‘Someone’s gotta pay’
Finally, we get a glimpse of what Tulip and Jesse did in their past life – and it’s not pretty. Tulip meets a woman named Dani in Houston, a contact from their old industry who half-jokingly asks Tulip to kill her husband. When Tulip hands her a mysterious package for the care of something called “Grail Industries”, Dani delivers it to a largely unseen, silent man dressed all in white, watching footage of what sounds like torture. If you’ve read the comic and can make the connection with Grail Industries, it’s not hard to surmise that this is Herr Starr: one of Preacher’s best, unluckiest human villains.
Meanwhile, the two mysterious men try to explain to sheriff Root what they’re looking for and why they need it, a scene that unfortunately includes an unnecessary flashback of their deaths last week. In response to their confused and disjointed stories, the sheriff tells them a story about a family who, in the rush to find one of their children (who had just gotten lost near one of the rides), lost their other two kids to a pretzel vendor who murders and butchers them. It’s part of the sheriff’s general lamentation of how crazy the world is, but it also serves as a reminder that the best intentions are often punished on Preacher.
Someone with surprisingly positive intentions this week, at least at first: Donnie. We know the guy is violent, but the thing that set his conflict with Jesse in motion –his ostensible abuse of his wife – still appears to have been a misunderstanding over some rather intense sexual proclivities, something he tries to explain to his son in one of the most awkward conversations this side of Freaks and Geeks. Imagine trying to explain to a child that some people enjoy pain during sex, and that it’s a perfectly natural preference… that his parents share.
‘Grown ups are complicated’
The rest of Annville is reeling from the initial effects of Jesse’s Word. After the comatose girl from last week literally opens her eyes (but does not regain full consciousness), she becomes just another person fueling the rumors surrounding Jesse. And Linus the paedophilic bus driver doesn’t remember Janey, the object of his affections, in the slightest. Thankfully, Jesse has someone to talk about it, because he’s decided to tell Cassidy about his abilities.
Shot from below, grinning, Jesse looks a little villainous, or at least rakish during this scene – he’s testing out the limits of his vocal commands. Among them: The Word is hyper-literal, works within the boundaries of language, and can’t compel anyone to do anything they’re not capable of doing. Cassidy doesn’t know who the governor of Texas is, and Jesse’s power won’t help him find out. He also can’t fly, even if Jesse tells him to. Cassidy has some thoughts about what happened (including either a Bourne Identity situation or Jesse being a Jedi), but primarily wants his friend to use his powers for self-interest.
On her way back, Tulip gets pulled over for a speeding ticket and, pretending to be a veteran, she gets off with a warning by going on a speech about trying to help her friend making “really bad life decisions”. (This is ironic, of course, because the bad life decisions involve being a man of God and trying to be a good person.) So Tulip returns from Houston in time to confront Jesse yet again, raising the possibility that God just might be “the all-time home run king of promise breakers” in her attempt to persuade him to kill someone named Carlos. Jesse agrees: Carlos is that important to him. In two noir-style flashback of Tulip and Jesse looking far more made-up, we see the aftermath of a job gone wrong, an apparently murderous disaster that precipitated Jesse leaving the game they were in and going back to Annville.
‘This isn’t crime, Preacher. This is justice’
Newly prepared for battle, the mysterious men make another play for the entity inside Jesse, only for Cassidy to kill them again, before they come right back. They’re angels, it turns out, coming from the “government” only in the sense that Heaven governs over everyone. And they want whatever is inside Jesse. Cassidy convinces them to just leave it to him get Jesse to give up the power – but we don’t see the two of them discuss it.
Instead, Jesse and Tulip stop at a gas station on the way, and when Jesse goes to pee, he finds Donnie waiting for him in the bathroom. (The broken thug may be trying to be kinder with his son, but he’s still being humiliated at work by Quincannon, and the boy informs him that he’s become a bit of a joke around town.) Jesse, having removed his collar, seems ready to leave Donnie dead and rotting in the bathroom.
Instead, Jesse has a change of heart yet again, allows Donnie to live, panting with a gun in his mouth rather than splattered on the floor. There are some things he just won’t do, things he can’t go back to. Collar firmly back in place, Jesse reneges on the murder, initiating yet another fight with Tulip. He claims to be staying in Texas, and since Tulip won’t leave without him, it looks like they’ll be arguing about it for some time. First, though, Jesse has to oversee the sparsely attended funeral of poor Ted Reyerson – with a brief, potent glimpse of his father’s own grave.
Notes from the nave
Tom Cruise’s funeral happens (he was killed by Genesis in episode one), and was apparently quite well attended.
It looks like one of Cassidy’s big secrets is that he likes Justin Bieber, which makes sense given his haircut.
Quincannon doesn’t appear much in the episode, but he does insult Donnie as “a right hand man, with no right hand.”
… and the schoolchildren are apparently mature enough to understand that they should not be interacting with their bus driver. One of them tells Janey, “Looks like Mr Creepy Weirdo forgot all about you.”
Obligatory Johnny Cash song
We don’t get one this week! Jesse tries to force Cassidy to sing Johnny Cash using his power, but the vampire just belts the words, “Me some Johnny Cash,” which might (very improbably) been a riff on this. Although he is a Bieber fan …
Scripture of the week
At the funeral, Jesse quotes Corinthians, 1:15-51:
- Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
Things are certainly changing around Annville.
Cassidy kill count
Cassidy has two semi-kills this week, running over the angels with the church van. (They’re semi-kills because, well, we know they’re coming back.) This puts him at a total of nine for the season, with four of those overlapping and unlikely to stick –unless he can find a way to permanently terminate agents of God. This is getting tricky.
