(Spoiler Alert: This column discusses the events of the "Preacher" season ender.)
So you're sitting on the couch, watching the season finale of "Preacher" July 31, and suddenly everybody dies. "Well, that's certainly different," you say to whomever is next to you, or possibly to just the cat as, sadly, you live alone. How, you wonder in the midst of your existential despair, can the show even continue?
First, you need to get out more. Living alone and watching philosophically challenging TV shows by yourself isn't healthy. Join a book club. Volunteer. Meet some people.
Secondly, the answer to what happens next on "Preacher" the TV show is going to be based on what happened in the 66 monthly issues, five specials and one miniseries of "Preacher" the comic book.
Well, sort of.
Here's what I mean: "Preacher" Season One ends with the destruction of Annville, with only Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy surviving. (Plus Eugene Root, only he's in Hell.) And now they're going on a road trip, executive producer Seth Rogen said on "Talking Preacher," in order "to find God ... and kick his (behind)."
Which is roughly where the comic book began. In other words, the first season of "Preacher" was, essentially, a prequel. But why?
"There are so many crazy ideas in the show that in the comic kinda happen very fast," Rogen said. "They're just kinda thrown at you very fast. The idea of a demon and an angel having a baby and going into a guy _ it's very abstract, if you are not a big comic book reader. We thought it would be better to dole it out in a much more digestible pace and at the same time give a lot more emotional backstory to Jesse and who he is and see him be a preacher, which was something that you never really see in the comics at all."
Also, Rogen said, he wanted you to meet all the quirky people of Annville _ Civil War re-enactor Donnie, his rough-sex-loving wife Betsy, suppressed and unhappy Emily, traumatized Annville Meat and Power CEO Odin Quincannon, morally conflicted Sheriff Root, the star-crossed Indian and Prairie Dog mascots, Tulip's perpetually drunken uncle, half-brained Tracy Loach, etc. _ so it would mean something to you when they died. The producers wanted you to "grow emotionally attachment with these people before we kill them off," Rogen laughed.
And they are very, very dead. All of them, even those whose stories don't seem over. Executive producer Evan Goldberg confirmed as much on "Talking Preacher," as executive producer Sam Catlin did on Deadline Hollywood (deadline.com). You can even see Betsy's legs sticking out of the rubble, still dressed as Dorothy of Oz, with one ruby slipper dangling from her foot.
Unless, of course, the producers are lying. Which is possible. After all, Quincannon plays an important role in the comics, but not until around the middle of the story. So maybe he'll make a surprise return.
Nonetheless, the final episode gave us some more pieces in the puzzle that is "Preacher."
The story of The Cowboy, called "The Saint of Killers" in the comic book, finally linked up with the main story. His story on the show varies a bit from that of the comics, but what he is hasn't changed. He's still a post-human creature, the Angel of Death. He's still capable of killing anything _ angels, demons, Genesis, God _ and he's after Jesse.
"He's just the person who damned himself worse than anybody ever," Goldberg said on "Talking Preacher." "And he did something so unforgiveable that you can never see how he could ever possibly redeem himself, and nor can he, so he just goes to such a depraved level that it shocked me. And I made the show."
Also, we discover that God is missing. In a scene reminiscent of a Monty Python skit or "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," a stereotype image of God appears in the Annville church to assure everyone that everything is okey-dokey _ only to be exposed as a fraud. The real God is absent, the imposter reveals, inspiring Jesse's road trip.
It also inspires a lot of Annville residents to do some terrible things, in my nomination for Most Depressing Montage in TV History. But it doesn't really matter, since they're all going to die anyway. (Although I will not soon forget Meat Baby.)
So now we begin the narrative with which readers of "Preacher" the comic book have long been familiar. And despite the eye-popping violence, absurdist humor and profane concepts in the first season ... well, that's just the beginning. As Goldberg admits, "the comic goes a little far sometimes."
Here's some characters from the comics you might see in upcoming "Preacher" episodes:
_The Grail, led by the too-fat-to-move Allfather D'Arnonique, the organization that has guarded the bloodline of Jesus Christ for centuries, and now sees its opportunity for ultimate power.
_Herr Starr, the chief enforcer of The Grail, an ascetic German with some kinky habits of his own, whose own odyssey is hilariously disgusting, or maybe disgustingly hilarious.
_Gran'ma (Marie L'Angelle), Jesse's actual grandmother, a religious fanatic and one of the worst human beings you'll ever meet, which includes her loathsome thugs Jody and T.C.
_The Chunt Brothers: A trio of cannibal siblings.
_Bob Glover and Freddy Allen, sexual investigators: You really don't want to know.
Some of these characters, and more besides, may be too extreme for television, even for a network that airs "The Walking Dead." But we've already seen Herr Starr _ he's listed as "The Man in White Suit" in the third episodes, so who knows?
What we do know is what kind of show the producers intend.
"It is a quest," Catlin said on "Talking Preacher." "Season One is sort of a theological, intellectual quest for God, but in Season Two it becomes an actual 'We're gonna find God.' Jesse makes it very clear, 'we're gonna help him or we're gonna kick his (behind).' "
