Preacher Feature is a weekly analysis of the AMC show Preacher based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. In this column, we will give a breakdown of the events from the previous night’s show, including how they relate to the comics, and speculate as to what’s going on and what might be coming up. This is to say that there will be spoilers, both actual and potential. If you have not yet watched the episode in question or are watching the show without reading the comics and don’t want to have any foreknowledge of what might happen to Jesse and company, then you would do well to stop reading this now.
Shootout at the Relax Inn
This episode picks up where the season premiere ended, with Jesse futilely trying to use Genesis on The Saint of Killers. Luckily for Jesse, his hotel is housing a number of members of The Greater Association of Gun Aficionados. Most of them come outside, armed to the teeth, to see what in the Hell (or out of it, as the case may be) is going on after a bullet intended for Jesse ends up in the skull of a delivery driver whose van then crushes The Saint against a lamppost. The thing about unstoppable killing machines, though, is that they are very hard to stop. The van doesn’t do the trick, nor does the flurry of bullets (and at least one grenade) fired by the gun nuts. While Jesse escapes once again, The Saint cuts the membership of GAGA down to basically nothing. Before escaping, Jesse and Tulip see on TV that their hometown of Annville has been destroyed by a methane explosion (Let that be a lesson to you: never watch TV). Of course, it’s not easy to process your grief while a seven foot tall, seemingly unkillable cowboy is chasing after you in a slow but inexorable fashion.
A Cure for the Blues
Meanwhile, wayward angel Fiore (or is it DeBlanc? It’s so easy to get them mixed up) finds himself in the titular Mumbai Sky Tower. In a sequence both hilarious and heart-breaking, Fiore, despondent over the death of his best and only friend DeBlanc at the hands of The Saint, tries to kill himself over and over. But in the world of Preacher, asphyxiation, electrocution, and even an old-fashioned bullet to the head (if it’s fired from an earthly weapon) are not enough to kill an angel for good, and Fiore is resurrected each time. After one of these attempts the crowd at the casino mistakes his death and rebirth for a magic trick and Fiore finds himself performing to sold-out crowds as an illusionist named Ganesh. Jesse and Cassidy confront Fiore and find out that he is the one who hired The Saint to kill Jesse, and so is the only one who can call him off. Cassidy has a plan to cheer Fiore up, and that is a little bonding to help him get over the loss of DeBlanc. And how does a 120-year-old vampire bond with a suicidal angel? With pillow forts, Archie Comics, and enough drugs to fill a mule’s rectum. 
After a gleeful bonding montage, Fiore agrees to call off the Saint of Killers.
Goin’ to the Chapel
Now, Fiore isn’t the only one who is feeling down over the loss of a loved one. Tulip, having time now to digest the loss of Annville and with it Walter, her only real family, is sadly drinking in the casino. Jesse needs a way to cheer her up and the solution he arrives at is for them to get married in the hotel chapel. Shortly before the ceremony, however, Tulip recognizes Gary and, clearly not wanting Jesse to see this man, she makes an excuse and heads up to her hotel room. We the audience don’t find out exactly what the connection between this large man and Tulip is, but it has something to do with another mystery man named Victor. 
Gary says Tulip needs to call Victor now and when Tulip declines, he gets violent. After getting thrown around the hotel room, Tulip gains the upper hand and bludgeons Gary to death with the wedding chapel pager. While waiting for Tulip, Jesse tells Fiore that he plans to keep using Genesis after The Saint has been taken off his tail. Tulip returns and tells Jesse that getting married is stupid and so the wedding is off.
Next Stop: New Orleans
Since we found out last episode that God loves jazz, the gang decides to find him in New Orleans. Tulip seems as hesitant to go to The Big Easy as she did to let Jesse find out about Gary and Victor. As they head out, Jesse uses Genesis on Fiore, telling him to “find peace”. The Saint, using Genesis as a beacon finds his way to The Mumbai Sky Tower and Fiore. Fiore has a change of heart and tells The Saint where is Jesse is heading and that instead of one less killing, he wants The Saint to perform one more: Fiore himself. During his next performance, Fiore is killed (for good) by a bullet from The Saint’s gun.
Easter Eggs/Connections to Comics
As seen at the end of season one, Fiore is picked up for relocation at the same spot as Walter White in Breaking Bad (another brilliant show made in part by Preacher co-creator Sam Catlin).
On the wall in Fiore/Ganesh’s dressing room is a picture of comedian/iconoclast Bill Hicks. Bill Hicks is mentioned in the comics as a favorite of both Jesse and Cassidy and, as Ennis pointed out in the comics, was something of a preacher himself.
Questions and Theories
I think the biggest questions after episode two are ‘who is Gary’ and ‘why is Tulip so concerned about keeping Jesse and him from finding out about each other?’ Could it be that Miss O’Hare got secretly married and is no longer ‘Miss’ at all? Or maybe Gary and Victor were involved with Tulip in a criminal enterprise so heinous (foreskin recycling?) she can’t stand the idea of Jesse finding out about it.
