[For Preacher “Sundowner” or any other recaps on Fetchland, assume the presence of possible spoilers.]
AMC Summary:
Sundowner. Jesse finally comes face to face with Deblanc and Fiore and learns about the mysterious entity that has taken over his body.
Drinking an LIT and listening to 'In Da Club' at a bar like its my 21st birthday pic.twitter.com/CrmBtuCgcX
— Osyp Lebedowicz (@OsypL) July 9, 2016
Hi Fetchland faithful! This is MichaelJ; with OsypL partying like he’s 21 in Portugal, I’m taking over 2-3 Preacher recaps for the time being, including this one. Apologies on its tardiness by the way. Here goes!
“Sundowner” refers to the Sundowner Motel, a no kitchen / no room service hole in the wall… That ends up with many holes in its walls. Angels Deblanc and Fiore (the mysterious cowboy-clad-but-British-sounding “clones” from the past several episodes) are staying there, and are tracked down by a Seraphim [much higher order of angel] who looks like a cross between White Canary from Legends of Tomorrow and every sensibly-shoed soccer mom from every weekend minivan ever. The Sundowner is the site of an epic battle near the beginning of, ahem, “Sundowner” where the aforementioned Seraphim, Fiore, and Deblanc keep killing each other, magically producing more and more bodies, while Jesse and eventually Cass just try to keep their heads above water buckets and buckets of blood. OsypL has referenced intense fight scenes in many of his Preacher recaps; I found this to be one of the most inventive and interestingly shot of the show so far. The angels “re-spawn” video game-style every time they are killed, so Cass’s “clones” pile up as three of our five combatants (including solo soldier on the other side) keep getting killed. It’s a cool experience and unique in the sense that it only works because of the local magical system (that is, angels re-spawning new bodies), kind of like what makes every Brandon Sanderson book so good.
Anyway, I decided to borrow a quill from BDM and write this OsypL recap through the lens of “My Top 8 Favorite Quotes from ‘Sundowner'”:
I.
“If by ‘baby,’ you mean the most powerful entity ever known, the singular force that would shift the balance of power, threaten all of creation, then yeah, it’s a baby.”
-Deblanc
This quote from the more talkative of our two angels came in response to Jesse’s pretty understandable query: “So, you’re saying this Genesis is some sort of… angel/demon baby?”
TV viewers finally learn in “Sundowner” the nature of Jesse’s magical voice, and the entity that seemingly possessed him in the Preacher “Pilot”. “Genesis” is not just the name of a Phil Collins band but a cosmic entity combining an angelic soldier and a demonic one, drawn together carnally despite an endless war between Heaven and Hell that made them enemies. Fiore calls them traitors; Deblanc just wants to cram this Genesis back into a coffee can, and Jesse still thinks he’s been chosen by God for some greater destiny.
II.
“Genesis isn’t a power. It’s a scandal.”
-Deblanc
Deblanc and Fiore are the Genesis entity’s caretakers… Or maybe jailers? It left the confines of its coffee can, presumably under their collectively incompetent watch, and now they are down on Earth against angelic rules, trying to get it back.
There is a wanted poster with their faces on it, which is why the Seraphim is hunting them (setting up the brutal confrontation at the Sundowner). Fiore and Deblanc are extremely dismissive of Genesis as anything but an embarrassment and implore Jesse to never use its powers. Never ever.
III.
“It’s our first time. We didn’t know what we’d need.”
-Deblanc
“It’s our first time. We didn’t know what we’d need.”
-Deblanc”
Body armor? Chainsaw? Hitachi Magic Wand?
In a moment of levity amidst the stress and violence of this episode, it is revealed that Deblanc and Fiore are packing a veritable Bag of Holding’s worth of gear, including plug-in vibrator.
IV.
“Clones! Bloody clones!”
-Cassidy
“Clones! Bloody Clones!” -Cassidy
After multiple occasions of killing Fiore and Deblanc, but then encountering them again, and now taking a bird’s eye gaze of the carnage at the Sundowner, it’s easy to see why Cass thought he was encountering a government cloning concern. I mean, why would his mind flock to Minecraft-style angelic spawning tech?
V.
“And you’re just a person! A sinful human being!”
-Fiore
Jesse sure is.
From his perspective, flawed as he may be, God chose him for this destiny; Genesis is in his mind his burden to bear… But also tool to use to save Annville (and maybe more). It is interesting that this preacher rejects angelic authority, acting under his how conscience.
VI.
“Pretty nice lady actually. Just a super shitty tipper.”
-Tulip
Tulip busts into Emily’s house, raging that she stay away from her boyfriend. We assume she means Jesse (whom Emily is around all the time, obviously), but it’s hard to imagine this is anything but a reaction to her own hookup in the back of the Chevelle with Cass last week.
After an initially raging confrontation where Tulip breaks Emily’s kid’s “art thing” the two make nice; Tulip talks about slashing a famous actress’s tires (presumably on account of her being a shitty tipper), and actually ends up mending the “art thing” as well as her fences with Emily, even doing chores and errands for her.
Cute as this make-up might be, the Cassidy-Jesse-Tulip love triangle is looking to be a barn (and relationship) burner. Tulip is obviously still in love with Jesse. Cassidy is in love with Tulip. And Jesse? He’s got bigger problems than love or friendship.
VII.
“Didn’t even need to bet your daddy’s land or bribe ’em with a tv neither.”
-Emily Woodrow
Jesse’ master plan is about to fall into place. The church is going to be packed. Jesse will be able to use his magical voice to “save” the whole town (like he did Quincannon?) … But should he?
It was probably his Christian-making move with Quincannon that reinvigorated the town’s admiration for the Preacher; Emily is referencing the bet he used to get Quincannon to Sunday services to begin with (his daddy’s land) and the flat screen tv that he got as a raffle giveaway to drum up attendance.
VIII.
“Go to hell Eugene!”
-Jesse
Uh oh.
If Jesse did in fact banish Arseface to Hell with these four words, that would be a radical departure from the plot of the original graphic novel.
We got a whooshing sound effect in this scene; and a piece of paper Eugene was carrying floated to the floor in his absence. Did Jesse just teleport an innocent kid to Hell? This would seem a supreme abuse of absolute power leading to absolute corruption in my mind; I really, really, hope our headlining hero stays on, ahem, the side of the angels!
“Sundowner” answered some questions — like who Deblanc and Fiore are, and what the nature of Genesis is — but also posed some interesting questions. Here are two:
Is Genesis more powerful than God in the Preacher universe? Heaven and Hell seem to be locked in an eternal struggle, so theoretically at parity; with Genesis potentially the tiebreaker. Note Deblanc’s words… Most. Powerful. Entity. Ever. Known. So… Not God then?
What are the limits of physics and reality? When Jesse commanded Cass to “fly” he just jumped into a wall (as he can’t fly). Cassidy could answer questions he knew the answers to, but not ones he didn’t. By the same token, can Jesse’s command actually teleport Eugene to Hell? Does Eugene have the intrinsic ability to teleport? (we’d guess not) Similarly interesting physics conundrum… Conservation of mass anyone? I’d get it if the previous angel-bodies disappeared when the new ones appeared; but they don’t. There are just potentially infinite angels based on killing (not wounding, maiming, restraining, or — ew — dismembering apparently).
LOVE
MIKE
