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The first season of Preacher was great at balancing the dark, mysterious drama with some of the more absurd stuff. Season 2 went a little off the rails, going way more absurd and almost losing focus by seeing how far they could push the envelope with the material that many found offensive (particularly where it came to skewring religion). Season 3 is off to a good start, keeping the absurd to a minimum while keeping things even darker and spookier than before. Of course there are still absurdly funny moments but it’s more balanced like season 1. That’s definitely a good thing.
The one thing I’m not fully on board with yet is the conflict between Jesse and Cassidy, and both are equally to blame. In season 2, Jesse spent all of his time searching for God which gave Cass and Tulip more time together, and while she may have made some bad choices because she was lashing out at Jesse, Cass crossed a line with Tulip that put their relationship and his friendship with Jesse to the test. And now that’s all coming down on Cassidy, who is smitten with Tulip and angry at Jesse. And that is putting his own after-life in danger.
After Cassidy was shot, TC and Jody were amazed and suspicious at Cass’ miraculous healing powers, and for TC the lack of scarring about hearing Cassidy’s stories (like the one about being cut in half with a samurai sword) have raised some red flags with TC. Overhearing the chatter, Jesse thought it best to bury the hatchet and warn Cassidy about keeping a low profile. The talk started out well enough with Jesse admitting to Cass that he’s Jesse’s best friend. And Cassidy begrudgingly accepted the sentiment. But Jesse followed that up much too quickly with ‘now you have to leave’ which made Cass think Jesse was just trying to keep him away from Tulip.
But Jesse pointed out the pictures that Cass has had to see, particularly the one of a person hanging upside-down from a tree engulfed in flames. Oooh. It clicked with Cassidy what he was seeing but Jesse went just a step too far by telling Cass there was a big difference between voodoo and monsters … and Cass took being called a monster very personally, cementing his resolve not to leave without Tulip. So Cass went to have a little chat with Marie about concocting a love potion to use on Tulip. But night fell and the hunger took over. While feasting on the blood of a chicken, the noise alerted TC to something going on and he caught Cass red-handed … literally. And before he knew it, Cassidy was about to be strung up in a tree, just waiting for the sun’s rays to torch his body. But, Jesse had another idea. But is it better or worse for Cassidy’s well-being?
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For her part, Tulip is trying to help Jesse escape the clutches of his Gran’ma, who has him running around town trying to bring more business in, a way to pay off the debt he owes her in souls. But no one is taking the bait because there’s a new ‘healer’ in town, Madame Boyd. After another chat with God in which He tells her that all of her screw ups were by design because all she ever does is screw up — and with her vowing to kick his ass — Tulip thinks that if she can destroy the handkerchief with Jesse’s blood on it, a ‘blood compact’ as they call it, that will break the hold Marie has over him. But TC relates a story about someone who believed that same thing, but learned that even if you think you’ve paid off a debt, it’s not done until Marie says so.
With TC being unhelpful delivering the information Tulip wants, she decides to go to the horse’s mouth to get what she needs and pays a visit to Madame Boyd (at the same hotel we’ve seen Jesse and Jody visit earlier). But Tulip’s facade of looking for a way to break a blood compact for her boyfriend Richard is no match for Boyd’s assistant Sabina, who knows exactly who Tulip and Jesse are, and isn’t about to let Tulip go anywhere. A fight ensues and Madame Boyd falls out of her chair … and it turns out it’s just a mummified corpse. Sabina is the real Madame Boyd.
Not knowing where Tulip is and stuck between a rock and a hard place with Cassidy, Jesse goes to the one place he told Marie he would never go back to — The Tombs. We saw him last week mopping the floor there and refusing to help a man apparently being held prisoner there, but that idea Jesse had to keep Cass from becoming extra crispy involves going back to The Tombs. With the place now full of people (and at least one of them was someone Jesse was trying to bring back to Angelville earlier for Marie), Jesse has become a ringmaster of some kind of battle royale to the death. Of course, you can’t kill someone who’s already dead so he must be counting on Cassidy making it out of there in one, or several, pieces but at least he won’t end up as toast. But what about that love potion of his? Was that a freebie from Marie to help get Tulip away from Angelville so Jesse can focus on making amends for leaving when he was a kid? Or is she expecting to collect a soul from a man who most likely doesn’t have one?
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