By: Johnny Wellens
Man was I bummed out when I tuned in last Sunday to find that the next episode of Preacher was not until the next week. That's the kind of hold this show has over me already. I genuinely was disappointed. Luckily, Preacher is back this week and while I don't think this episode was as strong as the pilot I still thought it was excellent TV.
The opening took a minute for me to understand. Obviously there was some significance to the overall plot of the season but it didn't dawn on me until the first time we see the older man's face clearly. Looks like that's Graham McTavish who plays The Saint of Killers, who is a bounty hunter set to kill Jesse. I did enjoy what we got of him and thought his one line was great when set against the other man who couldn't stop talking.
My assumptions about Jesse needing to be careful about what he says seem to be half right. Apparently he can say what he likes when he likes, but when he uses the Voice of God it's something he sort of has to make a decision to do. Like it requires his willpower. It makes sense and makes things a little easier on Jesse, who has it rough.
Firstly, Tulip will not leave him alone. She keeps trying to draft him into doing a job he clearly does not want. It turned me off from her a little bit. She's too persistent, if she really believes that Jesse will eventually do the job with her then why not give him the time to make the decision on his own? But that seems to be one of the issues that Tulip has, she wants things her way and will do anything to make that happen. I'm interested in seeing if she is susceptible to the Voice, I could check on Wikipedia and find out, but I'm actually enjoying the show more not having all of that extensive knowledge on the character.
Secondly, he had to sit in the church and listen to a despicable school bus driver talk about how attracted he is to one of the girls he drives to school. As the father of a girl I was immediately disgusted with this guy and was really hoping that Jesse was going to make him do something terrible to himself. But no, Jesse had to nod and agree that he couldn't share the information with anyone else…then he had to hug the man. Kudos to Dominic Cooper in that scene, I could feel how uncomfortable he was having to even touch this man who he obviously would distasteful. The end result of that situation was satisfying and introduced the ability for the Voice to wipe memories.
Lastly, it looks like those two fellas from the first episode who seemed to be tracking the Voice are certainly not human as I suspected. Their attempt to retrieve the Voice from Jesse's body was entertaining and their decision to just cut it out after their first try didn't work set up a great fight between then and Cassidy. And boy do I enjoy Cassidy! The first episode of the show I found Tulip to be the most fascinating character. But this episode has me on Team Cassidy, what a great job Gilgun does portraying the vampire with a heart of kinda-gold. His attachment to Jesse is great and his fight with the two strangers was awesome. You can't go wrong with a brawl when it ends with a man's severed arm still attached to a chainsaw bee-lining it to an unconscious body.
Poor Arseface/Euguene, that kid breaks my heart. He wants so badly to believe in God and be healed. It was depressing to discover that despite turning himself over to God and getting baptized he still doesn't hear the Voice. Ian Colletti does a great job of portraying emotion under all of that facial makeup and prosthetic. Jackie Earle Haley makes his first appearance as Odin Quinncannon, buying up a piece of property from a desperate couple. Obviously he'll play a much larger role as the season progresses but from this one little scene it looks like Odin is going to be big trouble.
Overall it was a good episode and definitely gets me excited for more. I don't think it worked as well as the pilot, it lost me a little with Tulip and maybe set up one too many plotlines. Is it weird that I already consider this show something other shows need to measure up to?
Final Grade: B
Random Thoughts:
I hope Eugene doesn't take the same path as he does in the comics, I want nothing but good things for him.
I looked it up and the two men after the Voice are angels so I'll start referring to them as such moving forward.
Cassidy licking blood off the floor was brilliant.
Cliffhanger! They aren't always used properly but this one I think was. I can't wait to find out if the Voice works like that!