'Preacher' Recap: For Those Who Think That Boo Berry Cereal Is Awesome, We Salute You

By Brian Richards | Preacher | July 18, 2017 |

By Brian Richards | Preacher | July 18, 2017 |

Previously on Preacher: Tulip was reunited with Viktor, the New Orleans gangster who had been looking for her for quite some time. Just when it looked like all hope for Tulip was lost, Jesse swung in and came to her rescue…only to find out that Viktor is actually Tulip’s husband. To quote Carol/Cheryl/Cristal/Charlene Tunt:

THE STORY SO FAR: Jesse, who is not at all happy to find out that Tulip was once married, drags Viktor back to Russell’s old room to the torture chamber with every intention of putting the equipment in there to use and letting his frustrations out. Tulip doesn’t want Jesse doing any of that, but what Tulip wants clearly doesn’t matter, as Jesse uses Genesis to make Tulip leave. Meanwhile, Tulip heads back to Denis’ place (with Viktor’s daughter Allie in tow) and chews out Cassidy for not being able to keep her secrets from Jesse, as well as worrying that Jesse will once again unleash his temper on Viktor and do his worst, much like he did back when they were together in Dallas.

Also, we get to see flashbacks to Jesse and Tulip together in Dallas, three months after their robbery with Carlos went completely pear-shaped and caused Tulip’s miscarriage, and what led to their breakup in the first place.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Seeing more of Jesse and Tulip’s history together and learning more about what exactly happened after Dallas and Tulip losing her baby. Other than Jesse sitting around drinking Not-Pabst Blue Ribbon (which I’m sure tastes much better than the real thing. I’ve tried it and I really don’t get the obsession.) with his friend Reggie (who loves using pages from the Bible to smoke The Devil’s lettuce) and watching televised rodeo, Tulip is seen working as a realtor’s assistant when the two of them aren’t having emotionless sex in order to get pregnant again. (The montage of all this happening day after day and week after week had me wishing that Buffy Summers singing “Going Through The Motions” was playing over the soundtrack) And it all comes crashing down when Jesse learns that Tulip stopped working as a realtor’s assistant and went back to doing gangster shit with their former boss, Dany. And that she’s been taking birth control pills this whole time. Which causes that fearsome temper of Jesse’s to rear its head and make him beat the everloving shit out of Reggie for no reason. This also is what causes Jesse to leave both Dallas and Tulip and go back to Annville to become a preacher in his father’s church, since it’s still in his name. Tulip’s response: “Good luck with that.”

The brief glimpse of Tulip’s marriage to Viktor. Viktor wasn’t kidding when he told Jesse (mostly to get under his skin and piss him off) that the reason that she married him, other than Jesse’s temper possibly scaring the shit out of her, was that he was nice to her. And seeing the two of them cracking jokes and being affectionate as they play Monopoly makes you feel just a little bit sad for Viktor when he realizes that Tulip has packed up her things and left for good in order to exact her revenge against Carlos. (The Monopoly board being knocked over and completely disregarded on the floor was a nice, if stinging, touch to hammer home. Kudos to Paul Ben-Victor for selling the hell out of both scenes, particularly the latter where he is forced to accept Tulip’s disappearance without saying a word.

Cassidy’s conversations with both Tulip and Jesse, in which he tries to comfort Tulip and reassure her that he has their best interests at heart (despite her accusations that he’s trying to ruin things between her and Jesse because he still wants her all to himself), while also doing the same for Jesse and making it clear that even though he’s someone who shouldn’t be trusted (with him being, in Jesse’s words, a lying junkie vampire), he’s going to stand by his side and support him no matter what he decides to do about Viktor, even if it means Tulip will leave him for good.

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Dominic Cooper’s flashback wig. Yes, we’re supposed to get the point that this Jesse is a shadow of his former self and that he’s supposed to look like crap, but his flashback wig makes Oliver Queen’s flashback wigs on Arrow look…you know what, I was going to say “look good in comparison,” but I just can’t do it. The wigs on Arrow look that bad.

We still don’t know anything else about Denis, though I doubt that we’re supposed to.

And what better way to end the episode than with Viktor reading to Allie all about the Dow Jones from his newspaper, only to have his father-daughter bonding time interrupted by the Saint of Killers kicking in the door and waving his .44s (or Colts, if you really want to get technical) and killing every single one of his people before killing Viktor himself. And just when we’re about to find out if this is another show on AMC that doesn’t mind showing little girls being shot to death by White men with revolvers (not just once but twice), Allie stops the Saint of Killers by telling him that she knows where Jesse is.

ANY MENTIONS OF THE VAMPIRE-HUNTING VIGILANTES LOOKING FOR CASSIDY?: No.

HAVE WE ACTUALLY SEEN CASSIDY DRINK ANY BLOOD RECENTLY? WHAT WITH HIM BEING THE V-WORD AND ALL?: Not since the Season 2 premiere when he chowed down on the bodega cat, as far as I recall.

ANY MENTIONS OF EUGENE A.K.A. ARSEFACE?: Not this episode, no.

ANY MENTIONS OF HOW MUCH CASSIDY REALLY DOESN’T LIKE THE BIG LEBOWSKI?: No.

This episode of Preacher has been brought to you by “The Girl Is Mine” by Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney: