Preacher “Sundowner” Review

Sundowner is the most illuminating Preacher episode yet, especially for fans of the show who haven’t read the comic book series on which it’s based.

It goes without saying that this review contains spoilers.

For those confused by the plot to this point but stuck with the show because it was just so darn cool you’ve been rewarded. Finally, the origin of Jesse’s powers have been revealed. My concerns from the pilot, about the mystery of the plot potentially alienating as many viewers as it ensorcelled, are now gone.

The entity, which the two forlorn heavenly custodians Deblanc and Fiore were charged with keeping safe, is called Genesis and is the product of an unholy union between an angel and a demon.

Amidst the backdrop of a war between heaven and hell, two “traitors” produced an offspring with a wondrous power.

Fiore and Deblanc are quite keen on getting it back into the coffee can; Jesse is quite keen on keeping it right where it is. While we learn what Genesis is, we don’t learn why it chose Jesse. It wouldn’t be Preacher without a mystery to layer onto its mystery, after all.

As I mentioned last week, Jesse’s begun using his power quite liberally and he definitely wants to use it to better the town and honour the promise he made to his father. (His liberal use of the word comes into play in this episode in the worst way possible, but more on that later.)

As they’re discussing the scenario, they’re overheard by a Seraphim; one of the first order. They stop her before she can use her phone to contact heaven, then the trio retreat back to the motel for some much needed recuperation. That recuperation leads to one of the most entertaining scenes of the entire show so far.

The seraphim finds the motel room and a fight ensues.

We already knew that if Fiore and Deblanc die, they come back to life; but we didn’t know quite how quickly. It turns out they blink back into existence, sometimes near where they died and sometimes not, almost instantaneously!

This leads to a macabre melee where Jesse, Fiore, and Deblanc fight the seraphim, the latter two die occasionally, and blink back into life to continue the fight. Eventually they’re fighting overtop of Fiore bodies, Deblanc bodies, seraphim bodies; it’s an absolute hoot.

If you do nothing but tune into the episode to watch this fight alone, it’s worth it.

But there were were a few important subplots: Emily and Tulip get in a row over Jesse, but eventually part on friendly terms, the mayor covers up Quincannon’s murder of the Green Acre Group Executives, but the most interesting  was a group of boys seeming to befriend Eugene. As you saw in the GCE exclusive trailer for Sunday’s episode they ride their bikes to a drainage pipe and lure Eugene in.

The expectation is that they’re luring him in to hurt him, (in fact at one point, early in the episode, the blonde boy says hi to Eugene in the hallway and reflexively Eugene apologizes before realizing what had actually happened) but they light off fireworks and those fireworks bounce of the pipe and dance about its insides like they were alive.

Eugene is moved by their beauty and has an epiphany; he feels like Jesse convincing  Mrs. Loach to forgive him was cheating. And he doesn’t feel like he deserves it.

He wants Jesse to take it back.

Jesse gets frustrated with Eugene, almost seeming like he believes him ungrateful.

Then Jesse tells him to “go to hell.”

And Eugene disappears.

As cliffhangers go? It was a darn good one.

Another solid episode!

5/5