Major spoilers below for Preacher's Season 2 finale, so The Word says to make sure and watch before reading on.
Preacher is unlike any other show on TV for quite a few reasons, not limited to using Hell as a central setting, introducing an inbred family line for Jesus Christ, and having a crack-smoking vampire as a main character. Now that Season 2 is over, with Tulip's life (or death?) hanging in the balance, Preacher fans undoubtedly want to know what will happen next, assuming AMC orders Season 3 soon. CinemaBlend spoke with Featherstone herself, Julie Ann Emery, and though she doesn't "know" where the show is going, she offered up some informed hints about where things are heading.
As you'll recall, the last time we saw Featherstone, she'd just put a bullet in Tulip. (Here's what Julie Ann Emery told me about that crazy moment.) While lamenting that her Grail operative didn't get to have an actual throwdown with Ruth Negga's Tulip, Emery talked about seeing her organization fitting in with Jesse's oh-so-mysterious former home, which comic fans know quite well.
I'm really curious how the Grail fits into some kind of Angelville narrative. Which, I don't know what the answer to that is, but it seems like Jesse is headed in that direction. And there are some characters in Angelville that I'd love to see Featherstone go head-to-head with for sure.
Angelville is, of course, the swamp-surrounded home of Jesse's grandmother, dubbed Marie "Gran'Ma" L'Angell in both the show and Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's source material. In the relatively few moments we've spent in and around Angelville, we've seen an orphaned Jesse go through one of the worst punishments imaginable as he was subjugated by water-bound coffin and made to denounce the Custer name. And the finale introduced the concept that Gran'Ma is apparently capable of resurrecting the dead, which is why Jesse and Cassidy were on their way there with Tulip's corpse in the backseat.
One might not think that The Grail will have much to do with Angelville, considering how it all went down in the comics, but it's precisely the changes that invite the organization's presence. For instance, Tulip's death and resurrection happened entirely within that location on the page, with Gran'Ma's thug Jody doing the killin' and God himself doing the resurrectin'. But The Grail is already involved, with Featherstone on the one side of Tulip's death, and since the L'Angell matriarch is presumably on the other, her otherworldly powers will no doubt get the attention of Herr Starr, right?
Now onto something a little more Hitler-related...
One of Preacher's more bizarre story tangents involved Eugene's time in Hell, where he befriended and learned about the "true" backstory of Adolf Hitler, who posed himself as an innocent artist who turned to world domination after being rejected by others. Of course, that season-long arc ended up being one giant long con, as Eugene and Hitler's friendship was all a move on Hitler's part to return to the land of the living. And in talking about how some fans had issues with the Hitler storyline, Julie Ann Emery told me the real point of that plot, and where it could be going.
I think there's a little pushback on the Hitler storyline, with Hitler seeming sympathetic. I think we do away of the idea of the sympathetic Hitler by the end of this season. I think Hitler's purpose was to sort of plant little seeds in Eugene's head, so we're gonna see that play out through Eugene. Kind of a 'Did Hitler corrupt Eugene or not?' You know, in a really brilliant way.
One might think that just being in Hell would corrupt Eugene to the point of irrepressible evil, but it certainly can't help when Adolf Hitler is also playing psychological wargames. If Hitler gets back to the kind of life where he's murdering whole swaths of innocent people again, that will not play lightly on Eugene's conscience, which may very well turn him into something less than noble.
The true test will be whenever Eugene finds his way back to Jesse, whose Word powers aren't working so well. Will he blame the preacher for pigheadedly exporting him to the afterlife like that? Or will he go beyond all that to forgive Jesse, so that they can possibly work together to recapture Hitler? For what it's worth, Julie Ann Emery says that Featherstone would likely allow Hitler to carry on with his evil duties unless he stood in the way of The Grail, at which point she would take him down. (Need to see this happen.)
And for a little more about Featherstone and Herr Starr...
Throughout Season 2, Preacher viewers got to watch Featherstone share far more scenes with Tulip and Malcolm Barrett's Hoover than with her boss, Pip Torrens' Herr Starr. Which means their personal relationship didn't get quite as fleshed out as some comic fans might have hoped. But Julie Ann Emery's identity-flipping brainiac still showed signs of the character's affection for her boss, and the actress went into a bit more detail about her character's feelings, hinting at things going further in a potential third season.
That was definitely laid in with intention this season. I think that's part of the reason that Featherstone is a mess whenever Herr Starr is in the room. The first glimpse we see of that is when he asks for a rape fantasy, and Featherstone is a little too ready to comply. So I think that the writers are on that track for sure. I don't know that Featherstone ever admits that to him. I think her feelings toward him are more of a cult leader-type love. I think she really idolizes him and would do anything for him, and I do think she's in love with him, but I think it's more like the love someone has for a cult leader. She's so desperate for his approval, she's so desperate to be seen as an asset to him, I don't know that she would ever admit those feelings to him freely. Although I don't know, hopefully AMC will pick us up for many more seasons and we'll see where that storyline plays out. But it's definitely a fascinating sort of unspoken thing between them, for sure.
I don't think anyone would expect Herr Starr and Featherstone to carry on a relationship that worked like something in a sitcom, and it does make more sense in live-action for their relationship to be as Emery stated it. While Featherstone may be capable of romance, Herr Starr doesn't see much value in aspects of life that extend beyond The Grail. And she seems to understand that at this point, but what if those feelings change and get stronger?
For anyone who likes watching Featherstone's work, the hope is that she doesn't ever bring up feelings of love outside the scope of The Grail in Season 3. For even though this show's Hell might hath fury like a woman scorned, nothing on Earth does. And it doesn't bode well for any of these folks.
While we're still waiting to hear from AMC if Preacher will get a Season 3 or not, don't forget that there are still lots of other great shows heading to TV in the near future. Head to our fall premiere schedule to see what those shows are.
