BWW Recap: Papa Midnite Dances to 'The Devil's Vinyl' on CONSTANTINE

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One of the few people to ever get the best of CONSTANTINE (he cheated John out of $50K), comic book fan favorite Papa Midnite (Michael James Shaw) showed up on this week's CONSTANTINE.

A woman breaks into an abandoned recording studio that's decorated with various sacrificial ANIMAL carcasses. There's got to be easier ways to break into the recording business. She breaks a cement block in the wall and removes a dusty Bible. Wedged between the pages of the sacred book is an LP.

She brings to record to another studio (this one ANIMAL cruelty-free). She tells the record producer to "run a spectrum analysis, but..." and he finishes her sentence: "whatever you do, don't listen to the damn thing." It can't be any worse than 1979'S THE ETHEL MERMAN DISCO ALBUM.

The record producer nervously glances at a pair of headphones as the women leaves the sound booth to take a call from her daughter. Yeah, this isn't ending well. The earphones freeze to his ears; he pulls them off and then stabs himself in the head with a screwdriver. The difference here is I only felt like doing that when I listened to Merman's Disco disaster.

Back at the Magic Cabin, Chas (Charles Halford) greets Zed (Angelica Celaya) with a shot gun. She has found her way to the cabin despite not having an address. Stalkers, am I right, John?

Inside, John (Matt Ryan) is covered head to toe in blood and is performing some sort of spell. Or just listening to THE RAMONES. You really never know with CONSTANTINE. Oh, the tardis magic cabin is bigger on the inside. DOCTOR WHO lawyers: commence with the suing.

Tonight's blood spot on the map is on my hometown, Chicago where said record producer has allegedly committed suicide. John and Zed break into a Chicago morgue. John recognizes the record producer. Seems he fronted a punk band Mucous Membrane (shout out to comic book fans!). John casts a spell to temporarily resurrect the record producer. The spell works too well, reanimated every single body in the morgue. John's friend doesn't yield too much information.

The woman who took the LP is placing it in the top shelf of her LP collection. Her daughter asker her "what's that." The album is freezing the whole shelf.

Zed and John, meanwhile, visit a nursing home where a legendary blues record producer is living out his final days. He tells them of a legendary singer who sold his soul to the devil. The singer died during a recording, the LP catching "the voice of the deceiver." The angel Manny (Harold Perrineau) claims the old man's soul.

Back at the woman's home, her daughter finds the album. Jasmine (Joelle Carter), sold her soul to keep her husband alive. The man she sold her soul to told her he would give her soul back for the LP.

John goes to meet the soul collector, but he's not buying that this guy has the power to return her soul. He peels back a tarp and says "I should have known you were behind this, Papa Midnite"

The LP in Midnite's hands would give him the kind of power that would make John lose sleep. Two of Midnite's thugs knock John out. He wakes up strapped down to a grate. "I don't do zip ties without a safe word," John says. Papa Midnite leaves John to bleed to death.

The thugs show up to take the album. Zed has an ace in the hole, though. Earlier, John put a nail in Jasmine's coat. John has its twin. Both were taken from the coffin of a saint and act as a crude GPS. Zed saves the day.

Twice. At a night club where the record was played, the lone SURVIVOR is a deaf busboy and Zed happens to know sign language. John, you have met your match.

Turns out the thugs are now under the sway of the record and are trying to get as many people to listen to it and die as possible. Their next stop is a radio station. John protects himself the only way he knows how: putting in ear buds and cranking THE SEX PISTOLS on his MP3. The earbuds are jogged lose, though. Papa Midnite arrives and stops the music. Midnite goes to grab the LP, John casts a spell sending the record (and the thugs) to hell. Midnite is not happy.

Back as Jasmine's house, John and Chas literally force the soul broker to eat the contract, nullifying the deal.

Final scene: Midnite has crafted a doll of John that he throws into the fire.

And with that, we close the spellbook on another episode of CONSTANTINE. What'd you think of Papa Midnite's TV debut? Comment below.

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