Back into it! This episode is called “Sundowner” so I’m guessing something or someone will be going down at the local motel. Given that this show has a vampire character, it could also be related to him. I have my glass of communion wine at the ready, so let’s find out…
The week’s episode opens with a continuation of the scene we started last episode. The Heavenly Emissaries Who Like Hats are explaining to Jesse that the power he has is definitely not from God but they won’t say what it is because that would be too helpful. So Jesse lays The Word on them and whaddaya know, it works on them too.
The one that isn’t Fiore lays it all out – the denizens of Heaven and Hell, perpetually at war for all time, and yet one from each side fall in love, do the nasty, and because nobody gave them the safe sex talk, Genesis happens. Or as Jesse calls it a Demon-Angel…baby?
If by “baby” you mean the most powerful entity ever known. The singular force that could shift the balance of power, threaten all of creation…then yeah, it’s a baby.
I bet this guy’s super fun at dinner parties.
But Fiore’s spotted something fishy about one of the other diners and off the two trot to sort it out. They corner her in the parking lot and start kicking the crap out of her which prompts the Preacher to try and intervene. This is a massive mistake as Ms Cardigan-Khaki-combo is unnaturally strong.
Fortunately Fiore blows a hole in her head. So that’s that, or is it? Because after they load her body into their car, retrieve her “phone” (another suitably bakelite looking piece of tech) and a wanted poster, there’s a flash of light inside the diner and out she walks again much to the amazement of Jesse Custer who probably thought that was a trick that only Jesus could do.
Unfortunately Fiore left his keys in the diner so they need to take Jesse’s truck before the Soccer Mom version of Zoe Bell squeezes their windpipes into dust.
That was a Seraphim, an angel of the first order and they like order, control and peace (and violence). Meanwhile our angels need to get to Lubbock where there’s a direct line phone, yes, Jesse to Heaven. Keep up. No, no you can’t call using the phone because you don’t have a long distance carrier angel hands.
Back at the diner, the Seraph gets their keys, and detectives her way through the car, quickly discovering that they’re at the Sundowner Motel.
At said establishment our lower level angels are trying to explain to Jesse the hierarchy of heavenly beings. The wanted poster was of them Fiore and Deblanc (so that’s his name – that took long enough). They don’t have permission to be down on Earth. They’re AWOL, but for now the Seraphim don’t know about Genesis but once they do…whoooo boy.
Jesse reckons he’ll just use the power if they come looking but Deblanc (it feels good to use his name, guys) is adamant – Genesis is a scandal and a well-hidden secret – if others come to know of it they’ll try to claim it for their own purposes. It should not be used by anyone. He’ll sing to it, it’ll come out and they’ll be on their way. Yep. That’ll definitely happen.
Fiore smashes one of the Heaven Hotlines, then there’s a knock at the door and it could be towels or it could be a “turnabout is fair play” hole in the head for Fiore. It’s the second one.
She takes out Deblanc and then trains her gun on Jesse who calmly slides her the only working phone. She loses focus for a moment and Jesse takes the opportunity to get the jump on her but his punches aren’t doing much but mussing her hair whereas hers have a touch more impact.
Luckily a rebooted Fiore comes charging in…only to get taken out by another headshot within seconds.
Jesse struggles with the Seraph on the floor having acquired a large knife, and a third Fiore comes in to help but fails to stop Jesse from slicing the Seraph’s throat. Meanwhile Deblanc’s in a corner bleeding heavily but not mortally so Fiore bashes his head in, and he gets rebooted. It’s all a bit much for Jesse, understandably.
But he’s processing quickly and wants to know what this getting rebooted feels like. Apparently nothing special but there’s some variation in how and where it happens. Can be straight away and in the same place, can take some time. So they’re all poised for the Seraph to be back pretty soon.
Fiore thinks he can hear something next door, and this guy is really not having a good day, because he gets a nut punch through the wall and one in the face to follow. Deblanc just gets a throat grab and Jesse fires the Seraph’s gun, not to kill, but he does anyway. The Seraph comes back straight away and Fiore cops it again before the three men all try to restrain, rather than kill, the woman.
Which doesn’t work very well because the bodies of angels just keep piling up on the motel room floor. It’s bloody ridiculous, anarchic, and over the top.
Hello, and welcome to Preacher.
After the opening credits, Cassidy turns up to the party, is mildly annoyed no one thought to invite him earlier, and shoots the Seraph in the head. NICE ONE, DICKHEAD.
As an aside, how weird must it be as an actor to spend your day rolling around on the floor on replicas of your own dead body? That must be one for the journal, surely?
Finally, with all four of them there they manage to knock her out and Fiore goes powertooly on it and “disarticulates” her, which I presume means she can’t come back, but why, when Cassidy cut up Fiore and Deblanc in an earlier episode and they came back?
But nevermind the questions, Cassidy has mistaken Genesis for the Phil Collins one, because of course he has. And Christ, that motel room is going to need a shit-tonne of spray and wipe.
But Jesse wants to know just what relationship Fiore and Deblanc have with Genesis. They’re it’s “custodians” but it escaped – they don’t know how and they don’t know why it picked Jesse.
But Jesse thinks he should keep Genesis because it’s a puppy that just needs to be loved and can he keep it, pretty please? It might still be God’s plan for him to have it and if God doesn’t want him to have Genesis he can come take it himself. Fiore and Deblanc protest, of course, but Jesse uses The Voice to tell them to stay away from him and they stop in their tracks. Fiore is keen on the non-singing option on retrieval but Deblanc shuts him down.
At the high school Eugene is amazed to find that he is not universally reviled any longer, as someone actually says hello to him.
At Emily’s house her daughter has a temperature, and her living room has an angry Tulip in it who wants her to Stay Away from Her Boyfriend. She then throws the nearest item, which is an odd looking ceramic, before stalking out. After cleaning up, Emily gets up the gumption to go out to Tulip’s car and tell her off for breaking her kid’s “art thing” which prompts Tulip to turn up at the door again, this time offering to fix it.
Tulip may be batshit but she does at least have a soft spot for the chidluns, it seems.
Elsewhere the Mayor is pondering the murder of four Green Acres executives and how he’s going to explain that, as well as which tan slacks he should wear. Life is full of quandaries, isn’t it?
At Emily’s kitchen table Tulip is doing a fair job of putting the art thing back together with superglue. She and Emily make awkward chitchat. Tulip turns down a beer because it’s 10 in the morning. Meanwhile, kudos for Ems for not being terrified and standing up for herself. And doing the laundry, because somebody has to, amirite Mums?
Jess and Cass have headed back to the church.
And speaking of laundry they are doing some washing of their own. I hope that’s a cold wash, boys, because blood washes out best in cold. Also, the apparently the Tarantino references in episode 5 were too subtle because now they’re flat out telling us which of Q’s films this is referencing, in the case Pulp Fiction.
Jesse is Vinnie Vega but Cassidy’s happy to be Samuel L Jackson who’s “a proper hard man”. Then they have a beer at 10 in the morning and discuss how Cass is an idiot for thinking Deblanc and Fiore were “clone people” as if “regenerating angels” was likely to have popped into his head as an option. Then they compare tattoos. Jesse has a Tulip on his back (how true is that?) which Cassidy thinks is lovely… ah-ha.
Showing an uncharacteristic level of commonsense Cassidy thinks that Jesse should just do what the angels reckon and not fuck about with this Genesis stuff, nor is he particularly convinced that this is all in God’s plan. But Jesse’s keeping Genesis and he wants to do more with it so what could possibly go wrong?
At the high school there are more converts to Team Arseface as Eugene gets company for lunch.
In Emily’s kitchen the gals are bonding over Tulip’s tales of glamour that involve puncturing Elizabeth Taylor’s car tyres with a corkscrew for insufficient tipping. Emily is obviously jealous at how much Tulip has seen of the world, and as Emily goes to her sick daughter, there’s a hint of wistfulness to Tulip too, for a life she might have had, perhaps?
They discuss Jesse. Emily’s surprised that he’s suddenly so popular. She wants to ask Tulip something about him but her daughter pipes up again, and she’s got so much to get done. Kids, eh? So Tulip offers to babysit, and Emily clearly doesn’t feel that comfortable about it. She questions Tulip about whether she’s had experience.
Well, I had a kid once, does that count? Was one of the things that Tulip called Carlos a “child-murderer”? Yes it was. Oh man, I think that backstory is going to be bad.
Anyways, they settle on Tulip running a few church errands while Emily stays at home to care for her daughter. Let’s hope she fares better than the last mommy in this show who did that. *shudder*
At the church Jesse is nailing something up and Cassidy thinks it’s a very bad idea and if Cassidy thinks it’s a bad idea then it’s downright lunacy. But Jesse is determined that he has this power for a reason and that God doesn’t make mistakes.
God may not make mistakes but people are bloody famous for it!
Cassidy is like Cassandra. Destined not to be listened to even when he’s talking sense.
Yup. It’s a loud speaker.
Emily has given her new buddy a list of errands and as Tulip pulls away in her car, you get the sense the Emily may be regretting putting that much communion wine in the trunk of her car.
She’s not the only one with new, possibly not trustworthy friends, as Eugene is peer-pressured into some trespassing and illicit fireworks appreciation.
Jesse is setting up folding chairs outside the church when Mayor Miles arrives looking a tad constipated. In the soul, as it were. He needs advice. How does he know if the voice in his head is God or just his own voice? Jesse says they’re different and you’d know one from t’other.
Then Tulip turns up, communion wine and programmes in tow. Cue a confused Jesse.
She stows the stuff in the storeroom and Cassidy follows in, assuming that she’s there to see him since they have recently had adult relations in the back seat of her car. Never underestimate the luck fuck of the Irish. But disappointment awaits as it soon becomes clear that she’s Jesse’s Tulip and he looks nothing short of crestfallen. Tulip forces him to hide behind the door when Jesse comes to check on her, still rather incredulous that she’s running errands at Emily’s behest. Jesse shuts the door and Cassidy hides in the dark, suddenly aware that he is not the hero or even anti-hero of this story, but the comedy side-kick.
Day turns into night turns into day and Jesse is preparing to open the doors to a bumper crop of Sunday souls. In a quiet moment he finally thanks Emily for all her hard work, but acknowledges Tulip in the same breath who turned up 5 minutes ago. He giveth with one hand, Emily, and he taketh with the other. Sigh.
By way of passive aggressive payback, Emily says she’ll send in Eugene, who wants a chat, directly contradicting an earlier request from Jesse that he catch up with him later. Just tell him he’s being a dick, Emily. Or write a note on a post-it and stick it on his windshield… SOMETHING.
Eugene’s problem, other than his caved in face, is that he’s guilty and he doesn’t think he deserves to be forgiven, at least not that way that Jesse’s fixed it, which amounts to cheating the system. So I guess Eugene’s a bit more clued up than a lot of the congregation. He’s actually figured out that Jesse is wielding an uncanny power.
Jesse takes this as a stunning lack of gratitude and wonders if Eugene just doesn’t want to be happy. Everything he’s doing is God’s will. Uh-huh. So not just the standard, garden variety hubris, then? Okaaaaaay.
But actually it’s worse than that. He only wants to save the town because he made a promise and once he does that he’ll be free. So it IS cheating. He’s using a cheat code to salvation. Game over.
And Eugene, who is suddenly a philosopher, or maybe he always has been, points out that you can’t force someone to see the light. They have to choose for themselves. Free will yadda-yadda. Forcing someone is a sin.
And it all gets a bit heated. Jesse is angry and tells Eugene to go to Hell.
Uh-oh.
And suddenly where Eugene was is nothing but the programme he’d been holding. Oh FUCK, son. You really screwed that one up, Preacher. Way to go against your goddamn “mission statement”.
And the next shot is a doozy that makes you think Eugene’s predicament is all too corporeal for a moment. But actually those are the burned bodies of the Green Acres Group execs and Mayor Miles is making excuses over the phone about not calling back sooner and also, there’s been an unfortunately motor vehicle accident and your CEO et all are a tad more crispy than they used to be.
Well this episode has been about a million times better than all the others with the action and weirdness ratcheting up signficantly. I definitely did not see the Eugene twist coming too, so a nice surprise there. And the characters are coming along, though for me Jesse is still the weakest link. But Fiore and Deblanc, Cassidy, Tulip and Emily keep getting more layered and interesting with each passing episode.
The next episode is called He Gone, and yup, it looks like he is. He coming back, ya think?