The wait is over, kiddies! AMC’s Preacher is back and on the hunt for the missing Creator of the Universe as he hides out here on this tiny blue marble of a planet. Let’s join our intrepid trio’s travelogue already in progress.

Tulip, Jesse, and Cassidy are tooling down the highway going a sedately 97 miles an hour when, after a fascinating conversation about foreskins, they are suddenly being chased by a few of Texas’ finest, sirens blaring and lights blazing. Jesse encourages her to keep going, that he’ll take care of things with his Genesis voice. Tulip speeds up, does some tricky stunt driving around a construction site–and then runs out of gas.

As the officers are arresting them lawman gets blown apart in a messy, spectacular spray. Some unseen soul starts blowing holes in the police and/or their cars, obviously trying to get at our triad. Soon, everybody but them is dead, and they ride off again in Tulip’s car, thanks to some intestinally-siphoned gas.  The mystery shooter is revealed to be our old cowboy avenging spirit, the Saint of Killers, heading inexorably closer and closer to them.

They stop off at a gas station for provisions (Cassidy drinks out of a cat), and Jesse pulls a sizzling hot bullet out of the side of the car.  Jesse commands the station owner to deny they’d ever been there, and when the Saint shows up later and can’t get any answers from the man, he rips out his tongue.

Meanwhile, the trio arrive at a the home of an old family friend of Jesse’s, Reverend Mike, who likes to keep naughty parishioners in a cage in his garage.  Mike knows all about scripture, so Jesse naturally assumes he’d know where God might be hiding if he was here on Earth.  Mike says he has no idea where that could be, can’t help them.

Jesse wakes up in the middle of the night from Cass’s snoring, and goes outside to stargaze, with Mike soon joining him. Mike wants a demonstration of Jesse’s power, and Jesse makes him “break something.” After that, Mike gives Jesse the business card of a woman who claims God walked into her strip club recently.

After the group leaves the next morning, Mike hears his dog barking at something, and then not barking at something. He hides a knife by his side and then sits in his chair, patiently waiting. The Saint shows up and demands to know where Jesse, et al., went. Mike kills himself with the knife to stop the Saint from forcing him to talk.

Our friends show up at She She, the aforementioned strip club (with a jazz band!), to talk to Tammy. While Jesse and Tulip argue about whether or not to use Genesis on Tammy to get what they want, Cassidy gets a little handsy in the Champagne Room with one of the gals, and then into a fight with a bouncer. The bouncer’s gun goes off, shooting Tammy through the office wall. Jesse commands her to tell him which girl God was seeing, but she surprises them all by saying God came for the jazz.

That night, Jesse and Tulip make love (after he romantically bashes down the bathroom door), and Cats is in his room, watching an ad for a local magician, The Amazing Ganesh. His eyes suddenly go wide in recognition.

Later, Jesse is outside again, stargazing. He sees someone coming down the road towards him. Yep, it’s the Saint of Killers. Jesse uses Genesis to command him to stop. The Saint does not stop, instead raising his gun and taking aim.

Cut to black.

Holy moly, such a strong way to open this season. With great humor and genuine warmth, Jesse and Tulip and Cassidy are quickly becoming the inseparable trio we know and love from the graphic novel.  The easy way they interact with each other makes me smile every damn time, whether they’re discussing the song Come On, Eileen or trying treason with a stripper.  Which just makes the Saint of Killers so much more devastating than he originally seemed in season 1. Nothing will stop this avenging angel (not really an angel) from killing Jesse and taking Genesis out of the equation.

This was part one of a two-part season premiere. Keep an eye out for part two, coming soon. See you then!