In this episode of Preacher, “Sundowner,” Jesse is confronted further by DeBlanc and Fiore, and has to decide what to do with his power now that he knows more about it. Plus, Tulip and Emily get to know each other, and Miles does something terrible.
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“It Isn’t God”
Continuing where they left off in the previous episode of Preacher, Jesse, Fiore and DeBlanc continue discussing the strange new power Jesse has that the other two men want back. They explain to him that it isn’t God at all, contrary to his belief. In fact, it’s the byproduct of a forbidden relationship between an angel and a demon during the Endless War that Heaven and Hell fought. Its name? Genesis. Go figure.
Of course, DeBlanc only tells Jesse this because he uses his power to demand that he does so. This will also come in handy for him in dealing with them later, but first, the two realize that during their conversation in the diner, they have an eavesdropper – a seraphim who leaves to go out to her car and use another special phone to call Heaven. They follow her, and when she won’t listen to them when they try to explain that they just need one more day to complete their mission, they start beating her up.
Jesse, alarmed by this, runs out and tries to stop them, and in the ensuing struggle, Fiore shoots and kills her. Jesse is completely shocked as they put her body in his truck, but they explain that she’s actually not dead — just as an identical woman makes her way out of the restaurant and over to them.
As they drive away, Fiore and DeBlanc explain that angels can be brought back through a process called reinvigoration, so they need to hide away from that seraphim and from any others who may try to find them. They also explain that the phone they have, which they stole from her, can only be used by angels to call Heaven.
Meanwhile, that seraphim goes back in and finds Fiore’s car keys, makes her way to their car and finds a Bible inside — with a note inside saying that it’s from the motel Fiore and DeBlanc are staying in. Whoops.
Come and Get It
Fiore and DeBlanc also explain to a questioning Jesse that they don’t actually have permission to be going after Genesis, which is why that seraphim is after them. They tell him that Genesis must remain a secret, one that both angels and demons who aren’t already in the know can’t be informed of, and they smash their own special phone so there’s less chance of them being found. Of course, just then, the seraphim comes to their door and shoots Fiore through the keyhole when he investigates. Yikes.
She quickly kills both angels, but Jesse tricks her into getting her gun knocked away when he offers her the phone that was stolen from her. A fight follows, during which DeBlanc, Fiore and the seraphim are all killed and revived numerous times to a rather comedic effect.
They continue to fight, with DeBlanc yelling periodically that they have to merely restrain her rather than kill her, when Cassidy shows up and gets involved as well. Finally, Fiore manages to “restrain” her in another room (it’s not totally clear how, but I think it probably involves being cut up somehow — eek), so all four are left to decide what to do next while surrounded by numerous dead bodies.
The two men from Heaven explain that they’re merely custodians of Genesis and don’t actually know why it came to Jesse. Ultimately, Jesse decides to keep it, much to their displeasure. He thinks God wants him to have it, and since DeBlanc and Fiore are just “custodians,” he doesn’t think they can really know what God wants done with Genesis anyway.
Jesse tells them that if God wants the power back, he can come and get it. But for now, he’s keeping it. And though they warn him about consequences, Jesse and Cassidy make their way outside, and finally Jesse orders the other two men to stay away from him and they have to do it. So they’re left without Genesis and without a way to get in touch with Heaven, and Jesse is left with the mysterious Genesis still inside him.
Tulip and Emily = BFFs
Meanwhile, Tulip storms her way over to Emily’s house, where the church organist is taking care of her sick daughter. Tulip barges in, smashes an art project that one of Emily’s kids made and demands that the other woman stay away from her boyfriend, before she stomps her way back out to her car, to poor Emily’s confusion.
But when the other woman sees that Tulip is still sitting in her driveway, she goes out and confronts her, informing her that the item she smashed was made by one of her kids, before angrily going back inside. Tulip goes back and says she’ll fix it, and Emily lets her in to do so.
The two women bond while Tulip glues the project back together, and Emily works on various church tasks in between being called to her daughter’s sickbed. Finally, after chatting for a while, Tulip offers to watch Emily’s daughter while Emily gets her long list of church tasks done. Emily is wary at first, asking if she even has experience with kids, and Tulip reveals that she had a child of her own once. Ultimately, Emily gives Tulip her list of errands to run, and she drives off to do them.
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Mistakes and Miles
Jesse and Cassidy wash their bloody clothes back at Jesse’s place, and the two compare tattoos while drinking beer as they wait for the clothes to be done. It’s during this conversation that Cassidy sees a tattoo of a tulip on Jesse’s back, but he doesn’t make the connection until later.
While Cassidy talks to Jesse at the house and later at the church, he tries to convince Jesse that maybe he shouldn’t keep Genesis after all. But Jesse isn’t having any of it, claiming that God doesn’t make mistakes and he thinks he’s meant to possess it. It doesn’t seem like anything anyone says will keep Jesse from giving up Genesis, but I think we’ll learn that it all may depend on the cost.
After their conversations, Jesse manages to rig a speaker to the outside of the church, presumably so an overflow crowd can hear his sermon from outside since he also works on setting up chairs in front of the building. While he’s doing this, Miles walks up, clearly troubled, and Jesse asks him what’s up. Miles won’t go into it, only saying that he’s thinking of doing something really wrong.
Jesse, of course, can’t advise the Mayor without further information, but he’s not very forthcoming about his problem. All the preacher really gets out of him is that he thinks doing the right thing might actually hurt more people and that Miles can’t even be sure that when he prays for direction, it’s really God answering him or the voice in the back of his mind.
Before anything is resolved, Tulip shows up, and Jesse is distracted just long enough for Miles to slip away. But we know he’s got to do something about the Green Acres situation, since the company keeps calling him and he has yet to answer their messages.
Revelations
Inside, Tulip puts some items Emily asked her to pick up away in the church storage closet. Cassidy finds her there and closes her in to tease her about not being able to stay away from him. She’s confused by his presence, and when he explains that he works there and asks why she’s there, he quickly realizes that she’s there because she is Jesse’s Tulip.
Tulip quickly hides the vampire behind the door when Jesse approaches, and they have a quick conversation about a golf club that apparently has some significance, before Tulip leaves and Jesse follows without seeing Cassidy. Poor Cassidy is left looking a little distraught back in the closet — did he care more about Tulip than he let on or does he feel badly for getting with Jesse’s girl? Or could it be both?
Fire and Brimstone
Elsewhere, Eugene is suddenly being accepted and included in things by the other boys at school, as a result of Jesse’s demand that he be forgiven for whatever he did to the Loach girl. They take him on an adventure to a large sewer tunnel of some sort, where they set off fireworks and Eugene is left in awe by the display.
But Jesse is very unsettled by the change. And on Sunday, before church, Emily tells Jesse that he’s outside and would like to speak to the preacher. Already facing some disapproval from Emily over his methods of bringing people to church, he doesn’t go into the private conversation with the boy with the best attitude before services.
When Eugene tells Jesse that he wants Jesse to take “it” back, Jesse is confused and a little ticked off. “I don’t want to be forgiven,” he says, and he means that he doesn’t like the way the whole thing went down — it feels like cheating to him, he explains.
Jesse gets angry with Eugene, suggesting that he doesn’t even want to be happy and that he doesn’t know why the boy keeps coming to him. He swears that what he did for Eugene and what he’s going to do next are God’s will. And when Eugene questions what he’s planning, Jesse exclaims that he’s going to “save the whole damn town!”
Eugene disapproves of Jesse’s methods, saying that people need to be allowed to choose and have free will, that the way Jesse is doing it is wrong and a sin, and finally the preacher has had enough. He turns away from the boy and yells at him to go to Hell. Suddenly, the boy is gone. Apparently, even the afterlife isn’t too far out of Jesse Custer’s reach.
And somewhere out on the highway outside of Annville, Miles makes a phone call to Green Acres, faking recent knowledge of a terrible car crash behind him — the car in question is holding the charred bodies of the Green Acres employees that Odin Quincannon killed in the last episode. He may claim it to be an accident, but we all know the truth. Did Miles make the right choice in the end?
Preacher airs every Sunday night at 9pm on AMC.
(Image courtesy of AMC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
