HOLLYWOOD—Today I have the task of trying to come up with words to describe the season finale of “Preacher.” Get ready for one crazy episode!
We begin with word is out about Jesse planning to call God down to the church in the next 17 hours. Tulip is back and busts into Donnie’s house looking for Jesse, who is hiding out at Donnie’s. Cassidy on the other hand is alone in jail when the Sheriff comes to visit him. The Sheriff wants information on what Jesse did to Eugene. Also, he has figured out Cassidy’s secret and proves it by shooting him and then handing him a cup of blood.
Donnie and his wife tell Tulip how Jesse changed him by showing him mercy when Jesse didn’t make him kill himself in the gas station bathroom. Tulip takes Jesse outside and shows him who she has in the trunk of her car: Carlos.
Finally, the back story for what changed everything for Tulip and Jesse. Carlos was an old partner of theirs who was helping with a bank robbery. Upon becoming jealous of Tulip and Jesse’s happiness, Carlos decides to free one bank security guard and speed off with the money by himself. Jesse kills the security job and the stress of Carlos abandoning them causes Tulip to lose her and Jesse’s unborn baby. No wonder Tulip wants to kill Carlos!
The Sheriff continues to shoot Cassidy and then heal him until the Sheriff gets information on Eugene. Cassidy tells the Sheriff that the good news and bad news is that Eugene is alive. Cassidy tells the Sheriff that no one is perfect and tries to insinuate that the Sheriff has a small part in himself that is happy Eugene is gone. The Sheriff reacts by shooting Cassidy a few times and then lets him go.
Jesse and Tulip are still arguing over whether Carlos deserves to die. Jesse finally agrees that someone has to pay and gets ready to shoot Carlos in the trunk when Tulip stops him. Tulip says he doesn’t need to kill Carlos, because it was the thought that counted. They let Carlos out of the trunk, but are still going to punish him. To give him a chance they give him a tire iron and gun, and the audience sees him shortly afterwards blind with black eyes and stumbling down an alley way.
The time to meet God is approaching! Donnie and his wife help to sneak Jesse and Tulip into the church, and help them clean it up beforehand. The church fills up fast including special guests like Quincannon, Cassidy and the Sheriff. Quincannon interrupts Jesse’s introductory speech to tell the churchgoers what is “really” about to happen and that the only God is the God of Meat.
Jesse brings out the Heaven phone and the severed angel hand. He flips open the flap that is supposed to allow everyone to see God, and nothing happens at first. Then as Quincannon is about to open his mouth the lights dim and a bright shining light comes from the Heaven phone. This is where the show lost me for a moment, and I thought I had stepped into a movie directed by Seth Rogan, instead of this TV show he directs.
A stereotypical older white male wearing a white robe sitting on a white throne appears before the churchgoers. This figure says he is God and asks why his children have called him. He then becomes angry when he finds out the churchgoers want to question him. After Jesse yells at God to act like a father and answer questions, God comedically obliges. But Jesse finds that the answers are all very shallow, nice and stereotypical, so he uses Genesis to make the old man tell him where God is. The use of Genesis makes the old guy tell Jesse the truth: God is missing. Other’s soon take the old man off of the video and shut the video call down.
Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy leave after the spectacle and the rest of Annville goes to figurative Hell. Emily tries to tell her children nothing has changed, the town mascots hang themselves from the hanging tree, Tracy Loach’s mother kills her while her brother takes a selfie of it, and Quincannon makes a replica of his dead daughter out of ground beef. Not that any of that matters, because it turns out the guy in the mysterious room who keeps the pressure knobs from going into the danger zone is out of commission. Turns out the station is to keep down the methane levels from cow manure, and this time the methane levels get let out all over town causing the entirety of Annville to be incinerated in an explosion.
This was a strange first season full of excitement, but the ending set it up for season two. Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy, along with the help of Genesis, are planning to find God since he has gone missing from Heaven, but not without some trouble. At the end we see the Seraphim angel get shot by the tall man Fiore brought back from Hell. Until next year “Preacher” fans!