Things Are Starting To Come To A Head On Preacher

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1, EPISODE 9 FOLLOW!

By: Tyler Miller

Yesterday gave us the penultimate episode of the season for Preacher and it was a real good episode. We got a conclusion to the cowboy’s story in Ratwater, and everything started to come together, making next week’s episode a much anticipated one.

The episode started off with another flashback to the cowboy’s story in Ratwater. He returned to the town and entered the saloon where he got beat the last time he was there. The preacher that killed his horse demands that he proclaim his love for Jesus, to which the cowboy responds that he only loves his family and his horse, and drops their heads on the ground. He then kills everyone in the building and then gets himself a drink as a storm enters the town.

In the present day, things are continuing from where last episode ended. Jesse’s in the sheriff’s car and is being taken to jail, but he manages to escape the car and gets away without a hitch. He ends up spending the night with some homeless people that are curious about how he’ll bring God down to Anneville. At the same time, DeBlanc and Fiore go to a travel agency to plan a trip “down south” (A.K.A – Hell), as this is their only option to get Genesis back from Jesse. After a bit of blackmail, they manage to secure themselves a trip to Hell.

The next day, Tulip asks Emily over to Walter’s house. She tells her that Cassidy’s a vampire and asks her to feed him while she’s gone, as she’s going to Albuquerque to kill a guy. She also goes on to say that she’s done with Jesse and that Emily could date him if she wanted to, but Emily says that she’s in a relationship with the mayor, although it’s clear that she wants to be with Jesse. Tulip leaves and then shortly afterwards, Emily goes to feed Cassidy a little hamster. As she’s doing this, the mayor calls and says that he’ll pick her kids up from school, in addition to the fact that he’ll be staying the night at her house.  This quick instance where she feeds Cassidy also gives us our first look at him post-burning and he looks horrible to say the least.

Back at their motel, DeBlanc and Fiore are packing for their trip to Hell when they decide to leave their decision to go to Heaven or Hell up to a coin toss. They get Hell on the first toss, but get Heaven on the second one. They decide to just call up Heaven and tell them what happened, but they can’t find their Heaven phone leaving them no choice but to go to Hell. Turns out that Jesse stole their phone and is planning to use it to bring God to Anneville.

Later in the day, the sheriff arrives at the motel and sees their room is covered with blood and is wrecked. He makes his way to the bathroom and discovers the angel that they wre fighting a few weeks ago, except she’s missing her arms and legs. She begs him to kill her, and eventually he does by choking her. Unbeknownst to him, this just causes her to come back to life and roam free again. Over on the other side of town, DeBlanc and Fiore hop on a shuttle to Hell and are forced to leave their trunk behind on the side of the road.

At Walter’s house, Emily is watching “Psycho” when she calls the mayor in a panic saying that she needs help. He comes over and makes his way to the room Cassidy’s in when Emily locks him in there, leaving him to be eaten alive. Shortly after, Emily goes outside to let the animals Tulip had as food for Cassidy free when Jesse pops up. Emily goes to pick up her kids from school and Jesse goes inside to check on Cassidy. Jesse goes inside and Cassidy wants him to go because he knows it isn’t safe there for him. That and he’s pissed at Jesse. Jesse apologizes for letting him burn though and it’s revealed that he did use the fire extinguisher to put the flames out, just not fast enough.

The two of them make amends with each other and agree to work together to get rid of the bodies that are in the room. Jesse then remembers that he needs an angel hand to use the Heaven phone, to which Cassidy responds that he can make that happen. Jesse goes out the room to call Tulip and leaves her a message talking about old times as an apology of sorts for his asshole behavior the last time he saw her. Tulip doesn’t hear the voicemail though because she’s busy in Albuquerque getting ready to kill Carlos, the guy who did her and Jesse wrong all those years ago.

The episode ends with the cowboy’s story being played over and over again, except it’s being brushed over. After going through it a few times, we then see a door open in the saloon and two people walk in. They come down to the bar where the cowboy is having a drink, and he pulls his guns on them, revealing the people to be DeBlanc and Fiore! They’re in Hell and the cowboy has been forced to relive that horrible time in his life over and over again in Hell. The reason they’re talking to him is because they have a job for him: to kill Jesse.

Other thoughts:

• Emily luring the mayor over to feed him to Cassidy was just badass of her and shows that she really doesn’t give a damn about him at all. Plus it helps that he’s become more of an ass over the past few episodes.
• Tulip finally caught Carlos, but is she going to kill him without Jesse? I think so, but I can totally see her love for Jesse causing her to wait until he’s with her.
• The makeup for Cassidy in this episode needs to be highlighted because it did a damn good job of making him look horrible and scary to look at.
• Now that the sheriff killed the angel, causing her to come back to life brand new, I wonder what’s going to happen with her. Is she going to come back next week or is she going to report what happened to the people up in Heaven? Also, the sheriff certainly seemed to be enjoy choking her. He’s definitely not the guy we’ve been led to believe he is so far.
• Just how the hell is Jesse planning on using the Heaven phone without an angel hand? Unless he has a way to find the dismembered hand of the angel he fought with DeBlanc and Fiore, he’s going to have to do something else and I have no idea what it is.

Things are all starting to come together and all the loose ends are starting to be tied up. Next week brings us the season finale for Preacher and God is expected to be there. Will he bring us an episode that’ll end the season on a high note, or will he bring us a disappointing one? I’ll see you in church on Sunday when we find out.