We’re getting closer to the final endgame in AMC’s Preacher. The best way viewers can tell that is surprisingly not because of the constant depictions of an evil God or by demeaning Jesus and religious believers. No, the penultimate episode does all that plus a lazy political jab. The series may finally be running out of steam.
The September 22 episode “Overture” follows the organization known as The Grail enacting steps to begin the apocalypse orchestrated by God (Mark Harelik). After surviving last week’s encounter with God, Jesse (Dominc Cooper), rejoins his friends, the gun-toting Tulip (Ruth Negga) and the vampire Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun), to try and stop the apocalypse by either kidnapping the inbred Messiah known as Humperdoo (Tyson Ritter) or stopping God Himself.
With a bit of luck, Cassidy manages to run into God while the group sneaks into The Grail’s lair. Being the bad guy that He is, God tempts Cassidy with the chance to return to his own time and family in exchange for Jesse. Cassidy lets God have it on how bad that idea is, comparing it to being worse than Don Jr. I’m not sure Preacher knows what “bad” means anymore.
Cassidy: You're just mental. You make dogs die when they eat chocolate. You know, Don Jr.? Testicles? That's terrible design. You know, you've had some bad ideas in the past, but this is just the worst.
God: We both would hate to see anything happen to him.
Cassidy: Don't give me that. You -- You -- You just want me to look after Hump 'til he dances, and then the whole bleedin' world blows up.
God: So what?
Cassidy: 3 billion people is what.
God: Seven billion, six hundred ninety-two million and change.
Cassidy: I just can't believe -- Honestly, I-I-I had hoped that the secret to the universe was something a bit more complex than just "God's a frizzy-haired, homicidal lunatic."
God: Who are you defending?! People?! Over a hundred years and all they've done is torment you. And, besides, they're all gonna die sooner or later. That's one of humanity's best features, don't you think?
It’s ironic that this show literally has Adolf Hitler as a character and yet expects viewers to accept that Donald Trump Jr. is more worthy of reference for terrible ideas. Maybe the series thought saying Donald Trump himself was low-hanging fruit, but this is probably worse. Hitler was responsible for the deaths of millions, Don Jr.’s biggest crime at this point is being related to Donald Trump.
As you can see by the rest of the clip, though, God is still by far the worst being in the entire show. He shrugs off the deaths of billions of people, refers to death as “one of humanity’s best features,” and even has no qualms about killing people outright anymore. I don’t even think it’s possible for this God to get any worse at this point. Sadly though, I’m usually proven wrong.
