With two episodes left of this increasingly excellent season of Preacher, let’s bring everyone up to speed and clear up any possible confusion as we embark on what looks like to be an explosive end to the season and the beginning of the Preacher storyline from the comics.
Odin Quincannon
It seems that we now have the full picture of Odin Quincannon. Sometime in the 1980s, his entire family died in a freak accident in Vail. The bodies of all of his family members were sent to him in boxes, and in a moment of pure grief, Odin cut open both members of his family and the bodies of cows, concluding that there’s nothing that separates the two. There’s no evidence of a soul. No evidence of God. People, livestock: They’re all just meat. This is what young Jesse saw in the flashback: Odin losing it over the death of his family.
As one might expect after losing his entire family, Odin turned on God. He insisted that Jesse’s father, John, denounce God to the entire town. Odin, in turn, began worshipping the God of Meat. This is why Jesse’s command didn’t really work on Odin. He wasn’t serving Jesse’s God. He was serving the God of Meat. It was in service of that God that Odin killed the people from Green Acre Group, and it was in service of that God that Odin decided to take Jesse’s land and turn it into a “food court,” a concept he hilariously thought he had invented himself.
It wasn’t easy to do — Clive lost his dick, and Donnie had to blow out his eardrum — but Odin finally took possession of Jesse’s church. However, it appears that Odin will allow Jesse one more opportunity to preach to the people of Annville, where Jesse hopes to command God to answer any questions his congregation may have.
Jesse Custer
Meanwhile, Jesse’s own faith in God has been shaken. After sending Eugene to hell, Jesse had something of a psychic break. He realized that Eugene was right: He can’t serve God by taking away the free will of people. After he couldn’t bring Eugene back from Hell, Jesse began to wonder if God really had a plan for him. Maybe there is no grand design.
Why, then, would Genesis choose to inhabit Jesse? Why didn’t Jesse’s body explode? What makes him special? That’s a question neither Fiore nor DeBlanc could answer, but we do know that Genesis is so attached to Jesse that Fiore and DeBlanc couldn’t separate the two. The Angels have given up. They have only one option left (and that option is likely the Saint of Killers, the Cowboy we have seen in flashbacks to 1881). They’re going to try and kill Jesse. It’s the only way.
Jesse, meanwhile, is going to seek his answers from God himself. Tracking him down may not be as easy as Jesse might hope.
Eugene
Eugene is in hell. He may never come back. However, in a twist on the comics, Jesse’s hallucinations of Eugene may serve as Jesse’s spiritual guide, as John Wayne did in the source material. It’s a great way to keep Arseface in the series even after Jesse leaves Annville, and probably more practical than using The Duke.
Tulip and Cassidy
Ruth Negga’s character is a mess right now. Her relationship with Jesse is in no man’s land. Her friendship with Cassidy seems to be the only thing keeping her in Annville, and there has been no progress on her backstory in half a season. Once Preacher finally leaves Annville, hopefully their first stop will be where ever Carlos is, so that Jesse and Tulip can finally get their vengeance upon the man who ruined their lives and killed their baby. It will also bring them one step closer to Herr Starr. With two episodes remaining, I don’t know if there will be enough time to tackle that storyline this season.
Cassidy isn’t dead. He’s recovering by drinking the blood of animals, specifically Brewski, a dog that Tulip gave one final great day to before feeding him to Cassidy. (R.I.P. Brewski.)
This leaves Tulip and Cassidy where they were when the comics began: Together, but estranged from Jesse. However, unlike in the comics, Jesse has a lot of work to do to rebuild his character. After the way he’s treated Emily, Eugene, Tulip, and Cassidy, he is the currently the least-likable character on the show.
Emily
More than anything, Emily’s faith in Preacher has been shaken. I hope it’s been shaken enough that she doesn’t attend Jesse’s last sermon (because I don’t think that’s going to end well), but not so shaken that she ends up settling for the slimy Miles Person.
Speaking of Miles, he helped Odin cover up the deaths of four Green Acre Group employees and has yet to suffer any consequences. I do hope that’s not a subplot the series dangles at the end of the season.
The Control Room
We talked about what’s going on in the control room in detail last night. Let’s just say, it’s not good news for Jesse’s church. Everything is about to come to a head, and it should be an explosive final two episodes to the first season.
Notes
– Odin’s assistant Miss Outlash made a brief appearance in this episode. Comic readers know her as a sexual deviant. I seriously doubt the series is going to explore that character this late in the season, especially since Donnie’s wife has picked up some of her character traits.
– Best line of the episode: “Preacher shot my dick off… Good shot, really.”
– The second best line of the episode: “You dug outta Hell with your hands?” “It’s not that far.”
– Sam Catlin and co. smartly turned Odin’s sexual fetish with meat in the source material into a religious obsession with meat in the series. It’s a little disappointing that we probably won’t get to see Odin’s meat doll, but we may get to see Odin’s Meat God.
– Love the irony that Brewski was a bloodhound.
– Odin’s speech to rally the troops was one of the series’ best moments. “Just so everyone understands, it’s going to be a night assault over open ground with an expert marksman. So, you know, drink lots of water … Lighten up, boys! I was joking. Water ain’t going to make a damn bit of difference … I don’t want you to think you’re human shields, but let’s not mince words. You are human, and you will be acting as shields of a sort.”
“Success will rely on American superiority.”
