Preacher ‘Bleak City’ review: Long-awaited reunions can’t quite fix the monotony

Tonight’s episode of Preacher finally gave us two long-awaited reunions, but it still isn’t enough to justify the snail’s-pace storytelling.

Although we hate to say it, tonight’s episode of Preacher felt frustratingly slow, even after delivering two of the most long-awaited reunions in the show’s history. Like many of this season’s episodes, “Bleak City” feels more like a precursor to next week’s episode than an actual episode in its own right.

The episode started out on a high note. Jesse’s humorous exchange with a stuttering rental car attendant quickly gave way to a reunion with Eugene, and for the first 10 minutes of the show, we thought that Preacher might finally be done gearing up and ready to take off.

Don’t get us wrong, tonight’s episode gave us some big  Cassidy/Tulip scenes, for which we were very excited. After all, the two have so much to catch up on, talk about, and reconcile. And Tulip and Cassidy do just that — but it’s all offscreen. After all this waiting, Tulip and Cassidy finally catch up with each other while we’re on a commercial break, and when the episode returns, Cassidy is laughing about his misadventures with Eccarius like he didn’t have his heart broken over the whole affair.

For a show that has built up so much about the central relationships between Cassidy, Tulip, and Jesse, the real emotional meat of the episode seemed to be missing. Although on paper we did get a reunion, it didn’t feel nearly as impactful as it should have, because instead of talking with each other, the two were neatly paired off with other side characters — Tulip with Jesus and Cassidy with the Archangel.

Now, we’re all for conflicting emotions, but it shouldn’t have taken an entire episode for Cass and Tulip to decide that they’re going to try to find Jesse (which, to remind you, was their plan at the end of last week’s episode). The scenes with the Archangel and Jesus could have been strong, but the emphasis on Cass and Tulip’s internal struggle took away from the interesting side characters, while also not being strong enough to break new ground for our main duo.

A perfect example of this conundrum is Cassidy’s decision to forgive Jesse. It’s a conflict that has been brewing since the back half of season two, but it’s quickly addressed and then forgotten about after one conversation at a bar with the Archangel.

Thankfully, however, not all of the episode’s storylines felt as hollow as Cass and Tulip’s. Jesse and Eugene’s reunion was incredibly gratifying, especially given the strong performances from both Dominic Cooper and Ian Colletti.

As the series has progressed, Eugene has gone from a quirky side character to one of the most interesting and emotionally nuanced on the show, and seeing him struggle with Jesse’s apology was one of the best character scenes this season has had to offer so far.

Jesse himself also had some great emotional moments in this episode. His opening scene with Jackson the rental car guy was both humorous and touching, and his tearful apology to Eugene gave a lot of sympathy to a protagonist who can sometimes be difficult to root for.

However, while this episode may have been one of the season’s strongest for Jesse and Eugene, it leaves most other characters in the dust. The Saint of Killers, Herr Starr, and Featherstone’s scenes all felt pointless, and the supposed threat of the grail is feeling less and less impressive with each passing episode.

In the end, Bleak City failed to give us the emotional reunion between Cass and Tulip that we’ve been hoping for, made up some points with a strong arc for Eugene and Jesse, but still couldn’t make up for the lack of actual plot.

Outfit of the Episode: Cass’ bleached hair/headscarf/skirt combo in the final scene looked straight off of an avant-garde menswear runway.

WTF moment: Eugene shooting Jesse. We certainly didn’t think that after all his talk of forgiveness, this is what it would come to.

Standout scene: Jesse’s tear-filled apology to Eugene. Though it may not have ended well, it was still a touching moment.

Were you surprised by tonight’s episode of Preacher? Which reunion was your favorite? Sound off in the comments below.