Preacher – He Gone

By: Kelly Kearney

Last week, Jesse (Dominic Cooper) crossed a line that he’s not going to easily come back from. Using his powers to turn Eugene (Ian Colletti) into a crispy memory was both vengeful and downright mean. This week, Jesse goes one step further by leaving us to wonder if evil is leading the fight against good.

You Get What You Wish For

Through a series of flashbacks, we found out that Jesse and Tulip (Ruth Negga) have known each other since they were kids. Tulip was taken in by Jesse’s preacher father James (Nathan Darrow) and struggled to fit in. Tulip, who’s not exactly your typical preacher’s kid, tried her best to assimilate with the Custer’s way of life, but in the end, James had Social Services take her away. When young Jesse demanded a reason for Tulip leaving, his father simply said, “‘cause she’s an O’Hare. There’s always gonna be trouble.” For Jesse, his father’s answer was no answer at all. Tulip was his best friend, confidant and family and her loss enraged the boy. That night, a heartbroken Jesse pleaded with God to kill his father. Children tend to be overly dramatic and pray for all kinds of things that will never happen, but this time Jesse’s prayer were answered. The elder Preacher Custer was shot in the head right in front of Jesse, but not before his father made him promise to grow up to be one of the “good guys.” There’s no doubt that witnessing his father’s murder traumatized young Jesse, but what about that prayer? Did God grant Jesse’s prayers? Did Jesse always have this power to make people do what he wants and if so, how is he just now realizing this?

What’s a Little Love Triangle Between Friends?

Cut to the present and Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) just witnessed his best friend incinerate Eugene and condemn him to hell. While the vampire doesn’t exactly have any room to judge Jesse, he questions if the man should hold onto the Genesis spirit inside him. He’s quickly gone from ex-criminal and local preacher to doling out judgments apocalyptic style. Genesis is changing him and it doesn’t appear to be in a good way. He seems to be barely holding his sanity together. Before the two best friends could discuss this in depth, Emily (Lucy Griffiths) pulls Jesse away and Tulip pops in with plans to make a homemade meal – one that seems to include hash brownies, which are right up her new lover’s alley. Wait lover? That’s right. Cassidy asks Tulip why, if Jesse is her boyfriend, did she make love to him? Make love? Who would’ve thought a whiskey guzzling blood sucker would be such a romantic and assume a one-night stand was true love? A confused Tulip tells the vampire that she didn’t mention their night together to her ex and he has no idea about her relationship with Jesse. She’s also pretty sure Jesse has no idea that his new BFF and handyman is vampire. Cassidy balked at her assumptions and tried to prove her wrong by blurting out the details of the preacher’s new found powers with Genesis.

Broken Deals and Awkward Meals

As Tulip and Cassidy play a round of “Who knows the preacher better,” over a burning batch of hash brownies, Jesse is having a one on one with Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Halev). It seems that Odin won the land bet he made with the holy man after all. Jesse promised to sign over his family’s land if he couldn’t convince Odin to surrender his life to the lord. Jesse, who used his powers to make Odin “see the light” failed. The powerful man seems to be impervious to his holy suggestions and so Jesse re-negs on the deal and refuses to sign the land over to Quincannon. Odin promises that this isn’t the end and he will be back to take what’s his. With the looming threat from Quincannon hanging over his head, Jesse heads back to the church to sit down for an awkward dinner with Cassidy, Tulip and Emily. They’re interrupted by Sheriff Root (W. Earle Brown), who shows up to tell them that Eugene is missing and he’d mentioned heading to the church to talk to the preacher. Jesse can’t exactly say that he turned the young man into a pile of ashes so he says he didn’t see him. Emily knows that’s a lie because she was the one who told Jesse that Eugene was at All Saints and wanted to speak with him. She mentions it to the sheriff, forcing Jesse to admit he did meet with Eugene. Quick on his feet, the preacher claims he forgot about the meeting and assures the sheriff that Eugene was fine when he left the church. Emily, who has romantic feelings for Jesse, covers for him and says she too saw Eugene leave All Saints. Sheriff Root leaves having no idea his son is a pile of ashes on the floor of the chapel.

Burn, Baby Burn

After Sheriff Root leaves, Cassidy confronts Jesse about Eugene as he knows that he killed the teen when he ordered him to go to hell. He says Eugene was just a confused kid who didn’t deserve to be a deep fried corpse on the floor of All Saints. Jesse doesn’t agree and tells him that better men than Eugene have been condemned to hell. He explains by saying that Eugene deserved to be punished for what he did to Tracey Loach. Apparently, Eugene had a crush on Tracey and when she rejected his romantic advances he shot her in the head and then turned the gun on himself. This was what resulted in her brain death and his disfigurement. Cassidy has sympathy for the now dead boy and reminds the preacher that they’ve all made mistakes. They’re best friends and yet Cassidy is a drug abusing drunk who spends more time at the local brothel then he does changing lightbulbs at All Saints. Does that mean he deserves to be punished, too? That’s when Cassidy throws Jesse a fire extinguisher, takes off his shirt and dramatically comes out to his best friend as a vampire. Like all vampires, Cassidy starts to burn under the sun and asks his friend, “Will you let me burn, too?”

Vengeance is Served

Thanks to Jesse’s Genesis powers, he’s succeeded in pushing everyone away. After Cassidy’s big fiery reveal, the preacher angrily confronts Tulip and asks her if she knew about his vampirism. Jesse has completely lost it and is becoming downright mean and abusive to his friends. Tulip leaves rather than take another minute of his abuse and then he turns on Emily. The poor woman admits that since Jesse’s return to Annville she’s fallen in love with him, but Jesse mocks her mercilessly. He tells her, “Well that was stupid,” hurting the woman’s feelings and probably questioning what she ever saw in him. In maybe the only decent idea Jesse’s had since Genesis took over his life, he starts tearing up the floor boards of the church in hopes to rescue Eugene from hell. Obviously, Jesse is completely delusional so while he’s searching for a way to hell, he doesn’t notice the commotion outside. Odin is approaching the church, riding atop a bulldozer alongside an army of Quinncannon employees ready to demolish All Saints and claim the land as his own. Has Jesse finally met his match in the powerful businessman? Why didn’t Odin succumb to Genesis’ demands to turn to God? Did Jesse save Cassidy or is the drugged out vampire eternally burnt? All these questions and more will be answered on the next episode of “Preacher.”