Jesse Custer hits the road.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
If I were to lob any one complaint at the first season of Preacher, it's that the show took an entire season to establish a framework that the comic managed to build within a couple issues. Preacher is really the story of three oddball friends who hit the road in search of God, and only now as Season 2 kicks off are we really seeing that central quest take shape. But better late than never, right? Season 2 is quickly shaping up to surpass the first, with a clearer sense of purpose and an even darker sense of humor coloring the misadventures of Jesse Custer, Tulip O'Hare and Cassidy the vampire.
"On the Road" picked up pretty much right where "Call and Response" left off last year, with Jesse and friends finally hitting the road, unaware that Annville is now a giant, smoking crater and that a demonic cowboy assassin is hot on their trail. Even with no time jump, though, the show has a much different feel given the change in setting and the drastically reduced cast. I'll be disappointed if we never see characters like Emily Woodrow or Odin Quincannon again, but it is nice to see the series focus more attention on that core Jesse/Tulip/Cassidy dynamic. And it certainly gives the show's narrative an added jolt of momentum.
Executive producers Evan Goldberg and Seth Goldberg stopped by to direct this episode as they did the first two chapters of Season 2, and their influence was definitely noticeable in that wacky opening sequence. It's not every series that would open an episode with a stoned Irish vampire going on about "oily-gairks" harvesting foreskins to mix into skin creams and then transition into a car chase set to the tune of "Come on Eileen." The warm, sentimental lighting and music video-style presentation made the whole thing work that much better.
Again, the show's sense of humor seems even more twisted and spot-on this season. Gruesome sights like the severed intestine hanging from the back of Tulip's car and the nonchalant way Tulip and Cassidy respond to seeing a woman chained up in a cage really enhance the ridiculous, heightened reality of the show. I'm getting a kick out of the way our heroes always seem to get interrupted just before learning that Annville has been destroyed. It's shaping up to be this season's answer to recurring gags like Tom Cruise's death or Cassidy's irrational hatred of The Big Lebowski.
It's also a lot of fun having the Saint of Killers in play as the season's big baddie. The show has basically entered into full Terminator mode at this point, with the Saint being every bit the terrifying, inhuman force of nature Arnold Schwarzenegger was in his prime. The fact that Goldberg and Rogen were so conservative about actually showing the character in this episode only added to his mystique. The scariest villains tend to be those you can't see, and seeing one cop after another gunned down by an invisible sniper from Hell was more effective than any straightforward shootout could have been. Not that the Saint didn't leave a strong impression when he got up close and personal. The scenes of him ripping out the tongue of the poor convenience store owner or staring down the defiant Mike (Bloodline's Glenn Morshower) further established the saint as a terrifying, unstoppable foe. All the same, I'm glad Catlin, Goldberg and Rogen took the trouble to flesh out the Saint's background last season, establishing his tragic background and motivations before unleashing him upon the citizens rural Texas.
This episode did speak to one of the other major problems the series has in relation to its source material. I'm not always fond of the more morally ambiguous approach the show takes in terms of Jesse's characterization. In the comics, Jesse begins his journey already fully formed in terms of his moral compass. He's hardly a flawless individual, but he has a clear-cut sense of right and wrong (honed both by a thoroughly decent father and a childhood spent watching too many John Wayne movies). The comic book Jesse realizes early on that the power of Genesis is not something to be abused or taken lightly. Yet here, we see Jesse still more than willing to exploit that power for personal gain, humiliating a group of cops whose only crime was trying to enforce the law. As amusing as that scene was, there was a certain unsettling quality to it all the same. All the more once the Saint arrived and those same cops were gunned down with ruthless brutality.
It's a tricky situation. I miss the mischievous but fundamentally decent Jesse Custer of the comics, but there is something to be said for the approach Catlin et al are taking here. In a way, Jesse's selfish behavior lends a touch of tragedy to the show. Already this season, we've seen the terrible consequences that come when innocent people have the misfortune of crossing paths with Jesse Custer. Jesse is driven by his own ego and a selfish desire to be the hero of his own story. He's largely ignorant to the toll that quest is taking on those around him, though that final scene with Tulip did show that the weight of those deaths is already becoming a burden to him. So if this version of Jesse is a more flawed, selfish individual than the comic book version, at least there's plenty of room for him to grow and become that character over the course of the series.
With that in mind, the new season is quickly building a new status quo that works on three fronts. You have a gleefully black comedy that really captures the spirit of that original Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon collaboration in the comics. You have an engrossing mystery and Jesse and his friends slowly piece together God's motivations for absconding his throne. And you have a story of tragedy, as each new stop along the road seems to result in more unintended suffering and bloodshed. Things are shaping up nicely now that our heroes have left Annville for greener pastures.
Speaking of Dillon, it was great to see the "For Steve" tribute at the end of this episode. His sudden passing last year was a huge blow to the comic book world, but it's heartening to know that Dillon at least got to see his most famous co-creation brought to life on the small screen first.
The Verdict
Preacher started off its second season on the right footing tonight. It may have taken this series too long to establish the core road trip premise that was so crucial to the comic, but it looks like the series will have no trouble making up for lost time. Between the copious amounts of dark humor and the terrifying threat posed by the Saint of Killers, "On the Road" left a strong impression. That said, a lot is riding now on how this season handles Jesse's character arc and takes our hero to task for his reckless, selfish behavior.
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