Watchlist, late summer edition

 We're gearing up for the Thirteenth Annual FMS Scarelicious October Movie Series so I guess I should do an update on the general watchiness around here.

• Umbrella Academy 3 - Gosh, I just love this show.  Super entertaining, dark-ish but not too dark, how can you not love bickering pseudohero siblings?
• Stranger Things 4 - What can you say about this juggernaut?  I didn't love how everyone was separated for the most part, and the ending seemed rushed, but again, super entertaining.  And Kate Bush getting the global love she always should have had.
• The Mandalorian - Love the theme music, love Pedro Pascal, love baby Yoda.  Not over the moon with this series but a very strong entry into the Star Wars universe.
• Sex Education - Binged however many seasons are currently on Netflix (three, I think).  Really liked this one, thought the cast was charming and well-put together.
• Ms. Marvel - Talk about a charming and well-put together cast!  I binged through this one quickly and thought it was great fun.  Love how colorful and young it was; enjoyed and learned a lot from the peeks into Pakistani culture.  Great show.
• So You Think You Can Dance - This competition show is back after a couple years away, "updated" for a younger audience which means that one of the judges is now Jojo Siwa (whoever the hell she is).  I really like watching the dances but the show was shortened and so it seemed like there was much less actual performance than in seasons past.  The judges were annoying (other than tWitch) and almost never gave any actual criticism / placing too much importance on "feeling the character."  Yeah, but you also got to point your damn toes.
• Sandman - I love the comics (and need to reread them) and thought this live action version was damn good.  Looked expensive, though, and I'm hearing rumors that Netflix won't sign on for a second season.  That would be a shame because there's still so many stories to be told there.

Mr. Mouse and I are also up to speed on all the Better Call Saul on Netflix; we're ready to dive into S2 of Only Murders in the Building, S2 of Reservation Dogs and S5 of Cobra Kai.

Also, I got a new laptop with a different touchpad and am on a learning curve with it - so no links to shows right now.  Y'all know how to google things, don't you?

Next up: the first scary movie of spooky season.  (I hate myself for using "spooky season.")

Watchlist

 Hey, y'all!  Shockingly, I thought I'd check in and update this little blog with what I've watching for the last 35 days - instead of waiting a whole eleven months.  I have been diligently working through my watchlists, finishing languishing series and plowing through whole new ones.  This is what I've done since Halloween:

• Finished The 100.  I really liked the first three or so seasons but it really started dragging towards the end.  I do try to be a completist, however, and so I finished the last season.
• Finished the last season of Lucifer when the episodes were released.  When I started this show way back when I thought it was dumb, then I gave it a second chance and quite like it.  It was time for it to wrap up, though.
• Watched S1 of Reservation Dogs.  That was great and Mr. Mouse even watched it with me and enjoyed it.  Looking forward to S2.
• Got caught up on The Great British Baking Show when the most recent series was released on Netflix.  This show makes me so happy - everyone is so wholesome (although I am not a huge fan of Matt, sorry) and it's just a balm for the soul to watch.
• Watched S1 of Y: The Last Man.  I'm hearing that this may not be renewed which is too bad.  I didn't love it (could Yorick be more annoying?  I know, I have the comics, he's supposed to be) but there's so much story left to be told.  Strong cast.
• Started and am keeping up with The Wheel of Time.  I loved those books and own volumes 1-12  (Brandon Sanderson was the wrong person to finish it out - don't get me started) so I was intrigued to see how the show would be.  Again, I don't love it but it's getting better as it goes on.
• Got caught up by watching S5 of The Expanse.  This is a terrific sci fi show based on fantastic books.  I think it's getting one more season?
• Started a rewatch of the original Cowboy Bebop and have watched the first couple of episodes of the live action one.  Don't love the live action version but John Cho is certainly giving it his whole heart.  Needs more Ein!
• Watched Squid Game.  Loved it.  Hear they're making a S2 and think that's a bad idea.
• Watched Arcane only because Lindsey Stirling mentioned doing some violin work for it.  I know nothing about the game it's taken from but I really liked it lot.  Looking forward to more episodes.

Next on the list: I was going to start Wentworth (Australian prison drama, highly recommended by a friend) but I think I'm going to do Hellbound first.  I do love Korean horror and this has gotten good reviews.

What are you/have you been watching?

More meaningless lists

To update the current watch listings,

• Lucifer and The Witcher have been put on hold.  The former is fluffy entertainment that I will go back to from time to time, when I don't want to have to think.  The latter just didn't grab me although apparently everyone else with a Netflix subscription thought it was amazeballs.
• I haven't been back to Legion yet.
• Having watched both seasons of Castle Rock, I need to know if NOS4A2 is any good (to keep with the Stephen King theme).  I don't have HBO so I haven't seen The Outsider but I do hear good things about that.
• I got fed up with S3 of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina after four (?) episodes.  I find the title character insufferable.
• Legends of Tomorrow still makes me happy.
• I'm cruising through Locke and Key on Netflix.  I like it pretty well.  I read the first two (?) trade paperbacks of the comics ages ago but don't recall them well so I'm not sure how the show stacks up against the source material.
• I'm reading (again) The Expanse series.  I think I only read the first four books and have several more ahead of me to catch up on.  I'm also watching S4 of The Expanse.  I think it's really well done.
• And finally, I had to travel back east and managed to get caught up on my superhero movies on the planes: Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far from Home.  I still believe that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the best Spider-Man movie out there and also a contender for best superhero movie.  I did tear up a little at Endgame, however, as I'm only human.

Where the hell have I been?

Apparently I needed to take a l o n g break after October!  I haven't been paying much attention to what I've been consuming, mostly needing to turn my brain off and just veg in front of a screen of late.  I've watched a bunch of stuff, including:

• Batwoman which I rather like, just like I like the other Arrowverse shows (Legends of Tomorrow is my favorite, I think).  Like the others, Batwoman will have some growing pains but even the first season is improving as it goes.
• Crisis on Infinite Earths - since I was doing Batwoman, I figured I'd watch the Crisis episodes too, even though I haven't kept up with any of those shows besides Legends.  I'm a little in the dark as to Arrow - adult daughter from the future? - but I think I've figured everything else out.
• At the repeated urging of a high school friend, I've started Lucifer.  My friend says it has supplanted Buffy as his favorite show (!!!) so I'm giving it a go.  Tom Ellis is certainly charming, and I think it's getting better as it goes along, but I'm not 100% sold yet.
• I'm catching up on Legion episodes on Hulu too.  I never half know what's going on at any given time but it sure is pretty to look at.
• With this Hulu subscription, I've watched the first two Castle Rock seasons.  These are mixed, with some parts being very strong and others just ... meh.  I think S2 was better than S1, in large part because Lizzy Caplan (as Annie Wilkes pre-Misery) is SO AWESOME.  I also appreciate the fact that no one really tries to do a Maine accent (Tim Robbins skirts along the edge but never commits, thankfully) because I just don't think anyone who isn't a Mainer can do it.
• I've just started The Witcher, knowing nothing about the books or the games going in.  Reviews say that this show definitely gets better as it goes along, which is good because E1 was borderline incomprehensible.  I'm not sure I'm ever going to accept that godawful wig Henry Cavill wears, though.
• Finally, I watched The Shape of Water.  I'm a huge Guillermo del Toro fan but ... this movie won an Oscar for Best Picture?  Really?  Where was the plot (aside from being Beauty and the Beast)?  Pan's Labyrinth is a way, way, way better movie on all fronts.

It made sense

After charging through Runaways, I went to Marvel's Cloak & Dagger and I have surprised myself by liking C&D even more.  My understanding is that it's rather different than the comics source material.  As small children, Tandy Bowen (Dagger) and Tyrone Johnson (Cloak) are subjected to a blast of supernatural power in an industrial accident; at the time of the accident, Tandy's dad and Ty's brother are killed in separate incidents, but each death has a huge impact on their respective families.  Eight years later, Tandy and Ty's powers start to manifest and they are thrown together - by accident? by fate? - unwillingly at first, and then with relief and trust.  The show is set in New Orleans and gives a rich backdrop as the young superheroes figure out how to use their powers to save their families and their city, all the while facing real life issues like abuse, sexism and racism.

The two leads playing Tandy and Tyrone have great chemistry together.  But I think what I like the best is the series' focus: the Runaways show spends so much time with the parents that we miss out on time spent with the kids.  With C&D, there are only two main kids (as opposed to six), plus a smaller cast of secondary characters.  Tandy and Ty seem more real, somehow, for superpowered teenagers.

I haven't heard yet if there is going to be a S3 (S2's ratings were markedly lower than S1) but there will at least be that crossover in Runaways S3.  I sure hope there's more - I'm really enjoying these street level teenaged Marvel heroes.

Run run Runaways

I have been enjoying binge-ing (bingeing? binging?) Marvel's Runaways on Hulu, so much so that I've also read the first two trade paperback collections as well.  I like to know the source material, although I'm not a big comics reader.  I'm not well-suited to it: I read very quickly and I don't give the artwork enough attention.  But the television has been a lot of fun and I'm glad to have had both perspectives.

For those who don't know, Runaways (written by Brian K. Vaughn et als.) is about a group of runaway kids who discover that their parents are a secret and very evil cabal of Los Angeles millionaires.  After seeing their parents sacrifice a young girl, they run away and adventures follow.  The girls have superpowers - Nico is/becomes a witch, Gert has a telepathic link to a sentient dinosaur, Molly has super-strength, etc. - and the boys are smart and/or assisted by tech stolen from their parents.  Nico is my favorite character in both the show and the comics; I also like sarcastic Gert  (especially the show's iteration) and her dinosaur, Old Lace.

PC: Ars Technica

While the show hews closely to some of the source material, it varies wildly in some regards.  I'm being vague on purpose as I don't want to spoil anything.  In the show, the parents are much, much better developed.  I find this to be a double-edged sword, however: the character development makes them much better villains ... but I also resent time spent away from the kids.  I like the kids.

I only have one episode left and then I'm up to speed on the series.  I'm torn as to what to watch next.  It would make sense to move straight to Cloak and Dagger, as that is also based on a Marvel comic that has connections to/crossovers with Runaways.  But over on Netflix, the new Dark Crystal series is out (and I love The Dark Crystal) plus I'm starting to get in the mood for horror movies in advance of this year's Scarelicious October Movie Series.  What to do, what to do.

Bits and pieces

Progress report: the Discworld series has stalled - but I haven't given up yet - but I finished the available episodes of Legends of Tomorrow, got sucked into Pretty Little Liars somehow (??!?), watched two episodes of Good Omens (I know it's an unpopular opinion but: I don't love it, although I do love the book), and have one episode to go on S3 of Stranger Things.  The Mindflayer monster is SO GROSS - I love it.  Very The Thing and The Fly.

I've also watched, and loved, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.  I watch all the Marvel superhero movies but I don't read comics, so my knowledge of Spider-Man lore is broad strokes at best.  But that didn't matter.  Into the Spiderverse is a fantastic superhero movie and a damn fine movie even without the genre tag.  It is funny, heart-breaking and never lets up for a moment.  The voice cast is phenomenal - Mahershala Ali! Hailey Steinfeld! Chris Pine! Kathryn Hahn! Lauren Velez! Lily Tomlin! Nic Cage! Liev Schreiber! and the perfectly-cast Jake Johnson! - and the movie simply gorgeous.  You've never seen visuals like that in a superhero movie.  I plan on watching it again soon because I'm sure I missed a bunch, just sitting there agog.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled posting

With my apologies, this week's The Walking Dead recap will be late because I spent my Sunday and Monday nights bingeing my way through the back half of Netflix's Marvel's The Punisher and I just haven't watched Sunday's TWD episode yet.  I have to say that I really enjoyed The Punisher, more than I expected to.  I've never read the comics and so my only exposure to the character was through Daredevil S2.  Frankly (haha see what I did there?), I thought Frank Castle was the best part of Daredevil's second season.  I never liked Jon Bernthal in The Walking Dead but now I realize that it was his character - Shane, ugh - whom I hated because Bernthal is FANTASTIC as Frank Castle.  He can be charming as hell and then turns on a dime to be brutal/sad/scary; he has fantastic chemistry with pretty much anyone he is paired with, especially with Deborah Ann Woll/Karen.  The Punisher is truly brutal but it is also very thoughtful and if I wished it had been even more introspective/exploratory in some of its themes, it is still not the Rambo-esque bulletfest I feared it would be.

Netflix/Marvel series, in order of preference:  Jessica Jones; The Punisher; Daredevil S1; The Defenders/Luke Cage* (tie); The Defenders; Daredevil S2 (as a whole because too many damn ninjas); stupid/insipid Iron Fist.

*  I'm torn on where to put The Defenders: parts of it I LOVED (anything with Jessica and/or Luke; and anything with someone giving Danny Rand shit) but then you had to have Danny Rand and Matt in his mope-y iteration which was less enjoyable.  On it's own, I liked Luke Cage quite a lot but they killed Cottonmouth too soon OOPS SPOILER and I may have dozed off during some of the later episodes.  In any event, Claire Temple should be in all the shows more.

Preacher recap "Sokosha" S2E6 7/24/17

A polite business man ("Ando," from Heroes) negotiates with a middle-aged couple: the price is per unit, but if you go above 10%, you double your money.  He says that the procedure doesn't hurt but some people do experience some side effects.  "Trust me," he says, "You won't even miss it."  The man lies down on the couch; Ando gets out his machine and feeds a syringe into the man's leg.  Using an arthroscopic (?) camera, he feeds the tube up into the man's body and then extracts - something.  When the counter hits 15%, the extraction stops and a tiny bit of pale liquid halfway filled a small test tube.  After giving the man a sedative, Ando gives the wife a check for $150,000, packs up in a high-tech armored van and drives away with two armed guards watching over him.  Their next stop is a New Orleans mansion [the one that featured in American Horror Story: Coven, I believe.] An older man meets Ando at the door, fretting, having second thoughts.  But his wife is walking around the house pantsless with a vacant look on face.  Those second thoughts are vanished.  Ando uses a personal item of the wife's to determine a match, then uses a centrifuge to turn a vial of that pale liquid into a little pill.  The wife takes the pill and immediately comes back to herself.  The husband hands over his credit card - $2,700,000 - and the deal is done.  Ando goes back to the armored van - which is full, floor to ceiling, with those tiny vials, and the guards drive away.

Jesse steps out of the shower and smiles at himself in the foggy mirror.  It's a new day.  Time to go find God.  As Tulip puts together a horrifically sweet breakfast (pancakes with hot fudge, whipped cream, marshmallows and candies and syrup), Cassidy hears Dennis coughing and tries to help him get dressed.  The old man shouts at him in French and storms out.  As Jesse and Cassidy sit down at the kitchen table, Cassidy apologizes for being a bastard yesterday.  But when he asks Jesse if Jesse has anything to say to him, the preacher is all just, "You're forgiven," which is not exactly what the vampire was hoping to hear.  But they all tuck into breakfast, laughing and giving each other a hard time and discussing how best to find God.

Out in the hall, however, Viktor's daughter has brought the Saint of Killers to Dennis's apartment building.  She can't remember exactly which apartment is was, however, so when the Saint starts in on the far end of the hall, she skedaddles.  The Saint works his way through the apartments, firing one shot - which goes through the victim's head and all the interior walls of all the apartments - and then using his saber for the other tenants.

While Cassidy and Tulip riff off each other, Jesse hears a little thump come from the fridge.  He gets up and notices a bullet hole in the back of the fridge; a yogurt cup is leaking and he fishes a burning hot bullet out.  He looks up (outside, the Saint is approaching their door) and says, "Hey, guys - "  Just a moment later, the Saint bursts in. Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy have all escaped out the window but the Saint notices JESS spelled out in M&Ms on the remainder of Jesse's pancakes.  He knows he's found the right place.

Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy hunker down in an alley.  Jesse calls the casino and confirms that Fiore is dead, shot by "a cowboy."  Cassidy suggests that they run; Tulip suggests that Jesse stop using the Word so that the Saint can't track them.  Jesse's all, we can't run forever and I need the Word to find God.  Surely the Saint has a weakness, something that Fiore promised him to take the deal to kill the preacher.  So they go to the library.  In a funny, clever scene, Cassidy reads comic books, Jesse pores through history books and Tulip listens to a book on tape, whose narrator explains the Saint's backstory: with the loss of his soul, what with being such a horrible Confederate killer, even Satan is rumored to be afraid of him.  They learn about the death of his family and Jesse figures that is what Fiore offered the Saint: getting out of Hell and going to Heaven to reunite with his wife and daughter.   Just then, Cassidy jumps up: "Holy mother of bleedin' shite - I forgot about Dennis!"  He calls Dennis to warn him not to go into the apartment but it's too late: Dennis goes into his apartment and just has enough time for one shot on his inhaler before the Saint grabs him.  Jesse gets on the phone and uses the Word: "I'M HERE.  DON'T HURT HIM.  I'M COMING."

Jesse goes to the apartment and confronts the Saint, saying that (1) he should let Dennis go and (2) since Fiore is dead and God is missing, if the Saint kills him, the deal is off and the Saint will never get to Heaven.  He says that he can get the Saint what he wants.  The Saint says, you know what I need? and Jesse says yes.  So the Saint says he has one hour but Tulip, Cassidy and Dennis have to stay in the apartment as hostages.  Tulip is rightfully anxious about this but there doesn't seem to be any way around it.  This is their one shot.

Jesse goes straight to Papa Bebe's House of Voodoo and tells the proprietor that he needs to buy a soul right now.  The man dissembles but Jesse cuts through the bullshit, knowing a whole lot about the procedure of extracting and selling souls.  The man is all, who are you?  And Jesse, reluctantly, says, "I'm Jesse L'Angell."  The man recognizes the name and is willing to help, except that the Japanese have pushed out all the local soul-sellers (except Angelville (the name of the town that gave Jesse the willies an episode or so back) which is just hanging on by a thread).  As luck would have it, however, that armored car - Soul Happy Go Go is the name of the company - pulls up out front.  Jesse's all, there are souls on that truck?  He dashes out but can't get into the truck, which is soundproofed so he can't use the Genesis voice.

Tulip calls him to tell him to hurry because Dennis is sick (the Saint crushed his inhaler).  Jesse's all, okay but how do I break into an armored truck?  She walks him through it, using the resources of a handy local hardware store, but when he sets it off, it doesn't even leave a mark.  

When Tulip hangs up, Cassidy walks in, sad, regretting that after all this time he never bothered to learn French.  Tulip: "He's your dad or uncle, isn't he?"  Cassidy:  "He's my son.  Hard luck, eh, havin' me for a da'."  He strokes Dennis's face.  Tulip gets a determined look and marches into the kitchen where the Saint is sitting.  She tries to talk him into letting Dennis go and he doesn't respond at all, but when she makes the mistake of mentioning his dead family, he lunges at her, grabbing her by the throat and then tossing her across the room.  She pulls herself together and goes back into the other room.  Cassidy looks at her, concerned, and asks if she's all right.  Tulip: "Uh.  He touched me."  She does not seem all right.

Meanwhile, a cop pulls up and arrests Jesse.  Jesse uses the Voice to get the cop to make the armed guards open up the Soul Happy Go Go truck.  A punch in the nose and some judicious use of the Word later, Jesse is sitting down with Ando, trying to find a match to the Saint's bullet as the guards drive like mad men through the streets to New Orleans towards Dennis's apartment.  There isn't any, not in all the thousands of souls on the truck.  They have to find a close enough match - like organ donation - or the body will reject the soul.  Jesse reluctantly pulls out some of his own hair and they test it against the bullet.  It's close enough.  Jesse flinches and asks what is the smallest amount he can give.  It's 1% - "You won't even miss it," says Ando - and that's what he does.

He just barely makes it back to the apartment in time: the Saint has Tulip on the floor and Cassidy is clinging to his saber, trying to keep him from killing her.  All of the vampire's fingers get sliced off, just as Jesse bursts in with the soul pill.  Cassidy tapes up his mutilated hands and Tulip takes him and Dennis to a hospital.  Before she goes, however, she asks Jesse how he knows about these souls.  Jesse: "Family business."  

When they are gone, Jesse gives the Saint the soul-pill.  The Saint's eyes brighten immediately.  Jesse snarls at him, using Genesis:  GET ON YOUR KNEES.  The Saint crashes to the floor, shocked, and Jesse expositions that the only reason why the Word didn't work on him before is because he didn't have a soul.  Now that he has a little bit of one, Jesse is in control.  He also tells the Saint that there's no way a killer like him is going to Heaven.  The Saint is all, okay, then send me back to Hell - but I'll take your soul with me.  Jesse hadn't considered that and apparently that is not something he is willing to risk.  So he Voices the Saint into the back of the abandoned Soul Happy Go Go truck and drives him out to the swamps of Angelville.  With the Saint locked in the back, the preacher sends the truck down into the swamps, the killer screaming with rage as the truck sinks.  I'm guessing that this is not the end of the Saint but it should hold him for a little while.  Jesse turns and walks back to town when the truck has disappeared.

That evening, after Dennis is back from the hospital (and Cassidy's fingers have started to grow back), the gang settles in for some time at home.  Tulip is staring blankly into space in what must be the aftermath of having the Saint's hands on her.  Jesse, meanwhile, is hiding the Saint's guns and saber under the tiles of the bathroom floor.  When he's done, he looks at himself in the mirror again.  There's no smile this time.  Guess he does actually miss that little piece of his soul after all.

Previously on Preacher / next time on Preacher

Preacher recap "Dallas" S2E5 7/17/17

Picking up immediately where we left off last time, Jesse is in the middle of choking Viktor while Tulip tries to explain that she was never in love with Viktor and that she is only here to get him to sign the divorce papers.  Jesse is enraged, however, and not to be reasoned with.  He drags Viktor down to the torture room and strings him up in the harness.  Tulip is all I'M SORRY BUT YOU CANNOT KILL VIKTOR and Jesse snarls and uses the Voice on her: "GET OUT."  Her face is shocked and horrified as her feet shuffle her backwards out of the room.  Her parting shot: "Remember Dallas, Jesse? I don't wanna to do that again!"

Dallas.  Right after the botched bank job, when Carlos runs away without them and Tulip has a miscarriage.

Three months later.  Tulip has a job working for a realtor while Jesse seems to be doing nothing but a little bartending, plus hanging around their apartment, drinking beer and watching t.v. with a pothead buddy Reggie, who takes women's studies classes and uses the pages of a Bible to roll his joints.  One night, Tulip has invited Dani over for dinner - she's making "peanut butter potroast" - and Jesse is unhappy about that.  He seems to like (?) their life and isn't interested in working for Dani again; he has left that life behind.  The Dani scene is funny as she is completely disdainful of their current situation (and Tulip's cooking is apparently disgusting).  She tries to tempt them with some jobs - insurance scam in Santa Fe, connected guy in New Orleans looking for some general subcontracting stuff, killing her ex-husband - but Jesse insists that they aren't doing any of that anymore.

What they are doing is pretty bleak, as shown in a montage of:  them waiting for the results of a pregnancy test (always negative); having joyless, passionless sex; Jesse trudging past a church to the local convenience store to buy beer, cigarettes and a new pregnancy test.  Over and over and over again.  Over and over again.  It is sad and hopeless and it never seems to end.

Now, New Orleans.  Tulip has brought Viktor's daughter Ellie back to Dennis's house while Jesse tortures and/or kills Viktor.  Cassidy rolls with it pretty well.  They send Ellie in to watch t.v. with Dennis and once the door closes, Tulip rips into Cassidy for telling Jesse where she was.  Actually, she punches him in the nose first.  He explains that he was just worried about her - but she sees through him a bit, knowing that he likes her and is only conflicted about doing anything about it because he considers Jesse his friend.  She is worried: "I swear to God, if Jesse kills him, we are done" and Cassidy sees an opening.  He jumps up and says he's going to go talk to "that mad bastard."

Dallas.  After having walked past that church so many times in the montage, Jesse starts to pray when they're waiting for the pregnancy test results.  He even makes Tulip go with him to church; she doesn't look to be getting a lot out of it.  One day, when Jesse and Reggie are bumming around the apartment, the smoke alarm goes off (too many joints).  When Jesse goes to turn it off, he finds a plastic bag of cash stuffed into an air duct.  When Tulip comes home from the "real estate job," he confronts her, asking how long she's been back working for Dani.  It starts to get tense and Reggie tries to leave, but Jesse tells him to stay.  Tulip says that she's doing what she's good at, what they were good at until Carlos.  Jesse starts to get nasty and she reminds him that what happened hurt her too.  Oh yeah, he snarls, then what are these?, and holds up a package of birth control pills.  Her face falls - Reggie tries to leave again - and she apologizes, but says that this life Jesse seems to want seems wrong to her.  "I'm an O'Hare, Jesse!  I don't know how to do it!"  Jesse: "Oh, right.  Or maybe you don't deserve it."  They keep sniping at each other and Jesse gets more and more angry.  Then poor Reggie makes the mistake of saying something and Jesse beats him, really badly.  It's pretty awful.  An untold amount of time later, as Tulip gets ready to leave for another Dani-job, Jesse absently tells her that he's going back to Annville: his dad's church belongs to him and he's going to be a preacher.  Tulip: "Good luck with that."

Now, New Orleans.  Cassidy makes his way into Viktor's house, noting all the henchmen still frozen into position after Jesse's Voice.  He finds Jesse up in Viktor's bedroom, staring listlessly at the photograph of Tulip and Viktor's wedding day.  Cassidy blathers on pointlessly for a while.  Jesse interrupts him to ask why he should ever trust the vampire again after all the lying he's been doing, probably since the casino.  Cassidy:  "Ah, you're right.  I'm a right bastard ... a greedy, selfish, destructive, jealous ... but you see, that's the difference between me 'n you.  If some muppet had their hands on my girl, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, I don't think I'd be very restrained at all ..."  Jesse's all, if I kill him, it'll be over between me and her.  Cassidy, sneakily, passive-aggressively, is all, nah, Jesse and Tulip - that'll never change.  Because, you see, he's hoping to have goaded his friend into it - to be there to scoop Tulip up when she leaves Jesse.

After Cassidy has left, Jesse goes back down to the torture room and sharpens an axe.  Viktor has had about enough of hanging from that harness and he says that the reason Tulip married him was because Jesse was an asshole to her and Viktor was nice.  Jesse grimaces and takes a swing with that axe.

Back at Dennis's, Tulip and Cassidy wait for Jesse to come back.  When Jesse comes in, he goes straight to the fridge and gets a beer.  Tulip:  what did you do?  Jesse: I took him down.  Tulip starts to freak out.  Jesse: What? What's going on?  Why's everyone so - I took him down.  Tulip:  Took him down how?  Jesse: I cut his harness off from the ceiling - I didn't kill him - got those divorce papers instead.  As Tulip throws herself into Jesse's arms, Cassidy is all, "Oh thank god.  I'll go tell the little girl that her daddy is still alive."  Jesse whispers to Tulip, "I'm so bad for you."  She whispers back, "We're bad for each other."

A few years back.  Tulip and Viktor, married, are playing Monopoly in their bedroom.  Their rapport is pretty cute but when he tells her he loves her, she can only say thank you.  When he gets called away for a bit of business (possibly in the torture room), she gets a phone call.  It's Dani and she's found Carlos.  By the time Viktor returns to the bedroom, the Monopoly board has been upended and Tulip and all her stuff are gone.  Viktor is sad.

Now, New Orleans.  That night, Ellie is unsurprisingly having trouble sleeping.  She asks her dad to read to her and Viktor is happy to do so.  They are interrupted before too long by the sound of a fusillade of gunfire downstairs.  Viktor tells the little girl to hide in the closet.  The bedroom door explodes into splinters because, of course, the Saint of Killers has tracked Jesse's Voice.  He blows Viktor away with one shot when Viktor won't tell him where Jesse is.  Then, hearing a whimper from the closet, the Saint trains his gun on Ellie.  She's a cool customer, however, and she says, "The preacher?  I know where he is."

Previously on Preacher / next time on Preacher

Iron Fist in 150 words or less

I finally finished slogging through Marvel/Netflix's fourth individual Defenders series, Iron Fist.  It took me forever because Danny Rand, as played poorly by Finn Jones, was a petulant child and was in no way convincing as the Greatest Martial Arts Warrior Ever.  Every now and again it was funny (Davos: "Wow, you really are the worst Iron Fist ever."), and per usual Rosario Dawson killed it reprising her through-line role as Claire Temple.  But I really only finished it to be a completist and now am eager to see The Defenders, if only to watch Jessica Jones roll her eyes and call Danny Rand out for being a whiny little bitch.

In the doldrums

If you're a sailor (or if you've watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movies), you know that the doldrums are places in the oceans where the prevailing winds are calm or even non-existent, sometimes trapped sail-powered boats for days or weeks on end.  If you're a landlubber, you know that the doldrums have come to refer to a period of listlessness or mild depression.  Well, I'm not a sailor.  Ever since the election but especially since the inauguration, I have been fighting to compartmentalize my sadness and horror at what this country is becoming.  I'm not succeeding particularly well - although while I walk around feeling like crying all time, I am not actually crying all the time.  So there's that.  To be able to sleep at night, I have been severely restricting my online presence after making my phone calls/sending my emails to try to fight the power. 

And my entertainment has been focused as well.  I'm trying Tom Hardy's FX show, Taboo, although I am finding it slow (and since when are you allowed to say "fuck" on that level of cable?  I'm all for it, of course.  I was just surprised by it.). I plowed through Netflix's The O.A. and am almost done with their A Series of Unfortunate Events as well.  Both shows are pretty well done and continue Netflix's strong streak of original programming.  (For books I just plowed through my collection of old Bloom County and Outland books - dated 1980s through early 1990s - and it is amazing that so much of the stuff Berkeley Breathed was poking at back in those days - environmental damage/change, corrupt politics and Donald fucking Trump - are still issues today.)

Things will pick up here on the blog in a couple of weeks when The Walking Dead comes back.  I'm even looking forward to watching that damn show again, where I can say, "Well, things are going to shit in the U.S. now but at least we aren't overrun with zombies."  Yet, anyway.

Trying to keep up

This blog seems abandoned but in actuality I am circling the wagons for the upcoming Seventh Annual Friend Mouse Speaks Scarelicious October Movie Series.  BUT ALSO, there's just so much I want to be watching on Netflix right now (as opposed to crap horror movies).  Like more Farscape and needing to start Galavant and Luke Cage is about to drop and I know nothing about Easy other than it looks like it's got a fantastic cast and OMIGOD the last season of Penny Dreadful is available now ...

It's too much.  There's too much.  I clearly need to quit my job, never go outside again and just consume as much visual media as I possibly can.

Preacher recap "Call and Response" S1E10 7/31/16

In Annville, Jesse Custer is on the run, laying low until Sunday morning when he has promised to bring God to the townspeople.  Just in case it actually happens, all the women in town are getting their hair done, which is where Tulip finds the whorehouse's madam.  Tulip's all, WTF is going on and where's Jesse?  The madam tells her that rumor has it Donnie has him.  Later that morning, Tulip busts into Donnie's house, waving her gun, breaking Betsy's nose and shouting for Jesse.  Who comes out of the bathroom, just having showered.  Hey, Tulip, he says, clearly under no duress.

A now-healed Cassidy is under a little duress, being held in the jail.  Sheriff Root comes in with a gun, a box of ammo and a thermos of blood.  He's figured out that Cassidy is a vampire and he alternately shoots him and then feeds him blood (to facilitate healing), asking over and over again what has happened to Eugene.  Cassidy is all, you really don't want to know.  [I adore Joseph Gilgun in this role; he was a little much to take in Misfits but he's wonderful here.  Even if I can't understand much of what he says.]  After an unknown period of time, blood is splashed across the walls of the jail cell and the floor is littered with red-stained Dixie cups.

Donnie, Betsy and Jesse explain to Tulip that [Donnie has found God and since Jesse showed him mercy in the men's room that time, he's showing him mercy now].  Tulip can scarcely roll her eyes more and asks Jesse to come outside with her.  She's got Carlos tied up in the trunk of her car, you see.  And she wants Jesse to kill him.

Flashback to when Carlos screwed Jesse and Tulip over:  it was during a bank robbery in Dallas.  He was the lookout/driver and when he overheard them laughing together as they wait for the vault to blow, he got jealous, untied the guard and took off in the getaway car.  Jesse shoots the guard and Tulip screams after Carlos and the stress and anger causes her to miscarry Jesse's baby.

Back in now/Annville, we check in with the guy keeping an eye on the control panel; it's for a huge underground vat of fermenting cow shit, part of the Quincannon Meat & Power conglomerate, and when the alarms go off, it's because the methane is building up too much.

Cassidy tells the sheriff that the good news is that Eugene is alive.  Although, he muses, on second thought that might not actually be good news.  He presses, asking if Root is maybe a teeny tiny bit relieved that the boy is gone.  This pushes Root's buttons and he shoots Cassidy a bunch of times, then unlocks the jail cell and tells him he can go.  "Good," groans the wounded vampire, "I got someplace I gotta go."

Jesse and Tulip argue about Carlos for a while, plus she disparages his plan to use a dead angel hand to call God down to town.  He points out that killing Carlos won't bring back their baby but she rages that someone's got to pay.  So he gathers up a trash bag and an oven mitt, and goes out to the car.  He wraps the trash bag around Carlos's head, cocks his handgun and places it in the oven mitt.  At the last moment, she stops him, saying that it's enough that he would do it for her.  [Which seems a little out of character.] So instead they just beat the shit out of Carlos and then let him go.  That all seemed ... pointless.

In the morning, Betsy and Donnie sneak Jesse and Tulip into the church.  They clean up and Betsy, being a secretary, helps Jesse figure out the God-phone: it's got video-conferencing.  Tulip's all, what do you think is going to happen here? and Jesse confesses that he honestly has no idea.  Tulip: "Well, no matter what, we're gettin' french fries after."  The church fills up; Cassidy sneaks in and finds Tulip to stand with.  Everyone who we've ever seen in Annville is there and Odin Quincannon is right in the front pew.  Jesse comes out but before he can get started, Quincannon jumps up and is all skeptical about the preacher calling down any sort of God.  In fact, he goes on to say, there is no God but the God of Meat!  To which the congregation says: .....?

Jesse brings out the God-phone and the angel hand and fusses about for quite some time [there's an old school modem sound effect, which is excellent].  Finally, just when the congregation is restless and he's about to quit, the lights in the church go out and the God-phone emits a blinding light.  And there, projected on the church wall, is God: old, white, male, sitting on a throne and dressed in flowing robes.  Everyone is completely gobsmacked (except for Cassidy, who just sits there, giggling).  "I AM THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA ... I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD.  MY CHILDREN, WHY HAVE YOU CALLED ME?"

Jesse, not really believing what's going on, says that they've got questions.  And so God entertains some questions, telling the people that He loves them.  He even tells Quincannon that his little daughter is in Heaven, which seems to relieve him.  God asks Jesse if he has any questions.  The preacher does: he wants to know what God's plan is for him and why did He give him the Genesis-power if he cant use it to help people.  God says that Jesse hasn't failed and that because of Jesse, all of Annville is saved.  Everyone screams and cries happily.

Jesse, disturbed: "But I sent him to Hell!"  God: "And how did you do that, my son?"  Jesse:  "With Genesis."  God: "Oh, yes, of course.  Does anyone else have any questions?"  That finishes it and Jesse gets angry: "You're not God, you're an imposter!"  God tries to dissemble and so Jesse used the Genesis voice:  WHERE IS GOD?  As it turns out, God is missing and no one in Heaven knows where he is ... "God is gone!"  The congregation is stunned.  Jesse turns to Tulip and Cassidy:  "Let's go.  Tulip wants french fries."  And they walk out.

Behind them, the town falls apart.  People cry and wreck the church.  Quincannon makes a mannequin of ground beef and cuddles it in his office.  A bunch of schoolgirls stab pervy bus driver Linus to death on his schoolbus.  Donnie can't get it up with Betsy.  Tracy's mother smothers her comatose daughter while her son takes a selfie.  And the control room guy orders a hooker and then dies while having S&M-tinged sex with her.  And the methane builds up - and the hooker doesn't know how to release the vents - until a huge explosion obliterates the entire town.  Gone.  Wiped off the map.

Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy apparently decided to get french fries at an out-of-town diner, however, because they're fine.  Tulip's like, what now?  Jesse says that they might as well drive around the country and look for God: if He wants their help, they'll help Him, and if not, they'll kick His ass.  Cassidy finds the prospect of a road trip quite appealing.  They head out to the car and Tulip asks Jesse to show her how the Genesis voice works.  So he tells her "KISS ME" and she does - and when she breaks away, she punches him right in the nose and tells him not to ever do that again.  And then they drive off into next season.

But that's not quite the last scene.  Fiore comes back from Hell, without Deblanc.  And in the wreckage of Annville, the seraph wanders around, looking a little stunned.  Then she gets shot in the back, blowing a huge hole in her chest.  She collapses and behind her is the Cowboy.  He growls, "Preacher," and the hunt is on.

And to tide myself over until S2, I've got the first two Preacher TPBs on order at the library ...

Previously on Preacher / next time on Preacher

Preacher recap "Finish the Song" S1E9 7/24/16

Back in old timey Ratwater: Back in the saloon, a man sings to the hoi polloi, accompanied by a piano player.  All the whores and johns and cowboys and prospectors and settler families quiet themselves and listen.  And then the Cowboy walks in, back from finding his wife and daughter dead in his house.  That smarmy preacher - who shot the Cowboy's horse - welcomes him, speechifying somewhat, naming the Cowboy as the "Butcher of Gettysburg," who killed seventy-seven people with his own hands.  The preacher asks if the Cowboy will love and accept Jesus into his heart.  The Cowby replies that he loves his horse, he loves his wife and he loves his little girl - and as for Jesus, "He can join us all here in Hell."  He tosses down the bundle he is carrying - heads roll out and a woman screams - and then he raises his pistols.  He shoots the preacher first and then looks at the singer, growling, "I want you to finish the song."  And as the singer sings, the Cowboy methodically guns down every single person in the place, women and children included.  The singer gets to finish the song.  And then the Cowboy cuts his head off with one stroke of a huge knife.  Wow.  The Cowboy steps over the bodies to stand at the bar.  As the wind picks up outside and the building shakes and rattles, bottles falling off shelves to smash on the floor, he pours himself a drink.  And that's how you open the penultimate episode of S1 of Preacher, even if those of us who don't read the comic don't know WTF is going on.

Now:  The sheriff drives towards down, with Jesse in the back of the cruiser.  He asks Jesse again what happened to Eugene and Jesse tells him, again, that he sent him to hell.  Sheriff Root is not well-pleased with that answer, sure that the preacher has killed his boy.  Jesse says that he's sorry, and that he'll see the sheriff on Sunday, and then he jimmies open the door (using a pen he took from Odin Quincannon) and dives out, disappearing into the night.

Deblanc and Fiore walk to a travel agency and announce that they want to take a trip: to Hell.  The agent sullenly sells them the tickets and tells them that the shuttle will pick them up promptly at the time specified.

Tulip calls Emily over to her uncle's house, telling her not to freak out but that Cassidy is a vampire and is having trouble healing after being burned.  She's got the house full of various animals (rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, chickens, a goat or two) that she's been feeding him - just opening the door a crack and tossing them in when she hears him moving around - but she needs Emily to take over because she's got to go to Albuquerque to kill a man.  Emily protests that Jesse's in trouble but Tulip cuts her short, saying that she doesn't care about Jesse and he can be Emily's boyfriend now.  Emily unconvincingly stutters that she has a boyfriend - Miles, "he's the mayor ... ginger goatee" - and Tulip's all, good on you.  And then she takes off, leaving a nervous Emily staring around herself at all the doomed critters.

Sometime later, she is standing at the door, clutching a guinea pig.  Miles calls, saying that he'll pick the kids up but he's planning on staying overnight and he'll bring a bottle of wine.  She hardly listens to him and when she hangs up the phone, she opens the bedroom door enough to toss in the guinea pig.  There are growls and guinea pig squeals and then sloshing noises.  Emily steels herself to take a peek into the bedroom: an unrecognizable, feral, scarred Cassidy snarls at her, guinea pig blood covering his face.  She slams the door closed.

Back at the motel, the angels are packing up all their gear ("I've left the radio on for her.").  They're fretting about the trip to Hell, wondering if maybe they shouldn't just call Heaven and 'fess up, throwing themselves on Heaven's mercy.  "We discussed that: they'd separate us forever.  Except we wouldn't be going to Hell, so it's a tough one."  They decide to flip a coin - and do it a couple of times until Heaven turns up.  But the phone to Heaven is gone - Jesse stole it - and it looks like they'll be going to Hell after all.

Emily watches t.v. (Psycho is on, the scene where Marion and Norman talk about the traps they're in), absently stroking a rabbit.  From the bedroom, Cassidy bellows, "Someone help me, please!"  So she calls Miles:  "Miles, help me! He got out, he's going to kill me!"  Miles rushes to Tulip's uncle's house, slightly disconcerted by the goat in the kitchen.  Calling Emily's name, he opens the locked door to Cassidy's bedroom and walks in horrified.  When he turns back towards the door, Emily is there and she slams the door shut in his face, bolting it.  Cassidy pounces on poor Miles and then the shot switches to Emily in the hall, leaning against the door.  Miles shrieks and Cassidy snarls and then there's those sloshing sounds.  And Emily stands there and listens to it all.  DAMN.

Over at the motel, the clerk shows the sheriff the angels' room, saying that they paid up and left but this is what the maid found when she went in to turn the room over.  The room is, of course, wrecked and splashed with blood, but that is nothing compared to what Root finds in the bathtub:  the seraph, her arms and legs cut off (chainsaw) and cauterized so she'll stay alive.  The sheriff yells for the clerk to call an ambulance and then kneels next to the tub, telling the "woman" that she'll be okay.  She whispers for him to kill her, over and over, and he looks at her, seeing what remains, and then he puts his hands around her neck and chokes the life out of her.  [That seems out of character, despite the tears streaming down his face.]  He doesn't see the flash in the next room as the seraph revigorates.  She stands in the doorway a moment, watching the sheriff, and then heads out, back on the hunt for the angels and/or Jesse.

Speaking of Deblanc and Fiore, when the shuttle arrives to take them to Hell, the driver tells them "sorry, no carry-ons," referring to their giant trunk.  The tall angel (Deblanc? Fiore?) looks crushed, saying "But my comics ..." but the short one comforts him: "It's all right, my dear.  Leave 'em behind."  They get on the shuttle and drive off.

Jesse arrives at Tulip's uncle's house, looking for Tulip but finding Emily instead, out in the backyard setting all the little critters free.  She says that she's off to get her kids but that Cassidy is inside.  Jesse goes into Cassidy's room, takes in the blood and body.  Cassidy:  "You should go, preacher.  It's not safe for you here."  But Jesse doesn't go.  He sits with his friend and apologizes for letting him burn.  Cassidy shrugs, forgiving him: "Well, you put me out.  That's what matters."  They sit awkwardly for a moment and then Cassidy: "So what do we do now?  You fancy a shag or just want to hold hands or somethin'?"  Jesse laughs and says that they should first get rid of the body. Awww - friends again!  While tidying up, Cassidy examines the Heaven phone but Jesse says it doesn't work: it needs angel hands or else it doesn't work.  Cassidy:  "That's no problem, padre.  I can get you angel hands."  Jesse's all, okay, but I got to make a call first.  He calls Tulip, getting her voicemail and leaving her a long rambling message about how he's realized it now, "For me, it's just you.  'Til the end of the world."

Jesse gets Tulip's voicemail because she's busy with Carlos in Albuquerque.  She's a little banged up and bloody but he's now tied to a chair and she's got a meat tenderizer.

Back to the Cowboy:  We get the Cowboy's first scene again, the sick child, being sent for medicine, meeting the settler family, finding the preacher distasteful, getting the medicine, changing his mind halfway home and returning to Ratville to make sure the settlers are okay, getting beaten and his horse getting shot, walking home to find his wife and daughter dead and picked at by crows.  And then we get the scene - or select bits of it - again, and again and again, and also the scene from the start of the episode, with the Cowboy killing everyone in the saloon, again and again.  And I get it: the Cowboy is in Hell, doomed to relive this over and over for eternity.  Until one time, after he has slaughtered the saloon and is taking his drink at the bar, Deblanc and Fiore walk in.  They have a job for him: they want him to kill someone.  Who, growls the Cowboy.  A preacher, say the angels.  He's in.

Back to now:  Jesse and Cassidy are fixing to bury Miles and the bigger animal bodies.  First they dig up Cassidy's trunk, with the dead iterations of the angels in it.  He pulls out a hand and tosses it to Jesse, who thanks him.  They put Miles in the reopened grave and start to fill it in.  Cassidy:  "God, eh? Comin' to Texas?"  Jesse:  "Yep.  Sunday mornin'."  Cassidy: "That'll be somethin'."  Jesse: "Yep."

Previously on Preacher / next time on Preacher

Preacher recap "El Valero" S1E8 7/17/16

Flashback:  Some time in the 1980s, the whole Quincannon family went on a ski trip to Vail (minus Odin, who stayed home to run the slaughterhouse), where they perished in a freak tram accident.  Odin was pretty tore up about it - understandably - and when all the coffins arrived back in Annville, delivered to his office, he pretty much loses his damn mind: Jesse's dad finds him elbow-deep in blood, coffins open and a disemboweled cow on the office floor, comparing the cow's and his daughter's intestines.  The preacher tries to calm him, says something about God.  But Quincannon is done believing in God - no God would do this, it's all meat, meat is all there is, no spirit, no soul.  He hollers at John Custer to denounce God, "DENOUNCE HIM!"  That is one disturbed individual right there.

Now:  The first wave of Quincannon's men enter the church to run Jesse out of it.  We don't get to see the fight (unfortunately, because the action scenes are usually so good) but he kicks their asses and sends them back out to Donny and Quincannon.  Donny's all, but what did he SAY?  The boys are all, he didn't say nothing.  Inside the church, Jesse is working his way through a bottle of whiskey and muttering, "God, just bring Eugene back.  I'll never use [the Voice] again.  Just bring him back."  Then he sees some movement in the dirt below the busted floorboards. He falls to his knees and scrapes away the dirt, grabbing a clutching hand and finally hauling Eugene out of the ground.  He grabs the boy into a big hug.  Eugene's all, is this real or is it a trick?  Jesse pulls out his phone, ready to call the sheriff, but Eugene asks him to wait so he can have a drink of water first.

As the sky lightens through the windows, they sit in the pews and talk.  Jesse has all sorts of questions about Hell but Eugene really doesn't want to talk about it.  Jesse understands, but asks how he got out.  Eugene says that he heard Jesse calling him so he just started digging up.  Jesse: "You dug out of Hell with your hands?"  Eugene:  "It's not that far."  Jesse thinks about this.  After he calls the sheriff, Jesse tells Eugene that he was right, that he was wrong to force people to do things via the Voice.  "I was told there'd be consequences.  And here they are," looking out the window.  "Should probably give it back."  Eugene nods, "Sure, the guys at the motel."  Jesse looks sharply at him, realizing that he never mentioned the angels to him, realizing that Eugene isn't really here.  Imaginary Eugene shrugs, "We'll figure something out."

Meanwhile, off in her own storyline, Tulip has gone to a dog shelter and rescued an adorable bloodhound named Brewski.  She takes him home and they play fetch.

Back outside, Quincannon rallies his troops, telling them about the food court-style cafeteria he has planned for the new slaughterhouse he's going to build here on the church land.  But first they have to get that damn preacher out of the church.  Word starts to spread around town about the stand-off and folks start showing up, bringing picnics and lawn chairs and boomboxes, waiting to see the show.  Emily is there, rather upset.  Inside, Jesse fills some Molotov cocktails in church wine bottles; imaginary Eugene notes that that's rather sacriligious.  Quincannon's army advances on the church but Jesse is in the steeple with a rifle and sends them running.  One guy drives up in a bulldozer and Jesse pegs him with one of the Molotov cocktails; the guy runs off as the 'dozer explodes.  One guy, Clive - shouting "Food court! Food court!" - charges alone and Jesse literally shoots his dick off: "Extraordinary shot, really," muses Clive, holding his severed member in his hands.  The sheriff drives up, wondering WTF.  Then Jesse comes over the loudspeaker: "Send me the agents."  Quincannon's all, "Asians?"  But the sheriff knows who Jesse means.

DeBlanc and Fiore show up, toting their trunk.  Jesse says he'll give up Genesis but first he wants to know if it's possible to bring someone back from Hell.  One of the angels is all, NO, but the other one mumbles yes - but it's very difficult and dangerous.  They don't want to deal with that now, though.  Now it's time to get Genesis out of the preacher.  Jesse lies down with the coffee can on his belly.  While one angel plays the music box, the other sings the "Winkum Blinkum" song.  Jesse tries to rationalize that maybe he was given this power for a reason, maybe God wants him to have it to do good things.  But the angels are all, okay, so what good have you done with it?  And Jesse has no answer for that.  Finally, the coffee can shudders and they slam the lid on it.  The angels pack up to leave but Genesis just isn't interested in staying where it belongs.  It bursts out of the can and hurtles back into Jesse, knocking him into the altar.  The angels frown, saying that it looks like they're going to have to do this the hard way - "The other option, then."

Outside, Quincannon gets ready to send his troops against the church again.  Donny wanders off, a bemused smile on his face.  He walks past his wife and over to his car where he takes his hat off and removes the sling from his arm.  He takes out his pistol and kneels down, leaning into the trunk of the car with his head inside and pulling the trunk door down onto the back of his neck.  He places the pistol into the trunk and pulls the trigger.

That night, Quincannon's men shoot the shit out of the church as Jesse hunkers down inside, still drinking from his bottle of whiskey, shooting back half-heartedly.  Even imaginary Eugene has abandoned him.  Then someone comes in the back, walking softly.  Cassidy?  No, it's Donny, actually, not dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound but instead DEAF from the gun being fired at such close range in the trunk of the car.  There is blood pouring out of both his ears.  Jesse: "Donny, what did you do?"  Donny just laughs, "What? What, preacher?"  He may be a bit crazy but he figured out how to deal with Jesse.  Jesse puts down his gun and Donny hits him upside the head with his own.

Some time later, Jesse sits with Quincannon and all his men.  Quincannon hands over the deed he wants Jesse to sign.  The younger man takes it, but shakes his head, saying he doesn't understand what happened since he told Quincannon to serve God.  Quincannon is all, but I am serving God: the god of meat.  Jesse chuckles and signs over his church.  When he hands the deed to Quincannon, however, he asks for a favor: he wants one more chance to preach, to bring God to the people of Annville.  And if God doesn't show, doesn't speak to the congregation with answers they want to hear, then he will DENOUNCE HIM.

That night, Tulip snuggles Brewski, rubbing his ears.  Her face hardens: "Goddamn you, Jesse Custer."  She stands up, taking the dog by the collar and leading him down the hall.  She hugs him and then opens a bedroom door and pushes him inside.  We hear the dog growl, then some movement, then a yelp and a splash and some snuffling sounds.  Ah: so that's where the badly-burned, needs-blood-to-recover Cassidy is.

Back at the church, Jesse is in the back of the sheriff's car, apparently arrested.  The townspeople surround the cruiser, banging on the windows and shouting.  The sheriff frowns: "Jackals."  Then we cut to some sort of control center: there are alarms going off and gauges show that pressure is dangerously high.  Some shlub presses some buttons and twists some dials, releasing some of the pressure until the klaxons stop sounding.  Then he sits down with a magazine, keeping an eye on things.

Previously on Preacher / next time on Preacher

Preacher recap "He Gone" S1E7 7/10/16

We pick up immediately where we left off last time, with Eugene having literally gone to hell after Jesse told him to do so using the Voice.  Jesse looks around his now empty church, brow furrowed.  Then he swallows, gathers himself and lets the people in for services.  While up above, a slightly gobsmacked Cassidy in the balcony tries to get a grip on what he just witnessed.  It's a full house for church - the sheriff saved a seat for Eugene - and people are even sitting outside, listening over the loudspeaker.  During his sermon, Jesse says "I'm here to tell you that your whole life can change in a moment.  And this is that moment.  And this is the word ..." He pauses, weighing his options, and then, using his regular voice, "Serve God."  So at least he reigned himself in at the end.

On his way out after the service, the sheriff asks the townspeople if anyone has seen Eugene.

And over at Quincannon Meat & Power, Odin Quincannon has finished his Alamo model, and he sits, listening to the pathetic cries coming from the slaughterhouse, and smiles slightly.

Flashback:  Young Jesse and Tulip get in trouble at school for fighting back against bullies.  Tulip's mom is in jail and her uncle is drunk so she goes home with Jesse and his dad.  Seems like this is a regular occurrence.  That night, Jesse says his prayers, asking for help in trying not to be bad, in trying to be like his dad in always doing the right thing.  Now:  Tulip runs through town and ambushes a couple of teenage boys who have stolen her uncle's pants.  She takes the pants back to her uncle's house - where he is passed out on the front steps.  She tries to get him back inside but he is too heavy, so she sits on the stoop, stroking his hair, smoking a cigarette and trying to ignore the neighbors' judgmental looks.

Jesse and Emily go over his upcoming schedule: business is booming with marriage counseling and baptisms and all that church stuff.  Over at the Roots' house, Eugene's room sits empty.

A little later, Cassidy finds Jesse sneaking a drink in the kitchen.  He asks how the preacher is doing, finally saying that he saw what happened to Eugene.  Jesse:  "Oh."  Cassidy is all, I'm not judging you but I'm here to help.  Jesse escapes to run a Bible study.  Then Tulip comes in, toting hamburgers, hash browns and frozen veggies: she's making dinner.  Cassidy is still smitten and tells her that he didn't say anything to Jesse about the two of them hooking up.  Tulip's all, that's good since I'm his girlfriend and he'd probably kill you.   [I'm not really sure Jesse considers himself her girlfriend.]  She asks Cassidy if he told Jesse what he really is, since they're "best mates" and all.  Cassidy dithers, saying that he tried, but no, not really.  Tulip says "Wake up, Cassidy.  Jesse is a preacher's boy from West Texas.  See what he does [when you tell him the truth]."  Nobody is really telling anybody the truth here:  Tulip knows about Cassidy but not about Jesse's Voice; Cassidy knows about the Voice but not about Jesse's past; Jesse doesn't believe Cassidy nor does he pay attention to what Tulip is really about; poor Emily is completely in the dark about everything.

Flashback:  Jesse and Tulip wrestle and roughhouse until Jesse's dad sends them off to wash the dishes.  He checks on their homework status and it appears that she's been living with the Custers for a while now.  When Tulip goes to fetch more dish soap, she sees Jesse's dad on the phone with someone but I can't make out what he's saying and it is unclear whether she can.  That night, though, she sneaks into Jesse's room and climbs on the bed.  "'Til the end of the world, right?" she asks.  Jesse, half asleep, agrees, "'Til the end of the world."  Little Tulip lies down next to him, staring at the ceiling.  The next morning, two women from the Texas Department of Human Services show up and take Tulip away with them.  She doesn't make a fuss - which makes me think that she did hear what Jesse's dad was saying on the phone - but Jesse does, screaming and crying and chasing the car as it drives off down the road.  Jesse, to his father: "She was good ... [w]hy did you do that?"  His dad:  "Because she's an O'Hare.  They're always gonna be trouble."  That night, during his prayers, Jesse asks God to take care of Tulip and to please, please kill his father and send him straight to hell.

In the now, Emily and a group of parishioners perform a little Bible story play for Jesse.  It's terribly awkward.  And he's preoccupied and gives them harsh, unhelpful notes.  Odin Quincannon shows up, hoping for a word with Jesse.  They go into another room where Odin brings out a deed for Jesse to sign, transferring the church and land to him, "as agreed upon.'  Jesse's all, WTF, you said you'd serve God?  Odin shrugs, saying, yeah, but I still ain't no Christian.  Jesse flat-out refuses to sign the papers, saying there's no way in hell he's going to hand his father's church over (and also confused as to how Odin wriggled around the Voice).  Odin stares at him flatly and promises that he'll be back.

Even more awkward than that church skit?  Dinner with Jesse, Tulip, Cassidy and Emily.  Cassidy is snarfing down everything on his plate; Emily is struggling a little with the "flavor" on the hash browns - which is vanilla extract.  Tulip is a crap cook.  Jesse sits silently, drinking his beer and stewing, and Tulip can't keep herself from poking at him.  To make things more stressful, Sheriff Root shows up, still looking for Eugene.  He asks if the boy had stopped by the church to see Jesse that morning.  Everyone momentarily gets distracted by the oven catching on fire - everyone but Jesse, who just sits there, silently - but then he answers the sheriff, saying that he didn't see Eugene before church.  Emily pipes up, saying, "Actually you did see him," and Jesse just looks at her blankly; but then she covers for him, telling the sheriff that she saw Eugene leave later.

Jesse walks the sheriff out.  Cassidy follows and after the sheriff is gone, whacks Jesse in the face with a fire extinguisher.  This temporarily knocks some sense into Jesse, who admits that he didn't mean to do that to Eugene - the words just came out.  Cassidy's like, well, what are you going to do, you sent an innocent kid to hell.  Jesse retorts that Eugene isn't that innocent: he had a big crush on that Tracy girl and when she rejected him, he shot her in the head with a shotgun and then turned the gun on himself.  Cassidy: So he deserved what he got?  The vampire implores the preacher to give up the Voice - it's a little odd to see a 119-year old hard-drinkin', drug-loving vampire be the voice of reason - but Jesse's all, how do we know this isn't God's plan.  Cassidy runs out of arguments and, for some reason (to test Jesse, see if Tulip is really right about him?), strips off his clothes and walks into the sun, asking, "Padre, will you let me burn too?"  He bursts into flames and, shrieking, falls to his knees.  Jesse just stares at him.

After the commercial break, Jesse goes back into the kitchen, setting the fire extinguisher on the table with a thud.  He drains his beer.  The women ask where Cassidy is.  Jesse frowns at Tulip, "You know about him?  You know what he is?"  He sees the answer in his face.  Emily stutters:  "I don't know anything."  Tulip calls him a sonofabitch, throwing a friend out who doesn't meet his uptight, redneck, Christian standards.  He snarls at her, calling her an O'Hare, sneering at the dinner she tried to make.  She calls him a dick and stomps out.  Emily flutters, trying to smooth the waters, saying that from the day he got back to Annville, she believed in him.  Jesse stares at her dully, "Well, that was stupid.  Go home, Emily."  Wordlessly, shocked, she leaves.

Flashback:  Jesse's dad wakes him up in the middle of the night and tells him to hide under the bed and keep quiet.  From under the bed, Jesse can see his father getting beaten unconscious but a couple of men.  Those men find the frightened boy, of course.  And out in a field, Jesse's dad is on his knees with a gun to his head, making his son promise to be a good boy and not cry.  "I did this, daddy! It's all my fault!"  And then the men shoot his dad.

Now:  Jesse, on his knees in the church, tearing up the floorboards and grabbing fistfuls of the dirt underneath, shouting in the Voice, "Come back! Come back!"  And outside, Odin Quincannon has a bulldozer and a small army of Quincannon employees, armed to the teeth, advancing on Jesse's church.

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Preacher recap "South Will Rise Again" S1E5 6/26/16

Ratwater.  We start back with the Cowboy, back in the day, slowly riding into the town of Ratwater to get medicine for his sick daughter.  The music is clanging and intense.  The town is horrible.  The apothecary will have the medicine for him in the morning so the Cowboy bides his time in the saloon where there are whores, bar fights, disreputable men turning in scalps for money, women getting raped in backrooms.  The Cowboy sits by himself, watching the people around him.  In the morning, he gets the medicine and starts back towards his home.  He passes the folks in the wagon who fed him dinner a couple episodes ago and the little boy waves at him.  Some time later, he stops and rides back to Ratwater, concerned about the fate of that settler family.  He gets the shit kicked out of him for really no reason, and his horse killed, and when he finally gets back home, his wife and daughter are dead and being picked over by crows.  Yikes.

Annville.  Sheriff Root hears some noise out in the backyard.  It doesn't appear to be anything but when he goes back inside, Eugene shows him that someone has snuck into his bedroom and spray-painted "FINISH THE JOB" with an arrow pointing towards a shotgun leaning against the wall.  The sheriff is all, "You went to Tracy's, didn't you?" and his son apologizes.  We still don't know why Eugene tried to kill himself but it apparently has something to do with Tracy (the comatose girl) and folks in town are not happy about it.

In the morning, Jesse and Emily are at the diner, figuring out church finances.  A lot of townsfolk are impressed with Jesse and want to talk to him, asking him about scripture, asking for advice.  Emily is all, Jesse, this isn't you.  He's smug about it, saying that no, it isn't him - it's God.  And he leaps into it, using the Voice indiscriminately and without really thinking about the consequences, just telling people what he thinks they should do.  I'm sure this will go well for him.

Also in the morning, over at her drunk uncle's house, Tulip peppers Cassidy with questions about his being a vampire which helps us establish the vampire rules for this universe: no fangs, doesn't turn into a bat, won't sleep in a coffin if he can help it, doesn't crave human blood but it helps him heal - although he'd really prefer single malt scotch, sunlight is bad but he can go out if he's covered up, silver bullets are for werewolves and crosses are a 2,000 year old symbol of hypocrisy.  She tries to kick him out and he says that he's fallen for her, after that kiss.  Tulip retorts that she's got a boyfriend and she's just waiting for him to get his act together so they can get out of Annville and take care of Carlos.  Cassidy is sympathetic and says that after all the work she did to track this Carlos down, and the boyfriend still isn't on board - maybe he isn't the man she thought he was.  Also, could she get him some drugs - opiates are his favorite.

As the heaven phone rings and rings, the two angels hide in the bathroom, practicing what they're going to say when they answer.  They have to get it right or the folks upstairs will come down hard on them.  They practice again and the phone rings on and on.

Eugene makes an omelette for his dad but the sheriff is upset, throwing the plate against the wall and shouting that maybe his son should just finish the goddamn job.  Poor Eugene looks sadly at his distraught dad and then starts to clean up the mess.

Tulip interrupts Jesse as he's holding forth in front of his parishioners in the diner and tells a story about how the old Jesse once shot a komodo dragon in the head because some scumbag was checking out her ass.  Jesse is insufferable as he says that he's changed and she can too.  Eugene comes to the diner - the waitress won't let him come inside - and asks Jesse if he can help his dad who is so upset because everyone in town hates him [Eugene]: "My dad shouldn't be the one suffering for my sins." He asks if Jesse could maybe pray with his dad or something and Jesse, still reveling in the power of the Voice, says they'll think of something.  What he thinks of: bringing Eugene to Tracy's house.  Tracy's mom FREAKS OUT, attacking Jesse's truck with a baseball bat and screaming that Eugene is a murderer.  Jesse Voices her to drop the bat and step away from the truck.  He has Eugene get out of the truck and then Voices Tracy's mom to "forgive him."  Looking a little dazed, she holds out her arms and gives an astonished Eugene a hug.  Jesse looks terribly pleased with himself.

There are a couple of domestic scenes with Donny and his wife, Betsy, first at home and then at lunch at work.  It's clear that they care about each other and the violent sex stuff is consensual.  Donny goes to work and is amazed to learn that Odin Quincannon (1) went to church and (2) is now acting strangely, agreeing to meet with the Green Acres people and generally being cheerful.  Donny freaks out and asks his boss what the preacher said to him.  Quincannon:  "To serve God.  Which I'm going to do, unless you have some other questions you want to shout at me."  So at lunch with Betsy, Donny is completely freaking out and is all, the preacher has powers.  He explains what Jesse did to him in the gas station bathroom.  Betsy comforts him, saying that sooner or later Donny's moment will come and the preacher will get what he deserves.

The angels have practiced their story and gotten up their nerve to answer the Heaven phone.  But just as they reach for it, it stops ringing.  Oops.

That night, Tulip robs a pharmacy to get Cassidy his drugs and then finds him exiting a strip club with the excellent sign: "1000s of beautiful girls and three fat ones."  She gives him the drugs and he's all, "Lassie, that's so sweet.  Are we goin' steady now?"  Tulip says, "Even better - we're in love" and then fucks him in the back of the car.  That doesn't seem quite in character but maybe sometimes a girl just has an itch she needs to scratch.

Sheriff Root brings the angels to the diner where Jesse is yet again Voice-ing the townsfolks.  The angels are all, you are in possession of an enormous power, you've been using it a lot and it's not to be used.  Jesse's all but God gave me this and the angels shake their heads, saying "No, no, no - what's inside of you, it isn't God."

Quincannon and Miles the mayor meet with four Green Acres executives.  Quincannon is charming and upbeat, right up until the point where he picks up a shotgun and shoots each one of them point-blank in the chest.  Miles stands there, gawking, unable to believe what he just saw.  Quincannon: "Yup, we grow or we die, Miles.  We grow or we die."  Miles: *...*

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Preacher recap "Monster Swamp" S1E4 6/19/16

Here's a very horror movie-esque start to this episode: an underwear-clad girl runs down a deserted street, and then into the woods, looking terrified back over her shoulder.  She runs and runs, passing another underwearing girl in a field.  Men with guns chase them.  They fire and the second girl falls.  The first girl manages to get past, finally pausing for breath in a clearing.  One of the men finds her.  They know each other: she's one of the whores from the local brothel and he's one of the Quincannon Meat and Power douchebags.  He raises his gun and shoots her - it's a paintball game, as it turns out.  She squeals at the sting and takes a few steps back ... and then falls shrieking into a sinkhole.  Oops.

Flashback:  A young Jesse sets up the church for his preacher father.  Church was considerably better attended in those days.

Here and now:  Cassidy tries to tell Jesse about the two weird dudes/angels who are in town to try to pull the Voice out of the preacher.  In typical Cassidy fashion, his story is nigh unintelligible, not only because of that accent that I struggle with so much.  Jesse doesn't believe him or pay much attention, especially once Cassidy starts going on about androids and government clones.  Jesse has things to do and he tells Cassidy to fix the damn A/C and drives off.  Also, it was on the second watching that I realized that in the flood of words coming out of Cassidy's mouth, he admitted to smoking attic insulation.  Which is just amazing.

Out in that clearing, the sheriff's men pull the dead girl out of the sinkhole.  All the whores are there, crying, and all of the QM&P men are there too.  Odin Quincannon makes a speech, basically telling the boys to watch the roughhousing and the girls to watch where they're walking at night.  And that's it.  Tulip is there too, however, and she's bullshit at the lack of pity or responsibility for the girl's death.

Jesse swings by Emily's house and convinces her that they should do a church raffle with a big flatscreen t.v. to increase attendance.  She thinks that's a bad idea, too expensive, but he insists and talks her into picking up the t.v., playing - possibly unknowingly - on her feelings for him.  He promises her that after this Sunday, people will be coming to church in droves.

Flashback:  Jesse's dad catches him smoking cigarettes with a preteen Tulip.  He beats his son with a belt while the other kids watch.

Cassidy goes to the angels' motel room and skilfully manipulates them into giving him more information about this whole Voice situation, and what they plan to do about it, like cutting it out with the chainsaw or drawing it out with "Wynken Blynken and Nod" lullaby.  I love Cassidy: "Ah, the song.  I think he'd prefer that to the saw, actually."  He promises to bring Jesse to them soon and finagles a wad of cash out of them as payment.  Which he promptly blows on drink, drugs and a girl at the whorehouse.  Back at the motel room, one of the angels brings out a steampunk looking Heaven telephone, saying that it's time to let "them" know what's going on.  But the other angel points out that they are down here on earth without permission and without "them" knowing, so it'd be best not to call in and 'fess up.

At QM&P, Odin Quincannon is interrupted whilst playing Q*bert [Q*BERT!!!!] by Annville's mayor Miles stopping by.  The mayor is not a strong person and is no match for Quincannon.  His recent meeting with the Green Acres group has not gone unnoticed by the Quincannon camp and, once Odin brings it up, Miles starts gushing about Green Acre's green/sustainable/etc. business projects, saying that it could be a very profitable relationship for the town should QM&P agree to work with Green Acres.  Odin not only tells the mayor to piss off, he pulls out his dick and pisses into Miles's briefcase.  Meeting over.

That night, the mayor - who has a huge crush on Emily - babysits her kids while she picks up that t.v.  When she gets home, he convinces her to have a glass of wine with him.  She tells him, you know I'm never gonna be with you, right, Miles?  Then she takes off her pants and tells him that he's to be out before morning: "The kids almost caught you last time."

The whorehouse has a pathetic memorial service for the dead whore and Tulip can barely restrain her anger and frustration.  Before things get too heated, the madam says that in honor of Lacey and "her peaceful ways, next hour's on the house."  Tulip sulks around downstairs (and we learn that she's friends with the madam because Tulip's momma was one of the whores back in the day) and when the fuck music starts cranking upstairs, she can't stand it anymore.  She rages into a room with a golf club, thinking that it's Clive (the QM&P employee who shot Lacey with the paintball gun) flailing away on top of the girl.  She beats him and beats him until he falls out the window onto the porch roof, jag of glass plunged into his throat.  Except it isn't Clive: she went into Cassidy's room.  She and the whore bundle Cassidy into a car and drive him to a hospital, Tulip in the backseat with Cassidy on her lap, bleeding profusely from his neck.  She is freaking out.  He tells her to kiss him and she does and he smiles at her.  At the hospital, she tries to rush him into the ER but when she turns back from badgering the admittance clerk, Cassidy is gone from the waiting room.  She follows the trail of blood and finds him slouched against a refrigerator, sucking on a blood bag.  As she stares at him, Cassidy grins at her, gesturing to the blood bag:  "I think you're right, love,  I'm gonna make it."

Flashback:  Jesse and his dad drive to QM&P in the middle of the night.  As Jesse sits out in the hallway, his dad goes into Odin's office.  You can't make out what they're saying but it sounds like a disagreement.  Jesse's dad storms out and Odin calls after him, "Renounce him, John Custer, renounce him!"  Later, on the drive home, Jesse's dad muses, some people just can't be saved.

In the present day, Jesse stops by QM&P and helps Odin with his Alamo model.  He asks Odin to please come to church on Sunday.  Quincannon isn't inclined to do that so Jesse sweetens the pot: the Custer land is the last large chunk in town that Quincannon doesn't own.  If Odin comes to church and doesn't leave feeling godly after listening to the sermon, Jesse will let him have the land.

On Sunday, the church is in fact pretty full, thanks to the t.v. raffle.  Jesse launches into his sermon, in which he basically tells them they're all sinners and it's their own damn fault ... but he can help with that, one person at a time, he'll bring them back to God.  He walks into the congregation and picks out Odin Quincannon, asking him if he will now serve God.  Odin's like, um, no, not interested, he wins.  So Jesse leans in, asks him again, and then tells him in the Voice to "serve God."  And then when he asks Odin again if he will serve God, Quincannon, looking rather surprised at himself, says, well, yes, of course, I will serve God.  The congregation is pretty impressed at that.

The angels wait in their motel room for Cassidy to deliver the preacher, eating vending machine snacks and reading the Bible.  A phone rings and one of them picks up the motel phone.  It's not that phone that's ringing.  They stare in fear at the Heaven phone as it rings and rings and rings.  Oops.

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Preacher recap "The Possibilities" S1E3 6/12/16

HOUSTON:  Tulip meets with Danni, handing over the map ("Property of Grail [sp?] Industries") for which she battled through the cornfield in exchange for someone's last known address.  Danni also lays out a scenario in which Tulip could kill her husband for her but Tulip isn't down with that.  The address gives her a flashback: screaming "Wait!" in an alleyway after a fleeing car, an alarm blaring.  In the now, she tells Danni that was the day when it all went bad for her and Jesse.  And now someone's got to pay.  After Tulip leaves, Danni drives to a warehouse and slips into a snuff film festival (we don't see anything but hear screams and power tools).  She hands the map to a white-suited man in the audience, saying that she told him her girl was good.

ANNVILLE:  Sheriff Root is interviewing those two weird dudes in their motel room.  They say that they're after something horrible that got lose, and they're deep undercover, and he's to leave them alone.  "We'l call if we need anything."  Sheriff Root is shaken by imagining what horrible thing is on the prowl in his town.  After he leaves, they start to arm themselves with all kinds of weaponry.  "No surprises" this time.

Emily stops by the brain-damaged girl's house [Tracy? is that her name?].  Her mother is amazed that Tracy's eyes are open and feels badly that she was so rude to the preacher when he told her something was going to change.  The only thing that has changed is that the girl's eyes are open but still, to her mother, different is better.  In another part of town, Donnie speaks to his son en route to the school bus.  The boy apologizes for going to the preacher.  Donnie says that "grownups are complicated ... I love your mom," deeming explaining pain-sex games too difficult at this point.  His son says that he beat up a kid at school who had been talking about the funny sound Donnie made when Jesse broke his arm.  Donnie's all, good - but when the bus pulls up, all the kids are like "It's the bunny-man!" and start squeaking and squealing at him.

Emily finds Cassidy at the church and instructs him to take the recently delivered coffin (whatsisname who cut his own heart out) to the crematorium.  When the vampire goes to get the keys to the van, he finds Jesse skulking in the kitchen.  Jesse: "I wanna show you somethin'."  What he does is demonstrates his power on Cassidy, making him hop, confess a secret, shadow-box, sing Johnny Cash etc.  They learn that the power is limited to what the person can actually do: when he tells Cassidy to fly, the vampire throws himself at the wall but is, in fact, unable to fly.  Cassidy is thrilled but Jesse is pretty close to thinking he's crazy.  "It might feel like a curse ... but it doesn't have to be.  Someone like you, with something like this.  I mean, come on, padre.  You just imagine the possibilities here."

On her way back to Annville from Houston, Tulip gets pulled over for speeding.  She talks her way out of it.  That's about it.

QUINCANNON MEAT AND POWER.  Odin Quincannon likes to listen to the slaughterhouse over the intercom while he has his lunch.  Yeesh.  Donnie reads him a letter from some company ("Green Acres") who is either horning in on QMP's territory or wants to work together.  Donnie's feathers are ruffled but Quincannon doesn't seem too fashed at this point.  Not really sure what's going on here.

Jesse meets up with Tulip on the road in the boondocks.  He tells her again that he doesn't want to get back into a life of crime and she snaps at him, "This isn't crime, preacher.  This is justice."  Jesse stares at her: "Carlos."  And then he has the flashback she had earlier, only he's just shot a security guard in the head as the alarm blares and Carlos drives off, leaving Tulip screaming after him.  "Rat-bastard, money-stealin', child-killin', life-ruinin' sonofabitch," confirms Tulip here and now, waving the address at Jesse.  "Jesse, come on.  Let's go kill Carlos."  And just like that, he's in.

At the motel, the weird dudes are locked and loaded and ready to roll.  On his way back from the crematorium, Cassidy sees them drive by in their black SUV and is all, they found me again.  After the sun goes down, the dudes advance on foot towards the church.  Their goals:  "First the can [that coffee can], then the preacher."  But they don't get very far before Cassidy roars up in the church van and runs them over.  When he gets out to survey the carnage - and they are ALL messed up - he is amazed to see that they look just like the two guys he buried.  "Clones," he decides.  As he walks off to fetch something to clean up this mess, a light flashes; when he comes out into the church, the two dudes are there.  Again.  Cassidy starts beating on one of them with a croquet mallet he found in the closet, growling, "How do you keep finding me?" until the dude who is not getting beaten interrupts, saying "We're not here for you."  And then they have a bit of a sit-down, saying that the preacher has something of theirs and they need to put it back.

Tulip has to stop to gas up her car.  Jesse tries to tell her about what's happening with him but she's all wired, getting belligerent with another gas station patron, so he blows it off and hits the head instead.  In the bathroom, he gets ambushed by a pistol-toting Donnie: "Who's the bunny in the bear trap now?"  Jesse of course uses the Voice to make Donnie shove the gun in his own mouth but just before he forces the other man to pull the trigger, he sort of gives himself a little shake, realizing that he seems to be enjoying this power a little too much.  He says to himself, "I get it," and tells Donnie that he can go.  And when he rejoins Tulip out at the pumps, he says he's changed his mind.  As he starts walking back to town, he tells her that he's staying [in Annville].  She shrieks, "Well, I ain't leavin' without you!" but he just shrugs and keeps walking.

Back at the church, the two weird dudes tell Cassidy that if they don't collect what's inside the preacher, death and destruction will follow.  He questions why they want that power - military, economics, psychosexual mind control - but they're like no, it's not to be used at all.  They tell Cassidy they're from the government but when he, being a good conspiracy theorist, starts rattling off agencies and acronyms, they break in:  "We're from Heaven."  Cassidy: "I see.  Right."  He tells them that they're going about this the wrong way, hunting down Jesse, but if they just take a step back, he'll talk to his best mate and convince him of their mission.  I can't tell if he's playing them or not.

As the episode ends, Jesse and Emily are the only attendees at the funeral for Whatsisname (who cut out his own heart).  The camera pulls back as the preacher gives the reading and the valve on a standpipe out in a nearby field snaps open with a hiss.  What does that mean?

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