Preacher season 4, episode 5 recap: Bleak City

Preacher gives Jesse Custer one heck of a bad day in Bleak City. Find out what happened in our Preacher season 4, episode 5 recap.

The final season of AMC‘s Preacher is halfway over, so it’s time for the show to start tying its separate storylines together. That’s exactly what happens in “Bleak City,” with the series’ usual dose of irreverent humor.

If an Australian crime drama went sideways, it would be this episode, which has a few reunions (including one that should have been avoided) en route to getting the band back together. This is unquestionably a filler episode, but because it’s Preacher, it has about nine different things going on even while it’s trying to set up for what happens next. Even the slow episodes are crazy episodes on this show.

More from AMC

• Why is Fear the Walking Dead no longer streaming on Max?
• Interview with the Vampire season 2 release updates, strike delay, and more
• How many episodes is Carol on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon?
• Orphan Black: Echoes release updates, trailer, cast and what else to know
• Dark Winds season 3 release updates, cast, and more to know

Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) and Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga) have escaped Masada, much to the chagrin of Lara Featherstone (Julie Ann Emery), who tries to fall on her proverbial sword. But when Herr Starr (Pip Torrens) is so tied up with phone calls that he pawns her execution off on Hoover Two, Featherstone changes her mind and leaps out a window, flying squirrel-style, headed for parts unknown. After all, how dare she be killed by someone who just got here?!

As for Tulip and Cassidy, they spend most of the episode at the bar, talking about what one does after escaping a massive cult stronghold. Cassidy wants to head for Australia and save Jesse, feeling remorseful about the fight they had in the season premiere.

Tulip punches Cassidy for telling Jesse about their fling in the middle of said fight, then informs him she has no plans for a rescue mission—she’s taking Jesus Christ (Tyson Ritter) to Las Vegas. Cassidy watches his angel cellmate reunite with the love of his life (of course she’s a demon) while Tulip and Jesus hit the open road. But their excitement is short-lived, like the end of The Graduate if it were platonic.

Jesus realizes that Tulip’s idea of “walking the Earth” means she wants to take him on bank heists, and no surprise here, Jesus Christ is a terrible bank robber. He gets out of the car and decides the better thing to do is to return to Masada for the Apocalypse 2020 conference with Starr and Hitler (Noah Taylor).

But before he goes, Jesus is able to guilt Tulp into turning the Chevelle around, particularly when he throws the whole “free will” thing back in her face. And so, Tulip goes back to the bar, picks up Cassidy, and the two drive off for Australia.

What exactly is going to be there when they arrive, though? Well, that’s the even better second story of this Preacher episode.

“Bleak City” sees Jesse having stumbled off the beach and into the big city, where he rents a car and resumes his mission to find God. However, his use of Genesis on the rental car clerk alerts The Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish) and Eugene (Ian Colletti) to his whereabouts. Eugene happens to spot Jesse leaving the parking garage, and urges him to run—but Jesse, too, turns back after he can’t in good conscience leave Eugene behind again.

What happens next is kind of a comedy of errors, with a fair bit of angst mixed in considering the players involved. Jesse can’t hotwire a car, but he does apologize thoroughly to Eugene for sending him to Hell and leaving him there. Eugene—usually sweet, closest thing to normal that Preacher has, Eugene—waits until they’re seemingly home free before literally shooting Jesse in the back.

A stunned, wounded Jesse stumbles out of the car and falls in front of the Saint of Killers, with his former friend telling him that his apology can’t beat a bullet, and “It still wasn’t enough.” We’ll just go ahead and say these two will never be friends again. Assuming either one of them gets through Apocalypse 2020, which sounds like a bad name for a political campaign.

In the midst of all this pondering and double-crossing, “Bleak City” does find its ways to be funny, though this time it’s less humor by the characters and more little things you know the writers had to be laughing at in the room. For instance, when Jesse gets his rental car, Preacher has him get in on the wrong side—forgetting he’s in a foreign country. And then we get to watch Dominic Cooper drive down several levels of a parking garage for about 30-45 seconds.

Neither of these things has anything to do with anything. They’re mundane and ridiculous, and that’s what makes them funny. No other TV show would spend time on this, but Preacher seems to revel in not only thinking about the random details but showing them, too. And it works; not only that, in retrospect it’s almost necessary—because the rest of “Bleak City” is so darn, well, bleak.

Preacher airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on AMC. For more on Preacher and other AMC shows, follow the AMC category at Hidden Remote.