Preacher Recap: Don’t Mess With Texas 

tends to be at its best when it’s moving fast. After wallowing a little too long in Annville over the course of its first season, season two got an extra jolt of energy by taking the show on the road.

has parked itself in New Orleans for the past three episodes, and the slower the story gets, the more glaring its flaws become. And so it is with “Dallas,” the weakest episode of the season and one that completely abandons the overarching God-finding mission in favor of a predictable morality play centered on Jesse Custer. When last week’s episode left off, Jesse has just discovered that Tulip was secretly married to a shady rich dude named Viktor. “Dallas” resumes at that moment, as Jesse — in a blind rage — uses Genesis to order Tulip away. He strings Viktor up in the torture room, takes a deep breath, and spends the rest of the episode debating whether or not to kill him.

If that sounds like a fairly thin premise for an episode, that’s because it is. Jesse certainly has his dark side — and the show’s moral code is all over the map — but there isn’t much suspense about whether or not he’s going to kill Viktor. He doesn’t, but even if he did, there no reason to care because we only learned Viktor existed a few episodes ago, and we know basically nothing about him.

knows this, which is why it tries to shift the stakes from Viktor’s death to Jesse and Tulip’s relationship, which she says will be over if Jesse murders her husband in cold blood. And though “Dallas” is primarily concerned with Jesse and Tulip’s future as a couple, much of the episode is spent on extended flashbacks to Jesse and Tulip’s troubled past. In the wake of Tulip’s miscarriage during a heist gone wrong — which sparked Tulip’s quest to find and kill Carlos, the getaway driver who betrayed them — Tulip and Jesse settled into a humdrum domestic partnership in Dallas. Tulip works in a real estate office, Jesse spends a few nights per week tending bar, and both of them make a genuine effort to put their criminal pasts behind them.

But this lifestyle doesn’t suit either of them. Jesse is in a perpetual haze of depression, binge-watching John Wayne movies, chugging cheap beers, and hanging out with a stoned loser named Reggie. Jesse was never much of a preacher, but this is as godless as we’ve ever seen him. Just to make sure we get that, “Dallas” shows Jesse and Reggie casually ripping pages out of the Bible to use for rolling papers.

have a purpose in life, it’s getting Tulip pregnant again. On the rare moments when he leaves the apartment at all, he heads to a nearby convenience store, where he stocks up on beer, cigarettes, and pregnancy tests. Every night, he and Tulip engage in some uncharacteristically passionate sex; every morning, Tulip takes a test that reveals she still isn’t pregnant.

But Tulip is hiding a few secrets of her own. Jesse stumbles onto her private stash in an air conditioning vent, where she’s hidden a sack of ill-gotten cash from the criminal life she secretly resumed without him. Most painfully of all, there’s a cache of birth control pills. It’s not that she

get pregnant; it’s that she doesn’t want to get pregnant. It’s the final blow in a relationship that was already in pretty fragile shape. When Jesse says he plans to return to Annville and take over his father’s church, she wishes him good luck and leaves.

So that’s the missing gap in Jesse and Tulip’s past. What I’m less clear on is why

thought we needed an entire episode to understand it. I’m all for fleshing out these characters, but much of what we learn about Jesse and Tulip’s past in “Dallas” was either implied or explicitly stated in previous episodes.

Back in the present, Jesse makes the noble choice he was always clearly going to make: He cuts Viktor down and and gets him to sign Tulip’s divorce papers. When he returns to Tulip and reveals that Viktor is still alive, they embrace, bringing them right back to the “till the end of the world” love story they were in before this odd little Viktor cul-de-sac.

Although Jesse and Tulip’s story spends a long time getting back to the place it was before Viktor reemerged, there’s an intriguing little subplot worth following — because the

important character development in “Dallas” comes for Cassidy. Everyone’s favorite third-wheel vampire has spent the season sullenly nursing his crush on Tulip. This could get old pretty fast, but fortunately,

recognizes that Tulip is both smart enough and candid enough to confront Cassidy about it. “I’m not blind, Cassidy. I know what you want,” she sneers as they wait to see what Jesse will do about Viktor. Most importantly, she tells Cassidy that if Jesse kills Viktor, she’ll be done with him for good.

What does Cassidy do with that information? He confronts Jesse and nudge him, ever so slightly, toward killing Viktor. Even as Cassidy assures Jesse that Tulip is still in love with him (which is definitely true), he insists that her love for Jesse could never actually fade away (which is definitely in question). “If I was in your situation, I don’t think I’d be very restrained at all,” Cassidy tells Jesse. “No, I think I’d wanna hurt them really, really bad.”

Why would Jesse’s best friend deliberately work to sabotage the only relationship Jesse truly cares about? To paraphrase Maya Angelou: When someone tells you who they are, believe them. As Cassidy tells Jesse, he’s

trying to remind people that he’s a terrible person at heart, but no one ever believes him. “Greedy, selfish, destructive, jealous,” Cassidy says, rattling off his own negative qualities with practiced, confident ease.

And he should know! As a 119-year-old vampire, Cassidy has had all the time in the world to get to know himself. Even when we’ve seen him do selfless and heroic things over the course of

’s brief run, his darker side is never too far from the surface. Cassidy wants Tulip, and while his better angels have kept him in check so far, there’s always the threat that his desires will eventually take over. Jesse keeps racking up new enemies — but he should also keep a closer eye on his friends.

• In the coda to the episode, the Saint of Killers finally arrives at Viktor’s mansion, killing everybody — including Viktor — but sparing Viktor’s daughter when she says she can take him to the preacher. A more clever version of this story might have had Jesse

use Genesis at Viktor’s mansion, setting up the Saint to kill Viktor and his goons without getting his own hands dirty — but as far as I can tell, Viktor’s dark fate is an unintentional consequence.

• Why does Jesse stoically and methodically sharpen an axe that he only plans to use to cut Viktor down?

• Jesse’s obsession with John Wayne is a nod to the comics, where John Wayne routinely appears as a kind of guardian angel guiding Jesse on his journey.

• Jesse drinks Glue Rooster American Lager. Sounds tasty!

• The church Jesse repeatedly passes on the way to the convenience store bears a passage from Galatians 6:9: “Do not lose heart, for we will reap if we do not grow weary.”

• Cassidy’s theory that foreskin is a secret ingredient in everything extends to Viktor’s very fancy bedsheets.

• Tulip’s peanut butter pot roast sounds awful, but if you want to give it a shot, here’s the closest thing I could find to a real-life recipe.

R. Kelly Accused of Holding Multiple Women ‘Prisoner’ in an Abusive ‘Cult’

Ryan Phillippe Breaks Leg in a "Freak Accident" Which, As You Can Imagine, May Affect the Production of His Show

What to Stream Now See what's new and notable on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and HBO

Woman Allegedly Held By R. Kelly Against Her Will Denies Reports: "I Am Not Being Brainwashed or Anything Like That"

Seth Meyers Wonders How Do You Solve a Problem Like Don Jr.?

It includes video of a cute crab crawling out a margarita glass, and audio of a woman screaming.

Woman Allegedly Held Against Her Will By R. Kelly Denies Claims

“I just want everybody to know, my parents and everybody in the world, that I’m totally fine,” Joycelyn Savage told TMZ.

Ryan Phillippe Injured in "Freak Accident," Which May Affect

The actor is still wrapping up production on season two of his USA drama.

Was the water supply in Orange County dosed with LSD or something?

Alec Baldwin to Star in Aaron Sorkin’s Live Adaptation of

The British series about four guys who find tech start-up success doesn’t exactly feel innovative.

Ryan Murphy Posts Final Hint Before Title Reveal for New American Horror Story

American Horror Story: Way, Way, Way Too Many Bees

Mariah Carey’s Early Life Is Becoming A Scripted Drama On Starz

Reality TV could not do Mariah justice so her early years are becoming a dramatic series.

The Mobb Deep rapper’s honesty made him a great artist with a complicated reputation.

Two families say they have not seen their daughters in months to over a year; Kelly denies the allegations.

Remembering George A. Romero, Genre Cinema’s Visionary Satirist

Romero was not just a zombie auteur. He was also the filmmaker who captured the dark side of the 1960s the most indelibly.

Disney Says It Had the ‘Full Support’ of Henson Family in Firing Voice of Kermit

Steve Whitmire was allegedly “overly hostile and unproductive.”

Never Forget Radiohead’s Relationship With Israel Goes Way Back

Radiohead are still largely indebted to Israel for helping make “Creep” a hit.

Trailer: The System Is Stacked Against Lakeith Stanfield

Where Everyone’s Onstage, and Oscar Isaac Is Among Us

post to your social media account without your permission.

Please follow the instructions in the email within 48 hours to complete your registration.

Enter your email address or username and we’ll email instructions on how to reset your password.

This username or email is associated with a Facebook account.

We’ve sent you an email with instructions on how to reset your password.

Your username will appear next to your comments.

You already have an account registered under . You can link your Facebook account to your existing account.

Welcome! You are now a registered user of NYMag.com, TheCut.com, Vulture.com, ScienceOfUs.com and GrubStreet.com.

We\'re sorry. You must confirm your registration within 48 hours of submitting your registration request. Please register again.