PREACHER, Ep. 6 - Sundowner - a TV Review

Some questions get answered, a few more pop up, and my concerns grow a little more intense with this week's episode of 'Preacher'. Let's dive in, but DON'T kill it. Just restrain it.

Spoiler Warning - this review has spoilers up in hurr, up in hurr.

For a series that has been all about the slow burn, the first twelve or so minutes of Sunday's episode of 'Preacher' finally and explosively addressed a lot of just what the hell is going on here. And then the remaining thirty minutes returned to the slow burn.

Last week's episode left us with a sort of dual cliffhanger; Quincannon's murder spree, and Jesse finally coming face to face with DeBlance and Fiore. "Sundowner" picks up with the latter of the two (and spends the overwhelming majority of the episode ignoring the former) as Jesse finally learns the full nature of the Genesis power that's inside him.

Anatol Yusef as DeBlanc (L); Tom Brooke as Fiore (R)

Anatol Yusef, as the angel DeBlanc, grabs the mic in this scene and takes charge, giving Jesse's power a proper name (comic readers already know it's called "Genesis") revealing that it's the product of the love of an angel and a demon, and that it's power is the greatest the universe has ever known - apparently, including God himself (again, comic readers know that God is MIA while Genesis is on the loose, because He genuinely fears it). Yusef walks a fine line of delivering his deadly serious exposition with an off-kilter humor, and this sequence is the most we've seen of him thus far. As someone who loved his portrayal of Meyer Lansky on 'Boardwalk Empire', it's nice to see him get to stretch his legs a little bit in this very different territory. DeBlanc's droll delivery and working class British accent gives him a sort of charisma that clashes well with Fiore's more awkward, spastic nature.

Of course, all this exposition is instantly abandoned the moment Fiore notices a pretty little blonde seraph walk into the diner and chaos ensues. What follows is the most intense and hilarious action set piece that Preacher has yet to offer. DeBlanc, Fiore and Jesse are all capable fighters, but are clearly outmatched by this petite blonde who looks about 5'2" and a buck-twenty, soaking wet. It's a brutal fight, with the seraph being stronger, faster, and more vicious than all three men, yet it comes across with the sort of slapstick we'd usually see in a Three Stooges bit. Despite the bloodshed, the stakes aren't terribly high for this fight: Jesse obviously won't die, because he's the main character. But DeBlanc, Fiore, and the Seraph not only can die, but do. Repeatedly. And then respawn a few feet away with a whoosh and a flash of light. They're desperate to neutralize the Seraph without killing her, lest they have to start the fight all over again. And when Cassidy enters the fray, it only ratchets up the silliness.

It's a wonderful sequence of events, and among the strongest scenes the series has presented thus far. But if it moves the plot forward like a runaway locomotive, then the come-down afterward is like someone pulling the emergency brake. With the seraph "disarticulated", Jesse walks out on DeBlanc and Fiore, refuses to give up Genesis and goes back to his place, literally, to do laundry and drink beer. And the episode resumes it's typical languid, ponderous nature.

After the opening mayhem, the episode checks in on everyone else. At school, Eugene finds himself in an awkward position of not trusting the sudden flood of goodwill aimed his way. When some kids just want to sit with him at lunch, he is clearly uneasy and distrustful. Despite his wariness, he goes along with them into a drainage ditch after school, and though we're expecting them to jump him or insult him horribly, instead they just want to share their fireworks with him. As he stands there in the semi-darkness, watching the orange and red streams flickering through the air, there is a gentle poignancy to his single word response - "beautiful". Hindsight, of course, presents this foreshadowing moment with a horrific irony at the end of the episode.

Did we just become best friends??

In other news, Tulip confronts Emily with a deranged demand to "stay away from my boyfriend!". Emily is shocked and then insulted by Tulip's destruction of her child's "art thingie" and stands her ground, which seems to defuse the situation a bit. It's an interesting development, for sure, to see Emily and Tulip getting a long, but it did feel a bit forced. In the space of about three minutes, they go from screaming and threatening to offers of babysitting and Tulip being given the responsibility of preparing the church for this week's sermon. I am pleased to see a different aspect of Tulip's personality, I just wish it didn't seem so out-of-left-field. We've seen Emily be both strong and gentle, so her response to Tulip is much less surprising. And perhaps it's that gentleness that disarms Tulip enough for her to try to mend fences with Jesse's not-girlfriend.

Jesse, on the other hand, is preparing for church in an entirely different way. While setting up chairs, Jesse consults Mayor Miles, who is struggling with his own guilt about Quincannon's shooting spree. Miles presents the quandary that everyone who prays eventually comes across: when looking for guidance, how do I know when God is speaking to me and when it's just the regular voice in my head? Jesse's response is almost insulting in its simplicity; he tells Miles that we always know the difference, and we always know what the right thing to do is, it's just a matter of doing it. And yet, Jesse himself is clearly embarking on a path God wouldn't exactly endorse.

With a loudspeaker and a couple hundred chairs, Jesse is planning to remove free-will entirely from the question of faith in Annville. Despite the vocal reproaches of Eugene, Jesse is determined to "save" everyone through the sheer force of his Word. He knows the voice in his head isn't his own, and he knows it's actually part demon, but Jesse moves forward with his plan anyway, over Eugene's increasingly frantic claims that Jesse's plan is indeed a terrible sin. It's clear Jesse knows what he's doing is wrong, but he simply doesn't want to hear it. And when Jesse finally has had enough, he cruelly yells "GO TO HELL, EUGENE" and there is a frightening whoosh, the crackling sounds of flame, and Eugene Root disappears. Suddenly, the idea of fire in the dark doesn't seem so beautiful.

If this is truly the last we see of poor Arseface, then it's an incredibly frightening and bitter end for what has become the most endearing and heartbreaking character on the show. While actually sending people to hell was not among Jesse's powers in the comic (the most he could ever do in the books was instantly kill someone by saying "die") showrunners Catlin/Rogen/Goldberg have more than proven they're exploring unknown territory with this show; comic-Jesse could definitely be a brutal, yet principled, sonofabitch, but TV-Jesse is wading into terrifying and definitely immoral waters.

And while it could certainly be an interesting idea to explore, it's just another in a series of shocking left turns from this show that seems to go out of its way to go out of its way. There has yet to be any sort of consistent tone for the series, other than "weird" and very few threads of the various plots have born much fruit yet. We're sixty percent of the way through the first season, and I have no fucking idea where it's headed, but I can tell you this much: I'm concerned. Not every show has to follow the same sort of narrative formula, but I feel like it's safe to say when you've reached the halfway point of the first season, your audience ought to have some idea of what you're trying to do or say. Those things may slowly evolve or change drastically over time, but I feel like it's a good idea to give your viewer at least something to anchor the show. And so far, 'Preacher' hasn't done that. It's been a series of inconsistently satisfying or intriguing moments that have yet to coalesce into something that resembles a cohesive story.  So while I'll keep watching because I know enough about the backstory from the comics, I wonder how folks who are coming into this series totally blind feel about it. Is the show's meandering nature in danger of alienating the casual viewer? I wonder.


FINAL SCORE - 7.5/10

RIP Arseface???

'Preacher' airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC.