‘Preacher’ Season 2, Episode 11 recap: ‘Backdoors’

After Jesse Custer rejected the opportunity to work with Herr Starr and take over the responsibilities as The Messiah last week on Preacher, he now has to face Tulip, who learned that he lied about the fate of the Saint of Killers.

This week, Jesse has to earn the trust of Tulip back while still deciding on whether or not to join Herr Starr. Also, Eugene finally decides whether or not to trust Hitler and try to escape from Hell.

Ian Colletti as Eugene, Noah Taylor as Adolf Hitler; group – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Eugene plans escape from Hell

Let’s start off by going back to Hell. There has been too much time dropping in and out of Eugene’s story in Hell and after not seeing him at all last week, we finally move forward with this story this week. The cell block that Eugene resides in Hell is still broken, and Ms. Mannering is trying to figure out who doesn’t belong in Hell so that they can get rid of them. Interestingly, Tyler is who we see getting what looks like a lie detector test that checks morality as he watches horrible and sweet things on TV, his reactions measured.

Of course, Hitler told Eugene already that they won’t let the person go who doesn’t belong there and that there are worse places in Hell that they can send them to. Finally, Eugene decides he needs to make a move. However, first, he wants to learn what was so bad about Hitler’s worst memories.

Remember back in Episode 4 when he saw part of the memory, and it was just a shy Hitler having dinner with a woman he loves. The nightmare was completed this week and showed Hitler trying to show his artwork to a gallery owner and having it called “bloodless.” Hitler then was too cowardly to stop the Communists who came in and roughed up the staff despite getting one of their guns. The woman then said she is cheating on him and leaves as he sits down and learns he can’t get the plum cake he wanted, as a Jewish man got the last piece.

It sounds ridiculous, but then Hitler tells Eugene and Tyler that was the last day that he was ever a good person. Eugene decides to trust Hitler to bust him out of jail at that point. When Eugene is getting tested, Hitler finally grows a backbone (“I’m Adolf F***ing Hitler) and makes everyone in Hell sing “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” so he can rescue Eugene. He then says the back door out of Hell is in The Pit and the two jump into it together.

It should also be noted that Ms. Mannering received a phone call before this happened about The Saint of Killers.

Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Ruth Negga as Tulip O’Hare; group – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Tulip drifts from Jesse

Remember when Jesse drove The Saint of Killers into the swamp to eliminate him? After Tulip learned last week that Jesse didn’t send the Saint of Killer to Hell, she demands that they pull the truck from the swamp. It is empty. Tulip is growing further from Jesse because of his lies and Featherstone isn’t helping by adding fuel to the fire. Featherstone even comes with Tulip when they try to melt down the Saint of Killers weapons, which doesn’t work.

By the time Jesse realizes that he knows where God was, Tulip and Cassidy refuse to come along.

Tapes – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Jesse’s sins

Jesse has started to falter. He met the 25th grandson of Jesus Christ last week and, as he tells Tulip, he was an “imbecile.” This revelation also comes through in two things that happen this week. First, Jesse realizes that he saw God in New Orleans. Remember back in Episode 3 when Jesse arrived in New Orleans and asked someone to take him to God and they took him to the sex room with the man dressed as a giant dog?

As we saw last week, that is what the 25th grandson of Jesus Christ, Humperdoo, was drawing pictures of. Jesse found God and denied him out of ignorance. When Jesse rushed back to find God in the room, he was already gone. This disappointment leads Jesse back to Herr Starr to see if he knew that God was the guy in the dog costume and Herr Starr did not know this. Instead, Herr Starr continues to destroy Jesse’s faith in God.

See, every prayer that Jesse ever sent up to Heaven in his life was recorded and collected in a database. Did God ever hear any of them? That is unclear, but it is clear that they were cataloged and kept in case they were needed, and Herr Starr was able to get his hands on them thanks to the Grail’s connections. Jesse then had to listen to his life’s worth of prayers as he asked forgiveness over and over and over and over and over again. It was clear that Jesse wanted forgiveness but never changed his ways. Herr Starr explains that Jesse can clean the slate if he joins him and helps clean up the world.

That did nothing but anger Jesse, especially when playing the prayer of him asking God to kill his dad and send him to Hell and then praying his thanks after his father’s death. This revelation was a huge moment in Preacher. It is where we realize Jesse might not be looking for God but might be looking for a father figure, someone to believe in, and he is learning that God might not even fit that role anymore.

Jesse uses Genesis to make Herr Starr shove all the recorded tapes up his butt and leaves. As Herr Starr is shoving them all into his butt, he calls Hoover and gives the order. Hoover goes and releases the Saint of Killers, who The Grail had already found, with instructions to take out Jesse.

Shack- Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

It’s Gramma!

Season 3 of Preacher is coming, and this episode showed what we might expect from the series. As fans of the comics know, Jesse has an enemy from childhood and that enemy is his Gramma. We already saw Jesse die, with a bullet to the head. We also saw a foreshadowing of the casket at the bottom of a body of water. Of course, we finally understand what that meant as Jesse was being tortured after his dad’s death by his Gramma until he forsook his father’s name of Custer for his mother’s family name of L’Angelle.

There isn’t enough time this season for Gramma, but she might be the evilest character in the entire Preacher comic series.