Preacher continues to build on the strong start of the pilot by opening up its second episode with another quirky creative leap; this time, back to 1881 as we witness a lone cowboy (Graham McTavish) ride out in search of medicine for his sick child. Along the way, our nameless stranger encounters a family wagon-training it out of St. Louis for the “paradise” of the American West. But the stranger’s first words confirm what we should already know: this is no paradise.

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And if you needed proof, we next see him riding past a huge tree decorated with the scalped and otherwise mutilated bodies of Native Americans before he finds his way to the shady town of Ratwater.

Readers of the comics will already know who this mysterious cowboy is, but new viewers might be a bit confused. That’s okay. Embrace your confusion. Answers will be coming. Just not this week.

A second new character is introduced this week: Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley), the owner of most things in the area, but specifically the owner/operator of Quincannon Meat Packing. With this first glimpse, we don’t get a lot of insight into who he is and what he means to the Preacher canon, but again, don’t worry. Answers will be coming. Just not this week.

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Back at church, Jesse (Dominic Cooper) is diving in headfirst to his job saving souls, performing a series of baptisms until Tulip (Ruth Negga) shows up and spoils his fun. She’s determined to get him onboard whatever the mysterious heist she has planned is, and he’s equally determined to keep walking the walk and talking the talk of a man of God. Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) is getting flack for not fixing the air-conditioner yet, but he’s finding himself oddly attracted to Jesse – in a possible future best friend kind of way.

That doesn’t keep him from getting Jesse shitfaced drunk (or possibly drugging him) so that he can “borrow” Jesse’s truck and make a drug and booze run.

What follows is a sequence that combines the truly bizarre with true splatter worthy of Ash vs Evil Dead. And I’m not just saying that because of the chainsaw.

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The mysterious Fiore (Tom Brooke) and DeBlanc (Anatol Yusef) arrive on-scene and we finally get a more detailed glimpse of their mysterious purpose, and it involves trying to capture Genesis by whatever means necessary. Sure, they’d prefer to lure the entity out of Jesse’s unconscious body with a sweet and creepy lullaby, but they’re equally ready to cut it out with a chainsaw.

Cue Cassidy, who mistakes them for representatives of the same mysterious organization that’s been tracking him all over the country. Which would have put them on his shit list even if they hadn’t been about to cut up his new best friend with said chainsaw.

This fight sequence is brutal, blood-drenched, gory, and amazing. Fight coordinator John Koyama puts together one of the best action moments in the still-young series – and one that’s going to be hard to top (unless Ash crosses over). While this was the highlight of the show for me, given that I’m prone to gushing with girlish giggles whenever blood starts spraying like a firehose, the most important event of the episode is that Jesse discovers his new Genesis-given powers.

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His “Voice of God” has already been demonstrated to viewers, and while some of the parishioners were gossiping about what happened to poor Ted (Brian Huskey) last week, Jesse demonstrates no knowledge whatsoever of Ted’s demise. This week, however, he gets first-hand experience of his own new gift when, after listening to the confession of a potential child-molester weighs on him, Jesse does what any right-thinking preacher would: he breaks into the pervert’s home and threatens to beat the shit out of him unless he forgets about the little girl he’s been obsessing over.

And suddenly, the pervert doesn’t remember the girl.

The look of shocked recognition on Jesse’s face is priceless and demonstrates that he almost immediately understands what has happened. There’s no denial or rationalization. He knows what he’s done and that’s smart writing. We’re diving right into the muck and the episode ends on an unusual – and potentially devastating – cliffhanger as Jesse revisits a young girl, comatose and brain dead, and tells her to open her eyes.

Cut to black.

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Oh yeah, and despite being dismembered and buried in the desert, Fiore and DeBlanc are still alive. WHA?

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