With each episode, “Preacher” brings us closer to realizing there may be more demon than angel in its title character. This isn’t new territory for AMC, with complex protagonists leading previous shows like “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men.” But each hour reveals that Jesse (Dominic Cooper) may not be an antihero like Don Draper; instead, he’s closer to the villainy of Walter White and he’s hopefully not who we’re rooting for, unless there’s a dramatic character arc to come. His last moments in the episode provide hope that he’s not as far gone as he looks, but he’ll have to do a lot more to tip the scales of judgment in his favor.
After the brutal finish of last week’s episode – Jesse damning Eugene (Ian Colletti) to hell – the preacher begins his sermon as though nothing happened. There’s fine work from Cooper here, with the actor’s face running through a variety of emotions in just a few seconds after he sees Eugene disappear, leaving behind only the church bulletin that proclaims, “With God, all things are possible.” (Like bringing Eugene back, pretty please?) Jesse is generally the least interesting major player here – if only by default, thanks to Ruth Negga’s Tulip and Joseph Gilgun’s Cassidy – but this performance shouldn’t be overlooked. Sheriff Root (W. Earl Brown) keeps returning to ask if anyone has seen his son, and his absence is keenly felt in shots of his empty bedroom later in the episode.
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As the camera zooms in on the spot on the floor where Eugene was, we think we’re hearing sounds of hell. Nope, it’s just the awful cacophony of the slaughterhouse floor at Quincannon Meat & Power, Odin’s work playlist of choice because nothing in Spotify’s Focus category is disturbing enough. Unsurprisingly, after his murderous response to Green Acre a few episodes back, Odin (Jackie Earle Haley) appears not to have had the change of heart that Jesse was counting on. Since he didn’t convert, he tells Jesse he needs to make good on his promise of giving the church’s land to QM&P, which Jesse refuses to do.
“He Gone” spends the most time to date in young Jesse and Tulip’s past, revealing more about both characters’ history and how it affects their present relationship. They bonded over fighting against bullies (including a young Donnie), and Jesse’s father (Nathan Darrow) agrees to take Tulip in after she says that she is alone. “Till the end of the world,” the promise each other, but Tulip is soon taken away by social workers, who were called by John Custer after he blames Tulip’s pedigree for her bad behavior. “Kill my dad, and send him straight to hell,” Jesse prays. When a group of men come for John, beating him and ultimately shooting him in front of his young son, Jesse feels responsible. Tulip being taken from Jesse when they were young is what pushed him from a child that didn’t want to be bad into one that prayed for his father’s death, and he never fully returns to his desire to be good from what we’ve seen, despite the collar.
Jesse has spent most of the episode ignoring Eugene’s fate, except when he’s reasoning it away by blaming Eugene’s past behavior for his current state of torment. Cassidy witnessed the accidental damnation and ultimately confronts Jesse, which doesn’t go quite as well as the vampire had planned. He – and the viewer – finally learn what Eugene’s story is: after Tracy Loach rejected him, he shot her and then turned the gun on himself. Jesse’s utter lack of sympathy ultimately leads Cassidy to stand in the sunlight after he tosses Jesse a fire extinguisher. “Will you let me burn, too?” He asks, and Jesse stands and watches as Cassidy bursts into flames. For a supposedly soulless creature, Cassidy has a lot of heart, and this is almost as bad as watching Eugene’s trip to hell last week. After an ugly argument with Tulip and Emily (Lucy Griffiths), Jesse returns to the place Eugene disappeared, and he begins tearing up the floor, screaming “Come back!” at the absent, damned parishioner.
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The episode closes with Odin bringing a group of QM&P employees toward the church, in both work coveralls and Civil War reenactor uniforms, with a bulldozer leading the way. There have been plenty of hints about the weirdness and evil present in Annville in these seven episodes (like the football mascot walking his dog), but the most interesting town-related tidbit in “He Gone” is the church play we see performed for Jesse about Lot’s wife. The showrunners and episode writer Mary Laws (who co-wrote “The Neon Demon” with Nicolas Winding Refn) couldn’t have chosen this Bible story randomly, and it’s easy to see the parallels between Annville and the Sodom that Lot and his family were forced to flee.
“He Gone” lacks the giddiness of last week’s season high “Sundowner,” and it’s filled with some particularly bleak moments thanks to Jesse’s cold, judgmental heart. But some great scenes with Cassidy and Tulip provide levity amidst the darkness. Apparently, the only thing Tulip can’t do is cook, but she throws the same gusto into combining hash browns with vanilla extract as she does everything else in her life. After hearing Cassidy’s tirade against the Coen Bros., I also want to sit down for a film discussion with him over whiskey, but we’re left wondering what his fate is after his fiery scene. If both Cassidy and Eugene are gone as a result of Jesse’s indifference (which I’m betting they’re not), how are we supposed to view our supposed hero?