'Preacher' Recap: 'El Valero'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

In this era of comic book adaptations, where we as the audience expect our television shows to be cerebral, enthralling and all around kick ass week in and week out, sometimes we and the showrunners lose sight of one particular aspect of storytelling that is equally as necessary as an engaging and detailed story arc...having fun. Yes, that may sound silly, but once in a while a show simply needs to let loose and shower us in mindless entertainment, and thankfully Preacher is a show that hasn't lost sight of this because last night's episode; 'El Valero' was full of hilarious and touching moments where nothing major happened in the plot, but all that matters is that we had a good time. 

In fact perhaps the only real sense of meaning or 'secrets' that were revealed in this episode came by way of finally unmasking Odin Quincannon's disdain for religion as a whole. It turns out that many years ago, his incredibly large family took a skiing trip to Vail, one where Odin was missed because the business was his priority. But by not being there, Odin also missed out on the freak accident that befell his family that just so happened to kill every last one of them. It led to the show finally filling in the blank as to what happened the night that John and Jesse stopped by QM&P and left in quite a hurry; Odin had a crisis of faith and a moment of insanity when he tore open a cow, and the corpse of his daughter to show John that he found no soul or spirit...just meat and that the town's preacher should denounce God at Sunday's service because in Odin's eyes, God simply does not exist.

But that wild opening...was just the beginning. What followed next was an hour of hilarity, action and excitement and at a long last a penitent Jesse who is clearly not doing well with the fact he sent Eugene packing to Hell. In fact, a self induced specter of the young man began to haunt him throughout the episode as his guilt continued to grow, prompting Jesse to call in the two angels in the hope that they can bring his friend back from the Abyss, leading to an arrangement. They bring back Eugene, Jesse hands over Genesis and everyone is happy. Except Genesis that is. Turns out this strange little being that has the power to control men's minds wants nothing to do with being put back in that can, it wants to be part of Jesse and it's staying there until further notice. Yet despite those two sobering moments, I made mention of the fact that there were laughs to be found this go round, and all of that came from Odin's 'siege' of the church.

It turns out that a large group of armed men are no match for Jesse Custer and their repeated attempts to get the Preacher to leave the church ended in side splitting fashion since let's see, Jesse was able to smack them around with little to no effort, and he was able to shoot the guns from their hands from an incredible distance and injure them in slapstick fashion and oh yeah...he even shot Clive's manhood clean off. That was one of the show's bigger running jokes last night and actually, it worked on so many levels just because hey, no one saw it coming and well...it was hilarious any way you slice it. In addition to that gag, the town coming to see what else Jesse was going to do to the QM&P gang, combined with some of Odin's dialogue and actions along the way, there was plenty to be smiling about when it came to this chapter in Jesse's story. But despite all the chuckles, some sobering moments occurred as well this week and they will no doubt be issues that carry forward. 

The biggest one, is that there really is a sense that the town has given up on Jesse. For all the good he's done, all the help he's tried to provide, everyone was more than happy to line up and see the mess go down at the church, and see him off when he was finally put into handcuffs by the Sheriff. It was a strange sight to see, and well, a sad one to say the least. Not to mention, Emily seems quite swayed by the Mayor's sales pitches and ready to walk away as well. But...all of this is Jesse's doing. He's the one who pushed his friends away, who let Pride cloud his mind. Now it's up to him to put all the pieces of his life back together, and despite his stupidity, it's safe to say we're all pulling for him to make a miracle happen. But while we wait to see Jesse fix his own mess and if Eugene can make it back to earth safely...at least we know now that Cassidy is okay-ish, it's a shame he had to eat that dog though. Until next time. 

---