The End Is Nigh – It’s Preacher Season Finale time!
Yep, this is it people, it’s time for the season finale of Preacher so strap in cos I have a feeling things are going to get messy!
Word of Jesse’s promise has spread to the entire town of Annville. An on-screen timer declares 17 hours and 22 minutes until God. We drift through town, past some Banksy-esque graffiti of a Preacher (looking suspiciously like Jesse) yelling at God. Revelations 18:13 (regarding the fall of Babylon) is scrawled on a wall above a bazillion missing pet posters (guess the pet store stopped serving Tulip?) and a line of women all waiting for bikini waxes in preparation for God’s arrival.
Tulip busts in Donnie Schenck’s front door and then his wife’s nose as she demands to know what they have done with Jesse
Ruth Negga as Tulip O’Hare, Derek Wilson as Donnie Schenck
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
…who walks in drying off from a shower. The Schenck’s have had some kind of revelation of their own and are actually helping Jesse out.
Cassidy meanwhile has a rather troublesome time with Sheriff Root in the town jail. Root has discovered Cassidy’s file and deduced his true nature.
15:38 till God
Root continually asks Cassidy about Eugene’s whereabouts, shooting him when he doesn’t get the answer he wants and then giving him blood to heal.
Joseph Gilgun as Cassidy
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
13:01 till God
Tulip has returned to Annville with a surprise guest, yep, as predicted in my last episode review she didn’t kill Carlos after all. She’s brought him back and wants Jesse to do it. To give us an understanding why we get a flashback. Tulip, Jesse and Carlos robbing a bank together. Carlos was jealous of Jesse and Tulip’s happiness together so he took the money, freed a guard and left them behind. In the ensuing chaos of their getaway Tulip lost the baby she was carrying. That’s why she wants Carlos dead, an eye for an eye for the baby.
Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
Jesse tools up and heads out to the car to kill Carlos but Tulip stops him, instead they beat the hell out of him together and let him go.
After some nifty mis-direction from Mrs Schenck, sending the cops looking for Jesse back into town, Mr and Mrs Schenck, Tulip and Jesse help to tidy up the church ahead of the important service.
5 minutes till God
The entire town assembles, Jesse gets out the heavenly hotline and lo and behold God actually appears.
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
After a bit of an argument he actually starts answering the questions of the townsfolk. Jesse isn’t buying it as he asked about Eugene and “God” didn’t know he was in Hell. Jesse uses Genesis on “God” who confesses that the real Heavenly Father is AWOL before the call is ended.
Then all hell breaks loose in Annville.
There’s a brawl in the church as Tulip, Jesse and the newly arrived Cassidy leave. Emily tells her children that nothing has changed when everything truly has. The two rival town mascots hang themselves from the tree outside the church. A gaggle of school girls murder (and castrate) the paedophile bus driver. Traci’s mother smothers her to death while her hideous little brother takes a selfie. Tom Cruise’s ashes are shot into space. Odin cuddles a “child” made out of ground beef, dressed in his daughter’s clothes.
Under the town the Quincannon Meat and Power Methane Electro Reactor overloads and vents methane across the entire town and then BOOM!
Fiore returns, alone, from Hell to at least find that no-one stole his trunk and thus his comics while he was gone. I hope they give him some comfort since it looks like that bullet from The Saint properly ended DeBlanc.
Tulip, Cassidy and Jesse agree to take a road trip to find God and then either help him or kick his ass, depending on the circumstances.
Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Ruth Negga as Tulip O’Hare
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
They leave the Five Aces Diner (a nod to the comics)
and set out like some kind of messed up Blues Brothers.
The Seraphim walks through the devastated ruins of the town before getting a large hole blown right through her chest. Behind her (through the hole) we see The Saint, now on earth.
Graham McTavish as the Saint of Killer
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
He utters one single word, Preacher, before everything goes black!
Final Thoughts
So that’s it. Season 1 ends with our trio on the road to find God and sort out the awful mess they are in, the town of Annville’s population has gone from a few hundred to a big fat zero, and The Saint of Killers walks the earth in search of the Preacher possessed by the offspring of an Angel and a Demon. Ten episodes brought us to this point which is where the comics begin (with a few minor differences). We’ve spent 10 episodes getting to know the people of Annville – their quirks, their perversions – only for them all to be blown up. A viewer less familiar with the comics might have found this shocking but to anyone who knows how the comics begin – this is what we have been waiting for. This entire season felt like an un-needed prequel or origin story.
There have been highlights, mostly from the supporting cast. Like I said in my last review, Graham McTavish has been the living embodiment of The Saint of Killers, and Anatol Yusef and Tom Brooke as the angels DeBlanc and Fiore have been unexpectedly hilarious and adorable. W. Earl Brown has also done a sterling turn as Sheriff Hugo Root, and Ian Colletti was a wonderful Arseface. I really hope that he finds his way out of Hell for season 2, he’s a big part of the comics and it would be a shame not to use him.
There have also been repeated references (often on screen, a la Acme) to Grail Industries. I am expecting to see a lot more of Herr Starr in season 2, along with other representatives of that organisation.
I’ll be back for season 2, if only to see how it shapes up now it is on track with the start of the comics. Will you be coming back for the crazy roadtrip?
