Preacher
Episode 1.02 “See”
Directed by Michael Slovis and Seth Rogan
Written by Sam Catlin
Starring Dominic Cooper, Joe Gilgun, Ruth Negga, Lucy Griffiths, W. Earl Brown, Anatol Yusef, Tom Brooke, Ian Colletti
AMC
Air date: Sunday, June 5th, 2016, 9pm

Warning – SPOILERS for Preacher Season 1 Episode 2 “See…

Two weeks ago, Preacher debuted on AMC and introduced the TV audience to Jesse Custer, a Texas Preacher who is trying to carve out of new life and leave a violent one buried in the past. This proves hard for Jesse (Dominic Cooper), as he and mysterious new friend; a vampire named Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) beat up an entire bar full of hooligans, including abusive father Donnie (Derek Wilson), who ends up with a graphically broken arm. While Jesse’s past, particularly his ex-girlfriend and partner Tulip (Ruth Negga), are trying to bring him back to the dark side, a strange otherworldly force has inhabited him. This same force has been turning men of god (and Satan) inside out and outside in, all over the world, and seemingly has a home now in Jesse Custer. This force is so powerful, that when Jesse told an annoying congregant to “open his heart” to his mother, the man flew to Florida and ripped his heart out of his chest in the old folks home! Right on cue, two strange men stalking the mysterious force show up in Annville likely to cause trouble.

Spoilers below.

We open in 1881 Wild West, where a silent cowboy is sent to find medicine for a dying child. The cowboy endures chit chat from some frontier folk before wandering off under a tree adorned with the bodies of scalped Indians. Fast forward to modern times and Preacher is baptizing the townsfolk when Tulip shows up, still trying to recruit him back to his old ways. When he declines, her response is a sexy innuendo… “thanks for getting me wet.” His new style with his parishioners seems to be working. Cassidy and Arseface (Ian Colletti) have a hilarious first meeting.

A huge convoy of moving trucks arrives to force a Mexican family out of their house moments before its destruction. Donnie (of the broken arm) works for the boss, the always creepy Jackie Earle Haley. Donnie doesn’t take well to the employee who picked his pen up and thus showed him up, so he breaks his nose. I feel like that’s just what Texas folks do for fun. Meanwhile Jesse and Emily (Lucy Griffiths) are handing out pamphlets at the market, and Tulip’s games with him continue to push the line; as Vincent Vega said in Pulp Fiction, “you don’t mess with a man’s automobile.”

Cassidy is just a phenomenal character. The Irish, drunken, drug addict, vampire who talks straight and to the point is easily going to become my favorite part of this series. Discussing God’s plans while drunk, he tells Preacher, “his plan for me is to let you know that his plan for you is the dumbest and most boring plan he’s ever come up with!” He confesses that he’s a vampire being hunted down, but Preacher is too drunk to gauge truth. He’s passed out on the floor of the church when the two strange guys show up with a huge chest filled with what appears to be a soul sucking kit, complete with cute little song. And then Cassidy returns from his beer run. Assuming they are the vampire hunters, he engages them in what may become one of the signature scenes in this or any show on television; a laugh out loud gore-filled fight in the church complete with guns, knives, chainsaws, bodily amputations, and my personal favorite, the beating of someone to death with the BIBLE! This must be seen to be fully appreciated, it reminded me of a less crowded version of the epic Colin Firth church bloodbath from Kingsman.

Tulip doesn’t stop. She drugs and kidnaps Preacher to the whorehouse where she’s staying, and chains him to the floor. “It’s only a matter of time before you’re YOU all over again.” She straddles him and “predicts” he’ll keep saying no to the job, so she promises to keep asking. She’s got this adorable, yet dangerously sultry quality to her.

Preacher has a reckoning in store for a school bus driver who confessed impure thoughts about one of the girls on his bus route. He shows up at his home and baptizes him in near boiling water in the bathtub. When he commands the man to “forget her” the man magically forgets everything about the girl… good thing… Preacher asks him to give his heart to anyone. Preacher successfully freaks himself out as he feels the power within him. He returns to the home of a comatose girl, and orders her to open her eyes as the show fades out.

Oh my god, this show is insane! There are so many crazy cool and original characters, and I love all three. Dominic Cooper is somehow the straight man playing off the psychotic drunken vampire on one side and Tulip, the wild card ex on the other. The show is hilariously funny, shockingly poignant, and most importantly FUN AS HELL. Seriously, that chainsaw fight in church is the stuff of TV legends! The music is perfect and the comedic timing is fantastic. And since I didn’t read the comic, I can’t complain about deviations from the source material.

Preacher returns next Sunday night, June 12th at 9:00 EST on AMC.

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Preacher: ‘See’ Official Sneak Peek Episode 102

Jesse honors his word to “save” the people of Annville. Don’t miss the next episode of Preacher Sunday, June 5 at 10/9c on AMC.