WARNING: The following contains spoilers for this week's episode of Preacher, "The Tombs," which debuted Sunday on AMC.
Over the course of its two-plus seasons, Preacher has become an interesting anomaly in that its supporting characters often feel more dynamic and compelling than the show's leads. Season 1 saw Jackie Earle Hayley’s Odin Quincannon in a delightfully macabre, yet touching subplot that illuminated humanity in one of the drama's most odious characters. The same went for Donnie and Betsy Schenck, who unsuspectingly turned out to be one of the healthiest couples on the series, and Lucy Griffiths’ Emily Woodrow, who revealed some delightful steel when she offered up her slimy boyfriend to feed a dying Cassidy.
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After Annville was wiped off the face of the Earth, Season 2 introduced The Grail, which brought us Herr Starr, plus Agents Featherstone and Hoover, all of whom provided welcome respite from the stagnant infighting that preoccupied Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy for most of the season. The unlikely pairing of Arseface and Hitler as partners in Hell proved to be a sleeper hit that was far more compelling than anything going on above ground (including Cassidy’s demonic son). Season 3 has begun in similar fashion, with the introduction of Angelville and its inhabitants, Gran’ma, T.C. and Jody, who are as fascinating as they are evil and disgusting.
But while we’re always happy to meet someone new on Preacher because it means we’ll at the very least get a hugely entertaining backstory, the core of this show is and always has been Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy. And for the first time in a long time, “The Tombs” reminded us why.
The episode follows Jesse as each of them struggles to avoid being swallowed up by the darkness that permeates Angelville and its surroundings. Jesse rescues Cassidy from execution by sunlight, but only does so by offering him up to the warped gladiator competition that goes on in the Tombs. Cassidy has quietly become the most human character on this show, and he’s appalled at what Jesse presides over. So when Jesse literally cuts him up into little pieces and attempts to ship him back to New Orleans (the fight they have while Cassidy’s body parts are being stuffed into a FedEx box is easily one of this season’s funniest moments), Cassidy makes his way back to Angelville because he refuses to leave Tulip behind in such a place.
For her part, Tulip gets to know the infamous Madame Boyd and discovers she’s actually an old girlfriend of Jesse’s. Sabina Boyd dated Jesse for a short time before he got scared that Gran’ma would find out and punish the girl in some awful way. In typical Jesse fashion, he breaks up with her in an attempt to keep her safe and winds up killing her brother when the latter confronts Jesse at the Tombs.
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As for Cassidy, he doesn’t allow himself to be shipped to New Orleans, but goes back to Angelville to get his love potion and make sure Tulip doesn’t stick around. His intentions are mixed, though: He loves Tulip and wants to see her safe, but he’s willfully blind to the fact that she a) doesn’t need rescuing; and b) she doesn’t love him. Thankfully this anvil of a storyline finally draws to a close as Tulip gains some necessary clarity about the men in her life.
She watches as Cassidy and Jesse have one last knock-down, drag-out fight that ends with Jesse brutally staking the vampire in one last attempt to get him to leave. Instead of railing at Jesse and nursing Cassidy, she sneaks Cassidy out of Angelville and puts him on a bus out of town. As a send-off, she gently tells him she doesn’t return his feelings, and Cassidy, because he’s really not that kind of guy, stops himself from giving her the love potion he got from Gran’ma. Then she confronts Jesse about what really happened with Sabina and her brother, and we learn the truth through a flashback. It turns out, Sabina’s brother did confront Jesse at the Tombs, but Jesse killed him in self-defense before he could explain why the relationship with Sabina had to end (it's worth mentioning here that Will Kindrachuk is doing an incredible job as Jesse's younger self, especially given the heavy load of Jesse's backstory).
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Jesse sadly admitting he’s incapable of protecting those he loves from his family is the first moment of vulnerability he’s shown in far too long. It gives Tulip the opportunity to demand he let her help instead of trying to send her away for her own good, and the two finally get back to being the couple who had sleepovers as kids and need only each other.
What makes this episode isn't that Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy “resolve” some of their issues, but that the resolution is so watchable. Historically Preacher has leaned on its supporting cast of delightful circus freaks to provide much of its entertainment value, but it shouldn’t have to – not when its principal characters are so compelling.
While the Three Amigos are far from being back to where they started in Season 2, at least now they’re not tripping over their own lack of communication and making us wish we were in Hell with Hitler. This show is far more satisfying when these three work as a unit, and “The Tombs” gives us a badly needed glimpse of that dynamic returning. That, combined with the already-stellar new additions to the cast as well as the promised return of Eugene, Hitler and the Saint of Killer, position Season 3 of Preacher to be its best, yet.
Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC, Preacher stars Dominic Cooper as Preacher Jesse Custer, Ruth Negga as Tulip and Joe Gilgun as Cassidy the Vampire. Betty Buckley (Gran’ma), Colin Cunningham (T.C.), Jeremy Childs (Jody) and Liz McGeever (Christina) also join the cast.