At the end of last week's episode of Feed the Beast, things certainly looked bleak. A shootout with the Tooth Fairy outside Thirio seemingly shut down any chance of success for the restaurant and the resultant tension building between Tommy and Dion over the possibility that Dion slept with Rie made it seem like this week, disaster was about to strike and strike hard.  

Yet, as is often the case with this show, it decided to sneak its way into a different direction and well...perhaps Thirio will be okay after all. But getting the restaurant kicking was no easy task and how they got the phone ringing once again is what matters because 'Tabula Rasa' featured something that the characters had yet to do on this show. Rather than continue to be pushed around by life and all the difficulty it has to offer, Tommy and Dion took a stand last night; doing their best to confront any and all fears and road blocks and after weeks of seeing them brood and fuss over the uncontrollable, this was quite the refreshing change. 

In fact, the charge to make things happen was led by Tommy this week; who saw a grand opportunity to get Thirio some positive press by making Dion apologize to an old chef he pissed off ages ago, Dante DiPaolo. The reason for forcing Dion to make things right was simple, Dante had transitioned from working in the kitchen to working on a popular blog and well, a lovely review from this man would do wonders for the business...but Dante's answer to their request we will get to in a moment because seriously...Tommy was a man transformed this episode. He was handling every loose end in style this week and well...it's about freaking time. He has been a shell of a man for so long it was absolutely wondrous to see him take a stand and control of his life and it turns out he managed to influence others along the way. 

Believe it or not, even Dion followed in Tommy's footsteps, finally digging his heels in with the Tooth Fairy when the powerful mobster came calling to reclaim his precious cocaine. Dion was honest and bold and it led to an interesting moment where Patrick didn't outright murder Dion, instead offering him a chance to pay off his debts as the Chef of a brand new, Tooth Fairy owned restaurant on the waterfront. It's an offer that Dion decides to put some thought into, but hey, if he hadn't been bold with Patrick, none of this ever would have happened and if he hadn't gone with Tommy to see Dante...well the former chef turned blogger who initially turned down their offer to review the restaurant never would have shown up at Thirio, asking for a meal with revenge on his mind before having a change of heart thanks to the food and firing off a glowing critique on the web to get the phones ringing off the hook with reservations.

Yes, it seemed as though the crisis at hand was averted and all would be well...that is until Dion was called out accidentally by Dante in a grand lie to Tommy. It turns out that despite saying he didn't sleep with Rie at the start of the episode, he most certainly did and let's be honest...things will never be the same between these two best friends, and that term will certainly be a loose description of their relationship going forward. Not to mention, there's other trouble brewing on the horizon since our intrepid Detective wants the Tooth Fairy dead following the message his daughter discovered and the constant harassment T.J. is taking at school is clearly coming to a head. But, in the meantime, at least we can bask in the glory of one positive episode that showed off what these two men are truly capable of, because we've been pulling for them week in and week out. Until next time.

At the end of Preacher last week, it was clear that Jesse's pride was getting in the way of well, everything and that clearly his arrogance was now going to become a costly venture and his only way out this mess was to find a way to redeem himself. That meant that this week should serve as the beginning of that journey, where Jesse set right all of his wrongs and well...it turns out that "He Gone" was absolutely none of those things. 

This episode was more or less a continuation of Jesse's newfound commitment to pride and arrogance and when it comes to stories like this, when the main character doesn't quite open their eyes to the mistakes they are continuing to make...they find themselves punished and last night's episode made sure that Jesse atoned for his horrible mistakes in stunning fashion. Everything essentially fell to pieces this week and well...it's about damn time. Jesse has been needing one hell of a wake up call for weeks now, but despite the fact that the universe now has his attention, one has to wonder just how much damage he has done in his quest to set the world right because his realization of what a jerk he's been may have come just a little too late and at quite a cost. 

That concern comes about due to the fact that everyone around him took a psychological beating from Jesse. He was mean and nasty and acted above them for a majority of the episode, ignoring anything anyone had to say and the culmination of his crap-tacular attitude came to a peak in the waning moments of the story when Tulip finally stormed out; seemingly having reached her breaking point after standing by Jesse for weeks on end in the hopes of finally reaching him on a personal level. Even poor Emily who has always supported Jesse regardless of the strange changes in his behavior endured the Preacher's fury for no particular reason. But thankfully, Cassidy took the time to stand up to Jesse, making a point to put himself in harm's way to see if Jesse was capable in the slightest of doing something good for someone else by exposing himself to sunlight and burning to a crisp.

Is he okay? Well, that we don't quite know. To be continued on that, but the question that remains is why Jesse has been so determined to get this town to serve God and spend the Sabbath in the Lord's house...and thankfully the show took the time to answer that. As it turns out, everything the man does at this point is to right a wrong that he believes he caused...the death of his father. Jesse once prayed for his dad to be murdered for sending Tulip away and it didn't take long for strange men to arrive and grant his angry wish. It's clear now that Jesse is paying a personal penance for an act that he had no responsibility in and having everyone harm themselves or walk away from him thanks to his ridiculous behavior, allowed him to finally understand that in order to properly honor his father...he must do good things rather than demand them.

But while Jesse is now doing his damndest to get Eugene back from Hell, even going so far as to dig a hole to try and reclaim him...there are bigger problems brewing. For one, it looks as though his power over people has a shelf life since Odin Quincannon has clearly reverted back to his old ways by not giving a crap about his "promise" to serve God and by showing up at the church to demand Jesse hand over the land to him. No doubt Jesse will be able to command Odin and his men to go away when they show up at his doorstep next week, but how long before Odin returns, and more importantly, how will Jesse get Eugene back from hell and get his friends back on his side once again, because he has a lot of work to do to win back their trust...until next time.

It seems like every episode of a television series has a theme behind it and in 'Us vs. Them', it is all about trust. Trust is a big thing, especially when your town is spiraling down the drain. The grownups in Pretty Lake are the ones that all of the other kids should be following, but when they do and the results do not end up as expected, well, it is no wonder their trust goes down the drain.  It is easy to know somebody for years and trust everything that they have said, but when being put into a different situation that they are not accustomed to, they may not be the ones to listen to since they are also not thinking straight. 

After being able to break through the fence, Chuck, Harrison, Samantha and their friend find out that Chuck does not have a plan of survival. Just trying to make sure that they are not captured by the soldiers outside of the fence, Chuck does not know what to do when the group is free. As Samantha pulls the van over for a moment to collect her thoughts, she is shot by the approaching military unit. Without knowing what to do next, Chuck makes the call to head back to town and try to come up with another plan, one that may have more of a positive result. As Gord has carved up his cow, he is ready to take it into town to keep its people fed, but before he is able to make the delivery, the truck is stolen. Driving around town to try and find more food for the kids in need, he stumbles upon his truck at Harrison’s house. When approaching the group of kids, he finds out that Francis stole his truck and she has joined Harrison’s clan, since they are more worried about saving themselves than worrying about others. Needing help to remedy this, Gord is able to enlist the help of Ronnie to get his food back and deliver it to those more in need. 

Finding Liam in the tunnel, Adam is worried about what is going to happen next since the doctor said that he worked with Adam’s father in the past. As the last unit that came to save the town was executing all of the patients, his hesitation is warranted. Getting back to town and seeing that Liam’s lab had been delivered, Adam still does not want to believe, along with Chuck, but they give the young man a chance to prove himself. As Wiley watches and listens, she is starting to believe that Liam is telling the truth about helping Pretty Lake and is willing to take the first ‘cure’ shot.  But Wiley has not been forthcoming with whatever has been plaguing her over the past couple of months and now being put on an operating table, she has to have a surgery to save her life. If it goes wrong however, Adam and Chuck are ready to take a shot at Liam for being just another military executioner. 

Waking up in the morning, Ronnie is greeted by a pretty face as Renee has returned to him. Bringing him a peace offering of canned peaches and his gun, she is ready to apologize for what she did. After being convinced she was there for him, Ronnie is then asked to take care of a problem for her. Her little brother Eric is missing and she needs to find him. Going around town and asking people if they have seen the missing boy, Ronnie gets a strange vibe when asking Mark if he has seen the kid. Not stopping however, Ronnie finds out that Eric has been killed and dumped on Hannah’s land. After Gord was able to convince Hannah’s husband to spare some food for the town, Eric’s body was also loaded onto the truck and now he is faced with delivering the bad news to Renee.

The second season is already heating up and it is in the middle of winter. With more action in the first two episodes than most of last season, it is easy to see where the writers are taking this, there will be a battle in Pretty Lake, but between who will be the question. I am disappointed to see how Francis has fallen away from her brother, especially joining Harrison’s clan who are a bunch of bullies, but she may come back from it, if only to make her brother happy. The tumor in Wiley’s stomach is troublesome, mostly because Adam and Chuck have to put their faith in an outsider who may or may not be in town to kill them all. I like the Ronnie and Renee story right now, since there is mystery and intrigue between the two, but I do not know how Ronnie will deal with the ghost of his brother always questioning him when he is trying to do something to help someone else. I am still hoping for an animal attack, but don’t think I will get it at this point, but if there is a throw down battle between one of the groups inside or outside of the fence, I am pretty sure it is gonna be epic.

After last season, I did not know why they would bring back Between, I mean, the town of minors is doomed, right?  Well they are, but that is not going to stop the story from moving forward and I am actually pretty happy that it is back as I have watched the opening to season two and it has captured my attention once again. With several characters returning, the chemistry seems to be better than it was in the first season, so now I am excited to see where they go from here.

Now a month later, Pretty Lake is suffering a food shortage and everyone knows that it is becoming a problem. While Gord has enlisted his little sister Francis to help him, she is starting to get a wandering eye. While making their daily delivery to the orphanage, pleas are coming from Samantha to bring more food since the kids are still hungry. Knowing that this could cause problems, Gord tries all he can to take care of the kids, but when he arrives at his stash house to find it empty, he has no other alternative than to kill the last cow on the farm. Even though Francis does not agree with this and believes that they should be taking care of themselves first, there is no changing her brother’s mind, especially when it comes to helping others.

While grieving over his brother’s grave, Ronnie is greeted by a new face that he has never seen around town. Renee is a sight for sore eyes and when taking her back to his place, Ronnie thinks that times are about to change for him, but then his sister comes home. With the moment gone, Ronnie sees that Renee has taken his gun and now wants to find her for more than one reason. The younger kids around Pretty Lake are really starting to test their boundaries, while some are making their ways to the fence to antagonize the guards, others are stealing anything that they can get their hands on. While walking by the bar, Mark sees a kid trying to steal his booze and when confronted, the kid lashes out and tries to stab his elder with a knife. Missing and hitting himself in the chest, the kid is dead before Mark can even call for help, but Stacey witnessed the death and now Mark has to come clean about what happened on his watch.

Harrison and his friends have created a fight club for the younger kids and are having them beat the crap out of each other for money. When seeing this, Chuck wants to know what the point is since money really has no value inside of the fence, but the boys have a plan of their own. Bribing the guards for food, Harrison and his friends have made a contact at one of the gates that is more than willing to take their money. Wanting to exploit this, Chuck loads the boys up with money and sends them to distract the guard while he is ready to make a run for freedom. While the town is falling apart, still, Adam has a plan of escape of his own and will not leave Wiley in Pretty Lake to starve to death. Knowing that the tunnel he traveled with his father would lead beyond the fence, the two are ready to make their trek to a farmhouse that does not lie too far away. Being greeted by Sandra, the two are taken in and bear witness to the kindness of others. Finding out that the two kids and their child are from Pretty Lake, Sandra takes pity on them and tells them about what the world is being told on the news. With nothing being true and the kids basically being left alone in the town to die, the two want to understand why the lies are occurring. But before they can start their second day in the farmhouse, Wiley finds Sandra dead on the floor and at least one of the reports is correct about the virus that has hit the town, it is contagious after all.

Not a bad start to the second season, I will have to watch it all now. With so much happening in the town, the need for food has outweighed every other problem. With only a few of the older kids trying to take responsibility, it is amazing that the entire town has not burned down in a month's time, but hey, it is still early yet. The interactions between the characters do not seem as forced as they did last year, I think that the cast is better acquainted with each other and the writers have found the correct amount of seriousness and joking to keep the viewers coming back. Now I need to see what happens in the second episode, because for some unknown reason, I want another animal attack in town, but I don’t know if that can happen since there is no food…only kids bodies.

After spending weeks exploring the finer points of the human psyche and all of its flaws, AMC's Feed the Beast seemed to take a break from all that this week and give us what really we've all been waiting for, a chance to see Thirio in action. Last night the show featured 'opening night' if you will, with a soft open that brought together friends and family for one grand feast and well...one would think that such an event would give our characters cause for reflection on their accomplishments and their progress in life.

But let's be honest, this ain't that kind of show. 'The Wild West' essentially featured a disaster in the making when it came to Thirio's first night since nothing quite went to plan and all of the messes on display last night came about for one simple reason...we reap what we sow. Yes, the accomplishment aspect of the story was nothing more than a ruse. There was still plenty to explore about the human condition because let's be honest, despite the wonderful things we have learned about Dion and Tommy they haven't grown much on the series. They are still locked in their bad habits and anguish respectively and consequences are finally starting to come from their actions and now their dream is about to be threatened because of their inability to address their flaws.

Take Tommy for example. He has completely closed himself off to anyone around him, including his best friend and son. While it's understandable that he's hurting, and badly at that, closing off to the people that need him most is a costly gamble to say the least and now it is costing him opportunities at happiness, and his inability to open up, especially to his son may cost him dearly. After all, a visit from Child Protective Services was the first monkey wrench thrown into Thirio's soft open and while it was admirable to see Tommy try and plead his case to the state representative, it was Aidan's intervention that saved the day, further speaking to the fact that Tommy hasn't a clue what to do following Rie's untimely death and well, with the spotlight on him now from the state, that's going to have to change and quickly.
 
But truly, the grandest messes of the night came from Dion, whose push toward opening the restaurant at all costs is finally coming back to haunt him. The money he just handed over to The Tooth Fairy is now on Pilar's radar and one has to wonder if she will cover for him following her unexpected tryst or reveal the truth that he's doing shady stuff with Aidan's money, but his past indiscretions coming around full circle didn't end there. The cocaine that he's been selling is on recall now from the Tooth Fairy, meaning Dion has to figure out how to replace what he's sold...but what's worse, his relationship with the man in general is becoming quite the problem since a quick shootout after Patrick's visit to Thirio has led to cancellation upon cancellation reservation wise, putting the restaurant at risk before it even opens and who knew that Dion's hand in destroying one restaurant so long ago, would put another one's sheer existence on the line.

For the first time this season, it feels as though everything is ready to crumble on a moment's notice and well, considering the investment we've all put into these characters, one cannot help but be furious at both Tommy and Dion. These are two men capable of great things, in fact they're crazy talented at what they do...but their lunacy and selfishness is about to bring this grand dream crashing to the ground and to make it worse...Dion's inability to keep it in his pants may create an incredible rift between he and Tommy. Especially considering the mounting evidence that Dion slept with Rie. Either way, this was a wonderful episode through and through. It was simply a brilliant stroke to bring every single story element together in seamless fashion like this and give the characters a wake up call on their ignorance. What they do with it past this point however, is what matters most. Until next time. 

As the old saying goes, when it rains, it pours and that colloquialism can most certainly be applied to AMC's Preacher; because holy cow, after weeks of drought when it comes to answers about the mysterious world Jesse Custer inhabits, we found ourselves treated to a trickle of elucidation last week and this week...well it became a downpour. Everything we ever wanted to know about the creature inside Jesse finally came to light and in many ways, 'Sundowner' served to finally focus exactly what season one is going to be all about.

But before we get into that, let's talk about what's inside of Jesse because that was downright fascinating. We learned from our two angel friends that the being that inhabits our favorite preacher is known as Genesis, and this creature is more or less considered a grand abomination since it is the offspring of both an Angel and a Demon and well, that's about all we really got before one of the coolest and wildest opening sequences the show has ever put together came to fruition in spectacular fashion when a Seraphim was discovered in their presence and she was more than happy to battle it out with the angels and Jesse in an desperate bid to bring Genesis back where it belongs.

Yet this episode was more than just answers, it was the grand push for character development that we've all been waiting for. Every single character featured this week let their guard down; showing us their weaknesses, showing us their hopes, their failures and it was absolutely and utterly magnificent. I loved seeing a vulnerable Cassidy this go round and what good resides in him as he came to realize what Tulip means to Jesse. It was great to see Tulip finally play ball and try to get into Jesse's good graces because she loves him and it was equally beautiful to see Eugene finally find some meaning and comfort in this world when a decent act came his way and it was equally as fascinating to see him reject any good karma that falls into his lap because of his past transgressions. If anything, Eugene was quite the important part of the story, since he is what facilitated the focus of this show for season one...redemption.

Despite the fact that Jesse has the best intentions at hand, he is truly sinning with pride through and through because he is a man filled to the brim with regret when it comes to his life of poor choices and crime and it has consumed him to set things right and make people's lives better, whether they like it or not and he is finding himself drunk with the power that Genesis gives him and well, Jesse's journey this episode was damn near heartbreaking as we watched his inner demons nearly swallow him up and what he did to poor Eugene, condemning him to Hell (at least for the time being one would hope) should now serve as the catalyst to finally force him to listen to reason and finally put himself on an actual path of redemption and serving God for the right reasons, rather than trying to squelch the fire raging within his soul. 

The road back will be paved with challenges however, because regardless of how hard Jesse begins to push to set things right, so much damage has already been done. The just and unjust from Heaven and Hell alike are no doubt going to be looking for Genesis for their own purposes and our two bumbling angels are still out there as well. Not to mention, whatever darkness the power of Genesis unlocked in Odin Quincannon's heart is no doubt growing in strength and now Odin has the Mayor to serve as his lackey since he helped cover up the murder of the Green Acres representatives. In the end however, this was one wild and crazy episode and every single second of it was an absolute joy. This is Preacher finally reaching its potential and if it stays like this for the rest of season one, we are in for one incredible ride. Until next time.