Preacher
Episode 1.5 “South Will Rise Again”
Directed by Michael Slovis
Written by Craig Rosenberg
Starring Dominic Cooper, Joe Gilgun, Ruth Negga, Lucy Griffiths, W. Earl Brown, Anatol Yusef, Tom Brooke, Ian Colletti, Jackie Earle Haley
AMC
Air date: Sunday, June 26th, 2016, 9pm

Last week we learned a bit about the complex relationship involving Preacher Jesse Custer and the head of O, M, & P, Odin Quincannon. Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley) pretty much controls Annville to the point where he was quickly able to “bury” the story of the brothel girl who drowned in a sinkhole on his property. Jesse (Dominic Cooper) realized that the key to rebuilding the church audience was to get the most powerful people in town on board with the word of God, so he got everyone in with a raffle for a flatscreen, and then in front of everyone ordered Quincannon to “Serve God!” Of course, this worked because Jesse has a heavenly force inside him that can be used to command orders. We assume it’s heavenly because two cowboys claiming to be from Heaven are trying to get that force back. Jesse’s friend, the drunken Irish vampire Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) offered to help them, but he was wounded by Tulip (Ruth Negga) in a accidental bout of rage. When she took him to hospital she discovered he slithered off to the blood bank for a snack…

Spoilers below:

We again start in the old west where the mysterious cowboy (Graham McTavish, Outlander) is riding into town looking for medicine for his dying child. He needs to spend the night in the town of Ratwater to wait for the medicine to be ready. He’s en route home when his conscience draws him back to the bar/brothel. He encounters a preacher who remembers him from the past, and soon the cowboy is beaten and his horse shot. By the time he makes it back home with the medicine, his wife and daughter are but a meal for the buzzards. He grabs his guns as we hit the credits.

Back to modern times; Jesse is hanging out by a very familiar tree, and then has breakfast with Emily (Lucy Griffiths). She thinks something is off after the whole “Quincannon accepts the lord” thing. But he is convinced things are going well. After all, he has to break off his talk with her to help break a tie between four teens over which gospel is best. Emily tells him; “This isn’t you.” His response is, “No, it’s God.” Over to Tulip and Cassidy and his secret is way out of the bag. She runs through all the Hollywood vampire cliches, and Cass confesses only the sunlight one holds true. He always prefers single malt to human blood. When Cassidy tries to put the moves on, Tulip tells him she is trying to get her boyfriend (Jesse) back so they can get revenge on the man who betrayed them, Carlos. Emily and Tulip agree on one thing; Jesse is NOT the guy he used to be.

Donnie (Derek Wilson) finally goes back to work for Quincannon, but he’s mortified to find out that he’s a changed man after visiting Jesse’s church. Odin is making amends with the Mayor after the whole pissing in the briefcase incident. Jesse meanwhile, is off in the diner becoming a local celebrity helping everyone until Tulip shows up. She has a problem: she likes bad boys… one in particular. He refuses to give in to her ramblings.

Eugene aka Arseface (Ian Colletti) is not having a good episode. Townsfolk broke into his room and left a shotgun for him to “finish the job”, and his dad, the sheriff, is breaking down around him. Preacher agrees to help his dad out. Eugene is such an interesting character. His face, horribly deformed from attempted suicide, makes him a town pariah, but he is so innocent and gentle now that he evokes sympathy. He obviously did something terrible since Tracy’s mom tries to destroy the car he’s driving. With Preacher’s help, she forgives him in public, perhaps the first step towards redemption from the town.

Donnie knows Preacher has a power. He confesses to his wife about how Preacher talked him into putting a gun in his mouth, and knows nothing in humanity could’ve gotten Quincannon to church, let alone a convert. Finally the cowboys come to see Jesse directly. They come right out with the truth (we think) of where they’re from, and tell him they need his force back in the coffee can. Jesse thinks he’s got the force of God inside him but they confirm, that it’s “not God.” That was ominous. And before I can even think about what might happen, Quincannon pleasantly starts a meeting, and then brutally murders 4 people in his office right in front of the Mayor with a huge gun. I’m guessing Jesse’s orders about “serving God” didn’t pan out too well.

We finally arrive at the episode where the sh*t starts hitting the fan. After weeks of slow build, Jesse is now confronted with the power inside him, and we find out it might have some crazy bad impacts on Annville. This episode was still on the slow-ish side, which I’m not against as the character development was fantastic. The Tulip/Cassidy pairing is all sorts of interesting, and I like Arseface’s story arc. Most importantly, Jackie Earle Haley is shaping up to be a classic villain. Having not read the comic, I can imagine the depravity we will get in future episodes, but just his cool demeanor is scary enough. Preacher continues being my favorite new show of 2016.

Preacher returns next Sunday night at 9:00pm ET on AMC.

Video

Preacher: ‘We’re from Heaven’ Talked About Scene Episode 105

DeBlanc and Fiore meet Jesse at the diner to insist he return his power.