Posted by Michael Flores | TV

[For Preacher “He Gone” or any other recaps on Fetchland, assume the presence of possible spoilers.]

AMC Summary:
He Gone. Jesse’s actions alienate and endanger those closest to him as we glimpse into his past and finally learn the root of all of his guilt.

If you read any of OsypL‘s earlier recaps for Preacher… I’d guess that “He Gone” was where he was wishing the show would get to. Well, it’s here.

“He Gone” lacks an artful fight scene a la last week’s (um, two weeks ago, cough cough michaelj) “Sundowner” but instead brings together many of the plot threads and semi-developments from basically all of the characters to this point. At least three key mysteries are revealed, and the final scene teases a battle like we’ve never seen [yet] on this show.

And that’s saying something.

My Top 8 Big Reveals from “He Gone”:

I.
First and Foremost, Eugene is, in fact, in Hell.

At the end of the previous episode it was a bit unclear if Jesse had actually sent Arseface into the fires of damnation. There were some good question marks planted, for example how he couldn’t get Cass to say something he didn’t know, or fly (both breaking common sense bounds of reality). For whatever reason those bounds didn’t apply with Eugene.

I think the stress of “He Gone” — with Jesse lashing out and alienating those closest to him while acting in an authoritarian way towards his congregation — emanates from a fundamental notion of order. Eugene would not be in Hell but for God’s will / blessing (even if Jesse, via Genesis, was the catalyst). Ergo, it is just. As a preacher that allows Jesse to put on a particular face, but as a person… He just sent a kid to Hell. Jeez. Ouch. Pokey pokey. Internal discord.

II.
To be fair, if anyone deserved it… It was probably Eugene.

Up until this point tv-only viewers did not know the true origin of Arseface. In the comic book, he essentially copied the suicide of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain… But that had a very different level of cultural relevance when Preacher came out in 1995. This version of Arseface carries a much different burden.

Tracy Loach was the prom queen, rodeo queen, and queen of Eugene’s heart. He eventually gathered the courage to confess his love to her… And was rejected. Eugene’s reaction was to put a shotgun to her head, and then turn it on himself.

Yikes! Well now we better know why the town bullies leave shotguns in his room, telling him to finish the job; or the level of violent reaction from Tracy’s mom when Eugene comes by.

III.
Jesse blames himself for his father’s demise (and more).

Up until the middle of “He Gone” Jesse’s father, the previous Annville preacher, was depicted as always having done “the right thing”. This includes taking in the young Tulip O’Hare when her mother was in jail and her drunk uncle couldn’t take care of her. Sparks bloomed between young Tulip and Jesse, including their future partnership as tough guys even, but papa Preacher eventually had Tulip sent away to be a ward of the state.

Why?

Wasn’t she well behaved enough?

“She’s an O’Hare.”

Barf. Pure prejudice. That is about the opposite of what someone who always does the right thing would say.

Jesse reacted by praying for his father to be killed and sent straight to Hell. Jesse almost immediately got his wish!

Given his worldview at this point, we must believe that Jesse believes that 1) his father (an otherwise good man) is in Hell, 2) Jesse caused it via supernatural means even pre-Genesis, and 3) sending Eugene to Hell was no big deal… It’s not like he hasn’t done this before, and with a much better man.

Secret Origin Story: Jesse’s internal conflicts and guilt.

IV.
Tulip expects Jesse to love her and be with her “until the end of the world.”

Tulip’s attitudes toward Jesse have been hard to rationalize, um, rationally to this point. A girl this capable can’t really just be hung up on some guy who doesn’t want her right back, can she?

Except that both their lives, or pre-Genesis paths anyway, seem to fork from a shared childhood crucible. Jesse sent his father to Hell over this pledge; and Tulip has been pointed in a Jesse-direction ever since, still calling herself his girlfriend decades later.

V. Cassidy thinks he and Tulip “made love” (barf).

Tulip doesn’t.

I don’t actually know where this is putting any of the pieces on the board. Tulip, who hangs out in whorehouses, may or may not think coitus [alone] is that big a deal. She certainly has a transactional POV around it (i.e. drugs or violence in exchange for sex). He is a however-many-centuries-old Creature Of The Night. Is this going to be that big a deal?

There are three interesting concepts, total, in fiction: Sex, Violence, and Authority; Preacher has all of these woven into the strands of its fundamental tissue, BTW. When any two (if not all three) overlap is when stories get really interesting. TLDR: I can’t imagine this point ending… um… particularly gracefully.

VI.
Kid Tulip bit off kid Donnie’s nipple.

LOL!

He’s supposed to be the tough guy! I almost feel bad for the broken-armed strongarm at this point. Almost.

VII. Odin Quincannon is not a Christian.

He demands Jesse’s father’s land and church, says that even given the “SERVE GOD” echo-voice treatment Jesse should have known better.

(We might also be able to tell he’s “not a Christian” [at least as defined by the collective unconscious definition of the town of Annville] by the fact that he thinks nothing of shotgunning visiting business partners over a brandy).

VIII.
For that matter, Odin Quincannon is not a particularly good businessman.

His meat packing is less than 1/12 the size of the business in his father’s time; less than 1/52 the size of his grandfather’s. What the hell has old Quin been doing other than Civil War miniatures and novelty prostitute hunts around the sinkhole?

… Rallying a heavily armed South to rise up against one man in a church, if the final scene has anything to say about it, apparently.

Bring on the beatdowns.

LOVE
MIKE

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