If you’re looking for a singular, focused narrative without any detours, “Preacher” is not the series for you. Go back to CBS. This wacky AMC drama bounces from plotline to plotline, sometimes without logic or purpose that’s evident in the moment. But what’s interesting about the show – and becoming more evident with each episode that airs – is that there is intent in the snippets we get into tertiary storylines that is moving the show forward in a compelling way. Images or moments that seemed insignificant or confusing reveal that there’s more at play here than meets the eye, which plays well with the show’s themes of what lies beneath the surface.
READ MORE: Recap: ‘Preacher’ Season 1, Episode 4 Wades Through A ‘Monster Swamp’
Similarly, the Cowboy (Graham McTavish) has been absent since the beginning of the second episode, but he and the Old West setting return in “South Will Rise Again.” This version of the West isn’t your standard John Ford tale; there’s an ugliness and depravity that goes beyond just survival, and the Cowboy witnesses that in his visit to the charmingly named town of Ratwater. He’s there to get medicine for his sick daughter, but in his short visit, he glimpses rape and murder. The seemingly innocent family he met back in “See” aren’t what they appear. Worst of all, the trip is for naught. He’s beaten and his horse is shot by an old enemy, and by the time he finally returns home on foot with the medicine, crows are making a meal of his wife and daughter. He arms himself, and the show cuts to the present, where there is more ugliness.
Arseface (Ian Colletti) finds his bedroom has been vandalized with the words “Finish the job” and a shotgun. Later, his father (W. Earl Brown) blows up at him, and offers the same heartbreaking advice. He only wants to make things better, and he asks Jesse (Dominic Cooper) to help. He takes Arseface to the home of the comatose Tracy, where her mother (Bonita Friedericy) reveals that Arseface played a part in her daughter’s state. “Murderer!” she screams while yielding a bat, but the command from Jesse to “Forgive him” finds her giving Arseface a hug.
Meanwhile, after the public conversion of Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley) in “Monster Swamp,” Jesse is suddenly in demand in Annville. We’re treated to a gorgeous sunrise shot of Jesse standing in front of the same tree we saw in the past hanging with bodies. He’s no longer the ineffectual, irrelevant pastor; instead, people want his opinion on the important questions, like which is the best gospel and how to parent their children. Emily (Lucy Griffith) sees the change in her beloved preacher and questions it and him to no avail.
Tulip (Ruth Negga) gets more layers with each scene. After a discussion of vampire lore and his own abilities/limitations/opiate addiction with Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun), he reveals that he has fallen for her. Get in line, Cassidy. She tells him she has a boyfriend and describes what she’ll do to the unseen Carlos for his crimes against her, even if the unnamed boyfriend won’t help her out. “Maybe this boyfriend’s not the man you thought he was,” Cassidy says, not realizing that he’s breaking the “bros before hoes” ethos. She surprises Emily in Jesse’s house, and her jealousy is as apparent as Emily’s discomfort. She later tries to tell everyone that she knows the real Jesse and he’s a bad man via an entertaining story about Jesse’s fatal encounter with a komodo dragon, but he brushes off her criticism like the Texas dust. He denies who he is and denies Tulip in the process, sending her reluctantly into the undead arms of Cassidy who will help her in her quest.
READ MORE: Recap: ‘Preacher’ Season 1, Episode 3 Shows Us ‘The Possibilities’
Fiore (Tom Brooke) and Deblanc (Anatol Yusef) spent most of the episode stressing about the ancient ringing phone and the anger on the other end of the line from their bosses about how they’ve handled things so far. What would terrify two beings who ostensibly can’t really die? They’re finally ready to answer the call when the phone stops ringing, causing their fear to escalate. They then confront Jesse, after he’s used the power of the voice on another of his parishioners. “What’s inside you. It isn’t God.”
This all points toward Jesse’s basic misunderstanding of his newfound power, its origins and exactly what it can do. Last week’s command to Odin, “Serve God,” also doesn’t seem to have its intended effects. The head of Quincannon arranges a meeting with the Green Acre brass (including what appears to be an uncredited Michael Stuhlbarg), and it seems he may be a changed man. But when they meet, Odin says, “We grow or we die,” then brutally shoots the Green Acre team in front of the mayor (Ricky Mabe) in the episode’s final shot.
In its first five episodes, “Preacher” has been dropping hints that something in Annville is under pressure, showing brief shots of exhaust pipes and the presence of the mysterious sinkholes. There’s a single short scene here that shows a control room with a meter whose needle is dangerously in the red. A man calmly takes action, releasing the pressure and it moves to the safety of the green level. The scene doesn’t even last a minute, and there’s no explanation of what we’re seeing or the larger context. The viewers are getting small revelations in each episode, building a larger picture of a town and story with much more to uncover and that’s part of the fun here. Scenes with Tulip and Cassidy impart some of the joy to viewers, but there’s a pleasant lack of certainty that’s almost as large a character in the narrative.