Last week Sheriff Root defined Annville as a Monster Swamp, which is this episode’s title. Anville has a literal monster in Cassidy, and you have those weirdos who might be angels, but the real people are the monsters here. Over the past few weeks we’ve seen them being despicable, and this week is no different. But there’s a worse monster and his name is Odin Quincannon.
“Now, you know the rules. I don’t talk about how my meat gets made, you don’t talk about your magic man in the sky”
The inclusion of Odin so early in the story confused me, but I admit it works. But if we’re going to be spending so much time in Annville, then why not move him forward and have an additional conflict? We’ve been seeing small glimpses of his threat and this week we’ve seen him properly in action. Although it wasn’t as disturbing as in the comics it was unpleasant anyway.
There’s something I wonder though. What’s the deal between him and Jesse? They’re painting a model of the Battle of the Alamo and it seems like it’s something they’ve been working for quite a bit. And I’m curious about how and why this is happening, especially considering the relevance El Alamo has in the Preacher comic book.
Jesse and his father seem to have had some history with the Quincannons at some point, as one of the flashbacks shows them going to the offices late at night for some reason. And the flashback shows little Jesse horrified at something as well, so my mind is full of questions.
Anyway, Jesse tries to make a deal with Odin because he thinks that by getting Odin back to the parish things will go better. It doesn’t have the potential to be a bad decision at all, right?
“Now I’m a big believer in live and let live, but when someone comes at one of my friends brandishing a bloody chainsaw we’re gonna have issues.”
This week has a lot of Cassidy, as he tried to explain his run-ins with the two weirdos to Jesse. However Jesse doesn’t take him seriously and still thinks he’s taking the piss with the whole “I’m a vampire” thing. So Cassidy gets payment from the two weirdos arguing that Jesse has a weakness for “illicit substances” and goes to the whorehouse to get high and other things.
He ends up in the receiving end of a brutal case of mistaken identity. Tulip beats the shit out of him and throws him out of a window thinking he’s another guy. It’s a strange way of introducing oneself, but I hope this means our trio of protagonists will interact with each other more, rather than just being Jesse/Cassidy and Jesse/Tulip at alternate times.
Still, Tulip seems to take the whole vampire thing more seriously than Jesse, and that’s refreshing.
“It’s important to make an example for others to learn from. Understand?”
Among the small revelations we get, we see why Jesse’s so obsessed with filling the church in. In this week’s flashbacks the church is full and it’s obvious he strives for that. Unfortunately, this week I found something I didn’t like with the show.
In one of the flashbacks, John Custer gives Jesse a whipping and I hated that. I understand the logic behind that scene but John Custer in the comics would never raise his hand on his kid. I know there’s a change in the characterization and we’ll probably see reasons why this happened, but I don’t like it.
“One Big As Texas Burger, please.”
All in all, this episode was a bit slower than the others. I know I’ve mentioned decks and cards when talking about this show before but I don’t care. The dealer deals a bit slowly and the cards might not be what we want. But in the end they will be good for us.
The excitement I had in the beginning is still there. This show helps me get through Mondays. We’re almost halfway through the season and it seems like some answers are coming our way. And even if they don’t, I don’t care. I’m still in
Angry Spaniard, adoptive Irishman. Writer, reader, tea drinker and video game player/designer.
