Sara gives herself over to the death totem and only Constantine and Ava can save her.

The arc plot slaps the show upside the head this week as Sara discovers the truth about herself, beats the living crap out of her entire team and John Constantine launches another crumpled charm offensive. Which involves a severed foot. Seriously.

As a bottle show this is pretty fun and it’s helped by the emotional weight Sara’s new abilities give her. Poor Wally in particular gets hit right in the feels, whereas Nate gets hit in the face. A lot. The show has always done a great job of balancing comedy with horror and that’s absolutely what we get here. It’s also a surprisingly crunchy set of fight scenes. Sara doesn’t hold back and her team get their asses well and truly handed to them throughout the episode.

That sense of escalating tension and stakes is well contrasted by the return of Constantine. The scenes with Ava and the world’s grumpiest magician are both very funny and welcome. Ava is becoming one of the best parts of the show and her interactions with John give both of them plenty of opportunity to work outside their usual comfort zones. Likewise, Mick Rory saving the day is such a welcome surprise you forget just how well they’ve been quietly developing him for a while now.

Even the ending, which could be cheap and angst-ridden, works. It makes sense, at this stage, for Sara to need to push people away and while it feels a touch manufactured it makes sense in context.

Verdict: Another fun episode, an improvement from last week and a welcome re-focus on the big picture. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart