Preacher Book Club: Dissecting Preacher Episode 4

Welcome back brothers and sisters to our new weekly feature, the Preacher Book Club! Every week we’ll talk about the latest episode of AMC‘s Preacher, dissecting the episode at hand, annotating the changes made from the Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon comic book series and attempting to predict about what will be coming next. So let’s dive right into our thoughts and annotations on Preacher episode 4!

The Power of Odin

As we saw in the fake-out opening of the episode, and Odin Quincannon’s subsequent sweeping of it under the rug, Odin is a powerful figure in the town of Annville. As we’ve previously said in past book clubs, Odin was never actually a resident of Annville in the comic books but instead Salvation, Texas. Odin’s power as a figurehead was far reaching and it’s clear that even in this version he’s still a top-tier man of power in the town.

We further see Odin’s power in action when he meets with Mayor Person and urinates inside of his briefcase. Even if the Mayor wasn’t a spineless weasel in the series, Odin would still do this. Something else we should note is this plot line of the “Green Acre Group,” who we can only assume are a group against Odin’s constant aggregation of land. The point being that this is nowhere from the source material, so it’s unclear what the actual story is itself and where it’s going.

“Ever been to New York or San Francisco?”

When Jesse leaves the church mid-conversation with Cassidy, his vampire friend follows after him beginning him to leave Annville and his specific line is “Have you ever been to New York or San Francisco? Road trip, you’ve got to know that’s where this is headed.” This is a double-edged line because it references the entire core of the Preacher comics books, which are not only in themselves a road trip series but which have crucial pit stops in New York and San Francisco. Now, is this line that Cassidy has just a quick nod to the fans of the comic book or is it an acknowledgement that the series is headed towards the stories we see in the comic book? Time will tell.

The Flashback

We see a number of flashbacks in this episode, one of which implies that Jesse and Tulip were actually childhood friends. In the comics, the pair don’t meet until much later in life and changing the two of them into being childhood friends fundamentally alters their relationship, especially with their now criminal career that has been established in the series. This is all brand new from the source material. In a further flashback, we see Jesse’s Dad doing something with Odin Quincannon, performing an exorcism? Trying to convert him? Who knows. Either way, Jesse steals an ashtray from Quincannon Meat & Power and is seen earlier in the episode still using it all those years later.

The Vices of Angels

Something we see in the comic books with Fiore and deBlanc is that they quickly become attached to the things they find on Earth. Things get to the extreme in the source material with both of them engaging in deviant sexual behavior and hard drugs, but we see the seeds of this being planted in the series with Fiore becoming obsessed with the idea of eating a “Big as Texas burger” and then later eating a bag of Cheetos.

The Alamo

Before Jesse’s confrontation with Odin at the church, the two of them are seen in Odin’s office working on a scale model of the Battle of the Alamo. This is notable not only because the pair of them are native Texans, and thus familiar with the history, but also because the final arc of the Preacher comics is named “Alamo.”

You can watch previews for the next episode, titled “South Will Rise Again,” using the players below.

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