TV Review: PREACHER: Season 2, Episode 7: Pig [AMC]

Preacher: Pig Review

AMC‘s Preacher, Season 2, Episode 7: ‘Pig,’ took the time to point out that The Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish) was momentarily gone, but not forgotten. It also formally introduced the new Heavy, in reasonably convincing fashion.

Central Grail figure, Herr Starr (Pip Torrens), not only got the star treatment, he even got something of an origin story. Somewhere between his GSG-9 cred, the body bling, and (let’s face it) the test phase ‘manhandling’/ masochism, a pretty decent profile was presented. Of course, the outcome to that trial period ultimately said more about The Grail, than its new Starr inductee… but the Herr had the last word.

Note to his recruiter: next time, lead with the Ukrainian runaways.

The episode sold Herr Starr as the heir apparent to the Genesis Bounty. Not to be discounted, as some shadowy desk figure, Starr can be expected to really get his hands dirty.

When pigs fly (I had to – ya’ll don’t even understand – it was practically a court order).

Incidentally, if you want to shut down a Climate Change exchange: Meat Balloon. Try it on your Crazy Uncle, next extended family gathering.

As for the Genesis crew, there may be other reasons for them sticking around The Big Easy, for a spell. I’m not sure if giving Jesse (Dominic Cooper), Tulip (Ruth Negga), and Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) – plus Denis, now (Ronald Guttman) – personal gripes to grip will be a good use of screen time; but there were some encouraging signs.

A giant screen declaration, for the last jazz club, was the first sign of progress. At least we know the whole season won’t amount to one long (albeit eventful) pub crawl. Watching three professional grifters slum scamming the locals, however: that was a nice way to pass the post-pub-crawl time. Though once a hedonistic layer was pulled back, issues like the Cass & Tulip (Cassip?) history, the Cass & Denis (Canis?) history, and Tulip’s post TSK PTSD (if you’re waiting for me to smash Tulip & Saint into Taint, I’m not gonna) were the immediate issues of the moment.

It looks like Tulip might’ve picked up some of the Hell-loop treatment, from the Cowboy contact. Maybe he should’ve worn a glove. I’ve seen a lot of self-destructive PTSD related acting out, in my time; but the Hurt Locker app seemed appropriately novel – and no, not because there was an element of Tulip femmedom to it (not that I was looking for that sort of thing).

The French Quarter finally produced an interpreter, so that Cass could pick up on some of what Denis had been talking at him about, and their relationship now hinges on the not so subtle difference between being a father, and being a sire. This was purely an opening to the matter, however, as Cass’ thread took a detour to a morgue memory (and I am so looking up that Drunk/ Dead collection dealy).

Jesse got the shallow end of this pause. Besides some usefully contrite gutter wisdom, from a Doomsayer (John Ales) the only thing to come out of his thread was some ominous thought to his TSK fix. Definitely something for later; small mention, here.

The disparity between Starr & God Squad narratives aside, little details nagged at me, just a bit.

Maybe it was just that it was a write-off part of town, but there was a noticeable lack of First Responder fallout, from TSK’s rampage through Denis’ building; and considering it was a global media sensation, Starr’s swine fly epidemic seemed too neatly dealt with (again: Meat Balloon). On the other hand, the show does seem to be sticking to its dead Tom Cruise timeline; so somebody’s keeping track of some things.

As far as story progression goes, ‘Pig’ didn’t really fly. As an indicator of how the show’s conflict can move on without TSK, however, it did float.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of this float. We’d all like to see more float, down here.

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