‘Preacher’ Episode 1.6 “Sundowner” (8 out of 10) Developed by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg & Sam Catlin; Starring Dominic Cooper, Joseph Gilgun & Ruth Negga; Sundays on AMC.
Even though it’s taken about six episodes to do so, “Preacher” is finally starting to get somewhere. It’s still a bit rough around the edges, but tonight’s episode resurrected some of the freneticism of the pilot. Spoilers ahead!
Showdown at the Sundowner
“Preacher” outdid itself with this opening scene—it was violent, funny and ruthlessly inventive. After Fiore (Tom Brooke) and DeBlanc (Anatol Yusef) confronted Jesse (Dominic Cooper) about the force inside of him—they’re calling it Genesis, as it is named in the comics—they meet an angel named Susan (Juliana Potter) who is much less sympathetic to their cause. In the bureaucracy of Heaven, Fiore and DeBlanc are considered AWOL, and Susan is one of the heavenly hosts that have been dispatched to bring them in. Not only does this new wrinkle make Fiore and DeBlanc more endearing—they’re essentially babysitters who have lost track of the most powerful force in existence—but it led to one of the most brutally creative fight scenes in recent memory.
In earlier episodes, when Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) killed Fiore and DeBlanc, they came back to life even though their corpses were buried. Fiore explains that this is a normal process for angels—when their current body dies, they just come back in a new one. Of course, Jesse doesn’t know this when he cuts Susan’s throat in the parking lot, causing her to follow them back to the Sundowner Motel. Her arrival heralds a maniacal bloodbath as these three angels continue to murder each other and resurrect, leaving a pile of identical bodies behind—imagine an episode of “The Three Stooges” where they stab, shoot and electrocute each other. There are some brilliant camera angles that manage to capture the scene’s comically gruesome violence while maintaining basic cable standards—one shot finds us viewing the battle royale through a hole that Susan punched in the motel room wall. This is no doubt thanks to the episode’s director, Guillermo Navarro, who shot most of Gullermo del Toro’s films.
As much as I loved this opening scene, I couldn’t help but wonder why Jesse didn’t get himself killed in this bloodbath. Obviously Fiore and DeBlanc wouldn’t do it, but what was stopping Susan from pulling homeboy’s head off? I made a few arguments in my head—maybe an angel wouldn’t murder a priest? Maybe Fiore and DeBlanc were sacrificing their bodies to protect him, since killing him could release Genesis? Anyway, it was a small thing to nitpick amid such unexpectedly funny carnage.
Jesse Has a Tulip Tattoo!
I’ve been a bit disappointed in Tulip’s (Ruth Negga) role in “Preacher” lately, but I liked what I saw tonight. Last week, we saw her barge in and scream at poor Emily (Lucy Griffiths, another Brit who does a great Southern accent) while she was on the toilet. Tonight, the two made amends, presumably because Tulip learned that Emily wasn’t moving in on Jesse—at least not yet. Griffiths and Negga have a few nice scenes together, and I liked seeing the contrast between their two characters. Sure, this episode might not pass the Bechdel test, since the two leading ladies meet because of their connection to Jesse, but the episode makes a point to show that their potential friendship is based on mutual respect and not their relationship with Jesse. Tulip sees the effort that Emily puts into being a single mom, and Emily sees Tulip’s inner compassion when she agrees to help her with church stuff. I smell yet another love triangle a-brewing, which brings us to our first love triangle, which I am still pissed about.
Tonight’s episode makes a noble effort to illustrate the fact that Cassidy, Jesse and Tulip don’t really know that they’re in a love triangle. I get why they went that direction—it’s going to be an awkward, possibly violent conversation when Jesse confronts his friends about this—but Cassidy’s feelings for Tulip don’t make any sense to me. He tells Jesse that he met a girl and fell in love, but I just don’t buy it. This clumsy attempt at creating a love triangle is even more infuriating now that we’ve seen the possibility of Emily and Tulip vying for Jesse’s attention. If a love triangle happens organically in a story, that’s great. This one feels a bit shoehorned in, and I think Jesse and Tulip have enough emotional baggage to make their relationship interesting—they don’t need a heartsick Irish vampire in the mix.
Verdict
Storywise, we’re seeing Genesis exert a greater hold on Jesse—the episode ends with him affixing a megaphone to the top of his chapel, and sending Arseface (Ian Colletti) to hell in a fit of rage. Now that we’re seeing this side of him, the main conflict of the story seems much more clear. It’s easier to see that the show is going to focus on Jesse’s internal conflicts—giving a beaten down preacher the power to make anyone do what he wants is a moral quandary that continues to be interesting. For the remainder of the season, the show needs to pare down the cable TV tropes, and focus on the story. Also, I’m curious to see how Arseface gets out of hell.