#and then you throw in reunion genesis who is ALSO a different kind of pretty

[valentinesparda]

gackt!genesis is a beloved creature. to me.

[dailyaudiobible]

01/21/2020 DAB Transcript

Genesis 42:18-43:34, Matthew 13:47-14:12, Psalms 18:16-36, Proverbs 4:7-10

Today is the 21st day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it's great to be here with you today as we continue our journey forward through the Scriptures. In the book of Genesis we’re following the story of Joseph right now who is the great grandson of Abraham, and who has been sold or trafficked into slavery by his brothers, only to become the second in command of all of Egypt because he interpreted a dream that foretold of a coming famine and that has all come true. So, these very brothers who had sold their own brother into slavery are now before that brother not knowing who he is because…because they need food. But Joseph has accused them of being spies and has kept them under arrest for several days. He has not revealed who he is. He's observing them. He's seeing where their hearts are and that's where we pick up the story. Genesis chapter 42 verse 18 to 43 verse 34 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’ve been moving along pretty quickly and really tracking the stories of Genesis as well as following in the footsteps of Jesus in the book of Matthew as well as the Psalms and Proverbs. And, so, we've covered a lot of ground in a pretty short amount of time so far this year and we’ve focused on the teachings of Jesus a lot. So, let's just look at what we’re reading in Genesis right now with the story of Joseph because the story systematically shows us all kinds of valid and legitimate reasons to…to fall off the cliff into depression and bitterness and anxiety and then by the time we get to where we are in the story…every…everybody's being exposed here. So, Joseph was this young man and it does appear that in his youth he had some of the arrogance of youth, some of the fearlessness of youth, and the mouth of a young boy in his teens. He had been a favored son. So, he was raised up as a beloved son. So, it's like he has a charmed childhood, but his older brothers are jealous, and we know this from the Scriptures. And, so, we know how the story goes. Joseph has dreams. He shares his dreams. That further causes his brothers to hate him and even causes some problems with his dad. And then Joseph goes to check on his brothers and this is when his brothers decide to go to kill him and just be done with it and, not have to hear this…this kids dreams and his arrogance and all…just all of the favoritism…just all of the stuff they've been enduring, they’re done with it. What happens is that Joseph is thrown into a pit and then subsequently sold into slavery. We like…we…we can gloss over it, right? Because it's a story from the flannel board when we were in Sunday school. And, so, Joseph, being sold into slavery just happens so quick and then the next thing you know he's in Egypt. But this is a boy, a young man in his teens, and from the confession that we heard in today's reading from his brothers, he was terrified. He was begging. Like he was looking at the only people he knew, and they were his blood relatives and they were sending him off. They just sold him for money and now he's bound up on a wagon being hauled away further into the desert toward Egypt and he’s looking back at his brothers, terrified. So, this is a boy who is grown-up, protected and nurtured and his life as he knew it came to a sudden and abrupt, end. Even though he was still alive, like the life that he knew and people that he knew and the surroundings and everything that was normal for him was over. And it's a long journey down to Egypt. And, so, there were weeks for Joseph to contemplate his situation. And he gets to Egypt and he's sold again. If anybody has a right to fall into depression, right, if anybody has a right to cry injustice, if anybody has a right to say they are being oppressed or that their life has become supremely unfair it would be Joseph because it's true. Like he has every right to these things. He’s not just being self-absorbed and selfish and feeling sorry for himself. This stuff is really happening and it's awful. He just…that's the thing that's missing from this story though. That's the weird thing about it. That bitterness and that depression that he has a right to is missing from the story other than his deep longing to get out of the predicament that he's in. He trusts God as he goes to work for Potiphar. He honors God as he runs away from Potiphar's wife. And the Bible says Joseph is a good-looking guy. Like his countenance…like he’s handsome and he's well-built. So, Potiphar’s wife wants a little of that action. And Joseph’s a young man. So, like normally in that kind of a scenario, the young man's like a pretty willing accomplice. Joseph's not. He understands…like he was able with wisdom to look at the whole situation and realize, “she may be a woman and she may be throwing yourself at me a and she may be attractive, but she's not available. I am in command of this house and the only thing off-limits is her.” And, so, he…he…he doesn't betray his master, which throws him into the dungeon falsely accused of a crime that he wouldn't participate in. So, if anybody again has the right to these kinds of deep anguishing feelings, it's Joseph. It’s just missing from the story. And, so, Joseph sets about doing everything that he can in the situation that he's in to do his best and after the same fashion he becomes in charge of the prison. So, Joseph has become a leader everywhere he's been when he has every right to just sit and languish in his depression at the injustice. Like, he could spend his life rightfully crying injustice, but instead he becomes a leader everywhere he goes, because according to the Scriptures he trusted in God. And, so, we know the story leads him out of the dungeon because he interprets a dream for Pharaoh. We know that…I mean in the space of 24 hours it seems that Joseph goes from a desperate person who may be a leader, but he's leader of the dungeon and he is a resident of the dungeon. He goes from that place, kind of in the dark, underground, hidden completely, forgotten, utterly hopeless, he goes from that to being second command in Egypt in like the space of a day. And we can see in Joseph because he was just a young man when all this began, he was in his teens when this began. But we see that over the course of the years of him growing up without…I mean without anyone to guide him that he becomes very observant and very wise. And, so, when his brothers show up, he doesn't take revenge and he doesn't just expose who he is and have a family reunion either. He observes. Because now Joseph has learned about the heart of a person. And, so, before he makes a judgment about his brothers and his family he watches to see where their hearts are. Of course, we’re not done with the story. Joseph is able to see his…his full blood brother Benjamin and we’re seeing that Joseph is have…having a pretty hard time holding it together. Seeing them again is just rocking his world in a lot of ways. And that's where we are in this story. We’re not done with this story. There's much more to the story but that's where we are. And the first part of this story really gives us an opportunity to look at the things that, you know, that that we’re depressed about or the things that we’re in anguish about or that we’re facing anxiety over and then just contrast that with Joseph's story. Not to compare. Like Joseph’s story is a pretty tough story. Not too many people could top a story like that. It’s not a story to make you feel small because you have lesser problems, but they seem to be taking you out. So, just look at Joseph and how strong he is. That’s really not the point. The point is that through it all somehow Joseph navigated without becoming bitter toward God through all of it. And the things that were happening to Joseph are the things that would for sure estrange us from God were they to happen, which is funny because we read the story and God didn't do any of this. And it helps us to look at what we’re blaming God for in our own lives that He had nothing to do with, He's just getting the blame. It also gives us a chance to look at where we've sat down…like what are we wallowing in right now? Where are we wallowing? Because it's fine, we can wallow there as long as we like, but that's all we will ever be doing is wallowing there. Joseph's story would be a completely different story if that were his story if he just…like he made it to the dungeon and he was like, “what the heck? This woman threw herself at me. She's taking off her clothes. I'm trying to get out of there. I have to leave some of my clothes. I didn't do anything wrong. I shouldn't be in this dungeon.” He could've wallowed there for the rest of his life. Somehow Joseph was able to have the long view and it would do us some real good inside if we would begin to get the long view. What we are wallowing in right now is temporary. Everything is temporary. Everything is changing. It's a constant. We’re being pulled forward, but we can fight to stay where we are and defend why we’re so depressed and anxious and all of the things that go on. We can fight to protect that, which only reveals to us that our wounds and our hurts, we’re using them to create an identity, one that's gonna keep us from moving forward, one that’s gonna keep us stuck. That's the ingredient that’s missing from this Joseph story and it changes the story dramatically as we’ll see as we continue forward.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for another day in Your word and we thank You for all that You are revealing to us through Your word and all of the insight You are giving us into our own souls, into our own lives and the motives and the why’s of how we do what we do. We thank You. And, so, we take heed what the proverb told us today, that the beginning of wisdom is to want it, to get it, to go after it. And whatever we get, we are to get insight. And, so, Holy Spirit we’re not really capable of spotting all the insights along way. All of the wisdom that's flowing throughout the earth, we’re not able in our own strength to be successful. We need Your guidance. And, so, Holy Spirit, well up within us we pray. Come into all of these issues we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected. I

I have mentioned on a number of occasions the Daily Audio Bible Shop. I mention it because there are resources that…that…that really become friends for the journey as we make the journey through the Scriptures in a year. And, so, check that out.

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All these things can be gotten or accessed through the Daily Audio Bible app as well. That is a great place.

You know, one of the things we were just talking about, sliding off into the world of depression and anxiety and injustice and all of this and just kind of contrasting that with Joseph's story. Joseph obviously kept busy at something. He didn't just show up in the dungeon and become the leader. He didn't just show up in Potiphar's house and become the leader. He obviously lived into that, which means that he didn't just sit down and quit and…and…and basically just get swallowed by the darkness. He had to turn his focus outward in order to do this. And one of the ways that we do this, and it's unbelievable in the way that it can help us with what overwhelms us, is to turn our focus away from ourselves and to our brothers and sisters understanding that we are all in this together. We are all going through stuff. We can hide it all we want. I don't understand. I mean like…the whole world is hiding and pretending to be like more perfect than we are. We are all going through all of these things. If we begin to realize we’re not alone and we focus our attention on others, it's profound what that does inside of us. And we’re a community of prayer. And the Prayer Wall is a place to go for that as well as all the calls that come in. If you are low, there's somebody to pray for who is lower and it's remarkable what that does inside of us. So, check that out. The Prayer Wall lives in the Community section or just press the little Drawer icon in the app in the upper left-hand corner and that’ll get you there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There's a link on the homepage and I thank you profoundly for your partnership.

And if you have a prayer request or comment, you can dial 877-942-4253 or just press the little Hotline button, the little red button at the top of app and you can start…start sharing from there.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

This message is for Harold in St. Louis. Brother, thank you for calling in. I’ve been a member of Daily Audio Bible for about 11 years and I’ve never called in until this moment and it’s because of you. Just hearing your story and hearing how you found Daily Audio Bible. Don’t think its happenstance that you called in and that you’re actually embarking on training for a marathon. This is what this is all about. This is what this whole Christian walk is and walk of believers is taking it step-by-step. And God has His interesting ways of whispering that you’re in the right direction. And brother you are. you’re in the right direction, you’re in flow, you’re in step. So, as you’re training for the marathon, see this whole year of listening to the Daily Audio Bible the same way and just know that already you’ve had an impact on this community, you’ve had an impact on me. You got me to call and share that because it’s important. And, you know, I just want to say congratulations brother and you’ve really found the greatest treasure by finding the DAB. You know, looked up Harold and I know it’s not…I know you spell HAROLD, I’m sure but I almost…it made me think of Hark the Herald and just know that the definition of Harold is a person or thing viewed as a sign that something is about to happen. So, know that something great is about to happen for you this year and you’re already a blessing. So, all right marathon Harold. God bless. Bye.

This is Bonnie from Maryland and this call is for Diana Davis. I heard your call on January 14th that there’s nothing more they can do for your cancer and I am so very sorry. I have been praying for you since I heard your story a couple of months ago and I want to pray again now. Dear Father God in heaven I ask that You be with Diana and with Michael and Elijah. I ask that You give them the peace that surpasses all understanding that only You can give. I pray for Diana, that the doctors will be able to keep her comfortable and as pain-free as possible at this time. And I pray for her children, Michael and Elijah. I pray most of all that they would be able to stay together and never be separated. I ask that You give Michael the resources and the wisdom and the strength needed to keep Elijah and take care of him. And that family and friends would come and help them and surround them with love, surround them with emotional support, physical support, financial support. Whatever their needs are, that they would help and guide them. And I pray that they will feel Your love and Your peace and Your presence enveloping them and that they continue to grow in their relationship with You. Just be with them all Lord at this time that is so difficult in Jesus’ precious and holy name we pray. Amen.

Hi, it’s His Welsh girl again, 15th of January. Brian, just thank you so much for your…your commentary today. It was so enlightening, and it helped me to understand the passage in Matthew where Jesus is saying about, He’s not come to bring us peace. And I’ve never really understood it, but you really helped me today. So, thank you. And I wanted to say hello to Harold doing the Chicago marathon training. It just made my heart glad to hear you phoning in. And, yeah, I just want you to know that that difference in your life, you know, that you feel happier and more at peace, that is God’s peace and He wants you and He loves you and I just, yeah, brilliant that you rang in. Diana, I heard your message yesterday and I felt so heartbroken and I’ve been praying that God will give you His peace about Elijah and Michael and reassurance about them, that something miraculous will happen so that you feel reassured that God is so close to you. And I pray for your courage and strength for you to. And I just wanted to say hi to Blind Tony. I just found a poem that I wrote out a few years ago of yours and it starts, “I immerse myself within myself and find myself in you.” It’s just such a great…it’s brilliant. It took me ages to write it out…but I just read it again and it’s brilliant. So, thank you Blind Tony. Okay, lots of love to you all. Bye.

Hi DAB brothers and sisters this is Byron out in Florida. I just want to give a shout out to a couple people I heard on the podcast today. To Harold you called in and had discovered the podcast as an alternative to a couple of other more mainstream items and are training for a marathon and talking about how the Bible is just totally changing you. I think that’s pretty awesome. I’ve been listening to the DAB for, I don’t know, eight or nine years now and your story’s probably one of the coolest that I’ve heard. And, so, keep on with it. Keep letting the Bible speak for itself and you’ll see how it will change you inside out. But I just wanted to welcome you to the community and hope that we get to hear more from you. Right after you called, Janet in SoCal you called and you just __ little things that happened to you in the morning. And I just want to thank you for sharing that. It’s so often in Christian-dom, even in our community where were focused heavily on the struggle and pains of life because life is a struggle and life is painful but that’s not all it is, it’s also fun, it’s also funny. And you quoted a proverb which I always thought was funny about greeting your neighbor with a cheery voice but there’s also another proverb that says laughter does good like a medicine. I just wanted to thank you for filling my prescription today. And love you all. Talk to you later. Bye.

Hello DAB family this is Shante calling from Metro Detroit and I just heard Harold’s call. Harold who is an unbeliever from St. Louis is training for the Chicago marathon. I just wanted to say, Harold thank you so much for listening and thank you so much for calling in. I’m just…I don’t know…I’m just really encouraged by your call and just grateful that you gave the Daily Audio Bible a chance and…and that you’re experiencing the benefits of feeling peace, the peace of God’s word. And, yeah, you know, I listen to a lot of podcast myself and…and yeah, that is definitely one of one of the wonderful qualities of the Daily Audio Bible, it’s just a great way to start your day. And…and also if you stay listening with us, and I pray you will, later on in the year we’ll get to Hebrews and it will talk about running with perseverance the race marked out for you or it’ll say for us. And, so, that’s just a little, you know, runner’s analogy. But, you know, I’m praying that your training goes well for the Chicago marathon. That’s a fantastic goal to have. And, yeah, we’ll be praying for you. So, all right everyone that’s all I have for today. Talk to you all later. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Marsha from Monument Colorado and I’m calling in today for three people that have called in in the last few days with prayer request and comments. The first person is Harold in St. Louis. I just want to say thank you so much for your call today. You have no idea how much your call encouraged me, and no doubt thousands of people that heard your call. So, thank you for calling in and I want to let you know that I am praying for you. I’m praying for your upcoming marathon and just praying for you in general and I’m hoping that you will call back and keep us posted on how the Daily Audio Bible podcast is affecting your life. I’m really anxious to hear. The next person is Kathleen in Mount Zion Illinois. You called in about her daughter who lives in Dubai with brain lesions and how much you want to be with her at this time and I just want you to know that I am praying for that. Yeah. And then the next person is Diana Davis. Diana I’ve been praying for you for a long time. I’ve heard probably most of your calls and I’m continuing to pray for your total healing and that your request that Elijah and Michael will be able to stay together. You have such a beautiful heart as a mother and I just know that the Father’s heart is so tender. He’s heard your prayers and I just want you Diana to be encouraged today and thank you for your call. And then lastly, I just want to say one more time, I’m always saying how thankful I am for the Daily Audio Bible and how much it’s changed…

Hi, DABbers it’s Carla Jean from Las Vegas calling because the last six months has pretty much been hell. I lost my job, I’m homeless, my kids are all kind of freaking out. My oldest daughters not speaking to me or her father since our divorce last January. And my son Noah is in the middle of a mental health crisis and I’m driving to lose it with him. I’m fearful for my own safety because he doesn’t sound very safe. So, I’m asking for prayers for that. My youngest daughter and her husband came to visit us at Christmas, and they stole from us. And I have a 14-year-old who is wonderful. But I’m just…I’m losing my faith guys. How has God not shown up yet? Please pray for me and pray for my kids, especially please pray for Noah, that whatever it is that’s going on he can get the help that he needs or maybe me just being there is going to be a help. I don’t know. I need you guys. Love you.

[angryhappyhat]

In a somewhat surprising, but not unprecedented, turn, the show opts to draw from a significant turning point in its source material to deliver a dramatic cliffhanger. With yet another rescue party out to retrieve yet another of the protagonists, the audience would be forgiven for believing the series to be stuck on a loop. Sometimes patterns build to something bigger, though, and that appears to be the case here. The show has always prided itself on its ability to parallel past events and draw attention to the significance of their similarity to the current circumstance. All three protagonists have come together, finally, tensions still high and conflict unresolved, but no more so than it has been at other lulls. This is the time for banter and jokes and meaningful glances, reconciliation and a completion of the reunions of the previous episode. But all of that is cut short by, quite literally, the wrath of God. And it stings.

  3P Reviews Series: Preacher

  Spoilers: YES

Audience Assumptions: I’m kind of assuming you’ve been following the show, but do what you like. Oh, also some pretty substantial book spoilers too, so you’ve been warned.

  Season Four

Episode Six: The Lost Apostle – *****

  Part One: If You Look Closely, You May Notice This Season Was Filmed in Australia

There’s that motif of ominous planes again. By the end of the episode, we know what it’s all about.

Tulip and Cassidy have arrived in Melbourne to rescue Jesse, because it just wouldn’t be Preacher unless one or more of the protagonists was in dire peril and needed rescuing. Initially, they just want to find him so they can continue to support his inane God quest, but after a bit of Australian humor, they come across Eugene and realize he’s being held captive by the Saint. To what purpose, no one is quite clear for a while.

Despite his evident desire to do Jesse in, the Saint stays his hand to march Jesse across the Outback (because how else would they travel?) to the Lost Apostle. The place Jesse was going anyway.

The Saint reveals his plan en route: he wants Jesse to kill God. Flawless, buddy. I can see no point where this could go wrong.

Jibes aside, here’s another of those classic moments where the fate of the characters is revealed to them long before they’re ready to accept it. In summarizing the books compared to the show, the main difference has always been show Jesse’s desire to find God for peaceful reasons. The books make no pretense of Jesse having a beef with God and going after him out of anger, but the show’s version is deluded by his faith. He wants to know what’s going on, he wants to know his place, he wants to help God in some way, because that’s how he reconciles his beliefs with the sudden knowledge that his god has abandoned him and everyone else. He holds onto the very persistent idea of a benevolent all-knowing god who loves all Christians and would never do something like this without a reason. He’s skeptical enough to want to know that reason, rather than accept events without question, but he has a very particular idea for what God should be, and he’s reluctant to give it up.

It’s fitting, then, that the Saint would be the one to decide God needs to die, rather than the reverse. He has reason for it, and much as he dislikes Jesse, Jesse’s just some person in his way. He needs Jesse for something, though. Or, more likely, he needs Genesis.

So that’s the reason for these two hiking across the Outback together. They’re at a stalemate, the Saint unable to kill Jesse because he needs him and Jesse unable to kill the Saint full stop. To pass the time, they talk. One can imagine the Saint isn’t much for conversation, but Jesse, not too eager to get on with murdering his deity, tries to reason with him. He tries to save him in that Christian sense, going on about redemption and how this doesn’t need to be the way things go. That they should trust God because He knows what He’s doing, and it’s worthwhile. In response, the Saint murders an entire family in cold blood.

  Part Two: The Conference

Sneaky set designers fitting that snow globe in surreptitiously. I see it, and I applaud. If they actually get the Alamo setpiece in, that’ll be a setup running since the very first season (just take a look at my review of Monster Swamp).

On the other hand, little details like that can make the outcome seem disappointing if it doesn’t come to fruition. Adaptations generally offer little risk, but where it does exist is in the details. Unthinking mimicry like in the recent live-action Disney films can lead to a domino effect where parts of the story no longer work without modification. A good story is like a house of cards, and the more interconnected it is, the more little changes disrupt the rest of it.

On the whole, I’ve been impressed with how Preacher has handled extensive alteration of its source material while still adding homage to the original. However, the weak point is frequently this homage. The show wants to be a bit indulgent, and I’m more than willing to enjoy it as a fan of the books. But after the initial appeal of recognizing a reference fades, its contribution to the whole often comes into question.

For instance, the end of the world. The series teases impending Armageddon through the Grail, inching steadily closer to it with some bizarre choices involving nuclear tensions between, of all countries, Australia and New Zealand (neither of which are nuclear powers). That scene involving the New Zealand MP that I said was pointless? Turns out I was wrong.

On some level, I love how ridiculous this subplot is. It fits the show without taking away too much attention from other subplots. But the thing is, by this point in the story, the Grail is more or less obsolete. Starr’s still here, getting his penis eaten by a dingo. Featherstone’s still here, at least until she squirrel-suits out the window. She actually gets a decent bit of an arc, asking Starr to at the very least execute her personally when she’s failed him, and dipping when he designates the assignment to Hoover 2.

To be fair, the Grail subplot is in pretty much the same position after Book Four. Promises of the end of the world diminish into a pissing contest as Starr, losing valuable body parts left and right, uses up all of the Grail’s good will and resources trying to get revenge on Jesse. Its counterpart in the show has a similar tone, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the show to set up a different outcome where the world does perish, while still keeping an absurdist tone.

Unless, for instance, the show also wanted to divert to a more character-driven narrative focusing on the relationships between the protagonists or give Jesse some sort of climactic resolution with God on a personal level.

You can have Jesse face God, Cassidy, or Starr at the Alamo, but you can’t give him all three.

The problem here is that of the three big subplots coming to a head — Jesse’s personal quest, the protagonists’ interrelationships, and the end of the world — the latter is the weakest. The former subplot is the most unique to the series, and seems to be where it’s heading. I’m fond of the middle one for character potential and depth, but it requires the most time to play out, and while the show seems interested, I don’t know that it has the necessary framework this late into the series. The latter subplot is the obligatory one, and the one no one seems overly interested in, but it’s still there, trucking along. And as much as I’m on-board with it as a side-hobby, we only have three episodes left. Something has to be cut, you can’t be that fucking greedy, show.

I’m not going to lie, I’m also less enthusiastic about Jesse’s confrontation with God than I should be. I think it’s because this quest has consistently taken him away from the other two protagonists, so I’m projecting my frustration of the weaker parts of the second and third seasons onto it. There are a million things the show could have done differently to give the payoff more appeal, particularly if it had spent more time showing Tulip and Cassidy’s relationships to religion as a contrasting point. It exists, and seems to be a sore spot for both of them. The interconnection between this plot and the character plot works in the first season with both Tulip and Cassidy going to Jesse’s sermons and helping out around the church to spend time with him, but it pretty much fades after that. The bottom line is, if the show wants to throw the climaxes of the three main plots together, fine. They just won’t have anything to do with one another, and I foresee it being a bit of a mess.

We’ll see, I suppose. I can’t help but think back to the latter half of the previous season and how disconnected and unnecessary the Allfather, Les Infants, and Angelville subplots ended up. They all had resolutions, sure, but poor Tulip was stuck without anything personally compelling to do in that final episode, and as fun as it was to see her fight Nazis and give God what-for, I do feel like the show could have made her contribution to the story more integral. Same with Cassidy. As satisfying and resonant as certain scenes have been, they mean a lot less if they don’t fit within the story you’re trying to tell.

Also, where did my gay content go, show? You promised me homoerotic subtext and text, goddamnit!

I don’t think I can blame references to the books as the sole cause of weaknesses in the plot, but there are enough moments to point out and make it look damning. Toscani, Masada, Allfather, Eccarius, the angel, Tulip nearly dying, Jesse losing his powers, the end of the world — hell, even the entire Grail, really. If the show had cut the Grail entirely, what, story-wise, would we lose?

All of these elements have their merits, and the showmakers have done a damn fine job of making them entertaining.  I do wonder, though, if the show knew how many seasons it would be getting from the start, would it have gone about them the same way. Maybe. Maybe it would have gone to greater lengths to ensure that the fan-pleasing moments were better integrated into the story.

For all my misplaced ire, though, I can at least point out one major plot point lifted directly from the books that, even with a new set-up and slightly different context and its scene playing with the panels in the graphic novels almost a story board, works. Other than the Coffin, I mean.

And that’s the setpiece for this episode: the one where Jesse dies.

  Part Three: Foreseen Consequences

Do you know when the last time the three protagonists were in the same room together was? It was Season Three, Episode Four, The Tombs. Specifically the moment where Tulip bursts in on Jesse trying his darnedest to murder Cassidy with a stake. The time before, the last the three of them had a conversation together, was two episodes earlier. I don’t say any of this as a complaint. In fact, despite my previous complaints, this episode, and its ending sequence in particular, almost justify the amount of time spent keeping these characters apart. Now, finally, they’re reunited. Fucking finally.

And then it’s gone.

This is the turning point in the books. It’s probably the single most important thing that happens in the series. Unlike in the show, most of the main characters in the books rarely spend more than a few chapters separate from one another. Up until this point, the record is about half a book, and that’s often not by their choice. Jesse has flaked out on Tulip to save Cassidy before, and Cassidy has gone off and been kidnapped or waited for the young-uns to rekindle their love for one another, but beyond that, they’re usually no more than a few hours in-world from regrouping.

When Jesse falls out of the airplane, it’s sudden, unexpected, and leaves the team shattered. He’s not technically dead, as we soon find out, but he might as well be for all the other two know. They think he’s dead, and everything spirals downhill from there. His absence comes at a bad time, exacerbating tensions between the other two that have been building for the last few chapters. Tulip doesn’t want to be left alone with Cassidy, Cassidy likewise is wary of being left alone with her. But they both love Jesse dearly, and they need support for their grief. Him dying where and when he does makes them to stay together long after they should have parted ways. Tulip turns to drugs and alcohol, and Cassidy turns to abusing her, twisting the tragedy of the situation to his advantage.

After this point, the story becomes much more about Tulip and Jesse reconciling with what Cassidy has done to them. The latter remains something of a nuanced character, if still a tremendous asshole. One of the major throughlines that remains up to the end of the series is that as duplicitous and vile as Cassidy has been to Tulip, and as jealous as he has been of her and Jesse’s relationship, at the end of the day, he does still care about Jesse very much. The situation isn’t orchestrated, he’s not intent to off Jesse to get at his girl, and though he lies about Jesse’s last words being for her, his assholery is a domestic sort, and it exists alongside the character’s few better attributes. One of those is his willingness to go to the ends of the world for Jesse.

The actual scene plays out much like it does in the show: the door falls off, Jesse falls out, Cassidy grabs him, Cassidy starts to burn up in the sun, Jesse realizes Cassidy can’t pull him to safety, and Jesse commands him to let go. It’s not a long scene, but it’s beautifully paced out, largely visual with just a few words between the characters, most of them yelling. The situation is appropriately frantic, and the cartoon style sells it. Expressions are exaggerated, the panels are all different angles and sizes, Cassidy is mostly campfire by the end of it, and the medium of the graphic novel allows every single panel to have an impact. You don’t even see Jesse fall or hit the ground, you just see a smoke trail falling away from the plane. Tulip remains unaware for most of it, only realizing that someone has fallen out after the fact, and not knowing who. Her rushing back to see ends that issue of the comics with these three panels:

It’s difficult to replicate that level of expression on film. The simplicity of the lighting and background allows the panel to draw a razor’s focus on what’s important. Panel position and the mere fact that all movement is implied allows the individual frames to stand out. This scene, as written, only works in comics.

So the show doesn’t even try to do it that way.

Certainly the actions are the similar. After the trail goes cold, Tulip and Cassidy stumble upon God’s RV (He needs somewhere to store His motorcycle and dog suit), whereupon they find that Jesse is headed to the Lost Apostle. They run across him, stage a quick rescue, and keep going for the rock. Once they get there, God strikes at the plane. The door comes off, Jesse falls out, Cassidy catches him, then catches fire, and Jesse makes him let go. The main difference from a script standpoint is that Jesse tells Cassidy to tell Tulip to read his letter (as opposed to telling her he loves her), and there’s no need to explain to Tulip what happened. She was in the cockpit of the rinky-dink aircraft just a few feet away.

The season knows it’s been leading to this, and it’s ensured the audience knows too. It plays a little bait-and-switch with audience members familiar with the books by having him survive an earlier plane crash on the way to Australia. Now, not only does the show call into question the reality of everything Jesse had done between Masada and Melbourne, it also makes this event seem inevitable. He’s been heading for this plane, and the ground below, since the start of the season. This was always going to happen, manipulated by God and the screenwriters alike. It’s not a spur-of-the-moment mishap.

That doesn’t relieve the other characters of guilt over it, though. The show does a solid job of layering the series of things that go wrong on top of the foreboding imagery leading up to the accident, such that the precise cause of death isn’t entirely clear. Not all of these lines of reasoning are satisfying — for instance, it takes a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief to accept that Tulip wouldn’t realize until the last minute that maybe her finding a convenient post card in God’s RV wasn’t a coincidence. Or that they would come across an airplane that could stay in the air in near-junkyard condition. Or that God could send a sort of fire storm toward said plane with the only consequence being its door flies off.

Much as the effects could stand a bit more budget and workshopping, I’m inclined to say these moments of disbelief actually add to the scene in the intended way. It’s all to do with how Tulip and Cassidy respond. They’re both glad to see Jesse once rescued, but their interactions are brief and superficial. Cassidy makes a joke about The Big Lebowski, because of course he does, and Tulip gives Jesse a bit of a cold shoulder for abandoning him. That’s pretty much all of the conversation they get to before God attacks the plane, and from then on, Tulip is stuck struggling with the controls to ensure the plane stays aloft. The part with Cassidy and Jesse is probably the most consistent with the books, but as the former has no confessions about hitting on Tulip, there’s no real added weight of feeling obliged to save him to redeem himself. He’s just holding onto him because Jesse’s his friend.

The visuals of the scene are less impressive than those in the book. The most Cassidy catches fire is his arm, and, well, it’s not like his fingers are falling off or the plane is spiraling away from a nuclear explosion or anything. Jesse just falls out of the plane because it’s a piece of junk and God’s a petty asshole. We even see him fall. Hell, it’s one of the things the season opens with. We’ve known this was coming, and it’s even played like a joke. Like that’s the way he gets to the Lost Apostle, by falling from a great height and landing in a puff of dust like a cartoon character.

Perhaps it’s because the scene is so much more mundane that the ending hits an effective blow. The episode ends with a few shots of Tulip and Cassidy glancing at each other and then off into space, not a word between them. They both look exhausted and teary-eyed, but they hardly emote at all. They just kind of sit there, stunned, Tulip still flying the plane, like it hasn’t fully registered to them what’s happened. And if you’ve ever been in a dire situation before where something horrible happens that you’re powerless to stop, that feeling might be familiar. Distress sometimes has a delayed response, to the point where you’re not even sure if you’re grieving properly because you don’t feel right. What it leaves you with is this unusually quiet head that ensures you hear every unbidden thought that tells you what went wrong with perfect clarity.

The show doesn’t give us much indication of what’s going on in the protagonists’ heads after Jesse falls, but beyond the simple shock of losing him, you can imagine there’s plenty of guilt. Guilt that Cassidy didn’t close the door properly, guilt that Tulip couldn’t evade the attack in time, guilt that Tulip couldn’t help, guilt that Cassidy couldn’t pull him back in, guilt for picking an airplane on its last legs, guilt for bringing him into a trap, guilt for not realizing sooner, guilt for not making the most of the few minutes they had left with him, guilt for letting him run off on his own, guilt for not joining him sooner, guilt for screwing things up every step of the way with the stupid accidental affair that both of them are kind of embarrassed about anyway. It doesn’t really matter if these were avoidable events or not — that they all feel avoidable is what really matters. Cumulatively, they put all of this pressure on the characters that the audience can empathize with because that’s what we would be thinking of under the circumstances.

It’s a different effect than the books have, not necessarily worse or better. I think I prefer the delivery of the scene in the books for general enjoyment, but I’m curious to see where the show takes this. These are different characters, and whether the show wants to hit certain plot points from the books or not, what it does will be all its own.

  Series Breakdown Rating:

Characters and Character Development: 9 Aesthetics and Style: 8 Creativity: 8 Overall Plot: 7 Subplots: 8 Sum: 40/50

Out of the Blue – Preacher, Season Four, Episode Six In a somewhat surprising, but not unprecedented, turn, the show opts to draw from a significant turning point in its source material to deliver a dramatic cliffhanger.