Preacher recap: Monster Swamp

Turns out that “Prostitute Paintball Wars” is a popular pastime for the employees of Quincannon Meatpacking. It’s all in good fun — until one of the women winds up dead, falling into the ground itself. Odin Quincannon gives a stern speech to his (male) employees and their (female) prey — the gist of which is, well, “be more careful.” He says this while poor Lacy’s corpse hangs behind him — a tableau of disinterest. “What’d you expect?” says Mosie, the world-weary brothel madam. “It’s Chinatown.”

Tulip won’t settle for that. Tulip is furious. Tulip takes out her rage on one of the men visiting the brothel — although unfortunately, not the man she meant to take her rage out on. Instead, Tulip knocks Cassidy out a window with a golf club, leaving him bloody and seemingly on his way to the great beyond. Cassidy has some tricks up his sleeve, though — and when she rushes him to the emergency room, he winds up in back where they store the blood, refreshing himself with a light dinner. Preacher the TV show has very gradually moved these characters together — and it’s interesting to consider what these two devils might do to their mutual friend Jesse Custer.

Jesse has his own plans this week. He wants to reboot the church. He wants to bring in more customers. And to do that, he needs a big showcase moment — something to prove to the people that Jesse Custer is serious about God. So he goes to visit Odin Quincannon, the ultimate local bigwig. Odin turned his back on the higher power long ago, if he ever really believed. He is a godless man with a god complex: He seeks to own every part of town. So Jesse gives him a honeypot scheme: Come to church on Sunday, and if Odin walks out still a nonbeliever, he can have Jesse’s land.

Odin agrees: Why not? So he’s sitting in church when Jesse makes his sermon all about Odin Quincannon, Unbeliever. He’s not impressed — until Jesse uses his newfound powers of suggestion to force Odin to start believing again. We already have a sense that this won’t turn out well: Recall how the first time Jesse used his powers, it led someone to cut his own heart out. With Odin Quincannon, Jesse is dealing with someone truly powerful — and we all know what absolute power does to you.

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Meanwhile, the curious men who won’t ever die have their own problems. They carry with them a phone of unknown origin, which they fear desperately. They try to make a pact with Cassidy to let them see the Preacher, but Cassidy is not to be trusted, and the mere fact that these men do trust him leads you to think they are vastly less threatening than they appear. How can you fear them, when they are so afraid? By the end of the episode, the phone of unknown origin is ringing. Who — or what — could be on the other end of the line?

In this episode of Entertainment Geekly, we talk about the new TV show. (Like: Did we need a Preacher origin story? And: What are Tulip and Cassidy really doing on this show?) Then we dive deep into spoiler territory, addressing the complete run of the original Preacher. Does the comic book series hold up? Was it nasty for the sake of being nasty, or did it have a real emotional and intellectual depth? (Spoiler alert: It was pretty awesome.) Listen to the podcast below, and subscribe now on iTunes!