"Schwanzkopf" – Preacher S03E09 Review

So there's more over-the-top wackiness in tonight's episode, "Schwanzkopf". And that's what we tune in to Preacher for. Right? Right?!?

On the Grail/Messiah front, Jesse (Dominic Cooper) manages to kill Allfather (Jonny Coyne) and after a struggle with Starr, recovers his soul. Which lets him recover the Voice. Which makes him pretty much omnipotent. He controls Starr (Pip Torrens), he controls the remaining Grail guards, and Starr points out that if Jesse doesn't become the Messiah, what's left of the Grail will carry out Allfather's plan with Humperdoo (Tyson Ritter). I still don't know what the Grail's plan is, and Starr's explanation is voice-overed on top of a film with halos and devil masks and nuclear explosions.

If I understand it correctly, the Grail will send out a video of Humperdoo tap-dancing. This will cause everyone to choose between Heaven and Hell, God and Satan. Then the Grail's infiltrators will launch nuclear missiles, turning Earth into a wasteland and Humperdoo will lead the believers to Paradise.

Jesse isn't on-board with that, and Starr is okay with a smaller nuclear holocaust. But Jesse can't bring himself to kill Humperdoo in cold blood. So he releases Humperdoo and all of the remaining clones from last week. They wander out into the city, and this somehow thwarts the Grail's plan. I'm not sure how. They've already recorded Humperdoo tap-dancing, right? But apparently this stops the Apocalypse, and Jesse orders Starr to never wear a hat again (to cover the penis-like scar on his penis-like head) and heads for Angelville.

A good chunk of the rest of the episode is Tulip (Ruth Negga) on the Distant Vistas hell bus. The Angel of Death (Errin Ruth) eventually realizes Tulip tricked her and Lara isn't "Tulip". She drags Tulip onto the bus with Eugene and Hitler, and they all take off for Hell with the Saint of Killers. Conveniently, the bus trip takes forever, so Tulip tries to plot an escape. She can't break the window, so she drops a set of manacles onto the drive shaft. That doesn't work, so she picks a fight with the Saint. He knocks her into the window, cracking it. Tulip tells Eugene how to jump clear, and Hitler gets impatient and kicks the window out. As he prepares to escape, Rick his new lieutenant and his shocktroopers arrive in a tank and blast the bus off the road.

And it took about ten times as long to type the above as it took to see it onscreen. The bus scenes go on and on and on. To the point even Hitler is checking his watch wondering when Rick is going to show up. Which raises the question: how does Rick know where to find them? Are they just driving along a road on Earth until they come to Hell? Or what?

There's also a bit with Cassidy. He refuses to go along with Eccarius' plans to kill the Children. So Eccarius (Adam Croasdell) convinces the Children Cassidy is a traitor, and they nail him to a pool table and leave him with a beam of sunlight approaching. Mrs. Rosen is cleaning up the place, and Cassidy convinces her to try and call Lisa. This part is fairly short and to the point, and it's helped by Joseph Gilgun's acting. I like how he turns on the charm with the elderly Mrs. Rosen (Theresa O'Shea), and her mix of grandmotherly caring and her hatred for Cassidy as a traitor.

There's also a brief bit where T.C. makes Marie tea, and Marie figures Jesse will keep his word to come back there so he can kill her. We also get a brief scene where FJ returns to the Grail, assures Starr being a vampire won't affect his job performance, and Starr tries on wigs to cover up his scar because he can't wear hats anymore.

Overall, "Schwanzkopf" (German for "cock head") was a decent penultimate episode. It took a good chunk of the episode to clear up the whole Jesse/Grail thing. And give Jesse the Voice back, which is kind of a relief. Without it, it's just Jesse being all subservient with Marie. It's also a big chunk of what gives the show its supernatural edge. Jesse without the Voice is just... Jesse. Who thinks he's a cowboy and gets into cool fight scenes occasionally. That makes for a decent protagonist and all. But a protagonist with the Voice and the righteousness that it seems to spark makes for something unique. And Preacher has been missing that uniqueness most of the season.

It looks like next week it's Tulip versus Nazis, with the Saint and the Angel of Death thrown into the mix. Where they go with Eugene and Hitler and the Saint, who knows?

And at the end, Jesse gets back to Angelville and prepares for a final showdown with Marie. The previews show Satan as well, and he seems to be more invested in the whole Marie/Jesse/Voice thing than with the return of Eugene and Hitler to Hell. So he'll probably show up at Angelville to watch things go down, and/or participate a little on his own.

So it looks like Jesse gets his licks in with Jody, the guy who killed Jesse's father. And we'll see who is quicker: Jesse with the Voice, or Marie with whatever mojo she has. Tune in next week for the season finale.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?