AMC’s Preacher
Season 2, Episode 6: “Sokosha”
Directed by David Evans
Written by Mary Laws

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Dallas” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Pig” – click here
The Technician (James Kyson) is setting up a procedure for a man, his wife is worried about the consequences. What sort of procedure, exactly? Involves a strange contraption the Technician inserts into the back of the man’s knee, like a scope. He locates something, drains it of 15% of its fluid. For this the man and woman receive $150K. The Technician, he’s carted around in a secure truck by armed men. Like a normal workday.
Next stop is the home of an old, rich couple. The woman’s not well, mentally. The fluid from the donor is matched with her, then turned “into a consumable.” When she takes the little pill it’s concentrated into, she suddenly regains memory, her disease no longer sapping her away.
Such a creepy yet truthful allegory, as we see people struggling in the middle to lower class literally being drained of their life’s essence, bought up by the higher class, the rich trying to extend life beyond its natural course not through altruism of any kind, but by the black market purchasing of (essentially) life. Yikes. Wonder how it all ties in further to the main events and actions of Preacher.
Denis ain’t doing so well, and the sweetness of our vamp Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) is clear when he tries helping the old guy out. But he can’t win, our man, he’s thwarted at every corner whether it’s by Denis, Tulip (Ruth Negga), or Jesse (Dominic Cooper). Otherwise things aren’t so bad, after all the nonsense with Viktor (Paul Ben-Victor) is finished; even further than any of them realise. The vamp and the preacher are patching things up after their brief rough patch, too. All’s well, for now. I mean… sort of.
All the while the Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish), led by the little girl, approaches the apartment. Ready to murder anyone and everyone in his path. Except the girl gets the apartment wrong. The murderer ends up with “a Jew” (funny in its context) in another apartment, kills him, then has to go from one to the next looking for the preacher.
GREAT SEQUENCE where Jesse finds a hot bullet in a cup of yogurt, after the Saint of Killers starting shooting up the building! Just love how this series does neat little things like that, turning action and horror and comedy on its head with atypical moments. Meanwhile, our friends get themselves out of there before the murderous cowboy makes it to them. Although the relentless killer knows they were there, indicated by the cute pancakes Tulip made; Jesse’s name is spelled out on his with M&Ms.
So what will the gang do next? They know Fiore’s gone now after the cowboy put him down. Next stop: the library. Do some reading, or as Tulip chooses a “book on tape” called American Psychopaths where she learns of the Saint of Killers – “The only living man without a soul” – his history as a man before becoming the flesh and blood cum supernatural force he is today.
“We hoped you enjoyed this edition of American Psychopaths. Join us next time for Chapter 58: Dick Cheney.”
Jesse uses Genesis to try and stop the Saint, saying that he’ll come back to the apartment and meet him. There, he finds the cowboy holding Denis hostage. The preacher tries making a deal, talking to the Saint. “God ain‘t givin‘ you shit,” he tells the man. Hearing that God may be gone is enough to lower his gun. Jesse fills him in, showing him the video of the fake God. He knows the killer wants into Heaven, but without God? Not gonna happen, dude.
This leaves Jesse a limited amount of time to prove to the Saint his word is true and this deal is legitimate. There’s “one thing” needed to get the killer into Heaven. What could it be? One hour for our preacher to get the job done.
He heads over to the Papa Bebe’s House of Voodoo, looking for a soul to buy. Seems he’s been pushed out of the business. Capitalism in the soul industry is wild! Ah, this is what we saw during the opening scene, the Technician removing “fractions of souls” from the poor to feed the rich.
At the apartment, Tulip tries levelling emotionally with the cowboy. He only picks her up by the throat, tossing her to the floor. This upsets Cassidy, whose foolish white knighting might get them in trouble. I hope he knows better than to get handsy with that bad motherfucker.
Jesse gets into the armoured truck with the Technician. He needs a match for the Saint, only it’s rare. They don’t carry around anything like that, only back at their storage facility. Turns out, Jesse’s soul is a match. He’s got what the cowboy needs. Gets back just in time to save Tulip, though the vamp has his fingers lopped off trying to keep the sword from cutting her in half. He gives the Saint his edible soul, then it’s time to “enter the kingdom of Heaven.”
But it seems not having a soul is the only thing that protected the cowboy from Genesis, which Jesse uses liberally against him now. He takes him on a ride in the armoured truck, out into the swamps. Where he keeps the Saint of Killers locked inside, then sends it into the water to sink. Ah, the threat is quelled for the time being. Not so sure it’s going to keep him down for good.
At the apartment Denis is back to normal, the vamp’s fingers are getting better. However, Tulip seems like she’s not doing so good, she looks almost ill; was she pregnant again after all this time? Did getting thrown hard to the floor by the cowboy do some damage? Makes me wonder, and worry.
And I truly wonder about Jesse, if this path he’s taking might not get much darker for him, as well as everyone around him.
Fantastic chapter in this second season, I mean, honestly – what more could you ask for? Smart, witty, and bad fucking ass, all around! Can’t wait for “Pig” next week because we’re going to find out about that file we saw a few episodes ago, what it means to a greater extent.