Cassidy and Tulip also were a secret item, trying to keep their coupling secret from Jesse for the time being, continuing the bizarre love triangle between a vampire, a biblically super powered former-gangster-turned-preacher, and a hotheaded badass name Tulip. Would the affair remain a secret?
Also, where was Quinncannon last week? Looks like we also get some answered for that as well?
Let’s take a look at the Preacher episode “He Gone.”
The title is assumed to reference Eugene “Arseface” Root, who sits out this episode on the account that he was banished to Hell by Jesse. However the true person who is “gone” this episode is Jesse, who is really getting high on himself. If you weren’t clear that Jesse is turning into the villain, it’s quite clear this episode.
The episode begins right where last week ended, but right after Eugene’s disappearance, the camera pans up to Cassidy, who happened to see the entire sequence of Jesse yelling at Eugene and then sending him to Hell. Would this make Cassidy realize that he has to be the one to try and stop Jesse, or would he try to “save” him and bring him back to the good side? Jesse proceeds to continue like it’s no big deal, having sweet old Eugene vanish into thin air and proceeds with his planned church service. Eugene’s father is in the audience, and it’s quite clear he’s missing. You couldn’t help but mutter “Awwww” during that scene.
While some past episode has had pretty cool flashbacks, like following The Saint of Killers, as well as brief flashbacks into Jesse’s past either during his days when he was running with Tulip, or his father’s death. However, this episode gives a lot of time to finally peeling the onion on Jesse and Tulip. You get to see why the two are truly soulmates as they have pretty much been buddies throughout most of their lives. Tulip and Jesse got involved with a fight with bullies, where we get to learn how Donny lost his nipple thanks to a friendly bite from Tulip. Upon leaving the principal’s office Jesse’s father agrees to take Tulip back with them due to her mother being in jail and him uncle being a drunk (we also get to see a little bit of Tulip defending and taking care of her uncle in a later scene). The two bond spending so much time at Jesse’s house but ultimately Jesse’s father calls social services to come and take her away. The heartbreaking scene where she is taken away then angers young Jesse to where he prays that God will kill his father.
While we don’t get to see or hear why Jesse’s father is killed, but that scene is played again. This time, we get to see a little bit of the buildup to Jesse’s father getting beaten up with Jesse hiding under his bed and then to the final scene where his father is murdered giving the speech to his son about being good… something that Jesse should revisit so he can snap out of his craziness.
Meanwhile, Cassidy and Tulip share a moment where he tells her that he did not tell Jesse about what happened between the two of them. The two get into a brief argument about who knows Jesse better. The truth is, that neither knows him as good as they think they should. Tulip is unaware of Jesse’s new powers, and Cassidy doesn’t even know that Jesse’s a John Wayne fanatic. Tulip asks Cassidy of he has told Jesse that he’s a vampire. We know he has told Jesse, but Jesse doesn’t believe him, so she dares him to just flat out tell him the truth.
Jesse and Quinncannon see each other, but this time, it is not a friendly chat. As we figured out last week, Quinncannon is immune to Jesse’s powers. Although Jesse made a bet to sell the farm over to Quinncannon if he came to church and was converted, looks like Jesse is welching on the bet. In Jesse’s defense, there was no legal contract signed beforehand. However, Jesse’s confrontational hubris doesn’t help him in any way. Quinncannon is one of the most powerful people in town, and its best not to cross him as those business people two weeks ago found out. Quinncannon simply walks away, but you know it’s not going to end well.
Tulip, Jesse, Cassidy, and Emily have dinner at the church and at it, you could almost hear a pin drop. I kept waiting for Jesse to find out that Tulip and Cassidy “made love” as Cassidy put it. But before that could happen Eugene’s father Sheriff Root comes to the church asking if they have seen Eugene. Jesse lies to the sheriff but is immediately called on it by Emily who says Eugene was headed to meet with Jesse. Emily backtracks and lies to cover for Jesse. Of course, she doesn’t know that he was sent to Hell because she’s clueless about the world of angels, demons, and vampires. Afterwards, Jesse walks the sheriff out and it quickly confronted by Cassidy where they have their first bro-fight. Cassidy takes a fire extinguisher to Jesse’s face about sending an innocent boy like Eugene to Hell. Jesse proceeds to get very self-righteous and tell him Cassidy about Eugene’s history and make the decision himself that maybe Eugene belongs in hell from shooting Tracy Loach and them himself. Jesse deems it Gods will that Eugene is in hell. Cassidy gives Jesse the fire extinguisher and then shows him who he really is as he walks into the sun. Cassidy leaves the choice to save himself up to Jesse.
We probably will not know what the end result of that is until next week as only Jesse returned back into the church with the fire extinguisher. It’s safe to assume that he put the fire out on Cassidy. If the writers killed Cassidy and sent Eugene to Hell, who would the audience root for? However, this was Tulip’s last straw as she leaves in disgust. Emily tries to reach out to Jesse only to have him turn her away in insult. The end result of having Genisis is that Jesse now has no more friends. He sent Eugene to hell and alienated everyone else. He’s in a bad spot. To make matters worse for him, Quinncannon comes back with the intention of getting that land. This time, however, he’s not alone. Quinncannon comes back with pretty much all his meat packing employees armed to the teeth.
I gotta say that this show has come a long way and now seems to hit its stride. Each episode is getting better and better. I know a lot of comic book purists aren’t fond of the storyline choices of the show since pretty much everything that has happened this season takes place narratively before the first issue of the comic, or not at all. But for me, the average viewer, the show has gotten better and better. It’s almost like they know that Game of Thrones is over and now everyone’s needing a new show to get their fix on, so they turned up the heat and made the last two episodes awesome. Next week looks to be a confrontation between Quinncannon’s army and Jesse. Plus it also looks like we’ll be seeing our favorite angels Fiore and DeBlanc as Jesse needs their help to retrieve Eugene from Hell, but is he willing to give up Genesis to right his wrongs?
