'Preacher' Review: 'On Your Knees' Offers An Explosive Penultimate Episode
(Each week, we're going to kick off discussion of Preacher season 2 by examining the differences between the original comics and AMC's television adaptation.)
Last episode, we all wondered where The Saint was, and now it's been revealed – The Grail has him, and are using him as a weapon to take out Jesse. After all, what better way is there to take out one stubborn bastard than with the king of them?
Eugene’s Adventures With Hitler
Eugene is currently trying to escape from hell by replaying his personal hell over and over until he can break out of the loop. Like the episode with Hitler's worst day ever (a day that involved a date at a restaurant sans plum cake), this means that we're stuck replaying a sequence again, but Arseface is able to break out with the help of the fuhrer. They spend the rest of the episode crawling through the vents of hell and peering in on other people's hells as they make their way to safety, and presumably, Earth. Does this mean Hitler wasn't such a bad guy after all, and that he'll soon get his own second coming?
It's enough to make you wonder if the creators of Preacher regret making Hitler such a big character now that white supremacists are rearing their ugly, inbred heads once again in Trump's America. Maybe this wasn't the best time to make him a sympathetic hero? Just a thought.
Saint of All Drowners
The Saint of Killers has had some time to dwell on Jesse's words at the bottom of that lake.
Why exactly did Jesse think this truck would hold the Saint? It's a armored truck, sure, but this guy broke his way out of Hell. Better yet, Jesse could have just told him to walk to the bottom of the water and wait there for eternity! The Saint was listening to the Word, after all.
But nope, instead he sent him down there to stew and reminisce about his family in the days before he went on his vengeful rampage.
Remember Hoover lamenting last episode that this job wasn't a great one for him, and Starr agreeing with him even though we didn't know what this job entailed? It turns out that his job was to rescue the Saint. Yeah. They pull up the truck and replace it with an empty one and bring it to a giant empty warehouse, where Hoover sweats at the idea of having to deal with the guy in the back. They want him on their side to take out Jesse, which seems to go against their stated goals, since they want him to be a Messiah. But they have their reasons, which will soon become clear.
The Saint eventually agrees to take out Jesse and he is let out of the truck, while Hoover hilariously beats feet out of the warehouse. (Hey, he's one of the very few to have come across him and lived.) The Saint's first stop? A dive bar playing honky-tonk music where no one looks any differently at the enormous Texan with blood on his hands.
"What brings you to New Orleans?" the bartender asks him.
"I'm here to kill a man." says the Saint, not one to mince words.
Jump Scare
Cassidy is having trouble with his son, who's taken to the vampire life in a way Cassidy never has. He's hiding his son's dog in his room because he knows that there are better snacks in the world.
I'm sad I wrote the history of the jump scare last month because here is another worthy inclusion! While throwing out the trash (which contains ones of Cassidy's severed fingers), Tulip is suddenly confronted with the appearance of the Saint. It waits perhaps a beat too long to be a perfect scare, but it is pretty threatening when he comes in and fills the frame while the music blares.
He questions her about Jesse and his weapons and she can barely stutter out a response, but he hears Jesse and Cassidy laughing and trudges off towards them. Tulip decides at this moment to face her fears and attacks him, only to get smacked away into the wall.
He heads on over to Jesse and Cass, who are embroiled in a hilarious conversation about Fight Club. Seriously, turn on the subtitles if you can't hear it, because Cassidy is convinced that Tyler Durden is real because the only way they would follow a leader set on taking down the institutions of America would be if they were as pretty as Brad Pitt. He's also going on again about how baby foreskins are used in baby formula.
Meanwhile the Saint picks up a little knife from the kitchen and makes his way to them.
Jesse's Word, which seems to be distorted and failing him, chooses this moment to fail once again, and the Saint doesn't listen to his command to get down on his knees. Cassidy gets thrown through a wall, and Jesse's usually effective punches get knocked aside harmlessly. He puts everything he has into it, though, and just gets thrown all around the room before being knocked out. Tulip comes in too to save her man and though she fights better than anyone, she's just no match for the Saint.
One day, we may get them all three fighting together, but that is not today. Although once again, the fight choreography is top-notch. If there's one thing Preacher's second season has done really right (and it's done so much!) it's been the incredible, varied battles.
Hoover and Featherstone are watching this whole thing, trying to wait for the perfect moment, which comes shortly after Jesse reawakens, tied up to a chair, and listens to the Saint describing what scalping sounds like.
Jesse is saved being scalped himself at the last second by none other than Hell, whose administrators come and tell the Saint that they're going to stick his family in his personal hell since no God is checking on things right now, anyway. They also make sure to tell Jesse that they're only here because of Herr Starr.
They also take Tulip and Cassidy to headquarters to meet Starr and reveal their plans for Jesse, which seems like overkill. They don't like his new God complex and agree that he won't be a good Messiah, anyway. I mean, he's Jesse.
So good job folks! You did it! Starr's incredibly convoluted means of separating Jesse from his companions seems to have worked, even though it was aided greatly by Jesse being a bit slow on the uptake.
What’s Next?
For a penultimate episode, there's not a whole lot of questions remaining. Sure, Jesse is now set to become the Messiah for the second coming, but it seems likely that Tulip and Cassidy are going to find out about The Grail's meddling, what with the webcam being used to spy on them falling down off the wall during that fight. This also could be the moment that Tulip and Cassidy start their awful drug and violence-laden relationship, similar to the comics. We'll also find out what happens with Eugene when he returns.