Last week it looked like we were heading for a major confrontation, and we got that. And it was great, and some gaps we were missing were filled. And while the confrontation didn’t solve things exactly, I’m fine with it.
However, as a Spaniard I’ve no idea why they titled this episode this way. I’m just a bit confused…
“Denounce Him!”
As a tv show, Preacher has fixed one my major problems with Odin Quincannon in the comics. In the end he was just a caricature.
In the comic book Odin was a cruel and remarkadbly fucked-up individual, he ruled the town with an iron fist and always got his own way. He was also tiny, part of the KKK and had some grotesque kinks. In a way, evil being almost like a caricature is something that Garth Ennis likes to do in his writing but it missed the mark with Odin. I just saw him as the comic book equivalent of a sub-boss.
However, Odin gets some real depth in the show. He’s still a cruel and remarkably fucked-up individual and there’s still some kind of Napoleon complex to him. But he’s human, and his evil comes from a human place and it’s scary.
Not that it justifies him, he’s still an asshole but he’s human rather than a caricature. And if anything, we finally know what horrified young Jesse in that flashback several episodes ago.
“I was told there’d be consequences and here they are”
For most of the season, we’ve had Jesse trying to figure out what was the deal with Genesis and its powers. But the thing is that he didn’t do it in the best possible way.
His ideas were good, but he just kept becoming more arrogant about what he was doing. He didn’t care, he was the Preacher and his flock was drinking his words up. He got to the highest point of his hubris, arrogance or whatever you might want to call it last week. And there’s no other way from there but down.
After the fiasco with Odin last week, he went to the church with a bullzodzer and several of his cronies in case he needed to take it by force, which led to what I’m thinking of as “Jesse Custer’s Last Stand” as he managed to repel them several times on his own, without using the Voice.
The real kicker is that he was drunk! That’s impressive. Although I find somehow absurd that the people of Annville decide to tailgate on church grounds just because their preacher has allegedly gone insane, but maybe that’s a real thing in the South, who knows?!
“Is it possible to bring someone back from Hell?”
Still, as is usual in situations when someone screws things up beyond belief, Jesse kept trying to fix it.
It was interesting how he thought he brought Arseface back from Hell to the point of calling Sheriff Root. But then it turned out to be not real. I don’t know if this was Jesse hallucinating in his drunkenness or if it was Genesis doing stuff to his subconscious, and that’s important.
Jesse kept trying to fix it, so he brought Fiore and Deblanc to the church hoping to strike a bargain with them. They get Genesis, and they help Arseface get out of hell, however this didn’t come to fruition because the angels aren’t that good and Genesis had other plans. I guess at some point we’ll find out why Genesis succeeded in getting into Jesse.
Still, this episode ended and I’m not clear about the state of things anymore. Jesse pleaded and bargained with Odin promising that if he couldn’t bring the people of Annville to God, he’d bring God to Annville (cue that control panel we saw some episodes ago blinking as if saying “Ooh shit!”) and yet, the last thing we see of him is him in the backseat of Sheriff Root’s car. So where do we go from here?
Especially with two episodes to go?!
This episode was noticeably light in the Tulip and Cassidy front. We only got a couple of scenes but we know what happened after the previous episode, which again raises more questions than answers. We know why the Voice ‘failed’ on Odin though.
However, I’m fine with having a bit of mystery in my life. Besides next week the Cowboy will be back, and that’s going to be awesome.
Angry Spaniard, adoptive Irishman. Writer, reader, tea drinker and video game player/designer.
