After the ominous ending of last week’s Preacher, with Quincannon’s Meat Men advancing on the church, we get a rather strange opening this week for an episode that’s almost entirely focused on the battle for the church.
WARNING: There is some pretty gruesome, graphic stuff in this week’s episode, although I’m sure by this point if you were of a nervous disposition, weak stomach or otherwise squeamish you wouldn’t still be watching this show!
Preacher – El Valero
Vail, some time in the 80s if the ladies’ hair and make up is anything to go by. The entire Quincannon family (bar Odin) is killed in a tragic cable car accident. Remember a few weeks back, the flashback where Jesse’s dad goes to see Odin and as they leave Jesse looks into the office? Well we finally get to see what he saw that day – a slaughtered cow, the disembowelled corpse of Odin’s daughter, a bunch of pine boxes filled with the corpses of his family and a blood-drenched Odin cursing God. Odin told John Custer that he was looking at the innards of the cow and his daughter, trying to find a difference, some evidence of a soul – of God himself – but found nothing.
Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
Back in the present day the first wave of the assault on the church is repelled by a very drunk Jesse who alternately shoots at the men outside and begs God to bring Eugene back from hell. Oh and we find out that our Reverend Custer is quite the sharpshooter as he ascends the belltower with a high-powered rifle and proceeds to shoot off one of the Meat Men’s private parts. Which he carries back to his friends. Yes…really!
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
Now God actually seems to be listening to Jesse for once as a traumatised Eugene emerges from the shifting soil beneath the church. Their subsequent conversation convinces Jesse that he’s been a naughty boy and he agrees to give up Genesis. He also calls Sheriff Root to tell him he has Eugene…right before realising Eugene isn’t really there. It’s great to see Ian Colletti back as Eugene/Arseface, even if at this point he is a figment of Jesse’s drunken imagination. I do hope they find a way to bring him back properly.
After a lecture from General Quincannon to the Meat Men, Root shows up to see what’s going on, they are standing around wondering what Jesse is going to do next.
Jackie Earle Haley as Odin Quincannon
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
He fires up that PA system he installed and asks for the Agents. DeBlanc and Fiore show up with their trunk of heavenly who-knows-what to extract Genesis from Jesse while outside people begin to drift in to see what’s happening, turning the day into a town picnic. Jesse resists the Angels’ attempt to extract Genesis at first but then he finally lets go and they manage to take it out of him and confine it to the little coffee can. Outside a defeated Donnie Schenck walks to his car, opens the trunk, kneels down with his head inside and then pulls the trigger on his gun, his body goes limp… didn’t see that coming!
When Jesse finds out that the Angels don’t actually know how to bring Eugene back from hell he gets a little pissed off and Genesis decides it’s had enough of being in the coffee can and slams itself right back into everyone’s favourite smalltown preacher. The Angels leave rather defeated and the Meat Men attack once more as the townsfolk of Annville watch on.
Lucy Griffiths as Emily
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
Jesse fends off another attack and is then surprised (and so was I) by Donnie Schenck walking in.
Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Derek Wilson as Donnie Schenck
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
So Donnie didn’t shoot himself in the head, just fired the pistol in the confined space of the trunk to deafen himself and thus make himself immune to Jesse and his “voice thing”.
Odin demands his church as per their agreement but Jesse begs for one more week. One more Sunday and he won’t just bring the people of Annville to God…he will bring God himself to Annville to answer them or he’ll denounce God on the spot.
Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Jackie Earle Haley as Odin Quincannon, Derek Wilson as Donnie Schenck, Quincannon Meat Men
Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
There is a very slight, and by slight I mean 3 almost blink and you’ll miss them scenes, sub-plot this week involving Tulip adopting a large, slobbery dog from the pound, playing fetch with it and then cursing Jesse Custer as she shoves it into a room. There are some unpleasant noises inside so I guess she rescued Cassidy after his self-immolation last week and is nursing him back to health with large animals.
This was a very odd, off-beat episode but did shed light on a few things, namely what young Jesse saw in Odin’s office that day and whether Cassidy got saved. I think things are going to come to a head between Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy in the next episode, there’s no way around it. It’ll be interesting to see how Jesse reacts to Cassidy being alive, and Tulip being on his side, since he doesn’t seem to have given much thought to what happened. He’s full of remorse over sending Eugene downstairs but having watched Cassidy burn alive hasn’t bothered him one little bit.
Presumably the manner in which Odin denounced God after his family’s deaths is the reason why Genesis didn’t work on him when Jesse tried it. He is utterly amoral and convinced that God doesn’t exist. This makes me think that things are about to get very interesting if Jesse manages to achieve what he has planned.
Oh and in case you were wondering about the title this week – El Valero… The Alamo was originally known as Mision San Antonio de Valero. Does that make this Custer’s Last Stand…or is it his first?
