It’s good that this is the ninth episode and “Preacher” has had time to build up to this level of blood and horror. It hasn’t just amped up levels of gore, beginning with its first scene in Ratwater that culminates in a beheading. Instead, it’s the inherently disturbing nature of what we’re seeing that manages to be shocking even after the eight hours of violence that preceded it. Whether it’s the de-limbed seraphim sitting in a tub of her own blood begging to be put out of her misery, children’s heads tumbling from a bloody American flag or Emily sacrificing Miles to save our beloved Cassidy, this is not amateur-level awfulness. But this isn’t just violence for the sake of violence either; instead, each act reveals more about the show’s central characters and just what they’re willing to do in the name of the greater good or even just their own cause.
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The biggest shift comes for Emily (Lucy Griffiths), who has been tasked by Tulip (Ruth Negga) to feed a healing Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) while she goes to Albuquerque to kill Carlos. But Pet Express’s best stock of rabbits and guinea pigs aren’t quite doing the trick, and Cassidy is still a mess of a monster. Miles (Ricky Mabe) calls Emily and reminds her of exactly how slimy he is as he tries to worm his way into her and her family’s lives. She watches the scene in “Psycho” where Norman Bates muses, “I think that we’re all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and we claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch.” While Emily may feel she’s in an emotional trap, she lures Miles into a physical one that results in his death at the hands – and teeth – of Cassidy. Whether she’s doing this to help her true love’s “mate” or to rid herself of an unwanted suitor or some combination of the two, it’s a nice callback to Miles’ own statement in the previous episode: “Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the betterment of the community.”
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After “He Gone” showed Jesse (Dominic Cooper) at his worst, “Finish the Song” finally brings his character arc back into an upswing. There’s real, believable development here by a man who often wants to do good, even if it isn’t his first instinct. After his arrest, he escapes the squad car with a pen and then enjoys a pancake breakfast under an overpass with a few parishioners. He shares his plan of bringing God to the Sunday service to question Him and they ask Jesse how. “You’ll see,” he says, and soon we understand. He has stolen the Heaven phone from Deblanc (Anatole Yusef) and Fiore (Tom Brooke), and this is how he’ll communicate directly with God. When he finally reunites with an improved Cassidy, and we learn that while he did let his mate burn for a bit, he ultimately put him out. I care more about this friendship than any of the potential romances “Preacher” is laying out, mostly due to Cassidy’s pure, puppydog adoration for Jesse. He’s an alcoholic vampire, but his loyalty and forgiveness are what give the show soul, and Jesse finally reciprocates that when he offers to help bury Miles’ body. Because that’s what friends do.
When Jesse struggles to get a dial tone on his supernatural phone, he remembers that only angel hands can use it. So it comes in handy (sorry) that Cassidy has a few older versions of Deblanc and Fiore buried (and I love that a seemingly small element from a few episodes ago has greater significance as the season nears its end). But remember what I said about caring more about this friendship than any of the show’s potential love affairs? Jesse’s heartfelt voicemail to Tulip has him calling back to their childhood bond, saying, “For me, it’s just you. Till the end of the world,” and I’m swooning. Meanwhile, Tulip is in Albuquerque, and we see her standing over a tied-up Carlos (Desmin Borges) with a meat tenderizing mallet, and it’s ever more clear that we’re not going to get a traditional love story.
Throughout the episode, Deblanc and Fiore are trying to get to hell, which they’re able to do through a travel agent (because of course that’s how this world works). They’re responsible for most of the hour’s lightest moments, like Fiore choosing “Architect” for his occupation on his travel application to hell, to Deblanc’s more traditional “Serial Killer” and Fiore pouting when he can’t bring his comic books on the shuttle to the underworld. In the series’ first episodes, they seemed staid, but they’ve evolved into one of the more enjoyable elements in a show full of great characters.
“Finish the Song” is the first episode of “Preacher” to fulfill the promise of giving Graham McTavish billing in the credits. As The Cowboy, he hasn’t been given a ton to do — in either screen time or variety — prior to this hour, and even this only hints at what the “Outlander” actor is capable of. In the opening scene here, he begins to take his revenge on the town of Ratwater, revealing that he killed a schoolhouse full of children and then taking out every soul in the saloon in efficient fashion, starting with the preacher who named him “The Butcher of Gettysburg.” That “man of God” killed The Cowboy’s horse, keeping him from getting back to his sick daughter in time to prevent her death, and his commands to The Cowboy to love God aren’t well-received by the man intent on vengeance. When the episode returns to him in its penultimate moments, we relive these awful events on a loop with The Cowboy and learn that he’s in Hell. Deblanc and Fiore show up, and they share why they’ve made the journey there (sadly, not to save Eugene). They’d like The Cowboy to kill a preacher (our Preacher), and in exchange, his worst-day-on-repeat will finally come to an end.
This episode reteams the writer-director pair of “South Will Rise Again,” Craig Rosenberg and Michael Slovis, and it’s a solid build-up to the season finale. The show is at its best when its balancing strong character moments with off-the-wall action, and “Finish the Song” is a fine blend of the two elements that never leans too far into one of them. The promo for next week’s episode has a voiceover with Tulip asking, “What do you think’s going to happen?” Jesse replies, “Honestly, I have no idea.” That’s the fun of this show: not knowing where it will go and how many heads will roll on its road to get there.