“Preacher” remained true to itself in the final hour (and twenty minutes) of its first season. It was always weird and funny and violent, featuring a killer soundtrack and cast of characters that made it more than the sum of its parts, and that’s rarely more true than in “Call and Response.” Contrasting it against the original Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon comic, the shows spent the ten episodes of its first season getting us to the same point the comics did in just its first issue, but by taking a very different, much longer route.
The countdown to God’s appearance in Annville begins early in the season finale, first at “17 HOURS, 22 MINUTES” in its signature stark, foreboding font. With each update of the time, we get closer to the Sunday service where God will make his promised appearance in Annville. Returning to Willie Nelson’s “Time of the Preacher” from the premiere, the series shows us the town as it preps for God in various ways: getting a bikini wax, standing in the window like the creepy prairie dog mascot does and doing graffiti to mark the occasion. Oh, Annville, I’ll miss you and your bizarre ways after you are destroyed à la Sodom. It’s no coincidence that Pappy (Biff Yeager), the man who was supposed to be watching the pressure gauge can’t fix it because he’s dead after a session with a ball-gagged prostitute who can’t figure out how to turn off the alarm. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
When Tulip (Ruth Negga, who will be sorely missed on my TV every week) learns that Jesse (Dominic Cooper) has been taken by Donnie (Derek Wilson), she behaves exactly how we expect her to. She arrives at the Schenck home and breaks their glass door, which Betsy Schenck (Jamie Anne Allman) informs her was open anyway. Jesse is there, hanging out, and it turns out that Donnie has had a change of heart. He’s protecting Preacher because Jesse showed him mercy and he feels compelled to do the same. I don’t entirely buy his conversion, but by definition faith doesn’t operate under logic. “It takes a real man to let God in his heart,” Betsy argues when she sees Tulip’s reaction. But Tulip is only concerned with Jesse’s heart, and she asks him to do something for her, and he agrees without knowing what he’s getting into. She shows him Carlos (Desmin Borges), bound and gagged in the trunk of her car.
Flashback to Dallas, where we finally see what happened to fuel Tulip’s need for revenge. When Carlos fled with the money, it wasn’t just a bank heist gone wrong. Instead, he freed a security guard during the job, jealous of Jesse and Tulip’s love and happiness in the face of his own romantic rejection. The ensuing panic causes Tulip to double over. “The baby,” she gasps. Returning to the present, she says, “Someone’s gotta pay.” Jesse is initially reluctant, but then he agrees to take action, grabbing a gun and a trash bag to save the interior of Tulip’s beloved car. “This is the most beautiful thing anyone’s ever done for me,” she says and stops him from shooting their former partner in the head. Only in the world of “Preacher” is being willing to shoot someone a grand romantic gesture. Though they don’t kill him, they do leave Carlos limping down the Annville sidewalk after a beating.
Meanwhile, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) is in the custody of Sheriff Root (W. Earl Brown), who is desperate to know what happened to his son. What he does know is that Cassidy is no standard criminal, with a record stretching back into the early 20th century. “C’mon, vampire. It’s going to be a long night,” he warns. Brandishing a pistol and offering cups of blood from a thermos, Root tries to extract the truth about Eugene’s whereabouts through repeatedly shooting and healing Jesse’s best mate. Leave it to Cassidy to sum up the show in a line: “This just proves my point exactly. Nobody’s perfect.” Even Sheriff Root, theoretically the law in the town, is willing to resort to torture to find Eugene, whom he wasn’t particularly kind to when he was around. After Cassidy cruelly baits him, Root unloads his gun into his victim, and then sets him free.
We finally see what is going on in the control room, as the camera explores beyond Pappy as he monitors the gauges. His view looks out on a sea of bubbling cow manure, with more sliding down a chute every minute, making me happy yet again that I’m not eating while watching “Preacher.” Pappy and seemingly all of Annville then show up for Sunday service, but it’s Cassidy and Tulip that Jesse is happiest to see.
At first, Jesse’s attempts to reach the Almighty using the heaven phone appear unsuccessful since it’s not really the kind of thing where you can do a dry run. But soon, the church goes black, and a bearded white guy shows up in all his glory. After being berated by Tulip, he agrees to answer the congregation’s questions, including Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley) who asks if his daughter is in heaven. But Jesse realizes something is wrong after “God” answers incorrectly about both Eugene and Genesis, and the bearded white guy is revealed as a fraud. “God is gone,” and the line to heaven abruptly goes dead. The church is in chaos, but Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy calmly leave in search of the french fries that Tulip was promised to have after the end of the service.
Set to cover of Blind Melon’s “No Rain,” we see Annville falling apart. Emily (Lucy Griffiths) explains to her children that nothing has changed: “We don’t need God. We never did.” But the town is clearly lost, with the dueling mascots hanging themselves next to each other, schoolgirls killing the pedophile bus driver and Odin cradling pounds of ground chuck that he has molded into the shape of his daughter (again, I’m really glad I’m not eating while watching). The Methane-Electro Reactor has reached capacity, and with Pappy dead, there’s no one to save the town. Gas spews out of exhaust pipes, but Annville soon explodes in a fiery burst. Cut to the dam, where a lonely Fiore (Tom Brooke) disembarks from the hell shuttle without his partner, Deblanc, giving us a dejected look and perhaps the saddest moment of an episode where an entire town dies.
At a diner, Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy are unaware of the destruction of Annville. After enjoying the promised fries, they’re about to set off on a road trip to find God, and Cassidy’s more excited about the journey than the destination. “God wants our help. We’re helping,” Jesse says. “If he doesn’t. We’re going to kick his ass.” As Jesse pays their bill, he hallucinates Eugene (Ian Colletti) behind the counter. “I haven’t forgotten about you. I’m going to get you out of hell, one way or another,” he vows.
With Carole King’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” scoring their big moment, Tulip asks Jesse to show her what Genesis is. He commands her to kiss him, which she does, then promptly punches him in the face. That’s my girl. “Don’t ever do that again,” she warns. The show spends its final moments back in the smoking husk of Annville. The seraphim (Juliana Potter) stumbles through the wreckage, while “Let It Bleed” by the Rolling Stones plays, but a shotgun blasts through her chest, revealing The Cowboy (Graham McTavish) behind her. “Preacher,” he says, sharing his deadly mission.
Written and directed by showrunner Sam Catlin, “Call and Response” does a great job building anticipation for its next season, literally destroying almost everything that came before to clear the slate and move the action in an entirely different direction. Given Annville’s destruction, these first 10 episodes are revealed to be almost entirely about character, which led to the show spinning its wheels at times throughout the season. What we take away is who Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy are – and who they are to each other – and I can’t wait to see what that looks like on the road in their search for God and answers.