Herr Starr finds the missing piece.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Here's a question. If someone binged this entire season of Preacher and accidentally skipped over last week's "Holes," would they even notice? That episode only seems more pointless and uneventful in light of the far-superior "Puzzle Piece." It's good to see the season once again bouncing back after a lull period, but it would be nice if this series could manage a little more consistency.
Looking back at Season 2 to date, it really does seem like the quality of each episode is directly proportional to how much screen time is given to the villain. The best installments are those that have kept the Saint of Killers or Herr Starr firmly in the spotlight. And there was certainly plenty of the latter in "Puzzle Pieces." This was really the first week where we got to see the dynamic between Starr and Agents Featherstone and Hoover in action. That dynamic tended to be one of my favorite elements of the comic, and survived the transition pretty much entirely intact. As in the comic, I get a real kick out of Featherstone's ruthless competence combined with her naked (but entirely unrequited) affection for Starr. In some ways, Featherstone is even an improvement over the source material. Seeing her play dual roles and pretend to Tulip's mousy next-door neighbor adds an extra touch of fun and danger to her presence. And then you have Hoover as the bumbling comic relief, proving that not every Grail member is an elite, amoral killing machine.
Basically, we've seen how dark and sinister Starr and the Grail can be, but this episode did a nice job of balancing things out and highlighting their absurd side. We repeatedly saw how ridiculous the Grail is in its response to benign threats, with Starr first dispatching a kill squad to take out Jesse and the gang and then ordering a a bomb to be dropped on American soil. And Starr's eccentric sexual exploits also became a big focus. In the process, this episode wound up adapting one of the more infamous moments from the comic, with Hoover accidentally ordering a group of male prostitutes to forcibly sodomize Starr. Part of Starr's appeal is that he's as much a sad, comical figure as an imposing villain, and it's good to see that the TV series seems to be sticking close to the source in that regard. It's also intriguing to see a more personal connection form between Starr and his prey. Starr found the missing pieces in his life, both sexually and in terms of making Jesse Custer his new professional obsession, and it'll be very interesting to see how that colors the interaction between Starr and Jesse going forward.
As for Jesse and his friends, "Puzzle Pieces" continued to deal with the same, familiar struggles that have dominated the show for the past several weeks. But at least in this case there was a more tangible sense of progress, with the Grail attack sort of lighting a fire under everyone's butts. That entire sequence was very well handled. One of the great things about Preacher is that the show is less interested in presenting glamorized, stylish depictions of violence than it is in simply finding interesting and unusual ways of depicting that violence. The first-person approach really stood out. With the grainy night vision and near-total lack of sound, that shootout had a very tense, claustrophobic quality. If anything, it was hard not to sympathize with this group of soldiers who had no idea what they were getting themselves into. The first-person approach wasn't simply a gimmick. It allowed the viewer to literally see Jesse and Cassidy from a different perspective, one where they don't seem quite so heroic or fun-loving.
Also intriguing is the sense that the tight-knit dynamic among Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy is really starting to fray. Jesse is growing increasingly desperate and unhinged, even as he's increasingly haunted by nightmares of his childhood. Tulip's PTSD isn't getting any better, and now she's dealing with the knowledge that Jesse used his power against her for a third time. As for Cassidy, he's clearly doing his best to put on a good face after turning his own son into a vampire, but there's a clear sadness underneath the happy-go-lucky facade. There's no way the Denis decision doesn't blow up in Cassidy's face by season's end. All three main characters seem destined for a collision course of some sort, and the general tone of their friendship is a far cry from what it was at the beginning of the season.
The Verdict
It's frustrating to see Preacher seesaw so much this season in terms of quality, but at least Herr Starr's return helped the show recover nicely after last week's misstep. Starr and his Grail minions are proving to be very entertaining villains. Meanwhile, the increasingly bleak nature of the Jesse/Tulip/Cassidy friendship and a very novel action sequence helped mold one of the most well-rounded installments of the season so far.
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