https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icakv6Z5HfM

AMC’s Preacher
Season 2, Episode 3: “Damsels”
Directed by Michael Slovis
Written by Sara Goodman

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Mumbai Sky Tower” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Viktor” – click here
Tracy Loach (Gianna LePera) calls Eugene Root (Ian Colletti), back… before, well… you know. He arrives at her house, she’s crying and clearly upset. She’s been humiliated by her boyfriend. Cheated on. Now she plans to kill herself with her dad’s gun. Everything is in place. Suicide note and all. It’s a pretty good one, truthfully.
Tracy: “It was just anal, so I‘ll still get into Heaven.”
He of course doesn’t want her to die. He tries talking her out of it, telling her that God has a plan for her. A miracle may be right around the corner. The suspense of the scene lies in knowing how things end up, not knowing when it’ll come. Like Hitchcock’s idea of the bomb technique. Letting the audience sweat out waiting for the worst to happen.
When she leans on his shoulder, Eugene kisses her. This turns things sour, and she ridicules him. Before pulling out the gun again. She pulls the trigger while Eugene pulls at the gun, so that just the top of her head blows off. Afterwards her mom comes home, wondering why the door is locked. Things look terrible, as he refuses to open up. So he does the only thing imaginable to him, trying to blow his own head off. When the gun doesn’t fire right away, he looks into it. The barrel pointing right as his mouth. BAM!
Now, in hell, poor Arseface relives that day, those moments over and over. As if a great VHS play fast forwards, rewinds in his head. He stumbles around in a dark cell. One thing to note is that all last season, not having read much of the comics themselves, I didn’t feel for Eugene. He was made out to have done something terrible. Yet he was almost stuck in a situation where he knew he’d be pinned as the culprit. Nobody was going to believe perfect little Tracy would try killing herself. Nobody. Not saying I’d have done what he did, but still. Nowadays I’m feeling different about ole Eugene.
Jesse (Dominic Cooper), Tulip (Ruth Negga), and Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) are heading into New Orleans, listening to a bit of jazz. Although not every one of them’s such a fan of the music. Tulip’s got secrets, too. She doesn’t want to wind up running into Viktor, bits of her past that her man may not necessarily feel so hot about, I’m guessing. Regardless, the preacher is looking for God. And knows he digs jazz, as well. The vamp isn’t particular, either. Long as there’s booze involved, maybe a bit of a few other substances.
Something I love about Preacher: how it makes the story, its characters feel like the grotesque Southern fried characters of many different, great, classical writers in American literature. It’s a modern vision of the Southern Gothic, at times. Making its own mythology of all kinds of different elements of the South, of Texas, and now a slice of New Orleans.
Off together, Cassidy and Tulip go to see a man named Denis, who the vampire has a sort of relationship with, although it’s not clear how they met, or if they know each other much better than having met briefly. Such a strange thing, and hilarious. They’ve got a good place to stay, the dude isn’t overly concerned with their business. At the same time Tulip is bouncing off the walls about her own troubles.
On and on through the French Quarter, our preacher roams. “Looking for God” gets him laughed at, punches thrown in his direction, much more. He drinks his way from bar to bar, keeping up the search. Nobody has any good answers, you can be sure. Until one bartender suggests talking to a singer in another local bar.
Her name is Lara Featherstone (Julie Ann Emery). She’s a wonderful singer, as well as a strong woman with a no bullshit meter strong enough to knock your fucking sucks off. Jesse winds up questioning her about God, she proves reluctant to do so and slips out on him real sneaky. Before she can take off she’s kidnapped by men in masks. Genesis is enough to stop the truck, then the preacher dusts off his fightin’ hands for a good brawl with a half dozen of ’em. This helps with a bit of trust between him and Lara. And things get much more heated than that. Nearly too much.
Hell isn’t a nice place, like you guessed. Trapped in a grimy, nasty prison, the sounds of people wailing and crying and an endless-looking hallway of other cells outside of Eugene’s own. Not to mention the people bunking nearby. Such as the German fellow across the way, Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor). One of many souls trapped in the darkness. Not a nice guy to be sharing a block with, probably into some weird shit.
At a club Jesse requests “A Walk to the Peak” and out in a van is Lara, taking off a blonde wig, ditching the baby. Surveillance being kept on the preacher. Inside, he listens to the mad jazz playing, another patron listening close. “It‘s the end of the world,” he tells Jesse.
And Tulip, she gets a visit from a bunch of men. Sent by Viktor. But she ain’t backing down, no sir.
“Viktor” is next, we’re definitely going to have a look into the past of Tulip and the titular villain. Furthermore, notice files on both Jesse Custer and one named simply Pig?
No telling what sort of history will come out of this character and plot. Excited to see more weird, wild action next week.