Preacher - 'Monster Swamp'

Cassidy's daywear is a delight.

Okay, it's been a few days and the rambling, Cohenesque nature of Preacher can make it hard to get my recap straight, but here goes:

We open on women in their underwear fleeing men with guns. One of them is cornered and shot with what turns out to be a paintball pellet, this being a spot of 'harmless fun' between the workers of QM&P and the staff of the Toadvine Whorehouse, the brothel where Tulip hangs out (in a non-professional, mostly poker-playing capacity) between gigs. Unfortunately, a sinkhole then swallows up the unfortunate young woman, leading to a heartfelt eulogy from Quincannon:

"Thank you all for coming out today. There are some lessons to be learnt. First, you boys need to watch the roughhousing. 'Cause this is what can happen. And, uh, you ladies, if you're gonna be out here in the middle of the night, you need to watch where you're walking."

Tulip is frankly steamed at this, but we'll get to that later.

Cassidy tries to warn Jesse that there are government clones from Heaven coming to try to remove the thing inside him with a chainsaw, but being Cassidy he's not that clear about it, and Jesse is preoccupied. Jesse has PLANS (TM). Inspired by flashbacks of his father beating him for smoking and confronting - unsuccessfully - Quincannon, he asks Emily to announce a raffle with a big screen TV as the prize; he wants to get lots of people into the church for something special.

Miles, the Mayor of Annville, confronts Quincannon and asks him to consider a deal with an environmental group called Greenacres (whom Donnie had previously offered to rough up,) but Quincannon pisses in his briefcase. In a later meeting with Custer, the shamelessly faithless Quincannon agrees to a bet: He will attend church on Sunday, and if he leaves an unbeliever, he gets Jesse's father's land. Miles, meanwhile, babysits for Emily (and it's kind of telling that the Mayor of Annville moonlights as a babysitter.) She blows off his advances, then tells him he has to be out by morning, which HUZZAH is a personality beyond 'Custer's loyal helpmeet'. It's a tiny moment, but adds layers to the character.

"Well, that hit the spot."

Cassidy tells those two guys that he will bring Cassidy, but he needs money to induce the Preacher, whom he claims has a substance abuse habit. The two guys discuss whether they should trust Cassidy, or call in on their old-fashioned field telephone. They decide against the latter, as they aren't keen for their superiors to know that they are on Earth without leave, or why. They're right not to trust Cassidy, however, who takes their money and is immediately seen getting high and laid in the Toadvine Whorehouse.

At around the same time, a wake is being held for Lacey the dead prostitute, including an hour 'on the house'. Tulip is hacked off, and hearing loud music decides to go upstairs and clobber the man who chased Lacey into the swamp. She smacks him around and throws him out the window, only to find that it's actually Cassidy, who now has a piece of glass in his throat. She rushes him to hopsital, wracked with guilt, and even grants him a final kiss, only for him to ditch her at reception and turn up in the blood bank, gorged and healthy. Classy, Cassidy. Classy like Cersei Lannister.

We finish up with Custer's sermon. He tells the congregation that the world is fucked because of their selfish sin, but that he will bring them all to salvation and the service of the Lord, starting with Quincannon. Quincannon rejects his call to serve God, until Jesse hits him with the Voice, provoking him to agree that yep, he'll serve God. Sure. I can't help but feel that once more, Jesse may come to regret his loose phrasing.

"Do you see the light!"

And then the angels' phone rings.

'Monster Swamp' continues the trend of meandering plot threads which dance and intertwine, but rarely actually touch on their way to a singular conclusion. It's pretty clear now that those two guys are angels, and that their attempt to recapture the entity is unsanctioned because they haven't told their superiors that they lost it yet. Jesse has decided that he has the gift in order to save Annville, by hook or by crook. On the other hand, it's still not clear what's going on with Greenacres (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that they aren't all sweetness and light, because I don't believe that such a thing exists in this sepia toned purgatory) and Quincannon, or that cowboy from episode 2 (even if you know from passing knowledge of the comics who and what he is.) 

Honestly, I don't see this as a problem; it's not that sort of series. Its pacing is odd, but deliberate. It rambles because it means to ramble, not because the makers don't know what they're doing.