[rating=9.00] “See”
Whether you’ve read the source material or not, Preacher continues to be one of the most fascinating and compelling shows to hit the airwaves in years. It’s second episode, “See,” continued throwing the initiated and uninitiated alike right into the fire with its odd developments—which make sense to the readers—and its reimagining of the original series story. In many ways, this season is shaping up to be a sort of remix; the familiar elements are there, but they’re presented in such a new way that we don’t rightly know what’s coming.
That’s well and good in my book. The original Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon comic book series is as dated as it is familiar. Series producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, along with Sam Catlin (Breaking Bad) have done a remarkable job at taking the original story and repackaging it as something wholly new, making it impossible to predict just what is going to happen—or in some cases, when something is going to happen—to give us a series that’s all at once the Preacher we remember and something entirely different.
As you might’ve guessed from just the two episodes we’ve seen, the story of Preacher is somewhat, well, bizarre. The world is full of strange characters who make sense despite their innate weirdness. Fans got a taste of that once again last night with the seemingly out of place introduction taking place in the old west. A mysterious stranger—known only as The Cowboy in the show’s credits—travels from his home on a journey to get medicine for his sickened child. Out of context, there’s little connection to the story so far involving Jesse Custer and the mysterious entity that now possesses him.
In context, however, the episode’s opening was an exciting moment; as soon as the familiar silhouette darkened the doorframe, readers knew what we were getting. I won’t spoil it here, but what you saw last night was the introduction of one of the meanest, baddest, deadliest, and most iconic original characters to come out of the 90’s comic book scene, and it couldn’t have been more perfect.
That it lacked context is part of what makes the television series so compelling so far. They keep throwing us straight into the weirdness without giving us all of the answers. The dangling threads being left at the end of each episode hold with them a promise of potential—the baseline is being established and from there a beautiful tapestry is set to be weaved.
There were plenty additional threads left dangling last night as we got more questions than we did answers back in the present day. Jesse has doubled down on his renewed commitment to his congregation and the town in which they live. As we meet him in this episode, he’s baptizing members of his small church in hopes of rejuvenating their, and his own, belief in God Almighty. For his part, he seems committed to ensuring the town has the preacher they so deserve.
It doesn’t take long for his resolve to be tested, however, as Linus, the local school bus driver, confesses his sexual attraction to one of his passengers. This is the moment where Dominic Cooper proves his capability to portray Jesse, as we see disgust and disbelief wash over his face despite his attempts to offer Linus a modicum of Christian forgiveness and assure him he can beat these “urges” with prayer and hard work. Here we see Jesse as he’s meant to be: torn between his desire to do right by God while also utterly contemptuous of God’s world.
At this point, Jesse still hasn’t put together the power that now dwells inside of him, or the danger that he’s currently in. We’ve yet to be told who the two strangers who’ve been following the wake of destruction left by the entity actually are, but Fiore and DeBlanc are well on Reverend Custer, doing their level best to separate the man from whatever it is that now lives within him. Their claims of being “with the government” don’t hold much weight after last night—which found them both ripped apart in a confrontation with Cassidy while Jesse was passed out drunk in the rectory only to reappear intact by the episode’s end. What there connection is, like The Cowboy, has yet to be revealed, giving viewers a compelling and confusing jumping off point for the larger story.
Elsewhere, we’re given an introduction to Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley), once again giving us more questions than answers. His brief scene, involving him purchasing land from a local couple to make room for the expansion of his meatpacking plant, revealed little about his overall character or his place in the story. We do know that one of his men, Donnie, is the same man whose arm was broken like Jesse in the previous episode, setting Jesse and Odin as opposing forces within the small town of Annville.
This is a surprising change for readers of the comics, as Quincannon doesn’t show up there until near the end of the story. While purists may decry the change, it makes sense from a production standpoint, provided the rest of the series will be playing out similarly to the source material. It’ll be fun to watch as more of Quincannon’s character is revealed, and Haley is already near perfect as the businessman whose corrupt nature we’ve only gotten hints at so far.
But in order for that to happen, Jesse needs to begin to understand his newfound power, which until the episode’s closing moments he wasn’t even sure he had. While the previous episode gave us, the audience, little doubt regarding the effects of Jesse’s power—Ted’s literal interpretation of “open your heart” showed us that—the townsfolk, Jesse included, have concluded that Ted was just crazy. That begins to change as Jesse pays a drunken visit to Linus to make him pay for his evil urges. “Forget about that girl,” he tells him, his voice altering, and Linus does. He forgets all about her, to the point where he doesn’t know what Jesse is even talking about.
Having begun to see that something powerful is going on, Jesse pays another visit to the family of a comatose young girl, who’ve all but given up hope that God or anyone can do anything for their daughter. That’s not a bad position to take, given the state of her skull, but Jesse, armed with his suspicions, implores the girl to open her eyes.
We’ll have to wait a week to find out if this works, but even if it does it seems that awakening the girl will bring more problems than it solves. Yes, it would be a miracle, but how much life can she enjoy with her skull caved in like that? Jesse is going to have to learn how and when to use his powers if he wants to continue doing good, and that means understanding the potential unforeseen consequences of his actions. Even in the case of Linus, it’s not hard to imagine that something terrible might be on the horizon. He didn’t get rid of the root of Linus’ sinister urges; instead, Linus merely forgets that one girl. Has Jesse caused more problems in his attempt to fix these?
However it plays out—and despite my familiarity with the comics, the changes from page to screen are so vast that it’s somewhat difficult to tell for sure—Preacher is now two for two as a television series. Now that the series has begun in earnest—following the weeklong break between the premiere and episode two—it’s sure to be a wild ride from here on as the world of Preacher is brought to life. Strap yourself in, folks. No matter how this plays out, I assure you the ride is only getting crazier from here.
