Meanwhile, on his porch, Zachary was arguing with Sarah, who was still against using a pen. The man, however, was not going to give up, even after learning that the man on whom he had performed the first miracle had killed a policeman. Angry at her sister, he ordered her to get out and never come back to his community. Some time later, the preacher was visited by Constantine, who was trying to collect the pen. The latter, however, inadvertently rejected the exorcist with a shockwave and ordered him to leave his home. As John returned to the tent, he noticed a man healed by a preacher attacking Zed. At the last moment, he managed to kill him, saving his friend. They both returned to the angels shortly after, interrupting their conversation about the suffering Imogen had experienced. For Manny wanted to know what it was like to feel pain. Knowing that the angels were short of time, John and Zed came up with a plan to try to support the preacher's compassion so that during a mass baptism in the lake, the woman was able to retrieve the pen. The whole crowd was interrupted by the attack of "ghouls" - healed by Zachary, which forced him, Constantine and Martin to flee to the church.

Imogen.

There, John ordered Zed to run to Imogen and return her quill when he himself tried to stop the ghouls. It was then that Zachary realized his mistake and said that it was all his fault and that everything could have turned out differently had he not killed a man by accident one evening. Thus Constantine realized that they had made a mistake, because Imogen is not an angel of Heaven at all, but of Hell. So he decided to run to the shed and stop Zed, but when he arrived it was too late. Imogen showed her true form, the Fallen Angel, and tried to run away, but the previously created protective spell prevented her from leaving the shed. As it turned out, she herself put a pen in the preacher's hand in order to be in the human dimension and then be able to live in it. Knowing there was no way out, she grabbed Zed and was ready to kill her if John didn't pull the spell. The exorcist knew that he could not stand up to its power and asked Manny for help, who could not interfere in the events. The Angel, however, could not allow this to happen, and took over Martin's body, tearing out Imogen's heart, killing her. Soon after at the mill, Manny admitted to John that he was facing the consequences of his actions, but he knows he did the right thing. Instead, the pastor himself apologized for his actions to the Church and, to his sister's satisfaction, began teaching normally.

Trivia

• The title reflects the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount.
• Zed learns about Manny in this episode.
• At the end of the episode you see Constantine set Imogen's heart next to a golden mask. The mask is a reference to a mask called the "Medusa Mask" and is worn by the DC villain known as Psycho Pirate who made his debut in Showcase #56 (May 1956). The mask is used to control people's emotions through the same "channels" that the various Lanterns' rings do.
  • Years later, the actual mask is seen in the Arrowverse when the character Psycho Pirate is introduced during the 2018 Elseworlds crossover event.

Goofs

• Constantine says the preacher "was bit" by a snake, which is an Americanism. The character's English; he should have said "was bitten."
• Manny says that angels die and their souls are extinguished. For a series which relies so much on Enochian and Kabbalistic lore, this is surprisingly quite wrong. The lore states that the difference between angels and humans is the fact that angels, while they do have spirit - the "essence" of God - unlike humans, they do not have a soul. This is supposed to be part of the reason for Lucifer's jealousy over humans and which led to his fall.