Welcome, friends and neighbors. Today, we gather together to discuss the delightful new episode of Preacher. Let us bow our heads.

Season 1 Episode 2: “See”

1881: a young girl is in her bed, quite ill. Her parents (we presume) are running out of options, and her father hops on his horse for the two-day ride for medicine. We know he’s heading into a dangerous area because he passes by a tree that has ripe, bloated bodies hanging from it.

Strange fruit, indeed.

Back in the present, Jesse tries his best to tend to his flock and baptizes the members of his congregation. Over and over, he dunks them under and declares them saved. Tulip jumps in to get some salvation, and also to try to convince Jesse to join her on her newest illegal venture. He turns her down, but we can tell she’ll be back (she’s got a blueprint of something from Grail Industries that needs investigating).

Jesse also has a conversation with the local school bus driver, who very creepily admits to having impure thoughts about one of the little girls he drives to school.  Jesse gives him some half-hearted platitudes about what’s appropriate, and trying to forget all about the girl. The creep, having confessed, feels much better and happily goes on his way–the confessional is sacred, after all, and Jesse can’t discuss it with anyone else, right?

Jesse visits a comatose girl, but the mother finds cold comfort in the futile gesture. Jesse just can’t do anything right. Later, he and Cassidy have a conversation about God’s plan for them both. Cassidy admits to being a century-old vampire, and Jesse admits to…well, not believing he’s doing much good. Jesse takes a swig of Cassidy’s “special” liquor (which includes air conditioning run-off) and promptly goes facedown on the floor. He’s out. Cassidy decides to head out and paint the town.

In one of the most awkward business transactions ever, a gentleman named Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley) supervises the signing-over of an old farmer’s hacienda and, before the ink is even dry on the contract, a bulldozer crashes through the wall. In minutes, the entire abode has been demolished, courtesy of the goons at Quincannon Meat & Power.

Meanwhile, back at the church, the two oddball “cowboys,” Fiore and DeBlanc, have found Jesse still passed out on the floor. They go about setting up a weird contraption that they hope will capture the strange power that resides in Jesse. DeBlanc sings a very funereal dirge-like version of “Wynken, Blynken & Nod.” It’s seriously creepy. They get no results, so they opt for their 2nd choice: a chainsaw cesarean section on Jesse.

And then Cassidy shows up and quite brutally dispatches the two of them. Blood everywhere. Many pieces. Much dismemberment. And Jesse still sleeps through it all.

In a rather disappointing scene that just kind of spins some wheels, Tulip kidnaps Jesse, and asks him (again) to help her. He (again) refuses, and she lets him go. Uh…yeah. We get it.

As Jesse attempts to hacksaw a chain-and-ankle-cuff off of his person, Eugene/Arseface talks with him about faith and doing God’s will and maybe just by doing what they’ve already been doing, by being their own true selves, they’ll be doing what God wants of them. Jesse gets an idea.

The creepy pedo bus driver from earlier is in his bathroom when Jesse walks in, ready to give him a new baptism. Jesse punches him in the face and drops him in the bathtub, holding him under. Jesse gets angrier and angrier, finally growling out what could only be described as The Word Of God: “FORGET HER.” And the guy does. He can’t remember anything about the girl, and in fact has no idea what Jesse is talking about, He has done exactly what Jesse told him to do.

Cassidy buries the remains of Fiore and DeBlanc. But…

Fiore and DeBlanc are now talking with Eugene’s father, the sheriff.

And, finally, Jesse goes back to visit the comatose girl. He gets very close to her and growls, “OPEN YOUR EYES.”

Wow. This was a really great episode. Sure, there was a bit of redundancy with Tulip trying to get Jesse to go along with her, but for the most part I am totally loving this show. Fans of the comic might call it blasphemy, since they are taking a few liberties, but the characters are very much the same as in the comic. They have the same essence, if you will, and although their adventures are out of sequence or compacted and summarized, this is a very successful adaptation of the material (knowing what and who else is coming up soon, though, makes me very verrrry curious as to how they’re going to portray the more…blasphemous or perverted characters from the comic) (or even if they will).

Buckle up, kids, it’s going to get crazy.