By The Nerdling
Dangerous times are ahead for Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy as the preacher returns home to ask for a big favor.
Spoilers
“But you love me”
The premiere starts with a look at life for Christine, Jesse’s mother in Angelville. The young woman runs the Angelville plantation house smoothly as tourists walk through one area, eager customers wait in another, and several prisoners are kept unseen. Marie L’Angelle, Christine’s mother, is a well-known Voodoo witch and folks come from all over to have her cure what ails them. For a price, of course.
Christine runs off and Marie sends her henchmen, T.C. and Jodie, to bring her back. Earlier Jodie saw Christine trying to hide a photo from him. Marie demands to see the photo from Christine, but the young woman swallows it.
Madam L’Angelle does not believe in secrets. She has Jodie and T.C. hold her down while she cuts open her daughter’s stomach and pulls a photo out. “Leave him alone,” Christine shouts at her mother. “Don’t you touch my Jesse.” Marie has Christine strapped in the machine (I assume to take her soul) instead of sewing her up.
Lil’ Jesse
Jesse arrives back in Angelville with a dead Tulip and a very pissed off Cassidy. Finding his grandmother, Jesse begs for Marie to bring back Tulip back from Purgatory. Jesse knows Tulip won’t remain there for much longer and he cuts open his hand to give Marie his blood as payment.
Cassidy goes fetch Tulip’s favorite things. Jesse rides with Jodie, the man who shot his father, to get transpoil from a rival family. Exploiting the rift between Jesse and Cassidy, Marie reveals the love potion she made to keep her husband. She also tells Cassidy how grateful she is for returning Jesse and if there is anything he needs, he just ask.
Once Marie has everything, she surrounds Tulip with all her favorite things which includes Boo Berry Cereal, beer, and bullets. Jesse speaks to Tulip while Cassidy plays her favorite music, Joni Mitchell, not Dragonforce. All they can do is wait and plead. Tulip has to not answer the door when death comes knocking, she has to want to return.
Purgatory
In a set straight out of a nightmare sitcom, Tulip watches as a younger version of herself listens to her mother “work” in the bedroom. An unseen studio audience applauds cheers when her father enters. He has been released from prison and he promises he is turning things around. He has a job at a restaurant and is going to bring back his daughter’s favorite candy.
As he leaves, Tulip’s mother appears to boos and jeers from the audience. Her mother scoffs at the notion her father will turn it around. “He’s just another worthless O’Hare,” her mother tells her. “But I’m an O’Hare, too,” young Tulip says.
Her father comes back talking about how he showed his idiot boss. He grabs his rifle and loads it as police sirens surround the house. Tulip grabs her own rifle along with young Tulip and starts to fire at the police with her dad.
The police kill him and child services are knocking on the door telling Tulip to come with them. Tulip sees all of her favorite things on the coffee table and Joni Mitchell comes on the TV. She decides not to open the door just yet, opting to have a bowl of Boo Berries first. As the living room set crumbles around her and the reenactor who plays her younger self is telling her to go, Tulip decides she is going to come back.
Just before she fully crosses back over, she finds herself at a literal crossroads with God (who is still in the dog suit). God tells Tulip she is chosen to help him and she needs to get, and then he is cut off as she wakes in Gran’ma L’Angelle’s sitting room.
“More than anything”
His love is back, but there is still much trouble to be had for the preacher. He and Cassidy are itching to fight things out once more and he is back in the clutches of his Gran’ma. Jesse tells Marie he could renege on his deal with her. He could shoot her, TC, and Jodie then leave. Marie practically dares him to do it and tells him she loves him.
Thoughts
I missed this show!
While the adaptation from comic to screen has been loose, I’m looking forward to how this season is going to handle the “All in the Family” storyline, which is the darkest chapter in the Preacher comics. There have been some hints at the abuse Jesse suffered at the hands of his Gran’ma and her henchmen, I’m wondering if the series is going to dive deeper into just how horrible that life was for him.
No Eugene, Hitler, Herr Starr, or the Grail this week, but that is a good thing. Marie L’Angelle needed a proper introduction. Casting Betty Buckley was a pure stroke of genius. She is absolutely terrifying and I love it!
Marie blending Mercury, Magnesium, and Zinc in a Magic Bullet had me falling on the floor laughing. Homeland Housewares needs to feature that in their next infomercial.
Cassidy finally confessed to Jesse he and Tulip had sex. That already cause a knockdown, drag out fight between the two former best friends, but I’m wondering how Jesse is going to confront Tulip about it.
It was smart of the writers to make Tulip’s resurrection her choice. Jesse used The Word to mess with Tulip’s mind too many times last season. In a big thing like returning from the dead, that needed to be her choice and not Jesse commanding her to do what she might not want again.
The Purgatory Sitcom set was such a beautifully surreal thing. It really keeps in line of what this show does best, makes the overly supernatural seem mundane.
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