If one were to visit Annville, one would see some interesting nightlife. Drunk mascots, Tulip’s uncle passed out on the sidewalk, and some weird Running Man type shit where prostitutes try to outrun Quincannon’s armed goons. Lacey almost gets away but Clive tags her, and that would mean game over but Lacey accidentally falls into a sinkhole. Fracking is dangerous, and here’s yet another example. So begins another episode of Preacher…
This is a fairly Jesse-lite episode but that doesn’t mean we don’t gain insight into his character. There are several flashbacks that give us glimpses of his life as a boy with his father, who was a stern and moral man, but a father who always kept his son close. The third flashback is the most telling perhaps, because it shows a late night meeting with none other than a younger Odin Quincannon.
A crowd has gathered by what is surprisingly not a crime scene and it seems that the hole poor Lacey fell in is directly related to Q.M.&P.’s business practices. She’s dredged up and hosed off unceremoniously, and to say that Tulip is not happy about everyone’s lackadaisical attitude would be a severe understatement. Her angered sense of justice comes to a head and she thinks she teaches Clive a lesson, only to find the man she beat so senseless he fell out of the brothel’s second story window was Cassidy. He lets Tulip drive him to the ER, where plenty of blood is to be found, and this is how Tulip officially meets Cassidy.
Cassidy could only afford such a night of fun by bamboozling Fiore and LeBlanc into thinking he was going to bring them Jesse. It’s definitely funny to see supposed heavenly beings bumble around so much, and their complete misunderstanding of humanity is painfully obvious. Still, they are pressured to recapture Jesse’s power and take it “home” and Fiore thinks they need to contact whomever is above them in the celestial management hierarchy. They even have an emergency phone for such occasions, but LeBlanc wants no part of it. Indeed, it seems that they are on Earth unofficially.
This whole episode is built around life in Annville and how Quincannon either directly or indirectly affects its citizens. He takes whatever land he needs for his cattle, he ruins the local environment, and his employees are free to be asshole whoremongers, all because he provides electricity to Annville. Any mention of sustainable practices or alternative energy quite literally pisses him off. It would also seem that there is a connection to him and the murder of Jesse’s father.
So it’s a bit strange to see Jesse helping him paint and place miniature soldiers around a model of the Alamo. But there is a method to Jesse’s madness. He mentions how much Quincannon wanted, and still wants, Jesse’s father’s land. If Jesse can’t make him a religious man on Sunday, then he’s welcome to it after all these years. It goes without saying that Jesse uses his power to bend Quincannon’s knee in service of God, but it seems that this newest “miracle” has caught the attention of certain beings, because Fiore and LeBlanc’s “Oh Shit” phone starts ringing.
And while it’s obvious that Emily has a crush on Jesse, and Jesse is dickishly oblivious to it, is she sleeping with the goofy little mayor dude?
Written by A Play On Nerds contributor, Jerry Herrera - Lover of horror, sci fi, and fantasy in that order. Semi-permanent Disneyland resident. I'm at least one of the droids you're looking for. Twitter: @FrankenJerry - Instagram: @GeraldoPedro