Preacher Season 1 Episode 9 Finish the Song Recap
This week’s Preacher answers the question of “Ever wake up in the morning and the same bad shit happens over and over?” You head to the same pathetic job, on the same crowded roads, and head home later to watch the same tired TV shows while eating the same terrible frozen dinners.
That’s apparently what the reality of hell is, according to Preacher. A groundhog day of the worst kind is what we were shown with the flashback to Ratwater.
In episode 9, “Finish the Song,” we saw how the cowboy dealt with the townies who cost him his family when he was unable to deliver the medicine. The “Butcher of Gettysburg” was indeed good at killing and took out every last person in the saloon.
Even the poor bastard who managed to belt out the entire song, as requested by the Butcher, got decapitated for his efforts.
Back above ground, Jesse is believed to have killed Eugene and his story of sending him to hell is not exactly flying with the sheriff.
What, so all of a sudden these characters are questioning weird phenomenon?
Anyway, the sheriff is pretty inept at his job, and Jesse escapes about five minutes after he’s put in the back of the patrol car. Preacher has a sermon to prepare and needs to line up his special guest for Sunday, God himself. No time for incarceration.
This episode also unlocked a big mystery. We found out where all the travel agents went once Captain Kirk started luring travelers to cheap vacation websites. These travel agents now lurk in the darkest corners of strip malls waiting to trade their services for sex in the back room.
And they can arrange trips to hell since that’s the one market Priceline.com had not cornered. Just the trip needed by Fiore and DeBlanc in order to get Genesis out of Jesse.
What about Cassidy?
Setting yourself on fire with the sun was a risky move by Cassidy to see if Jesse was really a friend. Now the vampire is in poor shape and Tulip is nursing him back to health, one rodent at a time.
Cassidy was living pretty hard before the fire incident, but he looked like a picture of health even as a dope fiend compared to his current state.
And poor Emily had to do the vamp sitting when Tulip headed off to Albuquerque to finish off Carlos.
Emily didn’t look cut out to handle the job. But the sweet little church lady showed some gumption by luring Miles over in order to feed him to Cassidy.
It was awesome seeing the slimy mayor killed by the vampire. Although Miles could return to life at some point in this wild universe. Dude could come back as a vampire himself.
Meanwhile, the cowboy angels rethink their trip to hell and decide to call heaven instead. Too bad the bumbling agents of the Almighty have lost the phone to the throne of God.
Hell it is then….
Remember the soccer mom angel that was subdued by Jesse and the Cowboys? She is finally found in the filthy motel, and the sheriff allows her to re-animate when the limbless angel begs him to kill her.
The lawman may have appeared merciful, but was all too eager to get a chance to snuff the life out of her.
Emily showed she’s still a sweetie as she frees the poor guinea pig that the mayor replaced with his flesh. She tells Jesse about Cassidy’s condition, so Preacher makes nice with his vamp buddy. There is the small matter of a dead politician in the house, so they just head out to bury Miles at one of the gravesites of Fiore and DeBlanc.
They killed two birds with one stone there as they took a hand from one of the dead angels in order to use the heaven phone that Cassidy had stolen.
This is Jesse’s grand plan to get God to speak to the town during his sermon. A telephone that he has never even seen used much less can operate himself.
Jesse does make the call to Tulip to patch their relationship up. She’s a little preoccupied with Carlos though, whom she is just before torturing.
The point about the Butcher being in hell was driven home in the last few minutes of the episode. The flashback to Ratwater just looped over and over, faster and faster. The Butcher having to see his family dead, time and time again as he failed them.
The loop of hell could end though as Fiore and DeBlanc showed up in the slaughterhouse that used to be a saloon.
They offer the Butcher a chance to leave hell.
All he needs to do is come with them and kill a preacher.
Seeing how he has developed a hatred for men of the cloth during his eternal damnation, I don’t see the Butcher having any issue with the deal.
The guy would do anything to get out of the endless loop of misery he’s in, no matter the task.
So we all can imagine the hell that Eugene is experiencing right now. The guy is probably living out his shotgun scene over and over, with no relief in sight.
And now Preacher’s focus is on making a call to heaven, and he’s also being hunted by a Butcher from hell. It’s gonna be tough to find time to help poor Eugene out of his hellish pickle.
But maybe Jesse can put in a good word for the kid if the phone call goes well next Sunday. If not, Jesse better get ready for some back room action with a shady travel agent if he hopes to save Eugene.