AMC’s Preacher
Season 4, Episode 1: “Masada”
Directed by John Grillo
Written by Sam Catlin & Kevin Rosen

* For a recap & review of the Season 3 finale, “The Light Above” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Last Supper” – click here
We find Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga) in a place far from America, drinking beer after beer, smoking cigarettes. She hears crazy sounds just outside her room, and shortly after Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) shows up at the door. “I guess we‘ve all gotta die sometime,” the vamp says when Tulip offers that it “feels like the end.” He tells a story about two Irishmen in a boat who find a genie and one of them wishes for a sea full of Guinness. The pair have stayed close since we last saw them. Very close.

In Australia, Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) falls from the sky.
Skip back a couple months prior in the Middle East, where Jesse and Tulip were quite in love “‘til the end of the world.”
So what’s changed? Oh, we’re going to fucking find out.
Cassidy’s held by the Grail, like we last saw him in the Season 3 finale. He gets a visit from Lara Featherstone (Julie Ann Emery). She takes him through the dank halls of a castle-like structure. This place is Masada, where the Grail’s command centre has existed for “over 2,000 years” where the Child Messiah lives. Cassidy will undergo plenty of torture. A ‘guest lecturer,’ Frankie Toscani (Lachy Hulme), uses the vamp to do some seriously fucked up stuff. Such as circumcision torture.

In a bar, Jesse and Tulip find Grail members “singing their fascist songs.” The preacher uses Genesis to order them all to follow Ms. O’Hare as their boss. She’s going to use her “bitches” to do their bidding. Back in America, the Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish) continues hunting Custer.
Jesse shows up at Masada. Herr Starr (Pip Torrens) and the Grail await his arrival. Hilariously, outside the ancient temple entrance is a metal detector. Starr’s taken precautions so Genesis can’t be used against them, involving headphones and a woman who can’t speak / hear to sign for them. He didn’t prepare for the fact Jesse only needs a look to put Genesis to work.
The place erupts in chaos and the man of God has a Grail member take him to Cassidy. He has to fight a few men— nothing he can’t handle, especially once he sees what Frankie did to his pal. Cass and Jesse aren’t back to 100% in their relationship yet.

Tulip has her lackeys lead her into Masada. Everything goes pear shaped, forcing her to kick ass and fire a few bullets. She isn’t able to get in, after the doors slam shut. If she can’t open them, there’s no way for the vamp and the preacher to get out. Unless, y’know, she throws a switch. That’ll mean going up to the top of Masada’s mountain. Inside, Cassidy and Jesse come upon men with guns while arguing. Back in the room with all the massacred Grail members, Starr has managed to stay alive, albeit sans one ear.
Tulip makes the climb to the door’s switch, and Lara’s waiting for her. They fire at the exact same time, resulting in a bullet like one of those from old wars where two bullets mashed together and formed a jammed up piece of metal. They admire its coolness and then get to the fighting. Lara survives after getting tossed from the edge by doing a flying squirrel routine with a windsuit. At the same time, waiting for the door to open, Cass and Jesse get into a racket over the love triangle— perfect timing, lads! In the middle of their fragile ego fight, the door opens. Jesse goes. The vamp lets the door close on him.

At the bar, Tulip and Jesse can’t “make sense” of Cassidy’s choice. He finally asks if she slept with the vamp. She automatically gets defensive. He only wants to know the truth. She says they never slept together. It’s so clear to him she’s lying. That night, the preacher dreams of a mushroom cloud in the desert erupting, and his father calling to tell him: “It‘s time to find God.” He sees Starr above his bed, choking him, and comes to choking Tulip. All of it is an extended, disturbing nightmare.
Jesse gets up, heads out, and leaves only a note behind.

Starr is in his office at Masada with God himself. (FYI, The Lord thinks diet Dr. Pepper is one of his “greatest creations.”) They talk about the preacher. God knows Starr is looking to make Custer suffer, and he, too, would like to see that happen. Quite eerie how all this time Jesse’s chasing down God, yet the Big Man resents him.

“I told you,
I got this.”

Fucking great start to Season 4! Bring it on, Father Gore says. This show is always bonkers, and the initial episode this time around only goes to show the creative team is not slowing down until the very last drop.

“Last Supper” is next.