"Monster Swamp" is the fourth episode of the supernatural drama television series Preacher, which originally aired on AMC in the United States on June 19, 2016. The episode was written by Sara Goodman and directed by Craig Zisk.
Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) tries to tell Jesse (Dominic Cooper) about Fiore (Tom Brooke) and DeBlanc (Anatol Yusef), though it falls on deaf ears as Jesse is distracted by the thought of rebooting All Saints Congregational, wanting more visitors. He later converts atheist Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley) to Christianity, using his power in front of the entire congregation to achieve that goal. Angry at the death of a woman, Tulip (Ruth Negga) carries out a form of vigilante justice, but the consequences are not expected as she mistakenly throws Cassidy out of a window, only to discover him to be an immortal vampire.
"Monster Swamp" was received mostly positively by critics, who listed its acting (particularly of Dominic Cooper, Joseph Gilgun and Jackie Earle Haley), the bizarre opening sequence, Odin and Jesse's confrontation, and Jesse's sermon as being the high points of the episode. The episode garnered a Nielsen rating of 0.4 in the 18–49 demographic, translating to 1.14 million viewers.
Plot Flashback A young Jesse Custer prepares the All Saints chapel for services. He later listens to his father, John Custer (Nathan Darrow), deliver a sermon to his congregation. Jesse smokes with his friends, including a young Tulip O'Hare (Ashley Aufderheide). John admonishes him and whips him in front of his friends, emphasizing that the others look to him for guidance. Later, Jesse's father wakes him in the middle of the night and takes him to Quincannon Meat & Power. Jesse waits in the hall while John goes into Quincannon's office. While waiting, Jesse steals an ashtray. Shouts are heard inside and John walks out. "Denounce him!" Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley) yells after him.
Back in the truck, John tells Jesse that some people just can't be saved.
Present Lacey, a prostitute from Toadvine Whorehouse, flees through Annville and a field on a foggy night. Clive, one of Odin Quincannon's men, chases her with a gun, catches up with her, and shoots her with a paint gun. Suddenly, Lacey falls into a sinkhole and dies. The next day, as her body is hoisted out of the pit, Quincannonowner of the property gives a speech to his men, the girls, and Tulip (Ruth Negga), warning them to be more careful. Tulip is outraged at their apathy toward Lacey's death.
Meanwhile, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) tries to tell Jesse about Fiore (Tom Brooke) and DeBlanc (Anatol Yusef) and warns him to flee Annville; his advice falls on deaf ears. Jesse visits Emily (Lucy Griffiths) to suggest raffling off a flat-screen TV to attract more people to church and alludes to a scheme that will boost attendance. Cassidy visits Fiore and DeBlanc at the Sundowner Motel where, in exchange for cash, he promises to convince Jesse to meet with them. Fiore expresses his doubts about the situation and takes out a strange-looking old telephone; DeBlanc, however forbids him from using it, saying they will be punished for coming down without permission.
Quincannon and Annville Mayor Miles (Ricky Mabe) discuss the problem of sinkholes, as well as Miles's recent meeting with the Green Acre Group, a sustainable farming company. Miles gives Quincannon a Green Acre brochure and suggests he consider a partnership, given that local tax revenues have decreased 58 percent in 10 years. Quincannon urinates on the brochure.
Emily arrives home with the new TV for Sunday's raffle and relieves Miles of babysitting duties. She agrees to have a drink with him when he points out how hard she works for everyone, especially Jesse. In her kitchen, Emily reminds him that she's never going to be with him. She then removes her pants and warns him to leave before morning.
The prostitutes and Quincannon's crew gather at Toadvine to remember Lacey. Tulip and Clive trade angry words. Mosie offers Clive a free hour on the house to ease the situation and advises Tulip to watch her temper. Tulip marches upstairs and whips a man who she thinks is Clive, causing him to fall through a window. When Clive comes to the bedroom door, Tulip realizes she attacked the wrong man. Down below, Cassidy grunts as blood spurts from his neck. Tulip cradles Cassidy in a car as a prostitute drives them to the hospital. She apologizes profusely and chastises herself for having anger issues. Cassidy asks her to kiss him, which she does. At the hospital, Tulip urgently begs a nurse to get a doctor only to turn around and find that Cassidy is gone. She follows a trail of blood and discovers Cassidy slurping blood from a bag.
Jesse visits Quincannon's office where they're building a model of the Alamo together. Jesse invites Quincannon to his Sunday service. Quincannon, who is an atheist, declines. Jesse tells Quincannon that if he comes to church on Sunday and does not leave a Christian, he'll give Quincannon his father's 20 hectares of land — the biggest plot in Annville that Quincannon doesn't own. On Sunday, Jesse stands before a packed house and tells the congregation that the world is turning to shit — and that it's all their fault. He vows to bring them back to God one by one and asks Quincannon to serve God. Quincannon refuses and starts to leave. As everyone watches, Jesse puts his hand on Quincannon's shoulder and employs the Word of God. "Serve God," he commands. "Of course I will, yes sir," Quincannon says. The room erupts in whispers.
Fiore and DeBlanc wait in the motel room. The phone contraption begins to ring. They stare motionless at the phone as it rings and rings.
Production
Writing
"Monster Swamp" was written by Sara Goodman. Some elements in the episode are based on the first seven issues in the Preacher series, Gone to Texas, of which the script was first read and reviewed by Preacher co-creator Garth Ennis, as with the other episodes of the series. It also adapts, or at least provides allusions to Jesse's father John Custer from Until the End of the World, in the form of various flashback sequences, as well as from Salvation with Odin Quincannon.
In the Preacher Insider Podcast featurette published by AMC following the airing of the episode, "Monster Swamp" writer Sara Goodman spoke of the overall theme of the episode, and Jesse's decision to use his power, stating "Well I think this episode, in terms of moving forward, was really about [Jesse] embracing his new power and his intention to use it to achieve his goal of being the preacher in Annville." "Monster Swamp" director, Craig Zisk agreed with Goodman's statement, believing "It felt like Jesse had a very clear mission in this episode, versus the conflict we've seen him have in the other episodes [...] And now it feels like he has a solid understanding of what it does and what it is; and now he's using it for good, in his mind, to bring more people into the church and to save the people of the town, so to speak." Zisk speaks of it as being the first moment in which Jesse takes ownership of this newly acquire ability.
Goodman stated of the flashback sequence that "[...] what we decided to do in terms of using the flashbacks is try to solidify what his mission was - the promise he made to his dad, why he's here as a preacher, knowing that he's come from a much darker place and that he has this dark side in him and so why he's fighting to be good, why he's come back to this town, and what his mission is for the town. So even if he doesn't know exactly what the power is yet, I think that this episode is really about him embracing it and using it to achieve that goal, and by using Quincannon." Zisk spoke of the "amazing pieces with [Quincannon] in this episode, "[...] The scene when they're building the little Alamo was such a powerful scene in terms of Jesse deciding to use his power or not use his power. He knew he had it in his back pocket when he walked in the door. Of course, he knew he was going to get the result that he wanted but it was how he was going to get it. Could he do it the old fashioned way by just talking it through and hopefully convincing Quincannon or was he going to have to use the power [...] I think that was a real struggle for Jesse throughout the scene [...]
Assistant editor Monica Daniel said, "One thing I love about that scene, and something me and [Tyler] talkeand about while he was cutting it, is its a very dialogue heavy scene. In the script, you see the dialogue and then once you shoot it that's when you're trying to get all that subtext across, and its just so well one. The whole time they're having this conversation it's kind of like a battle of wills with each other. They're actually putting together that model and Quincannon's painting the whole time [...] so we went into that trying to get all those little moments in there and translating it from the script."
Of the Battle of Wills scene between Jesse and Quincannon, Zisk mentions that "I think there's a lot more power if you're not facing off with each other and that they had such strong opinions of where they stood in terms of whether their whole theories on religion, god and what that influences in their life and not to have this face to face where they're sitting next to each other just going after each other, it's a lot easier to be distracted by something and having that conversation and you can see they're both holding back. They're doing it with a little bit of a smile on their face, they're into their work but as much as their concentrating on [the Alamo] & that other stuff [...] their really not concentrating on that. They're trying to figure out ... they're sizing each other up. They're going to be the two powers in this town [...]" Goodman notes that the choice of both men building the Alamo was very purposeful, "It's the definition of Texas lore, but it's also an unwinnable battle, and their recreating it. So for them to be in masters of their own universe, I mean that's what they are doing [...] In the writing and the breaking of the episode, we're very aware of the world we're putting them in."
Shortly after the airing of "Monster Swamp", AMC released a featurette titled "Inside Preacher: Monster Swamp" which went into greater detail with the cast and creators to discuss Cassidy's dealings with DeBlanc and Fiore and why Jesse's so focused on converting Annville's biggest sinner, Odin Quincannon. Showrunner Sam Catlin was interviewed for the segment, and stated "Cassidy's sort of figured out that DeBlanc and Fiore aren't vampire vigilantes. Now he realises what they want is Jesse's power." Catlin then acknowledges that Cassidy is rather curious of the two fellows, stating, "At first he just wants to know a little bit about more about what it is that they want and what are they after; and sort of over the course of that scene, he realises that they don't seem they have all the answers."
Joseph Gilgun spoke of his character's interactions with DeBlanc and Fiore, while also being rather critical of Jesse's flippant approach, to an extent with his abilities; though speaking first of the government agents, Gilgun states, "I think it's really funny because Cassidy's saying 'Look I don't know what the bloody hell they are. They could be androids [...] could be anything'. Though he also mentions, "The one thing they do have is a good instinct for people and who they are." He concludes by making mention of Jesse's trivial approach, "He's bartering with something that doesn't belong to him and he has no idea how dangerous it is."