AMC’s Preacher
Season 2, Episode 10: “Dirty Little Secret”
Directed by Steph Green
Written by Mary Laws

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Puzzle Piece” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Backdoors” – click here
We see two people together, having sex after meeting in a bar. The guy says he has something to do for his father, a “promise” he made. So after they’re done, he says he loves her. Plus, she can’t ever tell anyone.
Because his name’s Jesus Christ. His twelve boys are looking for him. And some of them don’t look too happy that their saviour’s been shacking up with a woman. “It‘s been real,” the lord says as he leaves.
Present day, Herr Starr (Pip Torrens) and Jesse (Dominic Cooper) sit together at the bar. Talking about classified information held by the Grail. Rather than listen, the preacher tries laying a beating on him. He tries using Genesis, too. To no avail. But this German’s the last dude a sadistic beating’s gonna work on.
Starr’s certainly not adverse to playing the game, though. He wants to aid Jesse, of course in return for something, I’m sure. But first, he’s got to convince the preacher. They put a bag over his head and take him away in one of those white vans.
Back at the apartment, Tulip (Ruth Negga) ain’t feeling so hot. She continually has horrific dreams. At the same time, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) has ladies in bed with Denis (Ronald Guttman) to try making up for all those birthdays he missed, “about to play Twister.” Quite the situation over there. And Lara (Julie Ann Emery), she’s still poking around, looking for her gun. Just an excuse for her to get closer to Tulip, in any way possible. Made easier by the fact our girl’s head is a mess currently.
Lara a.k.a Jenny: “It‘s how I like ‘em: all elbows ‘n Adam‘s apples.”
At the Grail HQ, Jesse gets introduced to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope himself, both sitting in Starr’s office waiting for him. WAITING. For HIM. That’s called power. Scary fucking power. They tell him of a “traitorous cabal of angels jealous of God‘s authority” are rebelling. Mutiny in Heaven. Well, so says the Archbishop. Pope believes he’s done with this place. He’s moved on to create a better world, a new spaces. Two mentalists with competing, maniacal theories of where God’s ran off. Then the Pope makes mention of “the boy” who’s the only one who can lead them. But Starr cuts him off before too long. Quick use of Genesis gets the answer, that this boy is the Messiah.
So the Jesus opener is leading into an idea of a bloodline, running from Christ onward. A royal lineage, of sorts. The mother with whom Jesus lay before he died is beaten to death. To keep things nice and secretive. Back then, a man named Thaddeus (Dean J. West) looked after the literal blood of Christ, aiding to preserve the child’s life so as to carry on the family of Christ for centuries and centuries.
Problems elsewhere once Cassidy finds Denis is getting a bit too into the whole vampire thing. He runs off the girls they’re out on the town with, he can’t control all his urges. Hilarious, in a dark sense, because the way Cassidy talks to Denis is similar to how a father might talk to his young son about his burgeoning adolescent sexual feelings. Only this is a whole lot creepier.
Lara’s slipped up, mentioning that Tulip spoke of Dallas. Only our girl can’t remember that. Things are fine right now, though I wonder if the Grail operative is going to do something drastic. Then Tulip starts pushing. Luckily for Lara she’s quickly called Hoover (Malcolm Barrett). He poses as the abusive boyfriend from her past, which ends with the two women kicking the shit out of him in the hallway. Nice cover. Further bonding them together, keeping Tulip less aware of who she’s dealing with truly.
Meanwhile Jesse’s being taken all over the place by Starr and the Grail. Bag over his head, unaware of where they are at any given moment. Trippy. They’ve gone to see “the Christ Child,” the figurehead of the Grail, the Messiah. He lives in a simple room, a crucifix on the wall, candles lit nearby as he writes silently. The preacher kneels in front of him, proclaiming that he feels Genesis was given to him so he could help find God.
One problem. This descendant of Christ is a sort of surely inbred, mentally challenged infant, he draws puppies and pisses all over himself. A genuinely horrifying scene.
Herr Starr: “We call him Humperdoo”
This all ends up with Jesse disillusioned in his quest for God. What we see is that Starr is also disillusioned. But he sees hope in the preacher, in the power of Genesis. He’s got his own ways of doing things, yet that’s the endgame: “Why go on looking for God when you can just be him?” Blasphemy, or semantics? Jesse and Starr are on either side of that question. The former’s not too happy with the suggestion. Only he’s running out of options in his search. We’ll see how far he gets as the Grail manipulates him from behind the scenes.
Fucking great episode! Lot of dark things swirling around, becoming less campy than they were and feeling more dangerous. Really love the writing in this series; not to mention the fantastic directing, as well. “Backdoors” is next week. Really amped for it.