'Preacher' Recap: 'Holes'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

​When you take a moment to think about it, we have just about seen it all storytelling wise when it comes to season two of AMC’s Preacher. After all, the series has made a point to drop some fun stories our way, and some chilling ones that have also featured some serious gore to say the least, and we cannot forget that some of the stories presented to us have been downright hilarious as well. Yet, the show has made a point to avoid telling any heavy or darker stories for the most part, a trend that the series bucked last night. Because ‘Holes’ went to some supremely dreary places, where the characters of this series were forced to face some harsh and painful realities.
 
Take Cassidy’s journey for example. Last night he was forced to more or less watch his son die. Granted, Denis didn’t pass into the great beyond in this particular tale, but he’s clearly near the end and having to sit back and watch this, brought out a softer side to Cassidy we’ve never seen before. He spent a lot of time in this episode taking the time to reflect on the failure he is as a father and surprisingly, how hard life has become for him as an immortal since he’s had to watch everyone he’s ever cared for or loved die while he stays behind and to top it off, he spoke to the fact that not being able to die has in many ways removed any and all meaning to life, making it and its rich experiences as dull as they come.
 
Yet while Cassidy wrestled with all of that, and the decision as to whether or not he should convert his son into a vampire to save his life, Jesse was dealing with his own struggle this go round…specifically the grand failure of his mission to find God. Because now that he’s visited every Jazz Club in the city and found nothing, he went all in on a last-ditch effort to find some sort of clue as to where the Almighty has gone by taking the video to some professionals for analysis, in the hopes of being able to follow through on Cassidy’s idea to blow up the image of the gun and get the serial number off of the thing. But while the idea actually works, the serial number in the video has been scrubbed off of the gun, leaving Jesse lost and despondent since he’s out of ideas and leads as to how to find God.
 
Those two bleak storylines alone could have filled an entire episode, but as we all know, Preacher is all about packing each episode to the brim with storylines and this week was no exception because we also returned to Hell in this tale to catch up with Eugene, who as it turns out, is indeed the cause of the power outages in this dark and dismal place because he simply does not belong there. Of course, he believes otherwise because of the whole Tracy incident, but the agents of darkness are closing in on the truth, to the point where there seems to be a crackdown on niceties in Hell, something that of course gets Eugene into trouble and into the infamous Hole…and man, what awaits people down there is downright brutal.
 
In the end however, this sudden left turn into the shadows was quite the surprise. After all, the plot really did come to a standstill since the trail has gone cold for God, but despite that, this episode was incredibly engaging. I know that I was hanging on every moment as I watched these poor characters struggle with their respective problems and I certainly hope they find resolution or peace soon because with Herr Starr on his way and Grail Industries keeping an eye on the gang, it’s only a matter of time before big trouble falls into their lap and they need to be ready for it. Either way, I really enjoyed this one, it was a beautiful character study and I can’t wait to see how Jesse and his pals get over their strife. Until next time.

---