'Preacher' Recap: 'He Gone'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

At the end of Preacher last week, it was clear that Jesse's pride was getting in the way of well, everything and that clearly his arrogance was now going to become a costly venture and his only way out this mess was to find a way to redeem himself. That meant that this week should serve as the beginning of that journey, where Jesse set right all of his wrongs and well...it turns out that "He Gone" was absolutely none of those things. 

This episode was more or less a continuation of Jesse's newfound commitment to pride and arrogance and when it comes to stories like this, when the main character doesn't quite open their eyes to the mistakes they are continuing to make...they find themselves punished and last night's episode made sure that Jesse atoned for his horrible mistakes in stunning fashion. Everything essentially fell to pieces this week and well...it's about damn time. Jesse has been needing one hell of a wake up call for weeks now, but despite the fact that the universe now has his attention, one has to wonder just how much damage he has done in his quest to set the world right because his realization of what a jerk he's been may have come just a little too late and at quite a cost. 

That concern comes about due to the fact that everyone around him took a psychological beating from Jesse. He was mean and nasty and acted above them for a majority of the episode, ignoring anything anyone had to say and the culmination of his crap-tacular attitude came to a peak in the waning moments of the story when Tulip finally stormed out; seemingly having reached her breaking point after standing by Jesse for weeks on end in the hopes of finally reaching him on a personal level. Even poor Emily who has always supported Jesse regardless of the strange changes in his behavior endured the Preacher's fury for no particular reason. But thankfully, Cassidy took the time to stand up to Jesse, making a point to put himself in harm's way to see if Jesse was capable in the slightest of doing something good for someone else by exposing himself to sunlight and burning to a crisp.

Is he okay? Well, that we don't quite know. To be continued on that, but the question that remains is why Jesse has been so determined to get this town to serve God and spend the Sabbath in the Lord's house...and thankfully the show took the time to answer that. As it turns out, everything the man does at this point is to right a wrong that he believes he caused...the death of his father. Jesse once prayed for his dad to be murdered for sending Tulip away and it didn't take long for strange men to arrive and grant his angry wish. It's clear now that Jesse is paying a personal penance for an act that he had no responsibility in and having everyone harm themselves or walk away from him thanks to his ridiculous behavior, allowed him to finally understand that in order to properly honor his father...he must do good things rather than demand them.

But while Jesse is now doing his damndest to get Eugene back from Hell, even going so far as to dig a hole to try and reclaim him...there are bigger problems brewing. For one, it looks as though his power over people has a shelf life since Odin Quincannon has clearly reverted back to his old ways by not giving a crap about his "promise" to serve God and by showing up at the church to demand Jesse hand over the land to him. No doubt Jesse will be able to command Odin and his men to go away when they show up at his doorstep next week, but how long before Odin returns, and more importantly, how will Jesse get Eugene back from hell and get his friends back on his side once again, because he has a lot of work to do to win back their trust...until next time.

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