By The Nerdling

Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy research the Saint of Killers past as the unstoppable slayer corners the trio.

Spoilers on the Road to God…

“You won’t even miss it.”

At the home of married couple who are in financial dire straits, a man known as The Technician convinces the husband to sell 15% of his soul for $150,000. The technician takes the piece of the soul into an armored truck, which is guarded by two armed men. The three grab a bite for lunch, then arrive at a posh plantation home where the soul’s compatibility is weighed against that of an old woman clearly suffering from dementia. They are a near match. The woman is then given the soul to consume and is made whole.

Deal with a Saint

The Saint arrives at Denis’ building and moves from apartment to apartment, slaughtering the innocent inhabitants looking for Jesse. Before the Saint arrives on their doorstep, Jesse finds one of the Saint’s bullets that traveled through several walls and realizes the danger he, Tulip, and Cassidy are in. They escape out a window just in time.

The trio journey to the New Orleans Public Library for research about the unstoppable beast on their tail. Piecing together details from history books, romance novels, historical fiction, and comic books, Jesse realizes the Saint has no soul which is why Genesis cannot work on him. The lack of soul also prevents the Saint from going to heaven to reunite with his family.

To save Denis, who arrived back at his home in the aftermath of the slaughter, Jesse confronts the Saint. The preacher bluffs his way into a deal with the killer. He shows the Saint the tape of the fake God audition, promises he will find the cowboy a soul, and send him to heaven to be with his family once more. The Saint holds Tulip, Denis, and Cassidy hostage and gives Jesse one hour to make good.

Soul Happy Go Go

Jesse goes to a Voodoo shop to purchase a soul and gives the proprietor the name L’Angelle (this will prove very important later in the series), but the owner can’t help him out. A Japanese business called Soul Happy Go Go has cornered the soul selling market. Running across the Soul Happy armored truck, Jesse uses a police officer to gain entrance after a homemade bomb fails to get him in. The Technician doesn’t have a soul match to the Saint on hand. As the hour begins to run out, Jesse tests his soul viability and they are a near match.

Jesse gives 1% of his soul to the Saint and now the unstoppable killer is beholden to Genesis. But Jesse refuses to keep his end of the bargain. Someone like the Saint doesn’t get to go to heaven according to the self-righteous preacher, but sending the fiend back to hell would mean sending a piece of Jesse’s own soul down below as well.

Jesse does the next best thing he can. He locks up the Saint inside the Soul Happy armored truck, drives out to Angelville, and sinks the truck to the bottom of a swamp. The unkillable Saint is temporarily disposed of.

Thoughts

After a lackluster couple of episodes, this might be one of Preacher’s best to date. Full of tension, humor, and world building intrigue.

In genius fashion, Preacher has taken commentary of disparity in race and class to a whole new level. A poor, black man who is not young, but still has many years ahead of him, donates a portion of his soul to save a much older, rich, white woman. The kicker, The Technician bought the soul for a small fraction of what he sold it for. A poor person of color is worth so little to a wealthy corporation and its patrons as long as they can get what they need.

The money will keep the couple from losing their home and get them out of debt, but at what cost? What is the true price for losing even a portion of your soul? The Technician assures the couple there are no long-term side effects, but I don’t doubt he was selling them a line to close a deal. Hopefully, the repercussions for both the couple and Jesse’s 1% donation are explored soon.

Soul dealing might be one of the most intriguing ideas the show has come up with. In a world where God, the Devil, angels, demons, and supernatural powers exist, there would be a whole economy centered around soul commerce. And a joke about how the Japanese streamlined it and are putting the ma and pa businesses out.

So happy to see actual panels from the Preacher comic make an appearance when revealing the full history of The Saint of Killers. Most of this information the audience figured back in season one, but the voice over and visual montage was a superb piece of storytelling to fully flesh out this villain.

The opening and closing shots on Jesse was also brilliantly done. At the start of the day, Jesse is looking in the bathroom mirror, proud of his handing the Viktor situation and ready to get back to his mission at hand. Flashforward a few hours and he is back in that same bathroom, haunted by his choices and hiding the Saint’s guns in the floor boards.

The reveal Denis is actually Cassidy’s son was not a big surprise. But Joseph Gilgun knocks the confession to Tulip out of the park as he does with any material he has been given. It makes me wonder if there are other children of his in the world.

Love how sneakily Cassidy dropped the story of the lounge singer Jesse saved on Tulip.

Chapter 72 of American Psychopaths, “The Trump Administration.”

Till Next Week!

 

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The Nerdling was born in the majestic land known as Texas and currently resides there after several years of journeying through Middle Earth in a failed attempt to steal the one Ring from that annoying hobbit, serving the Galactic Empire for a time, and then a short stint as a crew member on the Serenity. Since moving back to her homeland, Nerdling flirted with a hero reputation. Saving children from the dangers of adoring domineering, sparkly vampires (champions with souls are the only vampires worth loving) and teaching normals the value of nerdom, all while rooting for her beloved Dallas Stars. Then came the Sokovia Accords and her short spell of saving others came to an end. With Darth Vader’s reputation rightfully returning to badass status, Nerdling is making her way back to the Empire. They do have cookies, you know. You can find her on Twitter @nerdlingstale.