When Preacher opens in black and white, I always get excited – I love the flashbacks because they fill in so many interesting details about our main characters and the events that shaped their lives. In this episode, we see a teenaged Jesse hustling a vice-principal, the latter of whom has realized that his relations with one of his students could derail his career. He wants Gran’ma to cast a spell to make the girl forget about him, and he assures Jesse that he’ll pay up. Fast forward a bit, and the VP is thrilled with the results – but he’s short on his payment. Jesse lets him know that is a BIG problem, but he doesn’t seem to get it, until he is chased by Jody and T.C. in a truck, then beaten and brought to Gran’ma’s house. A machine is wheeled in that will extract the delinquent client’s soul, and Jesse starts to leave the room – but Gran’ma says it’s about time he saw the process. We don’t see it, but we hear it. It sounds like it hurts. A lot.
In the present day, Jesse has hatched a plan to get out of Angelville and out from under both Gran’ma’s thumb AND the Grail’s. He calls Starr (who is trying to unload Humperdoo on some Hare Krishnas but ends up shooting them all) and tells him he’s ready to be the Messiah so Starr will come to Angelville and bring the rest of Jesse’s soul. Once he has that, Jesse plans to use his Genesis power and any other tools at his disposal to take everyone out. Cassidy and Tulip work to distract the Angelville crew by picking a fight with a rival family. All the while, Jesse and Cassidy are at each other’s throats, and Tulip isn’t getting any answers about why. Cassidy is still trying to win her over, though, saying that he’s not leaving without Tulip and getting goo-goo ga-ga eyes when she tells him she loves him (platonically, I assume…especially since she and Jesse share a “till the end of the world” moment earlier in the episode).
This episode had a lot of funny bits – T.C. and Cassidy bond over their shared love of illicit substances, but T.C. goes too far and describes his Lucy Liu rape fantasy dream. Cassidy asks him if he’s the worst person in the place, and T.C., without hesitation, assures him that he is definitely not. Hey, Jesse warned him! Cassidy also explains his strange attire as a consequence of his having skin cancer, and he delves into controversial territory when he expresses his disdain for The Big Lebowski.
The funniest part to me was when Starr and Jesse sit across the kitchen table from one another, and Starr asks Jesse to talk about his feelings. Pip Torrens is a freakin’ MASTER of deadpan. Starr also makes Jesse think he’s gotten his Genesis powers back after he consumes what he thinks is his missing piece of soul, but alas, it was a placebo and he was just having some good clean fun at the expense of the preacher. Starr has every contingency covered, as any good leader would, though he confesses to Jesse that he is not at the top of the food chain (which is the first mention we get of the Allfather, a character I cannot WAIT to meet).
Unfortunately, Tulip is still sore about the white-suited ones shooting her, so when she sees Jesse and Starr approaching a vehicle (where Starr has Jesse’s actual soul), she starts shooting at everyone. Starr escapes, Jesse doesn’t get his soul back, and now they are stuck in Angelville until they can figure out their next move. Tulip is upset, thinking that she, like her father, cannot do anything right. The good news is that Tulip finally remembers (and we finally see) what God said to her before she came back to life: “I’m counting on you to get those sons of bitches!”
Which sons of bitches exactly? Oh – and what’s up with our friend the vice-principal being shackled up in Gran’ma’s “tombs”? Perhaps we’ll find out next week…but you can shout out your theories in the comments!
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