Preacher Season 1 Episode Guide:
1.01 "Pilot" - Review!
1.02 "See" - Review!
1.03 "The Possibilities" - Review!
1.04 "Monster Swamp" - Review!
1.05 "South Will Rise Again" - (Airs June 26)
1.06 "Sundowner" - (Airs July 3)
Preacher 1.05: "South Will Rise Again" - Review:
Directed by Michael Slovis & Written by Craig Rosenberg
Well, with the renewal of Season 2 successfully confirmed fans can stop worrying about the fate of this slow-burning series. Given the fact that AMC are likely to lose both Turn: Washington's Spies and Halt and Catch Fire due to poor ratings (which is a shame, because they both rock) and the fact that Hell on Wheels is also wrapping up soon it was good to see that they're continuing to keep faith in Preacher, which just gave us a very awesome episode that continued the form of the series, which continued to show that Jesse's abilities don't always have intended consequences.
We first get a flashback to the cowboy who we met in See who now wants medicine for his daughter but it won't be ready until the next day, prompting him to head to a local saloon. At the saloon the cowboy finds a group of men raping a woman as her child watches, so it's pretty grim stuff. The grim feel of Ratwater continues when we see him leave with his medicine the next day, past a tree of hanging corpses. However his return to his family is prevented, at least for the moment, when he stumbles across a young boy in a wagon headed to Ratwater. This proves to be the motivation that the cowboy needs to head back to Ratwater, and gets his horse shot for his troubles by a former Union soldier that recognizes him when he fought for the Confederacy, giving us more details about the man's past.
And predictably, he arrives home too late to save his wife and daughter, who he finds with crows eating away at their corpses. It's a moment that's powerful enough to force the Cowboy to pick up his guns, and head back into town. Having not yet read the comic I don't know where the writers are going to take this storyline and how it'll interact with the present, but so far the Western elements, if cliched, are proving to be pretty effective so far. I guess time will tell how they pay off going forward further down the line, which is probably my only problem with the series so far. The flashbacks just feel so disconnected.
Meanwhile, Tulip and Cassidy get to know more about each other and we got an excellent exchange between both of them as Tulip questions Cassidy's vampire abilities. These two are really fun together and it's great to see that the show has realised that. Cassidy tries to charm Tulip but she warns him that she's got a boyfriend who she's waiting for him to abandon his old job and come back to help her take down someone who they betrayed. Cassidy of course doesn't realise that it's Jesse, who's in trouble of his own.
Despite his best intentions Jesse's powers keep backfiring on him. Donnie broke down in front of his wife's arms, telling her about the effect that his Word has on him and he doesn't know what lies in store for him, with his wife promising that the Preacher will get what is coming to him. Mrs. Lorch may have forgiven Eugene to even more unexpected consequences, but perhaps the most interesting development of all is Quincannon who it's clear isn't staying on the side of God for long. Or rather, he might be serving God in his own way, as his newfound belief, whatever it is, doesn't stop him from taking a shotgun to kill four people, including one who was a little late to the meeting in a brawl reminiscent of Fargo's best action sequences, when a planned deal to try and move Quincannon's Meat and Power group in a greener direction goes sideways.
Tulip does her best to convince Jesse to return back to his darker past but Jesse says that he's changed and so can she, telling her that they don't have to be what they've been in the past. She decides to embrace this by stealing from a drug store and going to have sex with Cassidy in the back of her car across from the Diner where Jesse, who finds himself interrupted from giving out advice that's becoming increasingly more generic. The two men interrupting him are DeBlanc and Fiore, who tell Jesse that they know about the Word that's inside of him and tell him that they need it back, revealing to him that they're Angels.
Jesse doesn't believe them at first, asking how they expect God to fit inside a closed, old Coffee Can. That's when they reveal the kicker about it not being from God, ending on a very interesting note that makes for an unexpected twist. I really need to pick up the comic soon and I think I probably will in the next couple of weeks to get some background, but for now, I'm completely in the dark about where the show is going. Presumably if the Word isn't God then it's the Devil, right? But to be fair, it's a show like Preacher, so anything goes really, and I can't wait to be surprised next Sunday when hopefully the show will answer plenty of the questions that non-comic readers have.
What did you think of Preacher's fifth episode, South Will Rise Again? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to stay tuned for the sixth next Sunday on AMC at 9pm where hopefully we'll see some ratings improve thanks to the lack of Game of Thrones-related competition.
Overall Episode Verdict: A-
Positives:
+Quincannon's shootout.
+Tulip/Cassidy pairing/interactions.
+The Word not being God.
Negatives:
-Lack of connectivity between the past and the present.
