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Constantine Review – S01E11 – A Whole World Out There

By Steve Lam

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The latest episode of Constantine, titled A Whole World Out There, deviates from the comics incarnation of Constantine by giving him a more sentimental side.  Fans of Hellblazer may be screaming in resentment, but in this case, it actually works.  With some great character interactions and a creepy story, A Whole World Out There is another strong installment in the series.

Spoilerific Recap

College students Adam, Lily, Carter, and Miranda perform a seance in a cemetery tomb.  They are soon separated and transported to an alternate dimension filled with various torture instruments.  Lily is grabbed by a scared man who tells her to hide.  Miranda is approached by a man, Jacob Shaw, with evil intent.  As Miranda screams, they’re brought back to the tomb.

At Jasper Winters’s home, Constantine drinks to a reflection of Gary Lester in the past.  Manny appears and gives Constantine a mission — a “friend” who’s close in the vicinity of Constantine needs his help.  Constantine is impressed with Manny’s “less cryptic” message in telling him to intervene.  As Constantine looks to Manny again, the angel disappears.

At Ivy University, Ritchie Simpson lectures to a class in his own lazy way — via a prerecorded lesson.  Constantine, sitting among the students, interrupts the class to make Ritchie aware of his presence.  Ritchie answers back annoyed.

Outside of the university, Carter sees Shaw in a reflection.  He’s quickly transported back to the alternate dimension where he’s stalked by a dark figure and suffocated.  In the real world, Carter falls dead.

Constantine gives Ritchie the news that Gary has died.  As Ritchie becomes distraught, Constantine tells him that an evil force has been circling him.  Becoming even more disturbed, Ritchie starts to ramble about taking prescription medication to quell his past demons.  Their conversation is interrupted by a call from Adam, who reports the death of Carter.   In Adam’s dorm room, Lily looks into a mirror and is startled to see Shaw.

Constantine pickpockets a campus cop who’s overseeing the removal of Carter’s body.  From the cop’s notepad, Constantine learns that Carter died from suffocation.  He immediately requests Ritchie to take him to Adam.

At a vigil for Carter, Lily tells Miranda what she saw and how it correlates with what Miranda experienced during their seance.  Miranda quickly denies everything and sums it up as her mind playing tricks on her.  Lily is soon approached by Constantine and Ritchie.  Questioning her about Adam and her friends, Constantine learns that they were in a cemetery “having some fun.”  Constantine grows suspicious and thinks that Ritchie and his students are hiding something.

Constantine arrives at the cemetery and meets Manny.  The two talk as they enter the tomb where the seance was performed.  Manny wants Constantine to guide Ritchie back onto a righteous path.  Before Constantine can answer him back, Manny disappears.  Constantine continues his investigation and finds evidence of a supernatural presence.  He performs an incantation and markings on the floor appear and glow.

As Lily practices in a dance studio,  Shaw stalks her and appears to her in the mirror.  She’s quickly transported to the alternate dimension and is greeted by man who pleads to her to open the door.  Looking at him closer, she sees that his hands have been chopped off.

Constantine identifies to Ritchie the markings he saw on the floor — they’re Egyptian hieroglyphs for out-of-body travel.  Ritchie starts to look for a journal written by Shaw.  Constantine is aware of who he is — a man who used an Egyptian technique to travel to alternative realms.  Shaw stopped writing the journal after he shot his assistant.  While waiting for his trial, Shaw fell into a catatonic state and later died.  A prevailing theory is that Shaw’s consciousness traveled to another dimension so as to escape his fate.  Constantine thinks that Adam will try the seance again — they’re job is to beat him to it.

As Lily fails to reach Miranda, Adam has a theory that Miranda may be back in the alternate dimension.  Feeling that it’s his fault, Adam proposes to go back to the alternate dimension to look for Miranda.  Lilly refuses and goes to the dance studio to look for her.

Constantine tells Ritchie that if the portal to the alternate dimension is left open, anyone can fall through.  Learning that Shaw’s research is Ritchie’s latest project, Constantine questions the merit of the science.  Ritchie wants to study the singularity — the ability for humans to gain immortality by preserving their consciousnesses.  Ritchie then tells Constantine that Shaw had theorized that if harm were to come to someone in the alternate reality, his body in the real world would also suffer.

Adam performs another seance and is quickly brought to the alternate dimension.  He finds Miranda still alive, but impaled with an iron rod.  At the dance studio, Lily finds Miranda’s body in a pool of blood.

Constantine and Ritchie arrive, finding Adam catatonic.  In the alternate reality, Shaw has found Adam and Miranda.  As Shaw slashes away at Adam, Constantine and Ritchie watch wounds appear on Adam’s body.  Adam is finally killed when his throat is slit.

The next day, Ritchie expresses his guilt in introducing his students to Shaw’s work.  Constantine, still acting callous, is called out by Ritchie — he knows that Constantine has some deep-seated emotions.  With the last student still alive, the two get to work.

As Miranda frantically packs her belongings, Constantine and Ritchie arrive.  They learn that the seance brought Lily and her friends to a house.

In the alternate dimension, Carter, Miranda, and Adam are still alive via their consciousnesses.  Shaw enters and gives them the rules of his “game” where they are to hide while he seeks them out.  As Miranda and Carter run, Adam stays behind and challenges Shaw — Adam hypothesizes that Shaw cannot hurt him in this dimension.  Shaw playfully tests this hypothesis and strikes Adam with a sledgehammer.

Constantine brings Ritchie and Lily to Jasper Winters’s home to protect her.  Because Jasper had placed protections on all reflective surfaces in his house, they are safeguarded from Shaw.  However, Lily tries calling her mother and the reflection on her cellphone quickly brings her to the alternate dimension.  Lily is quickly found by Shaw.  As she tries to escape out the main door, she finds that the house is isolated on a desolate plane.  Running back in, she barricades herself inside one of the rooms where she finds Adam.  He tells her that Shaw hunts them, kills them, and then brings them back to life.

In the real world, Constantine prepares to enter the alternate dimension with a reluctant Ritchie.  Manny quickly arrives to assure that both of them will be safe when their consciousnesses leave their bodies.  As the two arrive in the alternate dimension, they venture through the house’s labyrinth of halls.  Hitting a dead-end, Ritchie hacks the dimension with his mind and produces a door.

Entering a room, Constantine and Ritchie find a scared man under a sheet.  The man soon changes his demeanor into something more devious and exits.  Soon, the two are greeted by Shaw.  As they trade barbs with Shaw, Shaw conjures slashed wrists on Ritchie and nails Constantine to the wall.  Constantine gives Ritchie a quick pep talk, telling him that he believes in him.  Regaining his confidence, Ritchie creates the sun and starts to destroy Shaw’s world.

Constantine and Ritchie run out of the collapsing house.  Outside, they’re greeted by a field of flowers an sunshine.  Constantine remembers Lily and runs back to retrieve her.  As Lily runs towards the door, Adam, Carter, and Miranda stop — telling her that they won’t be returning.  A tearful Lily is pulled away by Constantine to safety.  As the house collapses and disappears, Lily’s consciousness returns to her body.

Still in the alternate dimension, Ritchie tells Constantine that he’s decided to stay.  Constantine is against the idea and tells Ritchie that he’ll go mad just like Shaw.  Ritchie refutes Constantine’s assessment because Shaw was insane to begin with.  As a last resort, Constantine admits that he already lost Gary and doesn’t want to lose another friend.  Ritchie sees no other option because in the real world, he’s afraid and is unable to bear the darkness.  Constantine reluctantly lets Ritchie stay, but he reinforces the idea that Ritchie is only escaping his responsibilities.

Constantine awakens in the real world.  Seeing that Ritchie is still catatonic, Constantine pleads to him to come back.  After a few moments, Ritchie’s consciousness also returns, greeted by a joyous Constantine.

At Ivy University, Ritchie puts away his cassette player and decides to start lecturing again.  As he talks about Nirvana and the release of suffering, Constantine is seen back home drinking in front of the mirror with a view of Gary from the past.

“Hell” Yeah! Moments

  • When Adam gets his throat slit, we see the bleeding wound brutally appear in the real world.
  • Ritche finally gaining some confidence and turning the tables on Shaw.

The Devil is in the Details (References)

  • The character of Jacob Shaw is a dedication to Andrew Shaw of the Chicago Blackhawks.
  • Though seen as a reflection, the image of Gary in the past is a reference to Gary’s situation in the comics — after his death, he appears as a ghost to Constantine.
  • Ivy University is where Ray Palmer / The Atom teaches.
  • Keen eyes may catch one of Ivy University’s halls named as Bradstreet Hall.  This is a reference to Hellblazer artist Tim Bradstreet.
  • Ritchie’s interest in the singularity (or the implementation of human consciousness on a machine) is not a creation of the TV universe.  In the comics, while Ritchie is hacking the systems of the Resurrection Crusade (the cult that Zed escaped from), he’s killed and his mind is transferred to a computer.  He later ends up in Hell as a demon.
  • In Ritchie’s office, multiple Mucous Membrane memorabilia can be seen.
  • I’ll throw this one out there: the alternate dimension house that Shaw controls may be a reference to the House of Mystery — a house that exists in both the realm of the Dreaming and Earth.  In the comics, Constantine won the house in a card game.  Constantine would later lose it to Zatanna — one of his Justice League Dark team members.

Final Thoughts

Excellent, Excellent episode!  I know, most of you Hellblazer fans may be screaming, “This Constantine is a wimp!  He’s not a-hole-ish enough!”  I beg to differ.  For the series, this really works.  You have to understand that as a television show, they still need to reach a wide audience.  And the best way to get and retain that audience is to create a sympathetic character.  I have to applaud the writers for doing it right also.  They really did perform a balancing act with his anti-hero persona and his newly sprinkled-in mushiness.

The show also continues with its subtle character development with some serial storytelling.  Referencing all the way back to Gary Lester in A Feast of Friends, the writers use that to humanize Constantine.  There are quite a few hints which point to Constantine’s character arcing.  Ritchie, in the middle of this episode, makes the call that Constantine’s true feelings will be revealed, and they sure were.  The ending scenes were enough of a payoff.

Although I do miss the presence of both Zed and Chas, it was a wise decision to have Constantine go at this alone.  The one-on-one interaction with Ritchie allowed us to truly see Constantine facing the past with someone who really knows him.

The development of Ritchie should also be commended in this episode.  In the pilot, Non Est Asylum, we saw Ritchie as someone who Constantine pushed around or forced into doing favors.  In this current episode, Ritchie isn’t so much pulled into Constantine’s plans, but asked to join in.  This made for far more interesting character interactions.

With all of this dimension hopping, I think this episode never really explicitly mentioned the Rising Darkness or the Brujeria.  It’s actually not a bad decision to give those things a break.  We know they’re lurking 24/7 on our favorite mage’s mind.

A Whole World Out There can be seen like a companion episode to A Feast of Friends, but with a much happier ending.  Both had very damaged people from Constantine’s past reentering his life, and both forced a change within Constantine.  As a character whose callous personality never changes in the comics, this television incarnation of the character has actually developed quite a bit in a short time span.  That’s why it’ll be sad to see Constantine ending its first season without a second season commitment.  Audiences want to see where this character will go, and how those around him will be affected.  Here’s to hoping that NBC will conjure up a miracle soon in the form of a green light for Season 2.

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