Ruth Negga as Tulip O’Hare – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC
Jesse’s blind rage settles down as he gets a better grasp of the situation. Tulip explains that she never actually loved Viktor and they were actually discussing a divorce as he walked in. Viktor decides to not take the easy route out and insults Jesse, which resumes his anger. After punching out Viktor, Jesse begins dragging him throughout the mansion to bring him to the torture room, with Tulip following along begging him to stop. She makes mentions that Jesse shouldn’t be mad as they were over after “Dallas”, but this doesn’t stop him as he begins to harness Viktor up after taking Pat’s dead body and the tortured victim down. Tulip tries one last time to get through to Jesse, but he uses Genesis to get her to leave.
A flashback to Dallas occurs, which we had previously seen last season when Jesse and Tulip went after their partner who betrayed them. Tulip has a miscarriage due to the stress and it resulted in the beginning of the divide between her and Jesse. Time flashes forward a bit and Jesse is hanging out in an apartment with his friend Reggie, discussing the themes of John Wayne’s films. Tulip arrives and mentions that they’ll be having a dinner guest over in the form of an old friend named Dany and kicks Reggie out. Turns out Dany was the person responsible for giving them the odd jobs in the past, but they swore her off after what happened in Dallas. She attempts to convince them otherwise by listing off some of her current engagements, even flashing a folder that has a photo of Viktor within, but Jesse and Tulip continue to decline. Tulip does ask about the whereabouts of Carlos, the partner that betrayed them, but Dany recommends that if they decide they’re out, they should be fully out.
BTS – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC
It seems that after Tulip’s miscarriage, they still continued on trying to have a successful pregnancy again, but Tulip fails the latest pregnancy test in who knows how many attempts. Jesse and Tulip have what looks to be mundane sex to try again and the following morning have an awkward exchange, ensuring that they’re still gonna be together “til the end of the world”. Jesse agrees, but Tulip looks away with an uncertain look. We cut back to the present as Viktor informs Jesse he doesn’t have all day, so Jesse looks to the torture equipment and pulls a blade out. Since Tulip was sent out by Genesis, she takes Allie, her stepdaughter, to hang out with Cassidy. After distracting Allie by throwing her in with Denis, Tulip punches out Cassidy since he decided to not keep her secret. She believes he’s trying to ruin her relationship with Jesse because he also likes her, which she then dismisses. Cassidy feels bad for the trouble he caused, especially since Tulip states she wasn’t actually in any danger, so he heads out to try and calm Jesse down.
Jesse still hasn’t done anything to Viktor and instead is just kinda spinning the foosball stick he ripped out last episode while he thinks of what to do. Viktor ponders aloud that he knew something major had to happen in Tulip’s past as he always saw it in her eyes, but he was never sure just what it was. Seeing Jesse’s though, he now knows it was him. These words seem to enrage Jesse again, but another flashback is brought around. Seems Jesse’s ritual every night during that time was to buy a six pack of beer, some cigarettes, and a pregnancy test. A montage of what seems like months goes by, but it’s still no success for Tulip getting pregnant. Time stops for a bit as Jesse decides one night to pray before looking at the results of the test, but it’s a fake out as it still turns up negative. The montage resumes, but during another day, Tulip doesn’t arrive at her usual time to put the Bible in the window as Jesse and Reggie smoke, so the smoke detector goes off. This is where Jesse learns what Tulip’s really been doing as he notices a hidden stache as he turns the detector off.
Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC
When Tulip finally shows, Jesse plays it cool at first, but then reveals that he knows what she’s been up to. The cache was filled with money as Tulip had been taking jobs from Dany on the side, pretending that she was still working the real estate job when she actually only lasted three weeks. Jesse also found birth control in the cache, meaning that Tulip had been deceiving him in more ways than one during the several months they had been trying to have a child. Tulip tries to apologize and then claims that since she’s an O’Hare, what Jesse wants could never be the life for her. Jesse’s anger gets the best of him and he viciously beats Reggie when he tries to speak up for the 5th time. Tulip manages to stop him, but the damage between them is already done. The following day before Tulip heads out for another of Dany’s jobs, Jesse informs her that’s he will head back to Annville to become a preacher since his father’s church was still there and belonged to him. And so marked the end of their relationship, all thanks to Dallas.
In the present, Cassidy arrives at Viktor’s mansion and notices that all the goons are still frozen by Genesis. Jesse has moved to Viktor’s bedroom and, according to Cassidy, hasn’t done anything to Viktor still. A talk about lying and trust comes up between the two friends and eventually Cassidy decides to tell Jesse to do whatever he wants to do with Viktor as Cassidy will support him either way. Jesse knows killing Viktor would end everything between him and Tulip though, but Cassidy assures him there’s nothing that could seperate them. Starts to make me worried though that Tulip may have been right, maybe Cassidy is trying to sabotage the relationship between her and Jesse because he wants to be with her because that’s definitely what this felt like. Jesse decides to head down with Viktor again and begins to sharpen an axe, while Viktor explains that Tulip wanted to be with Viktor because he was nice to her and Jesse was an asshole. This causes Jesse to raise the axe and slam it towards Viktor, but the scene cuts away.
Joseph Gilgun as Cassidy, Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Skip Bolen/AMC
Cassidy is back with Tulip and informs her that he told Jesse to do the right thing and just at that moment, Jesse comes walking into Denis’ place. He tells Tulip that he took Viktor down, which everyone first takes as him killing Viktor, but he later corrects himself to say that he took him down from the harness by cutting it with the axe. Tulip seems relived and kisses Jesse, which seems to disappoint Cassidy a bit and he heads back to tell Allie her father is alive. Jesse states he’s bad for Tulip, but he reaffirms that they’re bad for each other…in a good way. A flashback reveals that the reason Tulip left Viktor’s in the first place was that she receiving the call from Dany informing her that she found out where Carlos was. Viktor returns to the room after an absence to see Tulip took her stuff and left, setting in motion her heading to Annville in Season 1 to recruit Jesse to deal with Carlos.
In the present again, Viktor is reading the paper, but is alerted by the door opening. It’s just Allie, however, and he reads to her from the newspaper since she can’t sleep. Gunshots erupt from downstairs, so Viktor tells Allie to hide in the closet. Since Jesse had used Genesis in Viktor’s mansion, the Saint of Killers decided to make a house call. He breaks down Viktor’s door and demands to know where the preacher is, but in Viktor’s confusion, the Saint decides to kill him. He then heads to the closet where Allie is hiding and just as he readies his gun to kill her, she tells the Saint that she knows where Jesse is.
Paul Ben Victor as Viktor Kruglov, Stella Allen as Allie – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Skip Bolen/AMC
After somewhat of a dull episode in “Viktor”, I felt that “Dallas” brought the season back up to its pace beforehand. It was good to get the full backstory of why Jesse and Tulip parted ways after Dallas and what the reason was for Tulip deciding to leave Viktor to seek Jesse out. The present day plot wasn’t as drawing as the past segments, but Jesse’s conflicted feelings over what to do with Viktor provided some good character development for him. The past few episodes had shown Jesse doesn’t treat Tulip as well as he should, so his decision to back down and accept the past for what it was showed some growth on his part. I’m still unsure of Cassidy’s role in this episode as Tulip imprinted the idea in my head that he could be trying to split Jesse and Tulip up, despite being good friends with both of them. I hope that’s not the case as this isn’t a plotline that was in the comics and a love triangle between the three is a boring thing to follow.
Dallas – 4 out of 5
Pros:
- The Jesse/Tulip flashbacks
- Jesse’s growth in character
- The acting during Jesse’s meltdown at Tulip was really good
Cons:
- Weird for the episode to revolve around Jesse killing or not killing Viktor, only to have the Saint of Killers take him out anyway.
- Cassidy’s motives have me worried, I hate love triangles.
