'Preacher' Recap: 'Viktor'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

It's always a wonderful thing when you watch your favorite televisions shows up their game and take their storytelling to new heights, and that's precisely what happened on Preacher last night, which is quite the amazing feat, considering that this year has already been revolutionary in nature. But what made 'Viktor' so downright incredible, is the fact that it not only managed to propel the plot line revolving around the hunt for God leaps and bounds, it also managed to answer our questions about what exactly is going on with Tulip and take us in the heart of Hell to learn more about this mystical place.

Which means that this episode managed to weave a triple plot line narrative together and it was utterly amazing to watch these stories unfold and since we've got plenty to discuss today, let's start with our trip south of the border, into the depths of Hell where we continued Eugene's harrowing storyline as he tried to understand this strange new place he found himself within and really there were two key highlights to this plot thread; the fact that it gave us uncomfortable insight into the man that is Adolf Hitler since the story attempted to make the audience sympathetic to his plight and also because, it would seem Eugene's arrival is doing some strange things to Hell. His Worst Memory Generator isn't working quite right and the failure of his unit seems to be spreading to the rest of his cell block, and considering that one of the Top Brass of the Underworld pointed out that he seems to be a nice guy and should be the opposite down here...it makes one wonder if by chance all these system failures are related to the fact that Eugene might not belong in Hell.

But while that was a cool place to go plot wise, there was of course the hunt for God that needed to be tended to and despite Jesse's failures on night one to track the man down, a chance moment, or a divine one depending on how you want to look at it, brought Jesse and Cassidy face to face (via a television screen) with the actor that played fake God in last year's season finale, playing a homeless man in a Katrina informercial. This led the duo to speak to the man's agent in the hopes of contacting him about how he may have found his way into Heaven, only to learn that the actor, Mark Harelik, has disappeared and upon viewing his audition tape, Jesse and Cassidy find out why. Shortly after landing the part to play the ultimate Deity, he's shot in the chest so he can ascend to Heaven and this discovery brings up all kinds of questions. For starters, how many people know that God is missing since the people behind this had to be aware the Lord was gone in order to hire this guy, and second to that...who the heck hired Mark?

However, the answers to those questions will have to wait until another day, because there is the matter of Tulip and Viktor to resolve and well...this turned out to be quite the bombshell. At first it seemed as though Tulip's betrayal of this mystery man was money or crime related, and the apathy from the people that work for the man displayed toward Tulip seemed to reaffirm this possibility. Yet considering the fact that Viktor and his henchmen are incredibly ruthless, going so far as to torture people to death...it made no sense that Tulip was being kept alive after burning someone this powerful. But all was revealed in the closing moments of the episode when Jesse came looking for his love, and also got into the most epic fight scene ever because let's be honest...you haven't lived until you've witnessed a bloody death match set to the tune of Billy Joel's 'Uptown Girl', but once that was out of the way, Jesse found his love and nearly took Viktor's life as well...but he was stopped mid strangle when Tulip dropped a nuclear bomb; he couldn't kill Viktor, because Viktor is Tulip's husband.

So just like that...everything changes when it comes to Jesse and Tulip's relationship, and I think we can expect some seriously powerful fallout to come about thanks to this revelation and really...holy cow, what an episode. This thing was loaded to the gills with memorable moments and this is one that quite frankly I may need to watch a few times to make sure I didn't miss anything. I guess if there's any complaints when it comes to this one, it would be the whole Hitler thing in general. Because I simply can't tell if the show is actually trying to redeem history's greatest monster or if it's simply messing with us as it is wont to do. But needless to say, I feel good about the fact that the more 'empathetic' moments for Hitler didn't move me in the slightest and there was a definite sense of enjoyment in watching him get the crap kicked out of him. Other than that, it should be quite interesting to see where the whole God plot goes from here. There's a fair chance Jesse will need a break from the search considering what he just discovered and the hunt will only become more difficult considering the Saint of Killers has arrived in the Big Easy. Either way, this season continues to impress and I really need it to be next Monday so I can see what happens next. Until next time.

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