AMC’s Preacher
Season 3, Episode 8: “The Tom/Brady”
Directed by Wayne Yip
Written by Mary Laws & Kevin Rose

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Hitler” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Schwanzkopf” – click here
So, we see Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) – the new Messiah – forced into a bad situation by Herr Starr (Pip Torrens). He’s told to kill Allfather D’Aronique (Jonny Coyne). He opts to murder the henchmen in the elevator, while Starr waits patiently upstairs with the Allfather. As usual, a perfect comic book sequence of a fight! After he’s finished the preacher asks for his soul, which D’Aronique claims is kept in “a safe place” aka Rather than wait Custer shoots him. It doesn’t kill the Allfather, so Starr is back on the side of the Roman Catholic Church. That leaves our preacher with more guns to his head.
And revelation: “He has Genesis.” Does the power somehow remain within him?
In Angelville, Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga) and Jody (Jeremy Childs) are back with a dead Lara (Julie Ann Emery) and a bunch of fresh souls from Osaka. Except it’s all a dream Gran’ma (Betty Buckley) is having, or more of a nightmare. When she wakes up she puts in a call to a friend downstairs— way, way downstairs.
In New Orleans, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) is partying with Eccarius (Adam Croasdell). He hasn’t yet seen behind the veil, believing Eccarius is just another fun, exciting vampire. He doesn’t know the darkness in the vamp’s heart, though.
“Your Hideousness” Satan (Jason Douglas) shows up without much waiting on Madam L’Angell’s part. She wants some help from her ancient pal. Gran’ma has problems with Tulip, wanting her dead. The Dark Lord’s more concerned with when the old lady is gonna come down for an eternal stay in Hell after such a long, awful life. The woman wants a new deal than the former pact she made with Satan, in light of her latest nightmares, fearing the repercussions of all those souls she tortured waiting for her down there. Therefore, she’s offering up her grandson’s powers. Oh, shit. What could Satan do with Genesis?
Keeping faith, Jesse refuses to bow down to the threats of Allfather and the Grail. Problem is, their plans involve shocking Genesis out of the preacher. They’re going to suck it out and feed it into Humperdoo (Tyson Ritter), the “Christ Child.” Once Genesis has been transferred, Humperdoo immediately explodes, and then it returns to Custer. Shocker— there’s more than one Humperdoo. Religion has a “secret weapon” and it’s called “science.”
In Osaka, Jody, Tulip, and Lara are getting ready to put their heist in motion. They’re not particularly a friendly group of thieves amongst themselves. Doesn’t matter. They do fairly well despite their issues. They head into the building, acting like normal employees. The three of them do a sexual harassment seminar, led by the feisty Lara. All a pretence to allow Tulip to pull a pickpocket on the company boss.
Humperdoo after Humperdoo, bloody remains are sprayed off the walls of the chamber, and Jesse must have Genesis sucked out of him then pumped back in, over and over and over and over. It’s an excruciating process. There’s a doctor working on a “genetic cocktail” to perfect everything. In the meantime, it’s blood and guts and medical experiments. Jesse tries to get Starr to let him free, so they can end this all, but the latter’s nervous. Starr also finds Hoover (Malcolm Barrett) has been taken by Les Enfants du Sang and Cassidy. Not that he gives a shit. The vamps consider turning Hoover, who agrees to undergo the vampiric transformation rather than die.
The job is finishing up in Osaka when Jody gets a call from Gran’ma. Surely it’s about Satan sending one of his minions after Tulip to drag her down to Hell. The crew get home after the heist. But Tulip runs into Satan’s friend Sydney— a scary bad ass. She manages to slip out of the woman’s reach, pretending Lara is her instead. Now that just might do the trick. If only they also had those souls, seeing as how Lara’s got them and they’re headed to Hell.
Like the other vampires meant to be flying elsewhere, Hoover will meet his fate in the garage with Eccarius. Eccarius even gives the same speech to every vampire, right to the letter! At that very moment, Cassidy’s figuring out what his new buddy’s been doing to his supposed friends. He confronts the leader of the group, which only results in Hoover’s fleeing and violence between the vamp pals.
The Grail doc has mixed Thomas Jefferson’s DNA with Wayne Brady, her latest genetic cocktail meant to help the Humperdoo process. The cocktail is meant to imbue the subject with enough good+bad to withstand Genesis, the product of an angel and demon breeding. This cocktail is the one to work, too. Until the doc kills Humperdoo and sends Genesis back to the preacher. Turns out, there’s a different Messiah. Whaaaat?
We also get a quick look at Eugene (Ian Colletti), the Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish), and Hitler (Noah Taylor) on the road. They meet up with Sydney and Lara, awaiting their return to the fiery below. Hitler’s able to text a neo-Nazi buddy from the electronics store by the sub shop where he worked, and it may prove problematic for the Hell road trip after all.

“That’s right, you sack of shit. I’m the mistake that’s gonna find God and hold him to account.”

Another hilarious, weird, wild, and revelatory chapter in Season 3 of Preacher! Always a good time. There’s rarely, if ever, been a less than mediocre episode. This new mysteries are going to be more fun. “Schwanzkopf” is next time.