Con SuiteThe Reactor

Recap: Preacher – Dallas

By Miclpea

SPOILER ALERT-Preacher- Season Two-Do not read if you have not seen episode five of Preacher.

Quote of the Week- “Why in the world would anyone trust you? “

Dallas opens with Jesse choking Viktor in a rage as Tulip tells him that Viktor is her husband. She had come to ask for a divorce. Viktor, instead of trying to calm the situation, goads Jesse by bragging that Tulip is his wife. This enrages Jesse even more! Jesse grabs Viktor in a choke hold and drags him down the stairs to the torture room. Along the way we see Viktor’s men, still under Jessie’s power, frozen like statues.

Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Paul Ben Victor as Viktor Kruglov

In the torture room, Jesse, still in a murderous rage, pulls down the previous torture victim and Pet. He then trusses up Viktor like an animal for slaughter before he hangs like a piece of meat in a butcher shop. During this entire time, Tulip has been pleading with him to stop. She tries to block him but this only infuriates Jessie further to the point where he uses the voice of Genesis to force her to leave. As Tulip is forced out of the room, Tulip yells that she cannot go back to how things were in Dallas.

Flashback to Dallas and the bank robbery where Carlos betrayed Jesse and Tulip by leaving them at the scene of the bank robbery. It was here that Tulip suffered a miscarriage. Flash forward three months where Jesse, in a drunken stupor, is sitting in an apartment with his friend, Reggie. The loss of the baby has obviously devastated him. Tulip has arranged for their former boss, Dani, to come to dinner.

At dinner, Dani, after making a valiant attempt to eat the dinner prepared by Tulip, offers them a choice of jobs. One of the jobs is working for Viktor but Dani really wants them to kill her husband which they decline to do. Dani tells Jesse and Tulip that the work she is offering them is what they do best. They need to get over what happened during their last job. Jesse tells her that people can change. Dani tells him that people do not change. As she leaves, she tells them to move on.

Next, there is a montage of Jesse going to the store for beer and cigarettes, mechanical sex with Tulip, negative pregnancy tests, and the cycle repeats over and over. Jesse is barely existing; he has become a pathetic drunk who doesn’t realize that he is alienating Tulip. Jesse is so desperate for a child that a one point he actually gets down on his knees and prays with Tulip for a child.

Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Ruth Negga as Tulip O’Hare

This cycle would have continued except that a smoke detector goes off while Tulip is at work. While Jesse is resetting the detector, he finds a secret stash of cash in the ceiling. Apparently, Tulip has been secretly working for Dani. Tulip has also been keeping another secret, she has been taking birth control pills. When Jesse confronts her with his newfound knowledge, they start arguing. Unfortunately, poor Reggie is caught in the middle. Each time he tries to leave, Jesse forces him to stay. The argument between Jesse and Tulip escalates to the point where Jesse lashes out at poor Reggie and savagely punches him in the face. Later, as Tulip prepares to leave Jesse, he tells her that he is returning to Anneville to be their preacher.

In the present, Tulip arrives at Denis’ home with Viktor’s daughter. Tulip is livid that Cassidy told Jesse about where she was. He decides that he has to make things right, so he goes to talk to Jesse at Viktor’s home.

At the mansion, Viktor tries to analyze Jesse. Viktor tells Jesse that he knew that Tulip had suffered some type of hell to affect such a strong woman the way it had. He correctly guesses that Jesse was the cause of the hell she suffered.

Cassidy arrives at the mansion where he finds Jesse in the master bedroom. He quietly talks to Jesse. Jesse does not speak, until he asks Cassidy how he could possibly trust him after all the lies? As Jesse quietly talks to Cassidy, there is an undercurrent of tremendous hurt and betrayal. Also, Jesse is on the precipice of unleashing a terrible act of violence on Viktor. He asks Cassidy why would he trust him after all the betrayals? Cassidy answers Jesse truthfully. Cassidy tells Jesse that he would seriously have hurt anyone that came between him and his girl; but, he also tells Jesse that he will back him 100 percent. Jesse is afraid that Tulip will leave him if he kills Viktor, but Cassidy tells him he does not see Tulip leaving Jesse. Jesse heads to the torture room, where Viktor explains to Jesse why Tulip left him. He tells Jesse that Tulip left Jesse because he is an “ar$ehole.” Viktor also tells Jesse that he made Tulip happy. A later flashback verifies that Viktor was truly happy with Tulip and she seemed happy until she received news from Dani about where to find Carlos. Carlos is her white whale.

Ruth Negga as Tulip O’Hare, Paul Ben Victor as Viktor Kruglov 

Back at Denis’ house, Tulip and Cassidy are talking as Jesse walks into the kitchen and casually grabs a beer. Tulip and Cassidy are clearly apprehensive that Jesse has killed Viktor. Jesse tells them that he “took Viktor down” which to Tulip and Cassidy means he killed Viktor. Jesse then explains that he cut Viktor out of the harness and persuaded him to sign the divorce papers. In a passionate kiss Tulip and Jesse forgive each other and realize that they are bad for each other but they are inseparable.

At the mansion, Viktor sits reading when his daughter comes. He starts to read the newspaper to her when suddenly there are sounds of gunfire and fighting downstairs. The Saint of Killers has arrived. He kills everyone before he finds Viktor’s daughter in a closet. She offers to lead him to Preacher.

This episode gives us the back history on why Tulip and Jesse separated and why Tulip hated Carlos. It also explains why she did not want to return to New Orleans. Although, Jesse and Tulip have made some really bad choices, they truly love each other. We also discovered that Cassidy was rich as some point in his life and he completely understands Jesse and the pain he was feeling. His quiet reassurance talked Jesse off the “ledge.” Still one question remains unanswered-who is Denis?

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Miclpea

I love going to conventions around the US and Canada. I'm an ardent fan of all things science fiction and especially The Expanse. I'm a senior writer for Friends of CC and I have co-written a science-fiction script called Punctuated Equilibrium.