Preacher 2×08 – Holes

After an absence in Hell, the show opens there to reveal a hardened Eugene, or so he is trying so hard to make it seem. Sporting a new back tattoo and some bigger muscles, Eugene attempts to continue the facade that he isn’t a nice guy. The warden makes an appearance and drops the top of her marker as a test. Foolishly, an inmate quickly picks it up to hand to her before realizing what he had done to himself. He is then dragged away to the Hold as the others in the room are punished from being allowed to use the vending machine anymore. Seems the warden takes pleasure in watching the inmates suffer until they have to work together.

Before this event occurred, Eugene managed to get food from the machine and saved it for later, so I’m sure he’ll be the center of attention soon once people start to get hungry. Later, a caveman becomes too loud and annoys Tyler, the douchebag of the inmates, who then decides to tape the caveman’s face to the television set that is playing stock footage of a bonfire. To the caveman, this is the equivalent of actually burning, so Eugene slyly grabs the remote off the ground and turns down the volume to ease the caveman. Sadly for Eugene, Hitler notices his kind deed and Eugene’s attempts of dominance by yelling and hitting Hitler might not be the best course of action.

A flashback to 1946 shows Cassidy witnessing Denis in the hospital shortly after his birth. After singing young Denis a highly inappropriate song, he promises to him that he’ll be the best dad he can be. Flashing forward, we know that Cassidy hadn’t really kept that promise. He asks Denis if he can do anything for him, but Denis’ reply is once again to be turned into a vampire before he dies of his illness. Cassidy once again refuses to do so and departs to the kitchen where he runs into Tulip, who once again was awoken by her constantly nightmares of the Saint of Killers. A brief conversation between the two takes place in which Tulip attempts to get Cassidy to join her at the bar, but he insists he has to stay with Denis, so Tulip departs alone. Upon returning to Denis and falling asleep, Cassidy is later awoken by Denis attempting to use the English/French translator Cassidy used on him earlier to tell Cassidy he needs to bite him now as Denis collapses to the ground, seemingly on his last legs.

The next morning, Jesse awakens alone in the room, which is revealed to have been bugged by the Grail. Lara and her associate are keeping tabs on Jesse as they wait for Herr Starr to arrive before proceeding with the Genesis situation. A doctor has arrived for Denis, but Cassidy informs Jesse that he can’t really do much and Denis is too weak to be brought to the hospital. After asking if there was anything he could do help, Cassidy ponders to Jesse if Genesis could be used to keep Denis alive, but Jesse doubts Genesis would allow that. Cassidy sorrowfully agrees, knowing that he doesn’t have much options to save Denis besides the obvious one. Jesse heads out to Circuit Works to see if they can enhance the footage of the fake God being killed to trace the gun and runs into Tulip returning from the Hurt Locker from the previous night. He asks her if everything is alright and she agrees, though not really trying hard to not show she’s lying, and asks if she can tag along with.

Arriving at Circuit Works, Jesse heads to the electronics section to speak with the Dork Docs, the Preacher version of Geek Squad. They laugh at him when he asks if they’re able to enhance the footage like how the cops do in crime television shows, but agree that they’ll see what they can do once they learn Jesse needs a serial number on the gun in the footage. Tulip wanders off to buy a new fridge since the current one residing in Denis’ apartment has a bullet hole from the Saint of Killers through it, which doesn’t necessarily help Tulip in coping with her nightmares. After purchasing the fridge, she asks Jesse if she’s still needed for his business or if she can go, so he allows her to leave.

Back in Hell, the warden arrives again to inform everyone that the power to their main cells should return shortly and that they had finally figured out the issue that was occurring for this to happen. Each cell is powered by a main generator in varying degrees based on the personnel that resides in the cell. When there is someone in Hell that doesn’t actually belong down there, it causes the main generator to haywire. The warden wants to know who the person is that doesn’t belong and although Eugene almost raises his hand, he stops himself and several other raise their hands instead. The warden simply states that if the person wants to play it that way, they can try and hide as long as they can, but she’ll find them eventually.

This doesn’t really take a long time as Hitler begins asking Eugene on if he is the one who doesn’t belong while everyone else argues in the corner about why they are actually the one who doesn’t belong. Eugene tries his best to ensure to Hilter that he belongs down there with them, but after Hilter purposely has an inmate trip and fall, Eugene instinctually helps her back up, blowing his cover right in front of the cameras set up around the room. Everyone turns to look at him as Eugene looks directly to the door, which opens to reveal the warden and guards ready to take him away now that he’s been revealed.

Tulip returns to Denis’ with the new fridge and begins transferring everything from the old one to the new one. Cassidy is taking care of Denis still and heads out to the kitchen to ask Tulip if she would be fine with being immortal like him. She somewhat shrugs off the question, simply stating it would probably be cool to never die, but Cassidy reminds her that it’s a boring, lonely life in which he loses enjoyment in everything he once enjoyed and is forced to watch everyone he cares about eventually die. Tulip agrees that it sounds like a sucky life, leaving Cassidy even more conflicted on what to do about Denis.

The Dork Docs have finally finished enhancing the footage for Jesse, but when he goes to take a look, he sees that the serial number for the gun has been filed off so it can’t be identified. He insists that there has to be another way, so he has the Dork Docs rewind to a moment where you can make out a face in the reflection of a movie slate, but it’s going to take some more time for them to enhance this image as well. Back at Denis’, Tulip continues her self-healing by fixing the hole in the wall from the Saint of Killers’ bullet. Not just the hole in Denis’ wall, however, but every single hole in the other apartments as well.  It’s kinda weird seeing her walk into a still active crime scene to patch up the wall, but whatever can help her finally get better I guess.

Eugene is brought to the hole that was teased in a previous episode. He was told it’s worse than the cell he has been in and reserved for those that don’t belong in Hell, so obviously we were going to see what resides in it eventually. It turns out to be yet another simulation room, but one that actually seems to go well for Eugene. After he stops Tracy from killing herself and goes in for the kiss, it turns out that she actually likes him as well. This leads into a weird duet of “Closing Time” by Semisonic between the two lovebirds, but the simulation takes a turn when it’s revealed that Tracy has already moved on from her previous boyfriend and Eugene was too late in professing his love for her. Her new boyfriend is none other than Jesse, who arrives from the bathroom and starts to make out with Tracy right in front of Eugene. This causes Eugene to start going insane and grab the shotgun, which Jesse then makes Eugene use on himself. Seems the warden wasn’t lying, this simulation really is worse.

At least it turns out that the warden is still not fully aware that Eugene is the one who doesn’t belong as he is brought back to the rec area with the other inmates after a few hours of suffering in the Hold. Hitler informs him that he had to show Eugene what could happen to him so that Eugene trusts Hitler. He then tells Eugene that he knows a way to escape Hell and wants them to leave together. Back on Earth, Jesse prays to the absent God for a clue in finding him and is paged by the Dork Docs right as he finishes praying. Turns out to be for nothing, however, as the enhancing reveals the head was actually just a coffee pot. Jesse leaves in anger and doesn’t even take the CD with him, stating that it’s useless since there’s nothing on it. Little did he notice that printed on the CD was an acknowledgement that it was property of the Grail, hinting they were the ones who killed the fake God.

Speaking of the Grail, Tulip finally reaches the last room of the apartment to fill in its hole, but finds out that there are still people residing in that room. Turns out this is where Lara and her associate have set up shop to spy on Jesse, so Lara quickly puts on a disguise to try and distract Tulip. Though Tulip notices Lara is acting strange and that her associate accidentally left a gun on a table, she is convinced by Lara’s act and leaves after finishing the wall. Back in Denis’ apartment, Cassidy calls a fellow vampire Seamus to ask about the situation he’s in and basically gets the same response back that everyone else and even himself have decided on: don’t turn Denis into a vampire. This is easier said than done for Cassidy, however, as he returns to Denis’ room and see him with almost no life left in him. He recites the song he sang back in 1946 when Denis was still a baby and then the episode cuts off, leaving it unknown if Cassidy went with the advice everyone gave or against it.

“Holes” was a step up from the previous episode. I feel that it did a better job at the character arcs that were set up by “Pig” and actually made me care about them a bit more. Jesse has become more hopeless in his mission to find God, causing him to overlook crucial details. Seeing Cassidy struggle with what to do over Denis instead of the very brief instances of it last episode made it more powerful, especially the conversation between him and Tulip in the middle of the episode about the cons of being a vampire. And lastly, Tulip’s road to healing herself through other means than drinking and getting shot at the Hurt Locker was vastly superior to the long unnecessary dream sequence from last episode. It was also good to pop in on Eugene again, even though the Hell storyline isn’t on the top of my list, but seeing what the Hold consists of was a cool moment.

Holes – 4 out of 5

Pros:

• Better character development than last episode’s attempts.
• Cassidy’s talk with Tulip about being a vampire.
• Seeing what the Hold is.

Cons:

• No Herr Starr.
• Jesse continues to stumble.