Preacher "Sundowner" Television 

Five Thoughts On Preacher‘s “Sundowner”

By | July 4th, 2016
Posted in Television | % Comments

This week on Preacher, Jesse discovers the truth behind his powers, Tulip glues some art together, and Arseface goes on an unexpected journey. Check out our review below and watch out for hella spoilers.

1. Cracking That Cold Open

We’ve had a pretty solid tradition with these cold opens the past few weeks. Usually it involves something from the comic getting a reference, like The Saint of Killers or Herr Starr, before we trail off and forget to bring that up until Season 2. This week was markedly different. We pick up directly after last week’s episode, with Jesse asking Fiore and DeBlanc exactly what’s inside of him. Without any bullshit, they tell him it’s Genesis: a half-angel half-demon entity that was never meant to be, that got loose from them. Before we can really sit down and digest that, a woman in the diner turns out to be one of the Seraphi, a more warrior caste of angel, who gets into an all-out brawl with Jesse and the Angels that lasts maybe eleven minutes. It’s been established that Fiore and DeBlanc, and thereby all angels, can regenerate immediately after death so this episode takes that to its logical extreme. Sure, Jesse gets the drop on the Seraphi a few times, but killing it only allows for the vengeful to strike again from a different angle. This results in a bloody mess of a fight that leaves dozens of bodies between the Seraphi, Fiore, and DeBlanc. It’s an amazing fight, done with some really stunning visuals, that feels like one of the highlights I’ll remember about Preacher when it’s over.

2. The Shirtless Boy Laundry Hour

Considering they’re covered in at least four gallons of angel blood, Cass and Jesse go do some laundry in the church and I’m including it on this list because it’s the best fan service the show’s given us so far. I’m not going to deny my tastes. It’s also another look at the friendship between Cass and Jesse that’s getting tested as quickly as it was being built. Jesse still doesn’t want to get rid of Genesis, even though he knows it’s not God. Class still thinks he should be ride of it, partly because he’s talked with the Angels about getting it out of him, partly because it’s a bad idea to have a half-angel/half-demon inside of you, and mostly because Genesis was a shitty name for a shitty band. This argument gets more heated later on with some other characters, but it’s interesting to see how we’re not letting Jess and Cass simply be buddies. Especially since Cass quickly realizes that Jesse’s old Tulip and the girl he had in the back of a car are the same woman.

3. Tulip and The Girl

Speaking of Tulip, she starts this episode doing the whole deranged ex-girlfriend shtick on that church lady whose name I won’t google. I saw ex-girlfriend shtick because that’s what it feels most like. Tulip rushes into the lady’s house and says stuff like “Get away from my boyfriend”, but I think it’s less of a petty jealousy sort of deal. Sure, she might be jealous that Jesse might have feelings for this woman (he don’t) but Tulip’s trying to get Jesse away from the church right? One way to do that would be to get the one other person who works there to sever her ties.

Tulip eventually realizes she messed up and kind of befriends the lady, running some errands for her and making it weird when she, Jesse, and Cass end up in the same building. Also she drops a little bit of information likE THE FACT SHE HAD A KID?! That’s not in the comic. And uh, speaking of things that aren’t in the comic.

4. Arseface’s Bogus Journey

Arseface has a problem. Okay, he has a lot of problems. His major one right now is that was involved in an accident(?) that put a girl from his school into a coma. The resulting backlash of hatred from his town caused him to try and shoot himself which he bungled, leaving him with a scar that looks like a, uh, hole. Jesse’s tried to help out by using The Word of God to get the comatose girl’s mom to forgive him, putting Eugene back into the town’s good graces. But Eugene’s not comfortable with how insincere this all is, it’s cheating he says. He goes to the church and argues with Jesse, who’s in a very high and mighty frame of mind about Genesis at the moment. Eugene says Jesse can’t keep acting the way he’s acting and in a fit of rage Jesse tells Eugene to go to hell. Except he says it in Word of God mode. A second later, Eugene’s gone.

Continued below

I tried to come up with a more eloquent response to this scene but I don’t have one. Fuck. Preacher has strayed from the comics in a lot of ways, but none that were really interesting. The town hasn’t been destroyed yet and we have a new mayor character and some church lady who are basically leftover Eastbound and Down characters. Arseface and Sheriff Root are awesome, but the latter’s nowhere near the rock and roll journey the comics take him on. As for the supernatural stuff, it was all trickling down while we dealt more with small-town drama and Jackie Earle Harley’s guns.

Then, in one beautiful episode, we have Genesis’ origins explained, an over ten minute fight, and Arseface being sent to hell. For a show that felt like it was holding its cards close to its chest so that the house it was building with them wouldn’t fall over, it was really thrilling to see Preacher take such a hard right turn. It’s like reading A Song of Ice and Fire and being able to skip right to season six of Game of Thrones when actual stuff happened.

5. The Comic Stuff

To close off our review for this stellar episode, I’m just going to point out three comic things I really liked. Feel free to skip this part since it’s more spoilers on the comics than I usually go into.

A.) While Jess and Cass are in their skivvies (god bless), Cass asks about Jesse’s tattoo. Jesse says a mean old woman gave him the big tattoo on his back which gives me hope that we’re eventually going to meet Jesse’s mom’s side of his family. I hope that’s where they’re going with the flashbacks to Jesse’s dad’s death, especially since I’d hate if they supplanted that amazing origin story with some stuff with Odin. Also, Jesse confronting his family just seems like the necessary kind of thing his character needs to grow.

B.) Arseface has a Nirvana sticker in his locker which filled me with a lot of glee. In the comic, Arseface (who started out as a really shitty teenager, like this version in the show might) shot himself in order to emulate Kurt Cobain. While that influence might have been here for our Eugene, the show’s definitely added a lot more to justify why he’d shoot himself like that. In retrospect, I really like that they did that since it adds a lot more to Eugene and gives some dignity to Eugene in his lowest moment. All in all, the more serious way they’re treating Eugene on this show is reminding me a lot of the main character in John Darnielle’s book Wolf in White Van. Without giving too much away, it’s an excellent book about someone who more or less lives in similar circumstances to Eugene. Though I can say that guy doesn’t get sent to Literal Christian Hell.

C.) One of the angels mentions an option that the other immediately shoots down and boy oh boy is it going to be awesome when they say “fuck it” in the season finale and finally unlock The Saint in 2016. I hope it’s connected to the flashbacks and not just a sudden reveal of a character, but I think fourteen year old me in general is jut happy that character will actually be on TV.


//TAGS | Preacher

James Johnston

James Johnston is a grizzled post-millenial. Follow him on Twitter to challenge him to a fight.

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