Grab your copy of the Book of Revelations, it’s time for a new Preacher y’all! After last week’s tense showdown, we turn our focus to our new villain. So hook your genitals up to a car battery, because here be spoilers for season two, episode seven, “Pig.”
1. Everything that wasn’t Herr Starr
The clear star in this episode (sorry/not sorry) was Herr Helmut Starr. There’s plenty to say about him, but let’s touch upon our heroes first. Jesse continued his quest, which is feeling more Quixotic than usual. He shares a drink with a wise doomsayer, has a bunch of feelings about Tulip, and fails to have a relatable motivation. Tulip has a fun time conning some burly bar patrons (also, Jesse is just the worst con artist), and has to cope with the trauma of facing the Saint. Ruth Negga can make 40 minutes of silence into a good performance, but we spent a shocking amount of time following her pointlessly around Dennis’s house in dreams within dreams.
As for Cassidy, he went on some inconsequential misadventures, but the question at the core of his story is interesting. His elderly son Dennis is dying, and wants to be made a vampire. Classic. The best part is, I have no idea where this crazy show will take that tried-and-true vampire story staple. Still, this episode was mainly about Cassidy getting so drunk that he gets carted away by the drunk carts (are those real by the way?) and then waking up in the morgue like a Shadowrun character. While not a ton happened with him here, that’s a story we can sink our teeth into.
2. A smooth criminal
All right, Herr Starr! He’s great. So great. In one episode, Pip Torrens stole the show. The show is shot to exaggerate everything about him, and Starr looks like more of a comic book character than anyone we’ve met yet, even the Saint. As you may have surmised from this being a comic book site, that’s a very very good thing to me.
The entire testing and training sequence was shot and lit in an unreal, heightened style. When Starr and the other cadets had to show off their seduction skills, the entire room was lit for love. The office that Starr eventually inherits is home to a Jesus poster with built in lighting. Everything around Starr is square like a comic panel, and he is almost always blocked at the center. Great production design, great lighting, great performance.
3. When pigs fly
Throughout the episode, we cut to a pig in Vietnam who has spontaneously started to float. I will admit that is unusual, but it’s relevance isn’t immediately apparent. We eventually learn that Starr’s job with the Grail is to find false idols, and remove them. The Grail needs to make Jesus the only figure the world worships. The show sets up a pretty amazing ambiguity about Starr, who’s motivations are never completely clear in the comic. Torrens plays everything with such a thick layer of irony that while you can tell he doesn’t mean what he says, you never know what he actually means. Is Starr relgious? Probably not, but he’s still going to poison an entire village if that brings him closer to world domination. That’s a good comic book villain.
4. Young and careless
The testing sequence was the kind of thing Preacher does best. It was full of sex and violence, but also pretty funny, and also used to advance characters. When Starr is about to square up against the wrestler, you know he is going to win, but you probably didn’t predict that he would masturbate his way to victory. Later, in the final test, I saw that murder coming a mile away. It was still awesome. What I didn’t predict? That it would immediately be followed up with a second murder. Twice as awesome.
5. Abuse of power: A target in New Orleans
The cliffhanger of the episode sets Starr on a collision course with Jesse. That’s very exciting, because Jesse thinks of himself as a very powerful man, but Starr is powerful in a completely different way. Where Jesse is macho and burly, Starr is lithe, affected, and has pierced nipples. One is the America, one is Europe. Jesse asserts his power bluntly, personally. Starr asserts his power dispassionately, and impersonally. They’re already such good foils for each other. The setup is here, and I can’t wait for sparks and blood to start flying when they finally meet.
