As far as Preacher episodes go, “The Possibilities” didn’t quite reach the heights of last week’s wonderful “See.” But it did something nearly as impressive. “Possibilities” was interested mainly in cultivating atmosphere. This is the episode where I realized what show this most reminds me of, and that would be Fargo. Like Fargo, Preacher exists in a world just adjacent to ours, where seemingly the most normal thing to happen is Tom Cruise exploding. This would all mean nothing if the characters weren’t there, and that is the purpose of “The Possibilities.” It’s a more low-key, character-driven episode, and that being the case, I’m going to divide this review into parts. This is also because I am a lazy prick.
Jesse
Jesse is finally starting to control whatever power he has inside him. This is established through a hilarious sequence wherein he makes Cassidy hop on one foot and tell him secrets (“I like Justin Bieber! Shite!”). A scene like this could be uncomfortable, but Cassidy, weirdo that he is, is totally into it, which is of a piece with Preacher‘s brand of weirdness. There’s real tension wrought out of a later scene where Jesse is accosted by Donny in a bathroom. Director Scott Winant (a Fargo veteran, unsurprisingly) shoots everything here in off-kilter closeups, and when Jesse orders Donny to put the gun in his mouth, you start to wonder how far he’ll go, how well we really know Jesse Custer. It’s well-done, but the resolution (obviously he doesn’t tell Donny to kill himself) is unfortunately a repetition of something we already saw in the pilot: Jesse decides to stay in Annville to preach. There’s only so many times we can draw water from that well. Here’s hoping this is one of the last.
Cassidy
Cassidy should not work. Like, in no way should this character be as fun as he is. Some punk-rock Irish vampire in the middle of Texas? That sounds like a mid-tier bad guy from a Blade movie. But Cassidy’s existence alone helps establish Preacher‘s identity, and Joseph Gilgun’s performance is so goddamn good that it’s easy to look past the elements of the character that shouldn’t work. When he was first introduced, I wondered how and when he would become Jesse’s antagonist; now, I find myself more and more invested in their friendship. (Defying expectations? Doing whatever the hell you want? That’s punk rock.) And “Possibilities” gives Cassidy some actual agency, which is nice, because I was starting to wonder how long he was planning on hanging around Annville to, apparently, get drunk off Communion wine and pal around with Jesse. It’s also a nice subversion of expectations to make Fiore and DeBlanc, the easily-killable Englishmen, more sympathetic. They just want to extract and contain whatever’s inside Jesse, and in explaining this to Cassidy, they get one of the episode’s best lines: “We’re from Heaven.” Now that’s world-building.
Tulip
I love Tulip. She might be my favorite character on a show that has 2-3 candidates for the position in every episode. And Goddamn, did Ruth Negga wear the shit out of that leather jacket. But she didn’t have much of a storyline in “Possibilities.” It didn’t help her that she was given thankless tasks – she was a flashback and had to introduce two new characters, Dani and Carlos. Both are clearly important, but some of that was lost in the structure of the episode. It’s possible for Preacher to play things too close to the vest, but the show’s track record is pretty damn good, so this isn’t exactly a death sentence.
“The Possibilities” only did minimal work in advancing Preacher‘s plot. But it was a blast to watch and the atmosphere it cultivated is starting to feel even better-formed. This won’t be the best episode of Preacher‘s first season, but hey, it was pretty damn good nonetheless.
A Few Thoughts
- “You keep coming after him with coffee cans and chainsaws and you’re gonna wish you were never born.”
- Hey, a credit sequence! I liked it.
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