Preacher Season 1 Episode 10 “Call and Response" Review and **SPOILERS**

Written By: Sam Catlin
Directed By: Sam Catlin
First Aired: July 31, 2016

Let's Catch Up:

When we last left the gang the pieces were put in place for the finale. Jesse was still on the run from Sheriff Root but he had the phone to heaven and the angel hand he needed to use the phone ready to go for Sunday's sermon.  Cassidy was nursed back to health thanks to Emily feeding him white bread in the form of Mayor Miles.  Tulip had finally gotten her hands on the infamous Carlos.  Jesse left Tulip a voice mail letting her know that he loves her. Fiore and DeBlanc went to hell to get the cowboy to bring him back to earth to kill Jesse.  DeBlanc took one to the head for his efforts and as we learned, when the cowboy kills you, you stay dead.

Caught up?

Good. Let's jump into the finale.

Explain It:

I have mixed feelings on the finale, while I thought it was a tremendous episode I feel like we could have gotten here a lot sooner. Since the fate of all these folks was to not be present on this mortal coil for season two we probably didn't need to build the 10 episode Donnie redemption story arc. As much as I enjoyed watching Donnie and Betsy’s bedroom role playing, we probably could have wrapped that shit up in a crisp 5 episodes or so, That said, at the very least all of the storylines and character arcs built up over the season paid off and perhaps it is the ultimate in the dark comedy that once we finally come to care about them they are wiped off the board. It's a very Jehovah thing to do. So while the comic book fan in me wishes we got where we were going a little sooner, overall the season was pretty enjoyable.

As for last night, we start with Jesse still on the run from Root, while the rest of the town is a flutter with excitement about god's coming arrival at this week's mass, so much so that they apparently hired Bansky and Shepard Fairey to cover the town in well-designed wheat paste flyers.

Cassidy was picked up by Root and tossed in the drunk tank. Root did a little digging into Cassidy’s background and quickly realized that based on Cassidy’s extensive record of minor infractions spanning half a century that something was amiss and he was probably vampire. This being Texas and Root being a cop, he actually had legal authority to shoot captive on site just for shits and giggles.  Add to that adorable mix of fat racist power mad asshole someone who is sadistic as shit and trying to find his son, it isn’t completely shocking that he would subject Cassidy to the type of bullet riddled torture he did in hopes of getting Cassidy to turn on Jesse. He underestimated our man Cassidy who was a lot tougher and smarter than he looked. Eventually he let Cassidy go.

Tulip rolls back into town and finds out that Jesse is hold up with Donnie and Betsy. Tulip relies on her velvet touch, breaking the Betsy's nose and holding Donnie at gun point to get them to let Jesse go.  Turns out they did a 180 on Jesse and were helping him hide out.  Donnie was converted by Jesse’s mercy in the gas station bathroom and decided to return the favor.

Tulip has a request for Jesse. She wants him to kill Carlos who is tied up in her trunk. This leads to the full back story for Jesse, Tulip and Carlos. Turns out the three of them were working on a bank job. Carlos was kind of the odd man out. Jesse and Tulip were going to have a baby. They made fun of him a lot and he saw the writing on the wall. He freed the bank guard while Tulip and Jesse were in the safe and broke out with the loot cakes and the whip Leaving them with the aforementioned guard, now featuring a hole in his head courtesy of Jesse, the bank alarm going off, sirens in the distance closing in and the stress of it all caused Tulip to miscarriage.

Back in modern times Tulip and Jesse argue about killing Carlos only to have Jesse give in relent.  As he heads out to merk Carlos' bitch ass tulip halts the proceedings. Turns out she just wanted to know that Jesse still cared.  Instead of killing Carlos they hand him a beat down and send him on his way.  Carlos fucking sucked.

Betsy tricks the authorities guarding he church and waiting for Jesse clearing the way for the gang to get the church in order for jesses long distance call to heaven. Betsy who is also a receptionist or some shit, gives Jesse a quick tutorial on how to work an office phone and we are now ready for our FaceTime with the big man.

The whole fucking town of Annville is in the house. Jesse fiddles around with the phone, it looks bleak but suddenly the midday sun vanishes, everything goes dark, a mass of flame appears over the alter, followed by the image of God.  After a bit of back and forth Jesse calls God out for being a punk and demands that he answers the questions of the congregation. God appreciates the juevos on Jesse and relents. Jesse notices that God picks his nose which makes him fallible. Holy shit this isn't even god. It's an angel dressed up as God.  Jesse calls this fraud ass fucker out and eventually uses the voice to get him to drop dime on God.  Turns out God has vanished. Been gone for years. Nobody knows where the fuck he is.

The townsfolk go cray. Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy bounce, walking out of that muthafucker on some serious slow mo action movie pimp shit. They decide to get some fries or some shit followed by a montage of the townsfolk getting all sorts of immoral on that ass. Emily tells her kids that they no longer need to worry about God. The two mascots (indian and guy in the plushy bear suit) for some reason decided to hang themselves from that tree that had all the Native Americans hanging from it in the cowboy days. Quincannon made a meat version of his daughter that he is cuddling with like a god damn creep and the dude that is supposed to release the methane from the cow dung to prevent a catastrophic explosion is busy getting his femdom on.  This leads to the entire town and all the townspeople getting wiped off the map in the ensuing explosion. Luckily Jesse and the gang they were still somewhere off site eating a never ending plate of fries or some shit.

Cassidy wants to know jesses plan Jesse informs them that he is going to find God, make him answer his questions and if he won't they are going to fuck God up.

We flash back to the wreckage that is Annville and we see the Seraphim stumbling around looking dazed  at least until the cowboy shows up on the scene and blasts out her chest cavity with one of his special bullets that makes things stay dead.  Out last scene is a close up of the cowboy saying 'preacher'.

The episode was a great season ender. Everything wrapped up, setting us up perfectly for the start of season two.  The season was uneven at times, I wish they spent a little less time building up the town and got to the action that will surely be season two. Either way, it got stronger as it went on. Found its voice and sense of humor and ultimately I am very hopeful for season 2. 

Let me know your thoughts on the finale and the entire season in the comments section below.

Love,
Tim

Episode: 8.5/10
Season: 7/10