Preacher
Episode 1.10 “Call and Response”
Directed by Sam Catlin
Written by Sam Catlin
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, July 31, 2016, 9pm

It has come to this. The season finale of Preacher sees the culmination of the most outrageous guarantee a man of the cloth has ever offered his flock”¦ God is coming to Annville. Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) is a desperate man. He is inhabited by a half demon, half angel force called Genesis that at the same time reinvigorated his faith and has lead to a spectacular downfall. He is currently on the run from Sheriff Root (W. Earl Brown) after casting the sheriff’s “freak” son Eugene to Hell. If God doesn’t show up to church tonight, then he loses it all to the psychotic meatpacking magnate Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley) while being forced to denounce God publically. Oh yeah, unbeknownst to Jesse, there is a literal Cowboy from Hell (Graham McTavish) out to kill him. It’s gonna be a crazy Sunday in Annville.

Spoilers below if you have not seen the Season Finale of Preacher…

Annville preps for God’s arrival just as Tulip (Ruth Negga) arrives back up in town going after Carlos in Albuquerque. She gets word that Jesse is being kept at Donnie’s (Derek Wilson), so she arrives guns blazing, knocking down the door to find that sure enough he is there, safe and sound and freshly showered. Meanwhile, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) is sitting in jail while the Sheriff wants answers about Eugene. He puts two and two together about Cassidy vampirism and immortality “¦ after all he’s got a rap sheet dating back to 40s. The sheriff, knowing the truth, has no problem dishing out Texas-style justice.

Tulip and Jesse rekindle things in an alley. “Will you do something for me?” she asks with a provocative smile. “Kill him,” she says as she pops open the trunk of her car to reveal Carlos (Desmin Borges) inside. We get flashbacks to a bank heist in Dallas, where a happy and pregnant Tulip and Jesse are ditched by partner Carlos. The results of this betrayal are Jesse being a killer and Tulip having a miscarriage. Back to the present, they argue over whether to do the deed, and have a really tender moment before coming to their decision. Speaking of decision making, I love the 180 of Donnie as he and his wife Betsy (Jamie Anne Allman) help Jesse and Tulip get the church ready. Donnie always seemed like the typical Texas jock who just needed some descent direction, and Quincannon is certainly NOT that.

The time has come. The sign outside All Saints church reads “Today: Meet God, Tomorrow: TBD.” The whole town is there — the vampire, the red painted Indian, the girls from the whorehouse, and the guys from QM&P, you name it. Quincannon interrupts Jesse’s introduction to call him out. “The only real God, is the God of meat!” he yells. Jesse pulls out the special “direct to Heaven” phone he stole from angels Fiore (Tom Brooke) and DeBlanc (Anatol Yusef) as well as one of their severed hands from the motel massacre. Cassidy casually turns to a woman, “angel hand,” with a shrug.

In one of the most surreal scenes I’ve watched on television maybe ever, God himself appears from the phone’s “video screen.” God (Mark Harelik) looks like he was ripped out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or maybe a Comic-Con cosplayer. It’s so ridiculous, but then they play it straight and it’s totally fascinating. After taking a round of questions, including Quincannon asking if his daughter is in Heaven, Jesse realizes that this is an imposter and uses Genesis to force the faux-deity to answer where God is”¦ turns out, God is missing. Annville is left in shock.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but suffice it to say God is NOT there for Annville. The results this has for the people is massive. There was one scene, disgusting as it may be, where I nearly teared up. Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy end up sharing a quick meal, before setting out on the road to search for God, but what they leave behind is quite shocking.

I will miss Preacher, and if nothing else, this show compelled me to get the graphic novels by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Bring on Season 2!!!

Video

Preacher Season 1 Finale “Where’s Jesse?”