'Preacher' Recap: 'See'

​Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

​Often times, stories that focus on men and women that have fallen from grace, or seen their lives torn asunder from their decisions in life, really only focus on one particular thing as they let us get to know these people...the finer details of what exactly tore their lives to pieces. We are privy to every single bad decision and mistake and in many ways we suffer alongside them because of it.

Preacher on the other hand, is a show that has decided to handle a storyline that features a character just like that in vastly different fashion. We know Jesse Custer has turned to the word of the Lord as part of a grand plan to escape the rough and tough lifestyle he once knew, yet, to date; we know nothing of the mysterious past that broke him. We only know that he will do anything to avoid it, fight hard to resist the man he used to be and while this is a fascinating twist on this whole notion, last night's episode, "See" took his internal battle to stay the course to new heights by challenging his faith left and right.  

After all, it's inherently clear that Jesse really does want to do the right thing and inspire faith in people, but it's people that are making that mission extremely difficult for him to become the beacon of hope he needs to be. He has to deal with one ugly confession from the town's bus driver regarding the urges he has toward a little girl that rides his route, and surprisingly it only gets worse from there. Despite his best efforts to provide comfort to a mother whose daughter is missing half of her brain and is deep within a coma because of an accident, the mother finds no solace in his words and refuses to believe in anything outside of the horrors she can see before her. 

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Yet as brutal as those moments were last night, the show wasn't done making life difficult for Jesse. He had to deal with the constant push from his former partner in crime Tulip as she poked and prodded him to return to that unsavory life he once knew and despite his best efforts to brush her off, Tulip simply upped the ante and when all was said and done, this was an episode that produced a strong sense of pity for Jesse. This is a man that has tried his best to reimagine his life for the better and regardless of the work he continues to put in, he seems to simply fail at every turn, and because of that, all the pain and suffering we endured with Jesse up to this point made the finale of this episode so incredibly satisfying.  

To see him go the bus driver's house and force him to purge the possibility of hurting that little girl was heroic enough, but to see Jesse find empowerment from the strange being living within was a whole different thing. It turns out he can inspire ideas way more useful than people ripping their own hearts out, he can get exactly what he wants if he says the words just right since creepy bus driver forgot about the little girl and well...we will have to wait until next week to see if that comatose girl will open her eyes. Either way, in two weeks time this has simply become a fascinating television show because its characters continue to intrigue us. We're still no closer to learning every detail about Jesse, and that's okay. It's clear Preacher is going to be a slow burn of a show, one that takes its time in building its world because it also left us with quite a few questions last night as well.

We still don't quite know why those mystery men are after Jesse and the organism that merged with him. We only know that these men cannot be stopped since being carved into little pieces by Cassidy doesn't even phase them considering that we saw them talking to the Sheriff no problem at the end of the episode. Plus, there's still the matter of that cold open this week with that mysterious cowboy, roaming the land in 1881. This is a show that is clearly not wasting a single detail or a single moment, so it's only a matter of time before that little flashback comes back into play. Either way, we are two weeks in when it comes to this show and so far, so good. Everything they've put forth is downright fascinating and it will be fun to see how all of this comes together. ​Until next time.

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