Preacher :: Another deal with the Devil

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We’ve said before about how Preacher started off so well in its first season and then things went a bit haywire in season two, jumping the rails and the shark so wildly that our original writer for the recaps gave up on it. Happily, season three has been more focused on the story at hand and this week’s episode, ‘The Tom/Brady’, is easily the best episode of the season, and the best episode since sometime in season one. Everything was firing on all cylinders this week with just enough of the show’s outrageous humor in the mix but not enough to tip it over the edge into parody.

My one complaint is that we haven’t seen much of Arseface or Hitler this season, and now the Saint has them waiting at the Bus Stop for their return trip to Hell. What they don’t know is that someone else will be joining them shortly, courtesy of Marie Angelle who has a direct line to Satan. Imagine that!

Yes, Marie — who is awaiting a delivery of souls from The Grail — has been having terrifying dreams, again, of her impending demise. She’s only still alive because she’s made a deal with the Devil and she wants to renegotiate the deal because she is not ready to spend the rest of eternity in Hell. Summoning Satan, she reveals that Jesse, whom Satan is very interested in, has something that he would definitely be interested in. That something being Genesis. But for him to get his claws on Jesse, he’s going to need something to get his attention. And so Satan send the Angel of Death to bring Tulip O’Hare to Hell.

Tulip is still in Osaka with Lara and Jody attempting to hijack the souls needed to placate Marie, and it seems the only way they can do it is to stage a corporate meeting about sexual harassment with Tulip has the harasser so she can lift the CEO’s security badge. Tulip tells Lara there was an easier way to do that, but Lara just wanted to make Tulip grab the guy’s ass. (Hilariously, we learn that there were 29 reports of sexual harassment … in the lobby!) Miraculously, the soul heist actually goes off without a hitch, and the three get back on the place to New Orleans.

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Now Jesse — whom we assumed killed Allfather last week, getting a bit ahead of ourselves — is in the clutches of Allfather, who merely suffered a flesh wound. (There was also an amazing, and funny, bit of action with Jesse fighting off the guards in an elevator.) But Allfather wants what’s inside Jesse and he has a new device that will extract Genesis and put it in Humperdoo (a name Allfather is not okay with). Strapped to a board, Starr informs Jesse that he must shoot Allfather in the head next time with the gun he placed in Jesse’s jacket pocket. A pocket he can’t reach while his arms are strapped down. Humperdoo is brought into a room, Genesis is zapped out of Jesse, and … Humperdoo explodes, sending Genesis back to its rightful owner. The montage of exploding Humperdoos and the clean-up, complete with a windshield wiper for the window, was something to behold.

But Allfather has a few surprises up his voluminous sleeve — there are dozens more clones of Humperdoo, each with a different combination of DNA. Allfather’s scientists have determined that Genesis will only reside in someone that has just the right about of goodness and evil in them, so the final concoction is a mix of Thomas Jefferson and Wayne Brady, aka The Tom/Brady of the title, and it works. The final Humperdoo with the mixture receives Genesis, successfully uses it to force Allfather and Jesse to bow (Starr was sent out for beignets), and then was shot in the head by the doctor. Apparently these Humperdoos were not the real thing as Allfather orders the real Messiah to be brought in to receive Genesis.

When Tulip and the others arrive back in New Orleans, the Angel of Death appears out of nowhere among the passengers to confront Tulip, but she manages to convince Death that she’s got the wrong woman with short, brunette hair in a Grail suit. The one she wants is already on her way out of the plane. Tulip then gets in the car with Jody and says Lara didn’t make it. Jody has to reveal to her that the woman who took Lara was not a cop, basically blowing up Marie’s plan. And to make matters worse, Tulip grabbed the wrong briefcase. Lara still has the one with the souls in it, and now she’s at the Bus Stop with the Saint, Eugene, and Hitler … who asks if he can borrow her cell phone to make a call. While he places a call to his co-worker Rick, Tulip now has to find a way to get to Lara and the briefcase before everything goes to Hell … literally.

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And while all this is going on, Hoover is planning another attempt to bring Cassidy to Starr, but Cass and Eccarius see right through his Uber driver disguise and bring him to the basement lair, texting Starr hostage photos with signs warning they’ll kill Hoover. Starr texts back, ‘That’s fine. He’s an idiot,’ but the vampires aren’t really sure they want to kill the guy. Instead, they give him the choice, die or live forever and he chooses being turned because his mother wouldn’t be happy if he died. And they turn him and all is well …

… except Eccarius is going through with the whole ‘vampire missionary’ charade. Cass gives Hoover his umbrella hat as a farewell gift, and then discovers Lisa’s bloody and slashed neck pillow in the trash. He gets to the garage just in time to prevent Eccarius from killing Hoover — and Cass realizes now this is how Eccarius comes by his powers of flight and transformation — and while the two of them fight it out, Hoover escapes. Hopefully he donned his umbrella hat before running out into the sunlight. But with this newfound information, it’s pretty certain things will not end well for Eccarius (and followers of the graphic novels already know how that turns out). But will Cass become the new leader of Les Enfants or will the disband?

There was a very funny exchange while they were trying to decide how to kill Hoover when one of Les Enfants suggested bees like in The Wicker Man. Cassidy was aghast at such a suggestion, going off on the poor guy and berating him for the ridiculous idea asking, ‘Where are you going to get bees? What are you, a bloody beekeeper?’ The guy affirmed he is in fact a beekeeper, stunning Cass into an awkward apology for his heated reaction. Funny stuff, especially for those who constantly rag on that scene in the Nic Cage remake of The Wicker Man.

This episode was obviously a set-up for the last two episodes of the season and it’s sure to be a wild ride!

Preacher airs Sundays at 10:00 PM on AMC.

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