Preacher Review: The Possibilities (Season 1 Episode 3)

Preacher slows down this week to explore “The Possibilities” behind Jesse’s new power (you see what I did there?).

Coming out of the gate, Preacher was fast paced, shocking, and fun, but a show of that nature — where every episode is like that — won’t hold an audience for long, so, while this episode is slower than the last two we’ve seen, it is slower with a plot advancing purpose.

For one, we learn a little bit more about what went down with Jesse and Tulip. Not much, mind you (it’s still an awful lot of short flashbacks that give very little away), but still…it’s something. Which, y’know, makes this reviewer very happy because Ruth Negga’s Tulip is one of the show’s best and brightest already, so, any excuse to feature more of her in an episode is outstanding.

However, this plotline between Tulip and Jesse featuring Tulip’s insistence upon dragging Jesse back in to dealing with the grudges of their past seems a bit disconnected from the rest of the plot. Given that it’s still early in the game, it’s more than likely that this vendetta against Carlos will tie in somehow, but, as of now, it’s nothing more than a less interesting side plot.

Speaking of the far more intriguing main plot, Jesse has figured out that he’s got some serious power churning inside of him, and he seems quite uneasy about it — which is surprising, actually, since he sort of seems like the type who would embrace such an ability easily. That being said, perhaps this is another instance in which Jesse’s struggle against his “bad” side comes in to play, bringing us back to the concept of man versus his true nature (Jesse versus himself).

What is unclear this episode is whether or not Jesse has complete control over his ability. In the scene where he toys with it, using Cassidy as a puppet, it seems as though the power takes over and things begin to escalate.

But then, when he encounters Donnie for the second time (give up the dream, Donnie), he seems to be in complete control of the power, it’s simply his own temper and, again, violent nature that he is warring with.

It will be interesting to watch and learn exactly how this ability works and see what sort of lasting affects it has on Jesse, considering the way he describes it sounds awfully unpleasant and, y’know…Tom Cruise and co. exploded when this thing tried to use them as hosts, so, it can’t be too gentle on the human body or mind.

The great thing about a slower episode like “The Possibilities” is that it furthers the show’s plot and takes the time to begin to answer a lot of the questions posed by the previous two episodes:

1. We learn more about the men who are after Jesse — about where they came from (intriguingly, they’re from heaven, which is a welcome twist. It would’ve been far too easy to make them demons or the like).
2. We delve a little deeper in to what Arseface did that he’s struggling so hard to forgive himself for. This episode seems to heavily imply that he had something to do with whatever happened to Tracy (the comatose girl).
3. Jesse knows he can control people. We touched on this tidbit already, but, for the sake of the list, we have to include it anyway. It’s a pretty major plot development.
4. We meet Danny and the Man in the White Suit. That being said, meeting these two and furthering Tulip’s mission seems to raise more questions than answers.

What will be interesting moving forward is seeing how these seemingly disconnected plotlines and tidbits all relate to each other.

And, hopefully, we’ll soon learn more about Cassidy in the episodes to come. His vampirism seems like too big of a plot bomb to never touch on it again, so…here’s hoping we delve in to that aspect of the Preacher universe a little more sooner rather than later because, as of now, it’s sort of being glossed over…

What did you think of this week’s episode? Let me know in the comments below!

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Preacher airs Sundays 9/8c on AMC.