The penultimate episode of Preacher's third season, aptly titled "Schwanzkoph" (German for "dickhead"), gloriously wrapped up one of its primary subplots. Well, perhaps "wrapped up" isn't the right phrase; blew to smithereens would be more apt. Jesse Custer managed to get the jump on Allfather D'Aronique and end the latter's psychotic plan to nuke the world and force a second-coming with a demented Christ clone at the helm.
Despite the fact that this is 100 percent something that could've happened on an adult episode of Pinky and the Brain, the Allfather had the means to carry out his maniacal idea, putting the world in real danger of destruction and the rule of idiocy. Preacher has a singular ability to imbue the most ludicrous situation with genuine stakes and that's what made tonight's explosive confrontation as compelling as it was disgusting.
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As with any adaptation that isn't a rote recreation of the source material, fans of the Preacher comics have lobbed their fair share of critiques the show's way for its seeming disregard Garth Ennis' work. The first season served as a prequel of sorts, and the second season mixed various threads from the comics with different original storylines and unfortunately found itself lagging and uneven. However, during Season 3, the show's finally found a sweet spot between adaptation and evolution, and Jonny Coyne's Allfather D'Aronique is great evidence of that.
Much like Pip Torrens' Herr Starr before him, the Allfather was a faithful and enhanced version of his comic book counterpart. If you're not familiar with Coyne's work, his talent should've been evident in his ability to emote through a fatsuit designed to emulate bulletproof corpulence. With a little assistance from a nearby bucket and an implied case of bulimia, #Grailboss disgusted from minute one. But with a clever combination of his madness, intellect, Herr Starr's abject fear of him and the surprising tactical advantage several layers of fat can give a person, D'Aronique became a villain worthy of a Preacher subplot.
He's also a person who could be weighed in half-tons, and that's what made his final moments with Jesse as ridiculous as they were nail-biting. The two battle it out for dominance once Jesse manages to talk his way out of his restraints (the episode's only contrived weak spot), and eventually Jesse forces Genesis into D'Aronique, knowing it'll eventually find its way out of what is surely one of the more inhospitable homes it's tried out since breaking free of captivity. The same thing that happened to an African priest, Tom Cruise and countless Jesi before him happens to the Allfather, and the room is covered in blood and entrails quicker than you can say "Messiah." After a brief tussle with Herr Starr, Jesse retrieves his soul from D'Aronique's anal cavity, sets the Jesi free and returns home to Angelville, newly armed to defeat Marie once and for all.
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And as much as we enjoyed the Allfather, his messianic delusions and his explosive death, it's a good thing the character's arc was condensed from his story in the comic books. For the uninitiated, D'Aronique shows up after the Angelville storyline ends -- he's seeking vengeance on Jesse for the latter's treatment of his aunt, Marie L'Angelle. The story winds its way in and around the Grail bureaucracy, all the way to one of its bases in Malaga, where Herr Starr and Jesse attempt to stop the man-made Armageddon much in the same way they do on the show. It's a great arc in the books, but the bread and butter of the show is its internal conflict, not outer.
As amusing and weird as the Humperdoo subplot was, it also made a pretty incisive point about how organized religion is real, real good at distorting the very things they attempt to promote. When a group becomes more concerned with the survival and dominance of the idea rather than living the idea itself, you get people who would put a premium on Christ's flesh rather than his teachings. The most important moment of "Schwanzkopf" isn't the execution of the Allfather, but Jesse's liberation of the Jesi and his return to Angelville to face what are essentially his own demons. Jonny Coyne, Pip Torrens, Julie Ann Emery and Malcom Barrett are all phenomenal actors on par with Betty Buckley, Jeremy Childs and Colin Cunningham, but there's a reason we're salivating to see Jesse beat people who are arguably less dangerous people.
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From the very beginning, Jesse's primary conflict has been his struggle not to be a good person but to believe he's one. Angelville is at the root of what stops Jesse from believing he has the capacity to be a decent person, much less actually live as one. This isn't a show that's overly concerned with the fate of the world -- or rather, it's concerned with that, but it knows the most difficult battles we fight are against the demons that have taken a special interest in us, instead of those that want to take over the world.
Airing Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC, Preacher stars Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Ruth Negga as Tulip and Joe Gilgun as Cassidy the Vampire, Pip Torrens as Herr Starr, Malcom Barrett as Hoover and Julie Anne Emery as Featherstone. Betty Buckley (Gran’ma), Colin Cunningham (T.C.), Jeremy Childs (Jody) and Jonny Coyne (Allfather D’Aronique) also join the cast.