Preacher – Young Jesse (Will Kindrachuk)- Photo by Michele K. Short/Courtesy of AMC.
Preacher (AMC, Mondays, 9/8C) has been all over the map in terms of following the story as set out in the comics – lots of changes, big and small, have made it as fresh for fans of the comics as for newcomers to the story.
One of the show’s most interesting facets is how it sometimes nails moments from comics exactly – and there are a few such moments in the second season finale.
We open on young Jesse Custer (Will Kindrachuk) taking admissions and collection parking fees for his grandma’s psychic work at Angelville – and an incident that sets him off on the road.
We also see Tulip (Ruth Neggan) and Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) getting ready to leave New Orleans and head off to Bimini (Tulip buys a ton of 100 SPF sunscreen for her vampire buddy) – but before they set out, she zips back upstairs to say goodbye to a certain young woman who lent her a gun (which couldn’t have anything to do with finding that camera that fell to the floor a while back…).
Preacher – Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) – Photo By Michele K. Short/Courtesy of AMC.
Meanwhile Herr Starr (Pip Torrens) has set Jesse up with an opportunity to begin on his path to Messiah-hood. The speech he’s written is all wrong for the audience so it’s probably for the best that there’s an interruption.
Written by Sam Catlin and directed by Wayne Yip, The End of the Road is a delightfully twisted and peculiar episode – even for Preacher.
On top of everything else that’s going on, we finally see the end game of Hitler’s (Noah Taylor) plan to extract Eugene (Ian Colletti) from Hell – a plan that does not go down without a couple of good hitches.
The episode’s title applies to a couple of different characters – following the comics for one and definitely not for the other.
Preacher – Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga), Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) – Photo by Michele K. Short/Courtesy of AMC.
As usual, the second season finale of Preacher is both profane and humane in equal proportions – and a great deal of fun. It also sets up a key mystery for next season – a mystery involving Jesse’s unique gift…
And has Hitler found redemption? Eugene certainly seems to think so!
Yip plays with framing and palette so that each arc has its own unique feel, and he keeps things moving at a good clip – leading up to what has to be one of the strangest cliffhangers ever.
Final Grade: A