'Preacher' Episode 7, Season 1 Review

Image from Den of Geek

By Darian Scalamoni

            Most of new AMC series Preacher has been about violence and weird outlandish occurrences but last Sunday’s episode titled ‘He’s Gone’ did something unlike any of the other episodes thus far. The episode picks up where episode 6 left off with Eugene (aka Arseface) was sent to hell by Jesse through Genesis. The carelessness of the preacher throughout though is what was so discouraging. This is something especially felt and shown throughout the episode by Cassidy. He is truly disgusted by what Jesse has done and even more so with his actions after the fact.

            As the episodes go along, it makes you hard to root for the show’s antagonist as the preacher is truly starting to become, in all honesty, not a good person; even more so, when most of the people around Jesse do not approve of what he’s been doing. Tulip’s love for Jesse make the most sense and within this episode, we truly see how their relationship began to formulate at a young age. They would do almost everything together, were the best of friends but one day, Jesse’s father called parental services to bring Tulip away. Obviously upset by his father’s actions, Jesse wished during his prayer that his father would die and go to hell and that same night, he would witness his own father’s murder, blaming himself. Jesse is consumed with guilt at this point and now without a father and Tulip, we’ll have to get more answers in the coming weeks to learn more about what happened to Jesse Custer before his days as a preacher.

            But again, as a viewer, you begin to go against Jesse for all he had done the last few episodes and in this one as well. When Odin Quincannon comes to get Jesse to sign over his church after “losing the bet”, Jesse declines and in the final moments of the episode, Quincannon brings his men to take over the church. This was a moment where I didn’t feel anything for Jesse and I understood why Odin would take the church when Jesse lost the bet fair and square after Genesis did not work on him.

            This episode does seem to lack though in most areas that this show has been so good in past episodes. No violent outbursts or anything seen but the craziest moment is when Cassidy finally reveals he is a vampire to Jesse, doing so by stepping out in the sun and burning alive. Before this, Cass tosses Jesse a fire extinguisher as a test of his loyalty and though it’s left open to whether or not the fun-loving Irish vampire was left to burn, it’s hard to see Custer letting that happen to his best friend.

            All in all, last Sunday’s episode of Preacher was probably the worst of the season. Though we learned about the relationship between Jesse and Tulip and how it developed when they were younger, not much more is brought to fruition in this installment. It seems that this episode doesn’t act within the confines of the show’s true identity either.

7/10