Preacher – Mumbai Sky Tower

By: Kelly Kearney

Mumbai Sky Tower picks up right were the premiere left off with Jesse (Dominic Cooper), Tulip (Ruth Negga) and Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) on a mission to find God with the deadly Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish) hot on their trail. The episode also gives a look at what happened to the angel Fiore (Tom Brooke) and how his failure to kill Genesis lead him to a suicidal life as a magician. The episode speeds through the entire forty-five minutes like a freight train of violence and gore and that’s just how the “Preacher” fans like it!

This Cowboy Won’t Fall!

When we last saw Jesse, he was staring down the barrel of the Saint of Killer’s gun and no amount of Genesis could stop him. Apparently, not only is the cowboy immune to Jesse’s talents he’s also immune to massive amounts of gun fire. We find this out when a group of visiting gun club enthusiasts come to Jesse’s rescue armed with massive rounds of bullets and an itch to blow something away. Luckily, the killer was pinned by a truck after it’s driver took one of the cowboy’s bullets that was meant for Jesse. Was it luck or a higher power that stepped in to save the preacher’s life?  Jesse seems stunned. Who wouldn’t be after seeing an unstoppable man get crushed by a truck? Unfortunately, the crash doesn’t keep this hired hit man down for long and that’s when the gun toting group unloads their magazines into the Saint of Killers. The killer shakes the bullets off like snowflakes and keeps approaching forward while Cassidy runs outside to see if his friend is okay. Thankfully, Jesse listens to the vampire and doesn’t try stopping the Saint on his own. That job lands squarely on a small woman holding a grenade launcher. Eventually, Cassidy and Jesse get away but not before the entire gun club is reduced to a bloody pile of bodies, the hotel is a burning ash heap and the Saint of Killers is hardly worse for wear.

Since the meeting with Tammy (Jeanette O’Connor) was a bust (no thanks to Cassidy), the Vampire feels guilty for screwing up his friend’s mission and begs to let him help. He says the man they need to talk to is the angel Fiore and Cassidy knows exactly where the disgraced holy being has been hiding out.

Mumbai Sky Tower

After Fiore failed to rip Genesis from Jesse and his friend DeBlanc (Anatol Yusef) died in the process, the man fell into a hopeless sea of drinking, drugs and destructive behaviors that eventually led to endless suicide attempts. Over and over he tries various methods of killing himself but as we learned last season, angels can’t die. They just get resurrected and the only being with the power to take down an angel has been too busy trying to kill Jesse.

Fiore’s sad and comedic inability to end tings leads him to career as a magician where his adoring fans love the angel’s death defying act. From being sawed in half to shot in the head with an arrow, there is no death too fantastic for his audience. With the adulation of his fans, one would think Fiore had found some semblance of happiness; however, when our three anti-heroes arrive at his show it’s very clear he’s resigned himself to a lifetime as a freakish stage performer. One step up from carnie work and 100 steps down from his usual gig as a heavenly messenger of God.

Fiore might not reveal his secrets as a magician, but he does reveal to Jesse that he was the one who hired the Saint of Killers after he knew Jesse wouldn’t stop using the power of Genesis. That’s when Cassidy steps in with drugs to try and convince the sullen angel to change his mind. The two go off to a hotel room where they speedball like something out of a scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thanks to some drugged out hotel room basketball, dips in the room’s hot tub, homemade pillow forts and all-around debauchery Fiore’s mind is finally changed. The fact he develops a crush on Cassidy certainly helps his decision to call off his killer cowboy and Cassidy’s plan (for once) is a complete success. The two men hug goodbye with the understanding that Fiore will call of the hit and, for now, our threesome will be safe to search for the missing God.

The Engagement

With all the death surrounding Jesse and his friends, the preacher decides on a whim to ask Tulip to marry him. What better place to ask than the Vegas strip that’s chocked full of cheesy wedding chapels and endless bad decisions? The proposal is awkward, but Tulip agrees to marry her preacher. Unfortunately, all that changes when she sees Gary (Michael Beasley).

Gary is someone Tulip knows from her past and while he appears to be friendly, things change when the two meet in Tulip and Jesse’s hotel room. Gary and a man named Viktor have been searching for Tulip and the man demands she call Viktor and let him know where she is. Tulip, who doesn’t take orders well on a good day, refuses to make the call and that’s when Gary goes from charming smile to abusive and homicidal. The two fight and somehow Tulip gets the edge by bashing Gary’s head in with a wedding chapel beeper, which just happens to light up to let her know that her impromptu wedding is about to begin. The hotel room is trashed and bloody, which shocks Cassidy who walks in to see the aftermath. Tulip makes him swear to keep quiet about Gary’s body while she changes out of her bloody clothes and into her wedding apparel.

In the chapel, Jesse waits patiently for his bride to be, but Tulip shows up and calls the whole thing off. I guess bashing in the brains of an old friend kind of kills the matrimony mood and Jesse halfheartedly agrees. The wedding is off, but the preacher is still in the dark about what Tulip’s been up to. They both decide to pick up their God mission with the only clue they got from Tammy, the jazz musician. Where would God go to get his full of great jazz? Well, the home of Jazz of course, New Orleans.

The Kill is Still a Go

It’s true that thanks to Cassidy, Fiore planned to call off the Saint of Killer’s deadly mission. But that all changed after a goodbye conversation with the preacher. Fiore insisted that Genesis is far more dangerous than Jesse realizes and the preacher shouldn’t use the power. Not to mention, the power itself is what draws the Saint of Killers to him like some unholy breadcrumb trail of death! Jesse agrees that he power could be dangerous, but he still plans on using it in a pinch. He says that Genesis is his calling and if it helps him find God, he won’t hesitate to use it. This makes Fiore’s decision easy and when the Saint of Killers shows up at the Mumbai Sky Tower, the sullen angel tells him Jesse and company are headed to New Orleans; the hit is still on. The information on Jesse doesn’t come free and he asks the killer cowboy for favor. Later that night, during his magic show, the Saint shoots Fiore dead in front a crowd of angry and clueless fans. Fiore finally got his wish to die, making his death even sadder when his beloved fans boo his final exit.

Will Jesse find God huddled in some New Orleans jazz club? Will Tulip run into Viktor down in the bayou and have to pay for killing Gary? Are all the people in Annville dead or did a few survive the heavenly explosion that wiped the town off the map? Find out the answer to this and more in the next episode of “Preacher.”