The church is under siege by Quincannon, Eugene comes back from hell (and yet…?), Fiore and DeBlanc try yet again to capture Genesis, and Tulip adopts a big ol’ bloodhound (heh). Let’s explore this crazy episode and see if we can make sense of it all.

Episode 8: El Valero

Vail, Colorado, in the past: A group of people dressed in their 80s-neon finest ski clothes are all riding in a slow gondola up a mountainside, ready for a day of skiing that will never come. The cable snaps and they plunge to their deaths in the icy, swirling snow hundreds of feet below.  Soon thereafter, Quincannon sits in his office, surrounded by nine or so oblong boxes, roughly human in shape and size.

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Later that night, Jesse’s dad, Reverend Custer is there to help counsel him, but Quincannon is now covered in blood. He holds two different sections of intestines aloft, saying that one belongs to his daughter and one belongs to a cow. This to him is proof that there is no soul, therefore no God, and that we are all just meat. As Reverend Custer walks out, taking young Jesse with him, Quincannon implores him to “Renounce Him!”

Present day: Quincannon and his goon squad march up to the church in order to take it by force, and what starts as a tense scene quickly turns comical as all of the men are shot at, beaten up, or otherwise turned away by the lone preacher. One guy even gets his manhood shot off, but seems more curious and comically surprised by this than shocked or in excruciating pain.  The tone of this whole sequence is weirdly, wildly uneven, with friends and families of the men in question bringing lawn chairs and picnic lunches as they calmly wait out the standoff.

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Meanwhile, Jesse demands that God bring Eugene out of hell and, well what do you know, Eugene crawls out of the dirt under the church floorboards. After a few days in hell, he is super thirsty and Jesse lets him drain three glasses.  But something is a little off with the boy and when Jesse looks back at the untouched, full glass of water, he knows Eugene’s return was all in his guilt-ridden mind.  Jesse realizes that he’s been less-than-honorable lately, and he wants to truly be a good man from now on.

And Tulip is at the pound, looking for a dog.

Emily hears from Mayor Person about the trouble at the church and she quickly drives over there to try to help…somehow.

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The sheriff has now joined the throng at the church as more shenanigans ensue: Jesse shoots some guy’s hat off, shoots a machete out of someone’s hand (and into someone else’s shoulder), and Molotov cocktails a bulldozer (damn fine trick shooting there, Jesse).  Jesse demands that the two “agents” from the motel be brought to the church–he has decided to give up the power of Genesis.

Across town, Tulip plays fetch with her new dog.

As the angels lay out their tarp, set up their music box, and prepare to lure Genesis out of the preacher with a stirring rendition of “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” Quincannon gives a morale boost of a speech to his gathered goons, promising a heavenly food court with many options if they can be successful in taking the church. Broken-armed Donnie suddenly has a great idea: he backs away from the crowd, goes back to his car, sticks his head in the trunk (leaving his body hanging outside), brings his handgun into the trunk and pulls the trigger. Uh…great idea Donnie?

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After a lovely atonal and gravelly version of the coaxing song, Genesis does make a rather anticlimactic exit from Jesse into the angels’ coffee can. Everybody seems pleasantly surprised to wrap up this problem so quickly and neatly.  And then almost immediately Genesis busts back out of the can and goes right back into Jesse’s chest. Fiore and DeBlanc, defeated, start packing up their things. Jesse reminds them of their promise to help get Eugene out of hell, and they blow him off. Maybe they’ll look into it.

Now that Fiore and DeBlanc have failed in getting Jesse to surrender, bullets are flying again, turning the church walls into Havarti cheese. The gathered crowd of family and friends watch all this with mild curiosity. Jesse takes a break inside, leaning up against a pew. And in comes Donnie, gun pointed right at him. Jesse uses Genesis to tell him to “PUT DOWN THE GUN!” But Donnie points to his bleeding ears and says, “WHAT?” He ruptured his eardrums in the car. Great idea, Donnie!

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Jesse has surrendered and Quincannon has the deed ready for him to sign. Jesse asks how come Genesis didn’t work on Quincannon, but he reminds Jesse that the command was to “Serve God,” and Quincannon is doing just that: Serving the God of Meat, the god of now, the present, the tangible.  Jesse asks for “just one more Sunday” before he’ll sign the church over. What kind of plan does he have?

Tulip is absentmindedly petting her dog. “God damn you Jesse Custer,” she mutters, and then slowly walks the dog down the hallway to a closed door. She gives the dog one final hug, opens the door, sends him in, then quickly shuts the door again. There is a growl. Then a whine. Then the sound of tearing flesh and dripping blood.

Jesse gets loaded into the back of a police car and driven away. And in a solitary cinder block room in the basement of some building there is a nameless employee that watches as the pressure gauge on his bank of meters creeps into the danger zone. He adjusts the pressure, pushes a button, and it drops back into the green.

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Holy moly, only two more episodes to wrap up this season! I’m a little frustrated it took Jesse seven episodes to figure out what a dick he’s been (as DeBlanc asks him: “You’ve had Genesis this long; what good have you done with it?”), and I’m anxious to see Cassidy again. And what does Jesse have up his sleeve for next Sunday? So many possibilities! See you next week, kids.

 

About the Author

Mike Hansen has worked as a teacher, a writer, an actor, and a haunt monster, and has been a horror fan ever since he was a young child. Sinister Seymour is his personal savior, and he swears by the undulating tentacles of Lord Cthulhu that he will reach the end of his Netflix list. Someday.