Preacher Episode 2.12 Annotations: The Saint Comes Marching Back in

Welcome back brothers and sisters to our weekly feature, the Preacher Book Club, where we talk about the latest episode of AMC‘s Preacher, dissecting the episode at hand, annotating the changes made from the Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon comic book series and attempting to predict about what will be coming next. So let’s dive right into our thoughts and annotations on Preacher Episode 2.12!

Hell

In order for Eugene and Hitler to get out of hell, Eugene has to overcome the thing that has been keeping him in Hell. As I’ve said previously, none of this, especially the inclusion of Hitler, comes from the pages of the series and it’s frankly starting to feel less like Preacher than I’d like. I’m eager to see how it all plays out, especially if it means Eugene gets OUT and is set on the course of finding Jesse, his true arc in the comics.

Sheriff Root!

I just want to point out that W. Earl Brown came back for just one scene. His, and many of Annville’s citizens’, untimely death in the season 1 finale still rubs me the wrong way, but I’m happy to see him back for a moment.

How the Saint got out

We finally know how The Saint got out of the truck, all thanks to The Grail. Kind of funny how it took a couple of weeks for him to finally get out of the back of the truck. The Saint never finds himself especially “allied” with the people of The Grail in the series, in fact quite the opposite, so to see him here “working for them” is a surprise. By episode’s end, however, we know that The Grail has pulled a fast one on him and made a call down to Hell to have him sent back. This seemingly puts The Saint on the path of the character’s arc in the comics: hating both Jesse and The Grail.

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“Next best thing”

I assume the thing that The Grail offered to The Saint as the “next best thing” was revenge against Jesse, but given how these scenes are playing with not showing the audience anything, there could be yet another hidden motive.

Knock down drag out

The fight in the apartment with The Saint was a good bare bones throw down, the kind of slobber knockers you see in the pages of Preacher with some frequency. Honestly it was probably the highlight of an episode that mostly spun its wheels.

Tulip and Cassidy meet Herr Starr

This scene of the two meeting Herr Starr and him seemingly explaining his plan to them off camera doesn’t come from the comics either. However, the two of them abandoning him seems to set up Jesse as the lone wanderer we briefly see in the pages of the comics, but with the likes of Odin Quincannon already gone from the series, what could be going up against alone? Clearly Angelville and the L’Angells, another thing he has to face alone in the comics.

Jesse accepts his proposal

This moment, of Jesse seemingly going to Herr Starr and accepting his proposal of being the “Messiah” seems so wrong to me. In the comics Jesse does the opposite. He hates Herr Starr so much that he outright rejects this proposal and the perks it would bring – he hurt his friends after all. In fact, Jesse forgetting about the search for God, whose act of abandonment set of this entire season, seems backwards. Perhaps the finale will set all this right and get things back on track, but right now the Jesse on screen isn’t much like the Jesse I know from the Preacher comics.

You can watch a preview for next week’s episode below!