All The Best Easter Eggs From ‘Preacher’ Season Two, So Far

For fans of the Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s comic book series Preacher, the second season of AMC’s adaptation has provided nearly everything we’ve wanted from the series, with storylines much more in line with the source material. Like last season, the second season has not shorted viewers on clever Easter eggs, either, which it has liberally peppered throughout the first eight episodes.

Here are the best of what we’ve spotted so far this season.

Atlanta Falcons

In the season’s seventh episode, “Pig,” a scene set in Vietnam (but filmed in New Orleans), contains a not-so-subtle dig at the Atlanta Falcons’ loss to the New England Patriots last season. As many people know, thousands of shirts are printed before each Super Bowl, half showing that one team won and half showing that the other team won. After the outcome, the losing team’s shirts typically are given away. They often find themselves in poor countries where they are given out for free. To wit:

The Falcons, of course, lost to the Patriots earlier this year.

Bill Hicks

The brilliant, darkly subversive stand-up comedian Bill Hicks appears in three issues of Preacher, and his brand of truth-telling offers some inspiration to Jesse Custer in the comics after he stumbles drunk into one of Hicks’ shows. Here’s a panel from the comic:

In the season’s second episode, “Mumbai Sky Tower,” an Easter Egg tribute to Hicks can be found in Fiore’s dressing room.

John Wayne

The actor John Wayne is also a huge influence on Jesse Custer in the comics, acting as Jesse’s ghostly Dark Passenger in the graphic novel series, although his role has seemingly been supplanted by Eugene/Arseface on the TV show. However, Wayne still gets the occasional shout-out, such as in this scene, when Jesse’s old roommate argues that Wayne is “patriarchal.”

Less obvious is the cigarette machine Tulip was standing in front of in episode 3, “Damsels.”

“Pilgrims” is how Wayne often referred to soft people who he did not believe were well suited to frontier life. They’re also the brand of cigarettes that Custer smokes in the comics.

Breaking Bad

I mentioned this Easter egg last season, but it recurred in “Mumbai Sky Tower” when Fiore returned from hell and found himself sitting at a bus stop, which shares a memorable setting with a scene in the final season of Breaking Bad.

Here’s Fiore:

Here’s Jesse Pinkman:

Seven

In the sixth episode of the season, “Sokosha,” there is an obvious nod to David Fincher’s Seven in the library scene, which not only features a library that looks similar to the one in Seven, but a similar looking montage set to the exact same music, Bach’s “Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major.”

The Dark Tower

Stephen King has cited the original Preacher comic as a heavy influence on his limited comic series, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born. Seems like the TV series paid it back with a little Easter egg in which Viktor’s daughter sends the Saint of Killers to Room 19. Herr Starr’s people also set up shop in Room 19 — 19 being a very important number in The Dark Tower series (h/t Reddit)

The Swamp

The second season premiere contained perhaps the best Easter egg of the season, a subtle reference to a form of punishment Jesse Custer suffered as a child. He was forced into a airtight coffin that was submerged at the bottom of a swamp and he was left with only a hose to breathe through for days or weeks at a time. Jesse ultimately subjected the Saint of Killers to a similar form of punishment in “Sokosha,” when he locked the Saint in an armored car and submerged it at the bottom of a swamp.

Axel Alonso

I never would’ve seen this on my own, but production designer Dave Blass slipped in a subtle nod to Axel Alonso, the editor of the Preacher comics who is now the editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics.

However, there are layers to this Easter egg, because in this panel of the comic, a dude is using Alonso’s Axle Grease to take care of his personal business. Meanwhile, in that same panel there is a double-sided fist hanging on the wall behind his head.

That double-sided first? It also makes an appearance in Preacher:

Gene Sergeant

The mug that Cassidy is drinking blood out of in episode 9, “Puzzle Piece,” says “Gene Sergeant’s Georgia Records.” For comic readers, Gene Sergeant is the record promoter who discovers Arseface, signs him to his Georgia Records label, and turns him into a huge novelty act — despite the indecipherable lyrics and unsettling appearance — and then takes all of Arseface’s fame away before disappearing with all the proceeds gained from exploiting poor Eugene Root.