Preacher recap: season one, episode 10 Call and Response

Preacher: Comic-Con 2016 Official Trailer
Were all just people

The season finale, more than anything, feels like a sequel to the Preacher pilot, with Sam Catlin back behind the camera. This is a good thing, but also makes things feel a little abrupt. It starts with a sleepy montage of Annville waking up, set to Willie Nelsons Time of the Preacher.

Theres a strong sense of urgency here thats been missing from the past few episodes: Jesse is running from the cops (literally, in one notable shot), the entire town appears to be buzzing about it (theres graffiti and signs ordering Jesse to run, and asking about the presence of G*d), and Annville genuinely feels like its experiencing its end of days more on that in a minute.

So much has changed that it feels like theres a whole episode we havent seen. Cassidy is in jail, apparently nabbed at the whorehouse because of his association with Jesse. (A sequence I would have loved to see.) Sheriff Root puts two and two together, using Cassidys penchant for shade and long arrest record (why doesnt he just use different names?) to suss out that hes a vampire. The sheriff spends the night shooting him in an effort to find his son.

Also, has Donnie Schenk found mercy? Jesse has been staying with the Schenks apparently, because Donnie letting Jesse live proved to be a spiritual awakening. This is a good idea: Jesse finally saved someone not by using his power, but simply by being a good person. But it also feels like a scene we really needed to see. While the Schenks read Good Housekeeping and Gorillas in the Mist, Jesse and Tulip take it outside. Ruth Negga does a delightful impersonation of Dominic Coopers gruffness, and she leads Jesse flirtatiously by the belt buckle only to show him that Carlos is, of course, in the trunk.

Were all just people Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang: W Earl Brown as Hugo Root. Photograph: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television

Carlos is played by the great Desmin Borges of Youre the Worst. It turns out the big incident in Dallas is a lot smaller in scope than wed been led to believe: tired of being stepped on and mocked by the admittedly obnoxiously in love Jesse and Tulip, Carlos lets a security guard go during a bank robbery, forcing Jesse to kill the guard and causing Tulip to lose her baby in the process. Its a strange development. Miscarriages are already an overused plot device on TV, and the baby is in this case just a convenient reason why Tulip and Jesse hate Carlos so much.

Still, the final confrontation in which Jesse first decides to kill Carlos out of despair and is then turned back by Tulip, who was never going to kill him anyway is really sweet and fun. (Its especially fun to watch couched in an argument over how messy the car would get if Jesse shot Carlos in different places.) This is a much better look for the show, and its central couple. By the time the camera pulls in on Jesse and Tulip preparing to mercilessly beat Carlos, firmly together in both goodness and mild sadism, their relationship has become the most important thing on the show.

You are all saved

The next morning, Betsy Schenk appears to rat Jesse out to the cops, but it turns out that she and Donnie snuck him and Tulip to the church in the trunk, where she helps him set up the angel phone. All of this camaraderie is fun, and pleasant in the way that, say, an Oceans movie is, but it mostly serves to remind us that were not going to be spending much more time with these characters.

Finally, the last Sunday service. (I assume there wont be many of these in the next season.) Its cool to see the whole town assembled, maybe even more so than the last service it feels like something the whole season has been building to. Of course, the phone doesnt work at first. But then, G*d shows up in the video conference who is an old dude with a booming voice sitting on throne, surrounded by bright light. (Cue the unfazed Tulip: Told you he was a white guy.)

The video-conferencing G*d deigns to answer a few of the towns questions, but everything he says is terrible, a series of religious cliches about divine authority and the plan that sends everyone into a tizzy. (Its crazier than the time Cassidy drank a bunch of Red Bull and saw Justin Bieber.) Quincannon even confronts G*d about his family, who he is assured are safely in heaven. But when Jesse realizes that this G*d doesnt know about Genesis, he sees the truth, and the foundation of the comic: G*d is missing. It turns out to just have been an angel (or something), stalling to fill the void on high. This knowledge sends the town into a riot, culminating in a fuzzed-out shot of Quincannon snapping off a crucifix.

Nothings changed

Preachers first season concludes largely on a montage set to Blind Melons No Rain, which seems about right. Far from saved, Annville is in ruins Emily tells her kids that they never needed G*d in the first place, but no one else seems to believe that. Death overtakes the town and it becomes a place that could inspire a thousand Murder Ballads: both of the mascots hang themselves on the scalp tree. The children murder Linus the creepy bus driver. Mrs Loach smothers her comatose daughter. Theres even a last Tom Cruise gag, with a TV showing his ashes being shot into space. Root stares into the distance, haunted (W Earl Brown has done really excellent work in these past few episodes.) And Quincannon cradles a baby made out of meat, stuffed into a parka.

In the chaos, the Quincannon power plant, which weve seen a few times over the course of the season, spews methane all over Annville and the town explodes. Theres no way the season wasnt going to end with a massacre, which makes it a lot harder to invest in all of the characters weve been told to care about for the past 10 episodes. I suspect Quincannon will be back in some form, but will Emily? Donnie? Sheriff Root? As Cas says, whats the b****y point?

At least our core trio is out of town, plopped down at a diner where Jesse lays out his plan: find G*d. This plan will, it seems, involve a road trip, lots of sin, and shooting a second season that sounds way more fun than this one. Preacher was always going to get to this point, which made a lot of this first season feel like a waiting game. Its been a bit of a slog, but there have been enough genuinely fun, exciting sequences that Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy putting on shades and punching the gas feels like its been worth the wait. Lets hope that season two delivers on the promise of this moment. Oh, also, the Saint (Cowboy) shows up in Annville, and starts his hunt for Jesse in earnest. This should be interesting.

Notes from the nave RIP, Annville? Photograph: Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television

• Cassidy, to Sheriff Root: Im not an a*****e, Im the a*****e.
• Also, he finally says arseface and Sheriff Root empties a round into him. (Related: Jesse still sees a hallucinatory version of Eugene possibly G*d? which is good, because Ian Colletti really needs to remain in this cast.)
• Clive asking, Can I get my d**k back on? Everyones raucous, borderline wholesome laughter at this inquiry is hilarious.
• Cassidy still hates the end of The Big Lebowski.

Obligatory Johnny Cash song

Finally, another one and boy, is it appropriate.

Worst job in Texas

Whoever had to clean up after Cassidy bleeding out in a cell all night, then probably getting vaporized in the explosion. Bummer.

Scripture of the week

Revelation 18:13, graffitied on a wall in Annville. The passage, about the fall of Babylon, reads: Cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves. Im not totally sure what that means (if its supposed to mean anything), but Im going to optimistically hope it means that next season is going to be batshit crazy.

Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNHk3Qh9eXvVgfvSRwhXUSvMtjIf3Q&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52779170176811&ei=vX-fV6mqM6PT3AH48qDICQ&url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2016/jul/31/preacher-season-one-episode-10-call-and-response