There was an old fashioned stand-off on Preacher Sunday. “El Valero” had Jesse facing off with Quincannon while trying to figure out how to save Eugene. Here’s the full recap!
“El Valero” starts off with a flashback that gives us a bit more character depth for Mr. Odin Quincannon, and it’s a mess…
VAIL
A family in total 80s attire is on a ski lift, and they’re all talking and visiting. One woman is talking about how her husband is married to his job, and the grandmother is trying to put mittens on a little girl.
Then one guy announces its Quincannon photo time, and you can guess where this is headed because the lift is creaking and then all of a sudden falls.
The scene cuts to Quincannon at his office, having called Jesse’s dad, John. We see a bunch of wooden boxes and a cow sitting in his office. When John shows up, he see the destruction that Quincannon caused.
He has opened up the boxes and torn apart his family’s bodies and the cow. He holds up the intestines and asks which one is his daughter’s and which is the cow’s.
It’s single-handedly the weirdest, most eye-opening scene. This sheds a little light onto how Quincannon lost his mind. He yells for John Custer to spread the word at church that Sunday.
“You need to let people know. You need to stand in that church and denounce him.”
This is where the flashbacks merge and we realize this was the night that John brought Jesse with him, and that’s the scene that Jesse sees when he looks into Quincannon’s office.
THE CHURCH
Quincannon’s men bust into Jesse’s church, and he ambushes them and takes away all their weapons. They run back to Quincannon and Donnie keeps asking them what Jesse said to them.
“What happened? What’d he say?”
“He didn’t say nothin’. He just kicked our asses.”
Back inside the church, Jesse is begging God to bring back Eugene. All of a sudden there’s a noise from the hole in the floor and Jesse goes to it and pulls Eugene from the dirt.
Eugene can’t really believe that it’s Jesse and goes on to say that they like to play tricks on people. Then he sits down and Jesse asks if he wants some water. When Jesse tries to call Sheriff Root, Eugene asks him to old off for a little while.
After three glasses of water, Eugene is ready to talk. He tells Jesse that he heard his voice and began digging up.
“You dug out of Hell with your hands?”
“It’s not that far.”
(Well, that’s comforting.) When Jesse asks what Hell is like, Eugene tells him it’s crowded then asks if they could not talk about it. Jesse holds back his questions and calls the Sheriff.
Outside the church, Quincannon is rallying his men with promises of a food court in the new factory, but the only way they’re going to get it is if they go and get the preacher out of the church.
This will end well, I’m sure.
Back inside, Jesse gets off the phone with the Sheriff and tells Eugene that his dad is on his way. Then he apologizes to Eugene and tells him that he was right about Jesse’s power.
“This power I got—of course it’s cheating. People want to choose. Yep. You were right about that, too.”
Eugene doesn’t respond at all. He only watches Jesse as he moves to the church window to see Quincannon’s men making their way back to him.
“I was told there would be consequences, and here they are. I should probably give it back.”
“To those guys in the hotel, you mean?”
That’s when it sinks in for us and Jesse that Eugene isn’t really there at all, and he’s just a hallucination. When he looks up, the glass of water is still full, and Eugene is suddenly sitting beside him.
Eugene tells Jesse, “We’ll figure something out.”
It’s looking really bad for Eugene and Jesse at this point.
EMILY’S HOUSE
She looks zoned on and is blow drying her dry hair. Soon her kids yell for her and when she comes out and Miles is there.
He’s telling her that he’s sorry about the church. Emily is thrown by why he’s saying that, and she finds out that Quincannon believes he has won the bet and that the church and property are now his. Miles is going on and on about how it will hold up in court, and Emily is running around looking for her shoes.
That’s when Miles tells her that he washed them and put them up in the windowsill to dry out. He understands that she’s going to the church and offers to drive her, and she yells, “I can drive my own damn car!” Then she calms down and asks him to take the kids to school for her.
I’ve got some theories about this whole scene, and one of them isn’t too favorable to Miles. With the “previously on Preacher” scene showcasing Emily telling Miles she’ll never be with him, and how he keeps showing up at her house and her dazed look and annoyance with him…I’m starting to think she might be pregnant. I mean, what is Miles willing to do to keep her? He’s a good old boy, but I get some shady vibes from him sometimes. Or, she could still be upset about what Jesse said to her the night before. It’s probably the latter, but c’mon, DRAMA.
BACK AT THE CHURCH
Jesse is making a molotov cocktail, and Donnie is decked out in full reenactment apparel and leading the charge to the church.
They don’t get far before sharpshooter Jesse starts wounding them from the roof. They retreat and the bulldozer moves forward only to be hit with the explosive.
None of this deters Clive, though, who keeps moving forward, chanting, “Food court. Food court. Food court.”
Jesse shoots, and we go back to Quincannon yelling, “What the hell are your boys doing?”
He isn’t happy at all that they’re not fighting and tells them that he’s a preacher and won’t hurt anyone. Clive is walking back toward them, carrying something in his hands, though. Obviously in shock…
“You alright, Clive?”
“Not really. Preacher shot my dick off. See. He’s an incredible shot. Kinda took it clean off. It’s all right. It doesn’t hurt that much at all.”
Right then the sheriff shows up and Clive is still mumbling something about how it will probably hurt later. Quincannon tells the sheriff that Jesse’s lost his mind, and sheriff knows Eugene isn’t with him anymore.
Quincannon tells his assistant to bring lunch because they’ll be there a while and to call an ambulance for Clive because he’s going to upset the other men.
Sheriff asks if Jesse has made any demands, and Jesse comes over the speakers and tells them to bring the agents. Quincannon doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but the sheriff does.
Cut to DeBlanc and Fiore walking up the dirt driveway of the church with their chest rolling along behind them.
Jesse opens the door and tells them to come in, but they can’t, so he has to pull out the Genesis voice and get them back inside.
During all this, a crowd has assembled outside the church, and a picnic type atmosphere has developed.
Donnie is sitting off to himself, looking in deep thought about something, and the camera cuts to the sheriff walking up to Quincannon.
He says that he doesn’t want Eugene in the crossfire and admits to Quincannon…
“These last few days. Me and Eugene, we’ve had our challenges, but at the end of the day, I don’t know what I’d do without him.”
“You’d figure it out.”
So, he’s not the best when it comes to family loss. When the sheriff tells him that the church is on Holy Land, Quincannon actually speaks with some passion and tells him that the church isn’t holy at all and he’s going to tear it down peg by peg.
It makes you wonder, how long has Quincannon been trying to get this land and at what lengths did he go? Has he killed for it before?
Inside the church, Jesse has explained to DeBlanc and Fiore what happened with Eugene. He asks if they can help them, forgetting that Eugene can’t be seen. When he asks if someone can be brought back from Hell, and DeBlanc says no at the same time Fiore says, yes.
When Jesse tries to push for more answers, DeBlanc tells him that no one is getting out of Hell until they get what they came for.
Outside, Clive is being loaded into the ambulance. The shock has clearly worn off because he’s screaming in pain.
Miles and Emily look on and he asks her if she can see what’s going on here, but Emily continues to defend Jesse, telling Miles that he’s just defending his property.
“This can’t be legal.”
“It’s legal, but sometimes what’s legal isn’t as important as what’s right.”
(I’m telling y’all, I wouldn’t be surprised if he messed with Emily’s birth control with his shady reasoning.)
He continues to tell Emily that if Quincannon takes over this land, he’ll bring more money into the town, and it will change the town for the better, improve the schools. Miles then says that Jesse is a criminal and he’s not really a preacher.
Inside the church, the angels are setting up their stuff to attempt to remove Genesis again, and Jesse is trying to talk them out of it…
“This thing. This power. It chose me.”
“It chose a lot of people.”
“What happened to them?”
“They exploded.”
He keeps going, though, and asks if they have questions about what’s going on. He tells the angels that sometimes we don’t understand what God wants, and that maybe God wants him to have this power.
“Preacher, we have a question for you. Genesis, the greatest power ever known, and you’ve had it all this time, right there at the tip of your tongue. And what good have you done with it?”
DeBlanc certainly has him there. Jesse lays down on the blanket and stops talking.
Outside the church, the picnic has really picked up and people are grilling now. And some women are even hoping that there will be more shooting!
Quincannon steps up on a milk crate to address his men, telling them that they’ll be making a night assault. They’ll move in waves to make it harder for Jesse to shoot them with the men holding blunt instruments being the “human shields” for the other people.
All the while, Donnie is standing off to the side. Finally, he gets up and walks to his car and pops the trunk. He kneels down and closes the trunk as close as he can to his head then pulls his pistol into the space with him. He fires the gun and goes completely limp.
No one seems to notice either.
DeBlanc and Fiore are working their magic inside the church, but Jesse is really holding on to Genesis, so it won’t come out when DeBlanc sings. Finally, they and Eugene finally tell him to stop resisting.
“You’re just a speck of dust passing through the glory of creation. Give it up.”
Genesis comes out of him when he stops singing and lands in the coffee can. The angels are glad it worked, and Fiore tries to reprimand Genesis, but DeBlanc tells him no.
Jesse starts talking about getting Eugene out of Hell, and they tell him they’ll look into it. Preacher doesn’t like that answer at all, and demands that they help him and asks them.
“A kid rotting in Hell over a mistake? That isn’t right. How does that happen?”
“We told you we don’t know.”
“Then tell me who does!” *his voice goes very Genesis-y here*
The coffee can rattles around and the lid pops off. Everyone watches as it destroys the coffee can before knocking into Jesse and sending him flying backward. The angels leave and as they’re walking away, they agree it’s time for the second option.
When Jesse turns back around, Eugene isn’t in the church anymore at all.
Several hours later, Jesse is sitting in the church, holding a gun as bullets pierce through the side of the building.
The whole town, including the sheriff, are lined up watching the assault and not doing a thing to stop it.
Jesse is shooting back, and the men retreat again. As he sits down, he hears someone come up from behind him. He stands up and comes face to face with Donnie, who’s bleeding from the ears.
He tells him to put the gun down in a normal voice then when he doesn’t listen, he uses Genesis on him. Donnie can’t hear, though, since he busted his eardrums with that pistol blast in the trunk. Jesse lowers his weapon and Donnie moves closer, pointing the gun at his head…
“Go on, Donnie. We both earned it.”
Donnie knocks him out, and when he wakes up Quincannon is sitting in front him. He’s talking about The Battle of the Alamo, and how all the men are remembered as heroes and good men, but no one talks about how they lost.
He hands Jesse the papers he had drawn up that transfer the church and property to him, and finally, Jesse brings up the important stuff…
“I just don’t understand what happened. I told you to serve God, Odin.”
“I am—devoutly.”
“What kind of a God wants to tear down a church?”
“Well, the God of Meat, of course.
“The God…of Meat?”
“The God of what’s tangible, what’s touchable and true. God of Meat.”
Jesse laughs. “I see. I see.”
“You think that’s funny?”
“No, no. It’s batshit crazy.
“You know what’s crazy, Preacher? What’s completely banana balls insane? Following a God who’s silent. That’s crazy.”
“Hmmm. I agree.”
You can practically see the wheels in Jesse’s head spinning at that, and he asks for one more Sunday before they tear the church down, and when Quincannon asks why, Jesse says,
“Well, I’ve been saying I want to bring this town to God. Haven’t been able to. I failed. This place is even more messed up since I got here. So, next Sunday, I’m going to bring God to the town. Bring him right here—to this church, and he’s going to talk to us. Spread the word. He’s gonna speak and he’s going to answer all our questions, and if we don’t like his answers, I will denounce the bastard then and there.”
So, Jesse’s going to try and use Genesis to call forth the voice of God, and he got Quincannon by using the words he told John Custer to use years before. Well played.
In an strange turn of events, Jesse is the only one placed in the sheriff’s patrol car and taken away, but not before a crazy lady bangs on his window and begs him to save them all. Emily and Miles watch as he’s taken away and people follow after the patrol car.
Jesse doesn’t seem too concerned, though, but we know that’s because he has a plan.
SOMEWHERE ELSE
An alarm blares and a man rushes down some stares to a wall of knobs and gauges with “Danger” flashing above it. He makes some changes, and everything goes back to normal.
Tulip This Episode
(It was several tiny bits that I just combined to make it easier to follow.)
Tulip is looking for a dog at the pound, and chooses one named Brewski. Later in the day she’s playing fetch with him in the backyard, still looking so sad.
At night, Tulip is inside with Brewski. She’s loving on him and telling him what a good boy he is. Finally, she damns Jesse before getting up and leading the dog to a bedroom down the hall. She hugs him for several seconds then opens the door and sends him inside.
After she walks away, you can hear the dog growling right before something tears into it. And now we all know where Cassidy is…
******
You can take a look at the stills for next week below! Only two episodes left this season on Preacher, and things look like they’re going downhill from here.
