Preacher - 'Viktor' and 'Dallas'

Another double-bill of God-seeking and bloody violence this week, as I catch up on two episodes of Preacher.

"There are three lights. Well, one."

Cassidy is worried about Tulip, who went off and hasn't come back. Jesse assures him that this is what she does when they fight, and is more interested in the secret society who seem to be taking an interest in his business; or at least in business that he considers his. Then Cassidy sees an infomercial about the aftermath of Katrina, featuring actors including the false God who appeared on the angel phone in the church. They track him down by pretending to be casting for Game of Thrones, but discover that his agent lost touch after he got the part as God. They watch his audition tape, which concludes with his execution in order to allow him to transition to heaven and take up the job. This is a dead end, but the coincidence of this happening in New Orleans intrigues Jesse.

Meanwhile, Tulip meets crime boss Viktor and is invited to take some time to consider her options. She tries to talk to his goons, the staff and even his daughter, but they all treat her as if she were the scum of the Earth; even Viktor's torturer gets all holier than thou. Finally, she beats us a henchman, steals his gun and tries to force Viktor to 'let [her] go,' but he refuses and she is recaptured. When she continues to be a no-show, Cassidy confesses the reasons for his concern to Jesse, who storms off to rescue her.

Meanwhile, in Hell, Eugene is picked on by the local bully and Hitler stands up for him. Hitler's Hell is a scene in a café where he met a gallery owner, but he has learned to stop interacting with it. Apparently mellowed by the years, Hitler seems like a pretty chill dude at this point. The warden – somewhat snowed under by equipment malfunctions and the Saint’s escape – invites Eugene for a chat, telling him he seems like a nice guy, and that sort of behaviour won't fly in Hell. Mindful that she says she will be watching, Eugene joins in when the other inmates deliver a beat down to Hitler for going soft. Oh, Eugene.

Jesse busts into Viktor's place, freezing all the guards with the Word before getting into a brutal fight with the torturer, who likes to work with headphones in(1). He attacks Viktor, but Tulip tells him to let go, because Viktor is her husband.

And so to 'Dallas', in which we see the aftermath of Carlos' betrayal, with Jesse and Tulip living a rough life on the straight and narrow (in Dallas,) only for Jesse to discover that Tulip is still doing crimes, and is on the pill while he believes they are trying for another child. He opts to return to his father's church and she eventually hooks up with Viktor, only to abandon him when their former handler locates Carlos.

Yeah... this isn't going to last.

In the present day, Jesse strings Viktor up in the torture room, while Tulip – unable to intercede, thanks to the Word(2) – takes Viktor's daughter to visit Cassidy and their reluctant host. After much soul-searching and an intervention by Cassidy as the most unlikely conscience ever, Jesse opts to release Viktor, who goes home to rea with his daughter. Of course, this is not a happy ending for them, since Jesse's careless throwing about of the Word attracts the Saint, who shoots up the house and murders Viktor, but the daughter tells him that she knows where to find the Preacher.

So, Jesse continues to be a dick, while Tulip and Cassidy struggle to keep him on some sort of even keel. The fact that an unrepentant contract killer and a largely shameless vampire hedonist are the voices of his conscience is a concern that seems slow to impinge on Jesse’s peace of mind, and all in all I’m not convinced he was a very good preacher. Of course, it’s part of the point that he is a melding of good and evil, a man with both light enough and dark enough in his soul to coexist with the awesome power of Genesis without exploding. It’s interesting that neither of his companions represents the light in him – the nearest anyone came to an angel on his shoulder is currently shouting ‘zieg heil’ and kicking Hitler in the nards – and also that the combination of righteousness and rage manifests so specifically as a sort of smug, angry dickishness. He’s a monumentally unlikeable protagonist, and yet remains compelling, or at least involving enough you can be bothered to want to slap him instead of just hoping for him to take a bullet from the Saint.

(1) Speaking as someone who painfully tugs his own earphones out at least once a week, I want that guy's earphones, which did not come out once during the course of said brutal fight, even when impaled on a rail from a foosball table.

(2) Dick move, Jesse.