Preacher 2×02 – Mumbai Sky Tower

We pick up in the 2nd episode directly where the last left off. The Saint of Killers has caught up to Jesse and the gang, ready to kill the Preacher and Genesis along with him. He aims his gun at Jesse and takes fire, but a car just so happens to get in the way just in time, though the driver gets his head blown apart. The car drives straight into The Saint and Jesse believes that’s that. We learn that the hotel they’re staying at happens to house the Greater Association of Gun Aficionados as they all come out to investigate what the hell happened. The car proves to not be enough to stop The Saint, so Jesse commands the aficionados to take fire on The Saint. Cassidy was also alerted to the disturbance and gets Jesses out of there, while The Saint murders everyone else.

They both head inside to quickly get Tulip, but see that she is glued to the television. They all learn about the destruction of Annville finally, but they don’t have time to mourn as The Saint is slowly making his way through the hotel trying to find them. They take refuge in the refreshment area and try to open a window while The Saint continues his massacre. A funny bit with a man who had his arm shot off occurs in the meantime as he desperately wants a root beer and Jesse has to use Genesis to get him to shut up. We see The Saint turn around to this, which reveals that the way he is tracking Jesse is through the use of Genesis. The Saint arrives to the refreshment area too late, however, as Jesse, Cassidy, and Tulip are already driving down the road. He walks out to the road and screams into the night, failing once again to kill the preacher.

At a gas station the next day, Jesse and Cassidy debate over just what The Saint is and how he keeps finding them, while Tulip remains in the car, clearly shaken by the fact that Annville was destroyed. Cassidy notices a family that have Ganesh shirts on and is reminded of the ad he saw on television the previous night as Ganesh is actually the angel Fiore, who had previously been trying to get Genesis from Jesse. We hen cut to Fiore to see how he got to the point of becoming Ganesh. After the death of his partner DeBlanc, he waited for a bus to Mumbai Sky Tower where he then spent most of his days killing himself over and over again. We see a montage of everything from hanging, shooting, and suffocation before Fiore finally decides to electrocute himself in front of a audience. The fact that he comes back to life makes everyone believe it to be a magic trick and thus Ganesh is born. He’s decapitated, shot with an arrow, sawed in half, but keeps coming back for more and the audience love it.

As you may remember from the first season, things didn’t go so well between Jesse and Fiore as attempts to get Genesis out of Jesse failed each time, so Fiore is less than enthusiastic to see Jesse and Cassidy when they arrive. Fiore brushes the boys up on things we already know: the cowboy is The Saint of Killers, he tracks Jesse by his use of Genesis, and Fiore was the one who hired The Saint to kill Jesse. With Jesse realizing Genesis won’t help him, he tries to convince Fiore to help them by telling him God is missing. Fiore acts concerned at first, but then reveals that he no longer cares about anything after DeBlanc’s death. Jesse gets upset at this refusal, so he plans to use Genesis to make The Saint arrive and then force Fiore to call off the deal. Surprisingly, Cassidy is the voice of reason as he explains many occupants of the Mumbai Sky Tower would likely die as a result, so he’ll take care of Fiore himself and all he needs is 2 hours and 45 minutes to accomplish it.

Jesse tracks Tulip down and tries to cheer her up at the loss of Annville. She confides in him that though Walter wasn’t much, he was the only family she had left and recounts good memories of him. They both then head to their room to ease their pain with some sex. Tulip asks if they’ll still continue their mission to find God and Jesse stays vigilant, even if they aren’t able to get The Saint off them. He then surprises Tulip with a marriage proposal as he wants her to be able to say she has family she can rely on and there’s the fact that they obviously love each other. Tulip responds by slapping Jesse and trying to push her opinions on marriage as if they were actually Jesse’s. This starts to convince Jesse as well as they both come from families that didn’t do well in marriage, but ultimately Tulip agrees to go through with it.

Cassidy’s mission to turn Fiore to their side is revealed to apparently be taking speedballs. His first dose to Fiore accidentally kills him with an overdose, but we then get a montage of the duo having some fun in Fiore’s suite. They chase after each other, play soccer and basketball, build a pillow fort, lounge in a jacuzzi reading Archie comics, and more. Cassidy uses this time to try and pull information from Fiore, like learning that The Saint is able to kill anything, including angels. The fun still isn’t enough though as Cassidy is down to 3 1/2 minutes on his guarantee to Jesse and Fiore isn’t 100% on their side. A discussion about foreskins over some ice cream, however, seems to be the cure as Fiore stares lovingly at Cassidy and we cut away, hinting that sex may very well been the thing to turn the tide.

Jesse and Tulip grab their marriage buzzer and head to the bar to drink and wait their turn, but Tulip notices a man in the distance staring directly at her. She informs Jesse that she’d like to change her shirt and escapes to their hotel room, but upon opening the door, the man (Revealed to be named Gary) is waiting for her. Seems Tulip was previous in business with a man named Viktor, alongside Gary. For reasons unknown, she up and left and Gary has come to take her back in. Tulip tries to have Gary do her a solid and pretend she wasn’t there, but a fight ensues after things don’t go as planned. Tulip manages to kill Gary with the use of the marriage buzzer, but Cassidy walks in on the murder. Tulip asks Cassidy to have this be yet another secret from Jesse and he reluctantly agrees, also cleaning up the mess after her. The bloodied marriage buzzer then starts to go off in Tulip’s hand, signaling it’s time for her to be wed to Jesse.

Jesse, in the meantime, is still at the bar and talking to Fiore’s cohost for their Ganesh shows. Through the discussion about music, Jesse is reminded of the fact that God went to the strip club for the jazz and suddenly knows where they might find him. He then heads over to the alter to wait for Tulip and has a discussion with Fiore. He makes sure that Cassidy actually succeeded in having Fiore agree to call off The Saint and is then reminded that he accidentally sent Eugene to Hell last season when he asks if he can still continue using Genesis. Tulip finally returns and tells Jesse she changed her mind about getting married and that they should just depart now.

Cassidy and Fiore share a tender goodbye outside and Fiore’s insistence to an attendant that he should “be careful with that one, it’s Cassidy’s” in regards to luggage shows that Fiore may think of them as a little more than friends now. Jesse asks Cassidy if anything happened that caused Tulip to change her mind about getting married, but Cassidy sides with Tulip and keeps her secret. Fiore wishes Jesse good luck and asks where they’ll be headed next, to which Jesse reveals what he thought of earlier. If God loves jazz, what better place to look for him than New Orleans? Tulip hears this and gets visibly shaken, it’s possible to take from this that Viktor may reside in New Orleans as well. The group prepares to depart, but not before Jesse uses Genesis for The Saint to track them to the Mumbai Sky Tower by telling Fiore to “find peace”.

This proves to be a bad choice of command, however, as once The Saint of Killers actually arrives to Fiore and asks him if the deal still holds between them, Fiore agrees. Apparently finding peace to him is knowing that Jesse can’t be trusted and must be stopped. The other part of finding peace is that as The Saint begins to depart, Fiore asks him of one last deal. We cut to yet another of Ganesh’s performances and before his costar can do anything, Fiore nods to the distance and is shot by The Saint. The audience waits for Ganesh to return from the curtains, but this time, he never does.

“Mumbai Sky Tower” was a step-up to me from the previous episode as I enjoyed the solving of loose ends from the first season in regards to what came of Fiore. Learning that the use of Genesis was how The Saint of Killers is tracking Jesse also adds yet another handicap to him using it, so I expect a much more conservative amount of it from now on. It’s cool for Jesse to easily get his way every once in a while, but I want him to work a bit harder on the search for God. This episode also had plenty of montages and I’m a sucker for a good use of montages (Breaking Bad will forever have the best though). The introduction to Tulip’s little side arc intrigues me as well as it can’t just be Jesse who takes all the character development.

Mumbai Sky Tower – 4 out of 5

Pros:

• Cassidy trying to explain The Saint of Killers through movie references.
• The Fiore death montage and the speedball montage.

Cons:

• Yet another secret kept from Jesse with Cassidy and Tulip.
• I kinda wanted Jesse and Tulip to get married.

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