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
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