Preacher finale recap: 'Call and Response' 

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the preacher. And he looked and saw that the world had some problems, so he set out to fix it.

He screwed up. Like, a lot. But his intentions were good, except when they weren’t. And tonight’s season 1 finale finds not just the sins of Jesse Custer but those of the entire town coming home to roost.

We open with shots of Annville going about its down-at-the-heels business as “The Time of the Preacher” plays. A radio host discusses whether Jesse can really call down God as the camera lingers on boarded-up buildings and signs sporting Jesse-related slogans. A countdown periodically flashes to tell us how many minutes until God.

The radio host points out that “local freak Eugene Root” is still missing, and Jesse’s still dodging the police. At that moment, we see the man in question race down the street, police in hot pursuit.

Also chasing Jesse is Tulip, who’s back in town. She gets word that Donnie may have nabbed him, so she literally crashes through the Schencks’ front door looking for her man, breaking Betsy’s nose in the process.

But actually, our good preacher’s a guest there. Donnie may not have two functioning eardrums, but he does have his mojo back; earlier, we saw him spanking up a storm on his wife’s behind. See, Donnie saw the light when he stopped himself from killing Jesse in the church, showing mercy as Jesse had shown him mercy in that men’s bathroom in episode 3.

Tulip’s not interested in Donnie’s personal growth, though, and drags Jesse outside, where he gives her the apology she’s been waiting for. Satisfied, she grabs his belt buckle and tugs him closer, asking him to do something nasty for her. “Whatever you want,” Jesse purrs, liking where this is headed… until Tulip pops the trunk to reveal a trussed-up Carlos.

Aaaaand flashback! Jesse and Tulip joke and flirt as they empty a bank’s safety-deposit boxes while Carlos keeps watch. It’s our first protracted look at Jesse’s crime-era mullet, and it’s amazing in its volume, awfulness, and similarity to the hairstyle from the comics. Based on the banter they share over their earpieces, Bonnie and Clyde and Clyde all get along swimmingly.

But in the bank lobby, standing over the hogtied guard and customers, Carlos’ face hardens at the sound of Jesse and Tulip laughing in the back. He cuts the guard loose, and we see the previously aired scene of Jesse shooting the man while Carlos takes off in the getaway car. Now, though, we also see Tulip bending at the waist and gasping, “My baby!” as the police sirens wail.

So. She was pregnant and miscarried thanks to Carlos’ petty, spur-of-the-moment betrayal. It’s a tragedy, though slightly different than I expected after her comment to Emily that she used to have a kid. In the present, Jesse gets with the program and punches Carlos in the face, asking him why.

“You were happy,” Carlos admits. Wrong answer. Jesse shuts the trunk.

At the methane plant, the pressure gauge guy’s on the phone, trying to talk his wife into getting frisky that night. He takes her rejection politely while an enormous cauldron of manure boils ominously away.

Cassidy had less luck than Jesse and is sitting in lockup alongside Larry the Native American mascot. Larry’s sprung when the prairie dog mascot agrees to drop the charges in their hilarious, long-running feud, and now Cass is alone with Root, who’s pulled Cass’ criminal record: assault and battery in Vegas (“I told them right from the get-go I don’t like magicians!”), drunk and disorderly in Denver, lewd and lascivious in Nashville. And in New York, attempted murder. “A crime of passion,” Cass explains.

What’s weirder to Root are the dates: 1961, 1950, 1940, 1922. Amateur! Every immortal knows you have to adopt a new identity ever 40 years or so.

Thanks to Cass’ weird hats and some internet research, Root has put it all together. He shoots Cassidy, then offers him a restorative cup of blood from his thermos, which I sincerely hope he’s planning to throw away or at least soak in bleach afterward. Like Emily, the sheriff’s hella calm about all of this, proving that Annville residents come in two flavors: super chill or complete lunatic.

Watching Cass suck down blood, Root asks him what Jesse did to Eugene. Cassidy says the good

bad news is that Eugene’s still alive, probably.

Then Cass sets out to demonstrate how easy it is to make an awful mistake, the way Jesse did, by needling Root, asking if he’s secretly relieved that Eugene, with his unfortunate face and incessant questions, is gone. He pushes and pushes until Root unloads his gun into Cass’ chest, proving that even good men commit crimes of passion. Root apparently gets the point because he lets Cass go.

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