“Preacher” feels so precisely like what you’d get when mixing the sensibilities of Sam Catlin with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg that a chemistry equation had to be involved. It’s equal parts from one of the brains that propelled one of the greatest TV dramas of this century (“Breaking Bad”) and the ones behind the movie that impaled Michael Cera on a light pole for laughs (“This Is the End”). Continuing the tone from the AMC series’ pilot, “See” successfully whipsaws between contemplating the nature of good and evil and covering the screen with blood while referencing “Scarface.”
The episode opens in the Old West, and– similar to the pilot’s first moments– you may wonder if your DVR accidentally recorded the wrong show. A child on the frontier lies sick in bed, with her mother sending her cowboy father (the always welcome Graham McTavish) out for help. On his journey, he meets a group new to the area, fresh from St. Louis and still in awe of their surroundings, comparing it to Paradise-with-a-capital-P. The cowboy refutes this, and a cut to him standing in front of a tree hung with scalped, disemboweled Native Americans as evidence of the true nature of the country.
That’s all we get of this setting in the episode. While “See” resolves mysteries from the show’s first hour – why Arseface (Ian Colletti) is so named, what exactly is the deal with Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun)– it raises a few more, both for its own plot and in the big questions that extend beyond the show.
Fast forward to present-day Annville, Texas, where Jesse (Dominic Cooper) is in the midst of baptizing his congregation, including Arseface. Tulip (Ruth Negga) appears in a crop top, saying, “Save me, Father” with a swagger. It doesn’t quite have the punch of her first scene in the pilot, but the impish grin she flashes as she stares up from under the water tells us exactly what we’re in for. She continues to ask Jesse to join her mission to bring the map she possesses to a client, and he continues to turn her down. But given Tulip’s knowledge of her ex’s history – and that smile–the partnership seems inevitable. Her later appearances in the episode–taking all the men’s money in a poker game at the Toadvine Whorehouse and keeping her ex in chains while she asks him again to join her adventure – continue to establish that she’s the best part of this show. The script from Catlin deserves some of the credit for the character, but a lot of her success is due to Negga’s performance, which fully sets her apart from other kickass women on TV and film. She tempers her deadly skills as an assassin with a flirty Southern streak, and it’s irresistible.
The two mysterious men from episode one– Deblanc (Anatole Yusef) and Fiore (Tom Brooke)– circle closer to Jesse throughout the show until they find him unconscious on the floor of his church, thanks to a powerful concoction from Cassidy. Armed with an old-timey, steampunk machine and a coffee cannister, Deblanc and Fiore attempt to take the force inside Jesse with little success. Cassidy returns to find them trying a more violent extraction method involving a chainsaw, and it all goes to hell. Blood splatters across the screen like it would the pages, as Deblanc and Fiore are beaten over the head with the Bible and dismembered by their own chainsaw. After Cassidy kills the two men, cleaning up the church becomes easy as Cassidy hoovers their blood off the wooden floor with his mouth. So when Deblanc and Fiore show up soon after, you’ll be forgiven for actually saying “WTF” (or its uncensored equivalent) like I did.
Two Annville residents occupy Jesse’s mind throughout “See”: would-be pedophile schoolbus driver Linus (Ptolemy Slocum) and comatose girl Tracy (Gianna LePera). The former comes to him to confess his as-yet-unacted-upon urges, claiming confessional privilege will bar the preacher from going to the sheriff with his knowledge. But Linus is unaware of both Jesse’s hard past and his current abilities and when Jesse half-baptizes, half-drowns the driver in his own bathtub of scalding water. When he tells him to forget a girl on his bus, she leaves his brain. After this success, Jesse races to Tracy’s home. “Open your eyes,” he proclaims and the scene cuts to black with a nice cliffhanger befitting the final page of its comic book roots. Words have been futile in both plotlines throughout most of the hour, neither keeping Linus from his disgusting thoughts nor healing Tracy to her pragmatic mother’s utter lack of surprise. Simple spiritual words of admonition or comfort have no potency until the force inside Jesse makes it so.
When it’s not busy making jokes about a 118-year-old vampire stealing communion wine or serving up more scenes set to Johnny Cash songs, “Preacher” so far revolves around multiple questions, particularly the changeability of our natures and good versus evil. Can an act as simple as a baptism have any impact beyond the symbolic? After his immersion, Arseface has an immediate feeling of goodness that soon fades and has him begging for another dip. “No matter how hard I try, I’m always the same,” he laments to Jesse, who knows exactly how he feels. For all its irreverence, the series shows an impressive insight into religion. For many, there’s a brief high associated with spiritual transformation, whether baptism or tent revival, and seeing this depicted on screen (even from a character whose face looks like an anus) reveals surprising depth.
A fun follow-up to a hard-rocking first hour, “See” avoids making “Preacher” a victim of the sophomore slump. As long as it keeps giving us more Tulip and Johnny Cash on the soundtrack, I’ll keep coming back for its nicely executed tightrope walk between the highbrow and lowbrow.