In Sundowner, Jesse learns the source of his power (it definitely isn’t God), and everyone he’s “helped” deals with the consequences of it. Here’s our recap of episode five!
Things aren’t looking good for Jesse Custer. Not only is his gift on the verge of being taken from him, everyone that he has helped is experiencing some disconcerting effects to the commands he has issued to them.
One one hand, Odin Quincannon now believes serving God means murdering people who threaten his business and the Mayor is forced to cover-up said murders. The Loach’s have forgiven Eugene, but that forgiveness is forced and makes Eugene feel guilty.
Then there’s the possibility of a Tulip/Cassidy/Jesse love triangle that will leave Cassidy heartbroken.
Buckle up, here’s the recap for “Sundowner”.
Flavour Station & Sundowner Motel
We open with Jesse talking to Fiore and DeBlanc about the entity that lives inside him now. When Jesse asks them what it is, they tell him that they can’t tell him what it is, but it’s definitely not God.
When Jesse gets fed up with the runaround, he uses his big boy voice and forces DeBlanc to tell him the truth.
What’s inside him is the offspring of angel and a demon called Genesis. During the endless war, a soldier from one side and one from the other fell in love and through their joining, Genesis happened.
“So you’re saying this Genesis is some sort of angel/demon baby?”
“If by “baby”, you mean the most powerful entity ever known, the singular force that could shift the balance of power, threaten all of creation, then yeah, it’s a baby.”
During all of this, a woman has been looking around strangely and finally gets up and walks out of the café. Fiore and DeBlanc follow her and Jesse watches through the window as they both start beating the woman.
Jesse pulls them off and the woman grabs Jesse by the throat at starts to strangle him then grabs DeBlanc, too. Fiore is there to shoot her in the head, and Jesse is confused because they just killed a woman and are acting like everything is normal as they load her body into the back of her vehicle.
He tries to get them to explain what’s going on, but a flash of light from the inside gains their attention and the same woman walks out of the Flavour Station, and Jesse stares in shock. The angels ask if he has the keys to his truck since they left their keys in the restaurant. They all pile into Jesse’s truck and make a run for the Sundown Motel.
On the way, the angels explain that it wasn’t a human woman at all but a Seraphim, an angel of the First Order who wants nothing but “peace”. Jesse can’t believe what they’re saying especially when they get to the part about the Heaven phone.
Jesse says if he picked up that phone, right then, he could call Heaven, but DeBlanc lets him know that he would need angel hands for that to work. (I’m waiting for Jesse to use this piece of info later.)
Back at the diner, the Seraphim has reinvigorated and gotten the angels car keys. When she’s looking through their car, she finds the Bible they took from the motel. Now she knows where to go, and she starts their car and heads that way.
Back at the motel, the angels explain that right now the Seraphim is just looking for them. He even shows Jesse their “WANTED” poster. If she finds out Jesse has Genesis inside of him, too, all hell will break loose.
Jesse says that he’ll just use his power. That’s when DeBlanc puts him in his place.
“Genesis isn’t a power. It’s a scandal, embarrassment on both sides.”
The lights flicker and Jesse waves it off as just Annville, and DeBlanc begins to tell him more about Genesis. If demons and angels find out about this security breech, they’ll do whatever they have to do to get Genesis for themselves.
He tells Jesse that he’ll sing to it, and it will come out of him.
At that moment, Fiore busts the Heaven line, and someone knocks on the door. He says it’s probably the towels, but when he peeks through the peephole, he says that it’s not the towels, and promptly takes a bullet through the eye.
What follows is an incredible fight scene that, while gruesome, is completely hilarious because when angels die, they comes back, so every time the Seraphim kills DeBlanc or Fiore, they zap back into the hotel room.
She corners Jesse and he pushes the Heaven phone toward her and tells her to make the call…
“Now, dialing only takes a second, but you’re gonna have to look away.”
When she looks down, Jesse uses that moment to hit her arm away that’s pointing the gun at him and starts fighting, too. He ends up on top of her on the ground and slits her throat right as Fiore pops back in and tells him to stop.
He then runs over to DeBlanc who is bleeding out and asks if he’s dying. When he says “no”, Fiore hits him in the head with a hammer and Jesse asks why he did that.
If an angel doesn’t die, he won’t come back, so instead of leaving DeBlanc bleeding and useless, Fiore just popped him back to full health.
Keep in mind, there’s a lot of dead Fiores and DeBlancs around the room, but they don’t have much time to talk because the Seraphim zaps back in, too. This time in the adjoining room, and starts punching through the walls.
Fiore is the first to get it again this time.
Jesse is freaked out and DeBlanc tells him not to kill her but to restrain her. Jesse picks up the Seraphim’s discarded gun and shoots her through the wall. She’s killed and pops up behind them.
All three of them keep fighting her and she keeps killing them and they keep regenerating. It’s an absolute mess of bodies, but the door swings open and Cassidy saves the day.
The Seraphim pops back up and Cassidy yells:
“Clones. Bloody Clones!”
Finally, Fiore “disarticulates” the Seraphim.
Fiore and DeBlanc explain to Jesse that they’re Genesis’ custodians and it’s their job to bring her back. Jesse asks why it chose him, and they don’t know that either. That’s when Jesse tells them that he’s keeping it and that it’s what God wants. DeBlanc tries to tell him it’s not what God wants, but Jesse isn’t listening to it.
“So if I’m wrong, and God wants Genesis back he can come and take it. Until then, I’ve still got a job to do.”
The angels follow him and Cassidy outside and warn him of consequences that will come his way if he doesn’t hand over Genesis, and when they keep on him, he uses his Genesis power to say, “Stay away from me.”
After Jesse and Cassidy leave, Fiore mentions the other option, but DeBlanc shuts him down.
SCHOOL
Things at school have taken a turn for Eugene. Instead of being picked on and ostracized, the students are talking to him and being nice. It doesn’t seem right at all.
EMILY’S HOUSE
Her daughter is sick and running a high fever, so she knows she’s going to be stretched thin doing all the stuff she needs to do for the church while taking care of her little girl. Someone rings the doorbell and starts knocking on it. After she opens it, Tulip storms in and gets into kitchen where she picks up a craft project Emily’s kid made and hurls it against a wall while yelling at Emily to stay away from her boyfriend.
Emily struggles to find the words to tell Tulip that she’s not doing anything with Jesse, but Tulip storms out and back into her car.
Emily picks up the pieces of the broken craft and then goes out to speak to Tulip, who is still sitting in her car outside and tells her she broke her kid’s project. Not too long later, Tulip is knocking on the door again and offering to fix the project. We all know how great Tulip is with being crafty from the pilot episode.
As Tulips fixes the craft, Emily folds clothes and they makes awkward conversation.
MAYOR’S OFFICE
Miles is avoiding the Green Acres Group as they continue to leave message after message about what happened to Jerry Cutler and that group that went to meet with Quincannon.
THE CHURCH
Jesse and Cassidy stand in their underwear as they watch their clothes spin in the washer. They sit down at the kitchen table and have a beer since it’s going to take awhile. (It’s an absolute shame there’s no still to reference this point in the episode.)
Jesse asks him what he’s been up to and he says:
“I got pushed off a building. Fell in love, went to the hospital. Nothing for you to worry your head over.”
Oh dear.
Then Cassidy asks about a tattoo on Jesse’s shoulder, and we get a good look at the flower there…
“That’s my tulip.”
When this all comes out about Cassidy and Tulip, I have a feeling some words are going to be said.
In the mean time, Cassidy asks him what he’s going to do about Genesis, and Jesse tells him the same thing he told the angels, he’s keeping it.
When Cassidy questions whether or not he has authority to do that, Jesse tells him the only person he has to listen to is God.
Cassidy still doubts that this is God’s plan, and Jesse gets very defensive about keeping Genesis, and how he will use it to save Annville.
BACK AT SCHOOL
Eugene sits at his usual lunch table, but this time he is joined by three boys who ask to sit with him at lunch. He lets them, but the whole things feels forced. Especially considering his sitting at his same spot where someone has written, “Pucker up, Eugene” on the table.
EMILY’S HOUSE
Tulip is telling Emily stories about her life on the road with Jesse, including slashing Elizabeth Taylor’s tire because she was a shitty tipper.
Tulip also mentions a little bit about where all they had been. You can tell that it’s uncomfortable for Emily to hear about it because she’s in love with Jesse, but the situation changes to seeing Tulip’s sadness when Emily goes to comfort her sick daughter.
When Emily comes back, they fold some more church bulletins and talk about how Jesse is actually catching on to the preaching thing. Right she’s about to ask Tulip something about Jesse, her daughter calls for her again and she snaps at her then apologizes to Tulip. She tells her that she’s stressed and has so much to do. That’s when Tulip offers to babysit for Emily while she gets the church stuff finished.
Emily doesn’t really go for the idea and asks if Tulip has any experience with kids, and that’s when she drops a bombshell…
“I had a kid once. That count?”
Was it Jesse’s baby? What happened? I need to know!
Instead of pushing to babysit, Tulip then offers to take care of the church stuff.
Emily loads down Tulip’s care with all the church stuff, and after giving her a list of tasks and her number, Tulip takes off to do some good deeds.
THE CHURCH
Cassidy is outside while Jessie is nailing something up outside the church, and he’s telling him that what he’s doing is a mistake.
Jesse argues that he’s doing exactly what he should be doing, and it’s the reason Genesis was given to him.
“God doesn’t make mistakes.”
“God may not make mistakes, but people are bloody famous for it.”
That’s when we see that Jesse has installed a speaker outside the church.
A little while later, Jesse is testing the sound system, and let me tell you, his voice has some distance now. What he plans to do, we don’t know yet.
SOMEWHERE HE SHOULDN’T BE
Eugene has followed those same kids to a deserted area of town with a tunnel. They walk through an opening in a chain link fence with a sign about it that says “No Trespassing”, and you can’t help but feel a sense of dread as he follows the boys inside the drainage tunnel.
Nothing bad happens, though.
They light a fountain firework, and Eugene tells them that it’s beautiful.
This is a true light in the darkness, and where Eugene starts questioning Jesse’s methods at gaining Mrs. Loach’s forgiveness last episode.
AT THE CHURCH
Jesse is sitting out chairs when Miles shows up.
They get into a very convoluted conversation with Miles telling Jesse that both his voice and God’s voice in his head are telling him to do the same thing. He won’t elaborate on what’s bothering him or the situation, so Jesse really doesn’t have much to go on.
During their conversation, Miles ignores a call from Green Arces Group.
Miles wants to know if he should do something really wrong. He asks, “What if doing what’s right is worse? What if it hurts more people.”
Jesse tells him that God’s voice isn’t the same as his own, so either him and God are saying the same thing or Miles isn’t hearing God at all.
At that moment, Tulip shows up to drop off church stuff, and Miles chooses that opportunity to walk away.
As Tulip is putting stuff away in the closet, Cassidy follows her inside and goads her by saying she can’t get enough of him. Tulip is caught completely off guard and asks what he’s doing there, and when he says he works there, things start clicking into place for both of them when Jesse calls for Tulip.
“You’re his Tulip.”
She pushes Cassidy behind the open door so Jesse won’t see him and expertly leads Jesse from the room, but you can tell that Jesse knows something is up. And the look of utter heartbreak on Cassidy’s face is devastating.
SUNDAY
Lots of people are all outside the church, and Emily comes inside the Sanctuary and tells him that Eugene is looking for him.
Jesse stops Emily from leaving by asking her if this is good thing. Emily tells him that it is, and he didn’t need to bet his land or bribe them with a T.V. either. The look in Jesse’s eyes during this scene is searching for validation from someone he truly trusts.
He wants to know he’s doing the right thing or will be doing the right thing when he starts speaking to these people.
Then comes time to speak to Eugene. This teenager, who knows so much of being alone and desiring forgiveness, asks Jesse to take back what he did to Mrs. Loach. It’s not true forgiveness because she didn’t have the right to choose to do it herself, and he doesn’t want it.
Eugene doesn’t want to be forgiven, and he doesn’t think God would like it this way because it’s cheating. This sets off something terrible in Jesse…or is it Genesis talking now?
“This is God’s will—what I’ve done. What I’ve done for you. What I’m about to do. Understand? It is not cheating!”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to save the damn town! Jesus. Eugene, I don’t understand why you keep coming to me.”
“Why? Because you’re the preacher.”
“That’s right. I am. I made a promise. That’s what this is for. I’m going to open those doors, I’m going to make them see the light, and fulfill my promise. Then I’ll be free. That’s what I’m going to do.”
“You can’t make people see the light, Preacher.”
“Oh yes, I can.”
“People need to chose. That’s the whole point.”
“Well, I’ll choose for them and unlike you, they won’t complain.”
“Okay, that is wrong. That’s a sin.”
“I don’t need to hear someone like you lecture me on sin. It’s a blessing.”
“This is not a blessing, Preacher.”
“Eugene!”
“This is a sin. A wicked and terrible sin!
“This is not a sin.”
“It’s a sin and you know it!”
**Genesis voice** “Go to hell, Eugene!”
Yup, Jesse sent Eugene to Hell. I don’t even know what to do right now! How could he do that? How will he get him back? When he says, “I’ll be free.” Does that mean Jesse will be free of his promise to his father or Genesis will be free?
OUT IN THE DESERT
Miles makes the phone call to the Green Acres Group, letting them know that the people they sent to meet with Quincannon were all killed in a car accident.
Jesse use of Genesis is having far reaching effects, and we’re starting to see how things begin to crumble when the power comes out to play in the ripples.
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So, what do you think will happen with all these new developments?
Will Jesse get Eugene back?
Will the angels and demons who want their hands on Genesis find Jesse?
Will Eugene’s current residence in Hell help them find him?
Is Jesse losing who he is and Genesis taking him over?
Do you see an epic fight between Cassidy and Jesse because of Tulip? Judging by the look on Cassidy’s face, I don’t think he’s just going to let Tulip walk away without a fight.
Here are some stills from next week’s episode, “He Gone.” Looks like we get another Jesse/Tulip flashback from their childhoods and more Quincannon!
