TV Review: PREACHER: Season 2, Episode 3: Damsels [AMC]

Preacher: Damsels Review

AMC‘s Preacher, Season 2, Episode 3: ‘Damsels,’ was that inevitable come-down to a major high, that comes no matter how long you try to keep that high going. Yes, I did know it would happen, eventually; I had just hoped for something a little less… familiar to how things slowed down.

Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) was left at odds with his two partners-in-crime, again, and a new order of fanatics was ready to be served, all flavored by local town eccentricities. Heck, one MIA character even got to relive a seminal moment to the first season, over, and over again.

The truth, to the origin of Arseface (Ian Colletti), was a real tragedy; but not because of the actual circumstance. No, the real tragedy was that the last of Eugene Root was wasted on what Tracy Loach (Gianna LePera) really was. Not even the inherent humor, to her ridiculous small town teen drama, could mitigate just how infuriating that outcome was. The real kicker, however, was that this would be Arseface’s personal Hell loop, courtesy of one Jesse Custer’s careless outburst.

A quick update to Arseface’s case, however, suggested that the conditions of his sentence may have been affected by the method of his sentencing; but some of his fellow inmates could make this irrelevant, in the short run.

With the search for God hitting the New Orleans leg, things slowed down, a bit, for the God Squad. After a promising lead turned into a dyslexically depraved dead-end, the trio split into two camps. As Tulip (Ruth Negga) tried to keep her head down (on account of having burned a few local bridges), Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) called upon an old ‘acquaintance’ for a place to crash.

At this point, it almost seemed like Cass was going through a bit of what Eugene had, with Tracy; but Cass was no Eugene – love-sick, or not.

Jesse’s solo search, in the meantime, became more of pub crawl; but somewhere along the line, of alcohol & rage fueled disappointment, he did manage to catch a real lead. After something of a Jessica Rabbit intro (complete with an original recipe for blue balls), a conspicuously unnamed Jazz singer (Julie Ann Emery) – with a conspicuously off-screen baby – made this lead actually pan out.

The slight problem to it was that it didn’t lead very far, and nobody really “said any stuff.” The only plot advance was Jesse getting tipped off as to what he might have to go through, in order to keep on God’s trail; while we got tipped off as to how far that ‘what’ may be willing to go, in doing the same.

The real problem to it was that this might be where the season settles, for a bit. Between the new intro, setting, backstory set-up, and cast addition warm-up, I got the sinking feeling that New Orleans may be the new Annville, for a spell.

Sure, Hitler (Noah Taylor), and Herr Starr (Pip Torrens) will keep things interesting (and other things you never think you’ll say, in regular conversation); but not even Odin Quincannon could keep a degree of stagnation from setting into season one.

Considering that (Jazz theme to Apocalypse & exploding Tom Cruise, aside) not even Preacher is likely to blow up (or, more likely, flood) New Orleans, I’m hoping that the coming conflict – between the Man in Black, and the Men in White – will be a running one; and that a similar courtesy will be extended to us, by Tulip’s bad baggage.

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