'Preacher' Recap: 'Schwanzkopf'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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​The more time I’ve had to think about the last few episodes of Preacher, the more I find myself impressed with what the show is accomplishing right now. Because this series is packing in storyline after storyline week after week, something that I’m certain is no easy task, but here we are and once again, this show continued along with this new tradition because last night’s episode, ‘Schwanzkopf’, was once again filled to the brim with three concurrent storylines that found our intrepid heroes in some tough positions from which it seemed (for some) there was no escape. 
 
Take Cassidy’s storyline for instance, because now that he was armed with the knowledge that Eccarius is a cold-blooded killer, he tried his best to stand up to him and quite frankly, failed at every single turn. Because Cass simply doesn’t have the physical and meta-physical skill set to stand up to his now former friend, nor does he have the ability to snap the Children of Blood out of their firm belief in Eccarius and well, his titanic failure to convince anyone that they’re dealing with a monster has him in quite the precarious situation now, since the cult was more than happy to follow their leader’s direction and crucify Cassidy onto the pool table, so that he can eventually burn in the sunlight and how he will escape from this one is anyone’s guess since there’s no guarantees his last minute gambit with Mrs. Rosen worked in the slightest.
 
Yet while Cassidy’s tale was pretty grim, Tulip at least fared better in her respective struggle. Because thanks to Eugene, the Angel of Death got her hands on the right target, and brought Tulip aboard the express bus to Hell, wherein she went to work on figuring out a plan to escape said bus…with mixed results. Because until she took the time to antagonize the Saint of Killers, her ideas were more or less a waste of time and even then, it took sheer frustration from Hitler to make anything worthwhile happen and oddly enough, while it would seem that Tulip is going to be okay for the moment, one has to wonder how long her safety will last, since Hitler’s new shock troops helped to rescue the trio and nothing good can ever come from salvation at the hands of Nazis.
 
If anything, the only person who fared well in this episode was Jesse. Because he was able to use deception in order to free himself from his harness and surprise the Allfather with an explosive taste of Genesis, defeating the Big Boy and eventually he got his soul back after a supremely gross, yet hilarious battle royale with Starr set amongst the gooey remains of the Allfather. And with his soul firmly back in place, Genesis is at his command once again, and to exact his revenge upon the Grail for constantly screwing with him and his friends, he found a way to dismantle this group by hitting them where it hurts, by denying them a Messiah. And in order to properly put an end to their apocalyptic plans, Jesse unleashed Humperdoo and every last clone of him into the world, effectively making the Grail look like fools when all is said and done, and while that would have served as an awesome ending to this tale in its own right, this episode found a way to put one last smile on our faces.
 
Because the closing moments of this story, saw Jesse return to Angelville with his confidence restored and with one thing on his mind, to settle the score with Gran’Ma and well, you really cannot set up a season finale better than this episode did. Because our heroes have some big issues to resolve come next week and really, I’m loving how this series has more or less abandoned its slow burn style of storytelling to get every last loose thread resolved, and it is paying off in spades and while it kind of, sort of stinks that the season is coming to an end next week, at least I know it’s going to be one hell of a ride, and for the last time this year, I’ll be counting down the minutes to the next chapter in this incredible story to see how everyone wraps up, their respective messes. Until next time.    

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