For all its exploding heads, bloody chainsaws and coffee-can bazookas, “Preacher” is a show that succeeds on the strength of the trio of anti-heroes at its pulsing heart. Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper), Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga) and Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) not only manage to create (mostly) human characters amidst the chaos and the blood, but they’re also the best part of a delightfully bonkers narrative. Written by Chris Kelly and directed by TV vet Scott Winant, episode three “The Possibilities” explores even more of them, shading in the outlines the first two hours have given us and adding more dimension, particularly to Tulip. “Preacher” also parcels out its plot revelations, sharing a little more info about elements it has previously teased.
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“Danny” has been previously mentioned by Tulip in reference to her map and her mission, but we first see her (yep, her) in this episode in Houston, smoking and asking Tulip to kill her husband. Our favorite ass-kicking lady rolls her eyes at the request from Danni (Julie Dretzin), and begins to ask questions about the map she has handed over and the associated company: Grail Industries. Danni dismisses her – their business isn’t about them getting answers – and hands over the last-known address of a new target for Tulip. She flashes back to an earlier version of herself, in a suit with short hair, screaming in an alley. “That was the day, Danni, for Jesse and me,” Tulip explains. “That’s the day it all turned bad. And someone’s got to pay.”
After that cryptic statement, Tulip takes off to Annville to ask Jesse to join her, getting out of a speeding ticket on her way in an impressively shameless manner. When she does meet up with her former partner in crime, Jesse initially turns her down, citing a promise he made to his father to save Annville. A lesser show might keep inserting sepia-toned flashbacks to elder Custer’s death, but “Preacher” trusts its audience to remember these moments from the first episode. We do glimpse more of the scene in the alley, expanding beyond Tulip screaming to capture Jesse holding the gun over a dead security guard. When Tulip names their prey, Carlos – aka ““Rat bastard, money-stealing, job-killing, life-ruining son of a bitch” – Jesse is in, and they peel off in Tulip’s car.
Meanwhile, Deblanc (Anatole Yusef) and Fiore (Tom Brooke) are back – and alive – and are resuming their quest to reclaim whatever it is that is inhabiting Jesse. Deblanc and Fiore are outfitted like they’re going to war, and maybe they are – complete with automatic weapons, grenades and what looks like a rocket launcher to my untrained eyes. But as they plan their assault in front of the church, Cassidy runs them over, killing them again. “Nice try,” he says. “I don’t know how you keep fighting, but next time you do, you need to drive a different truck, you pair of idiots.” I could watch Cassidy take down the Deblanc and Fiore clones physically and verbally repeatedly as its own violent spin-off (web series, please), but they tell him that they aren’t after him. Instead, they’re tracking what’s inside Jesse, and their big reveal is that they’re from heaven. Cassidy agrees to help because Jesse is his best mate. Aww.
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Less of a fan of Jesse? Donnie (Derek Wilson). Children mock him for the bunny sounds he made as the man of God was breaking his arm. His boss (Jackie Earle Haley) at Quincannon Meat & Power ridicules him as well, which we should probably expect from a man who pipes in the sounds of cattle being slaughtered into his office for funsies and bears the name “Odin.” Donnie follows Jesse and Tulip on their way to kill Carlos, and he surprises Preacher in a gas station bathroom. But Donnie isn’t aware of Jesse’s newfound power, and Jesse nearly makes him kill himself before he remembers who he is and what’s he’s promised. When he tells Tulip that he won’t be joining her and that they should leave Carlos to God, it’s the first moment of weakness and sadness we see from Tulip in three episodes.
After showing us a still-comatose but open-eyed Tracy (Gianna LePera) and pervy school bus driver, Linus (Ptolemy Slocum), getting excited over a new-to-him young rider, “The Possibilities” ends with the lonely funeral for open-hearted Ted. Jesse doesn’t appear to have realized exactly what causes Ted to kill himself. “Imagine the possibilities,” Cassidy told him earlier, but he hasn’t fully grasped the extent of his powers and their ramifications – or how literal he needs to be with his commands. “Open your eyes” isn’t enough, and “Open your heart” is too much. Jesse reads from I Corinthians 15:51: “Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed.” This is a verse that usually brings hope for believers, but here is feels ominous as the camera zooms slowly out of a cemetery that include’s Jesse’s father’s grave.
This could be an unbearably heavy show, roughly on level with reading some of the more murdery parts of the Bible with Wagner playing in the background. There’s less gleeful violence in this episode than its predecessors, and there’s more humor, thanks largely to Cassidy. He witnesses his best mate’s power for the first time here, and even though it ends with Cassidy’s broken nose after Jesse tells him to fly, he’s still in awe and joyfully likens the power to ones in pop culture. When was the last time anyone referenced the John Travolta movie “Phenomenon”?
In addition to all the fun and games (and random ‘90s movies references), “Preacher” is a puzzle. Each episode reveals a little bit more of the whole picture, focusing on one part of the image while occasionally adding pieces in a separate corner. The characters are what will keep audiences coming back each week, but don’t discount the larger story that Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Sam Catlin are telling episode by episode.