Preacher – Sokosha

By: Kelly Kearney

The Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish) has been a tornado of death ever since he broke out of Hell and was hired to kill the Preacher. In this episode, the killer cowboy finally comes face to face with Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) resulting in one of the most intense and exciting episodes of the season.

SOULS FOR SALE

The episode opens with a desperate husband (Damien Moses) and wife (Samantha Beaulieu) who are hard on luck and in need of money. The husband is donating a portion of his soul for a hefty price that the couple hopes will be the answer to their prayers. After hearing the risks of the procedure, a technician (James Kyson) extracts the soul like how one would donate bone marrow. The expert tech tests it for a match and then takes off in an armored van to deliver the goods to Mildred (Becki Davis), a woman who’s willing to pay two million dollars for a piece of a stranger’s soul.

While the impoverished are selling their souls to the rich, The Saint of Killers is onto Jesse thanks to Viktor’s daughter Allie (Stella Allen) pointing him in the direction of the Preacher. Jesse still has no idea that the angel Fiore (Tom Brooke) never called off the hit and the cowboy has been murdering his way through New Orleans in search of the holy man. The Saint of Killers finds the apartment building Jesse, Tulip (Ruth Negga) and Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) are staying in and kills every resident he sees behind each door that he approaches. This cowboy will not stop until Jesse, along with Genesis, are wiped out for good.

Inside Dennis’ (Ronald Guttman) apartment Tulip, the struggling culinary genius that she is, whips up a breakfast of marshmallow and M&M pancakes while the three friends talk about what’s next for them. The search for God took a backseat to their Viktor (Paul Ben-Victor) drama and Jesse and the gang is ready to get back on the lookout for his holy highness. As Cassidy rambles on with Tulip about trash TV, serial killers and conspiracies, Jesse hears what sounds like a bullet whizzing through the walls next door. Warily, he opens the refrigerator and sees a smoking bullet drowning in a cup of yogurt and knows the cowboy is close. The three friends escape out the window before the killer comes blasting through the front door. How can they stop this homicidal hired hitman? Jesse calls Fiore to find out why he didn’t cancel the hit and learns that the cowboy killed the immortal angel and the three friends are on their own. Jesse realizes they don’t know much about The Saint of Killers, or how to stop him, so they head to a local library to do some research.

BOOKS ON TAPE: AMERICAN PSYCHOPATHS

The library contains endless information about The Saint of Killers and how he became the most hated man in heaven and the most feared in Hell. Jesse grabs dozens of books, Cassidy grabs a kid’s View Finder and Tulip goes for the books on tape and all contain a plethora of insight on the man that’s hunting them. The backstory for The Saint of Killers is done in an elaborate and artistic comic book style flashback that covers everything from his life, his love, his daughter and how he broke out of Hell in hopes to join his family in heaven. His vengeance over the death of his daughter was legendary, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake – everyone from the police officers to innocent children who happened to cross his path was gunned down by the Hellish cowboy. The fact that Heaven doesn’t want him and Hell is terrified of him leaves the killer stuck searching for a way to get back to his wife and child. Thanks to Fiore promising him an out, the cowboy thinks killing Jesse will earn him enough favor with God to allow him to pass through the pearly gates.

Researching the cowboy and his weaknesses was a smart move, what wasn’t smart was forgetting about Dennis. Cassidy jumps up from the library table when he remembers Dennis was on his way home from the pharmacy when the cowboy shot up their Chobani. He frantically calls his friend to warn him, but the fact Cassidy never learned French is playing havoc with his ability to get the murderous point across. Of course, it’s too late and The Saint of Killers is already waiting for Jesse in the apartment. He crushes Dennis’ prescription and starts strangling the life out of the French man. Jesse gets on the phone and uses his power of Genesis to stop the murder in progress and promises to meet the cowboy if he leaves Dennis alone. This appeals to The Saint of Killers, but is turning the tables on this mad man a smart idea?

SOUL HAPPY GO-GO

Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy head back to Dennis’ apartment where the Preacher drops a major truth bomb on the cowboy he did not see coming. The Preacher knows the cowboy’s goal is to get back to heaven so Custer shows him the acting real from the fake God audition. He explains that God is gone and he’s been gifted with the power of Genesis in hopes of bringing God back to heaven. In the meantime, there is no one else that can help the cowboy get back to his family besides Jesse. He admits that the power he holds was strong enough to send Eugene (Ian Colletti) to Hell so it’s strong enough to send him to heaven. Jesse calls a truce and promises to help The Saint of Killers get to his heavenly destination. The cowboy agrees, but there’s a catch. To get into a heaven he needs a soul and the cowboy gives Jesse one hour to find him one or he is killing Tulip, Cassidy and Dennis. Luckily for Custer, there is an armored vehicle filled with soul donations tooling around New Orleans that should make this task easy…if only he knew about it.

With the clock ticking, Jesse heads to a local corner store that is known in New Orleans to deal in voodoo and the occasional soul extraction. He asks the owner (Renell Gibbs) for help and learns that he has been pushed out of the soul business when the Japanese took it over. Now their Soul Happy Go-Go company is the main distributor of souls and they just happened to be parked right outside the shop. Jesse tries using Genesis to demand the drivers open the vehicle, but they can’t hear him on the account of the fact they are listening to audio files on how to make the best avocado toast. With no time to spare, he calls Tulip for her skills in breaking and entering and she instructs him on how to make an explosive. Unfortunately, Jesse should stick to preaching as the bomb winds up being a dud and getting Jesse arrested. Luckily, his holy power gets him out of the cuffs, sending the police to the soul-van for a little search and seizure. In the commotion, Custer is able to get inside and speak to the doctor in charge. Jesse orders the man to test his soul supply, but none of them is a match for the cowboy and time is running out. Jesse decides to have his soul tested and surprise, surprise…It’s a pretty close match! He grabs his donation and heads back to the apartment just as Cassidy is trying to stop the cowboy from murdering Tulip! Cassidy and Tulip have become close and after he admits that Dennis is his son, who might die thanks to the cowboy destroying his medication, Tulip decides to help her Irish friend out. She approaches The Saint of Killers about letting Dennis go and he turns on her ready to make good on his promise to Jesse. The cowboy raises his sword and Cassidy grabs hold of it to stop him. In the process, Cassidy loses all his fingers to the sharp blade. Thankfully, Jesse comes bursting through the door with his soul and saves Tulip from certain death.

DOUBLE CROSSING THE COWBOY

Handing over his soul to the cowboy, the man drinks it and immediately becomes a slave to Genesis. The Saint of Killers was impervious to Jesse’s powers because he lacked a soul and now that he has one he must do as Genesis asks. With his booming voice, Jesse Custer orders the man on his knees demanding he hand over his weapons. He shames the cowboy asking why he would think the preacher would send a child murdering psychopath to heaven when he so clearly belongs in Hell. Right as he’s about to dole out the same fate he gave to Eugene, he is stopped by the fact a portion of his soul will go to Hell along with the cowboy. The Preacher changes his mind and loads the killer into the armored vehicle of souls, driving him to the Angelville where he dumps the van and the cowboy into the murky waters, like a permanent grave.

Back at Dennis’, Tulip thanks Jesse for saving them but her heart doesn’t seem to be in it. That is at least not after the Cowboy touched her with his death grip. She offers to take Dennis and Cassidy to the hospital, but she doesn’t seem too thrilled with almost dying, yet again, for her preacher boyfriend.

Later that night, Cassidy’s fingers are growing back and he’s bought presents for his son and Tulip to make up for the horror show they all just went through. A PlayStation, a new TV and a son that probably wishes his father spoke French…the three gather around to decompress from their harrowing night. With his friends distracted in the living room, Jesse rips up the bathroom floor to hide The Saint of Killer’s weapons. The preacher knows this isn’t the end of the deadly cowboy, but just a distraction until he can escape from the locked van at the bottom of the swamp. When he does escape, hiding the weapons will buy them more time and that’s just what they will need if they’re going to find God and drag him back to Heaven.