Jesse, Tulip, Cassidy, the Saint of Killers, and Eugene are on a ride that has the same destination: finding Jesse and God. Here’s our recap of “Terrible Beauty”!
“Terrible Beauty” proves Cassidy right in its cold open! It turns out that foreskins are used in face creams. You’ll remember his theory from the season premiere of season two. Since he regenerates, now it’s his foreskins being used in face cream, and I imagine there’s has to be something about using vampire flesh that regenerates to upping your product’s game. Especially if it’s a product that people use to look younger and not change.
Cassidy was in Bensonhurst for that portion of the episode, but he does go back to his cell in Masada and later the classroom with Frankie. During one torture lesson, Frankie brings up the point that he’s seen people like Cass before. They feel like they deserve the punishment.
In his cell, the angel is trying to talk to Cassidy, and asks him what the plan is, what he’s going to do to get out of this situation. Cass says he’s not going to do anything; he’s going to take it.
Cassidy’s sinking into a horrible depression, and the angel’s trying to get him out of his funk by doing impressions from famous movies, but it’s not working either. The angel asks why Cassidy’s willing to go to Bensonhurst, but he said that he’s not worthy of going anywhere else. That’s when we get Cassidy’s backstory.
He left his home in Ireland in 1916 to fight the British. Before he leaves, we meet his grandparents and his huge family. The scene moves to the fighting, and their commander gives them a rousing speech about their blood filling buckets, and they’ll always be in the memories of their people. Not exactly confidence inspiring.
Cass tells his friend, Billy, it’s just an exaggeration, and they turn to run out of the alley together when an explosion knocks them back. Billy’s leg is blown off, and Cassidy shifts out of view when British officers came into the alley. They kill Billy as Cass watches.
That night, he hides as British officers ride past on a dark road, but soon after they’ve moved on, he gets dragged into a bog by a vampire. He fights him off, but Cass is eventually bitten and drug below the water.
After he’s been bitten, Cassidy returns home, but he sees his grandmother watching from a window and stops. He leaves without ever seeing them again.
Back in his cell, he tells the angel:
“In the end, it’s better they think I’m dead than see what I’d become.”
The angel sings an Irish ballad as a feather falls down at Cassidy’s feet.
Later, the angel and Cassidy are singing together ballads together. The angel says that there are plenty of Irish in Brooklyn, though. That seems to make Cassidy pause to think, but we don’t see anymore of his past.
TEXAS
During “Terrible Beauty”, the Saint of Killers and Eugene continue their road trip. They’re walking down a dirt road in Texas, and Eugene is complaining about his feet hurting and how they could drive or even hitchhike. The Saint isn’t paying any attention at all. When a car pulls up, sees Eugene’s face, and drives off, there is a twitch in his face, though. Almost like he’s upset that someone treated Eugene that way.
“That’s all right. It’s all part of God’s plan.”
“God’s gone.”
“Then that’s part of God’s plan, too.”
Eugene asks the Saint how far they are from Jesse since he can feel him when he uses Genesis, but he’s ignored, and they continue one. Eventually, Eugene stops walking and annoys the Saint of Killers enough to go into a diner. It’s as random as you think it is. Since he can’t have whiskey, the Saint gets a little on edge, but Eugene talks him into turtle pie and things are cool again.
The small talk continues, at least on Eugene’s side of things:
“You never told me how you know Preacher Custer.”
“He sent me to Hell.”
“Me too.”
Eugene tries to talk to him about not hurting Jesse and tells him that violence isn’t the answer. He eventually asks if the Saint ever needs to use the potty. When he doesn’t answer, Eugene goes to the restroom and ends up getting propositioned and arrested for solicitation.
Eugene’s freaking out as he’s led outside, but the Saint calmly walks out of the restaurant and shoots the driver of the car. Due to this turn of events, they have a car now, so Eugene’s driving them instead of walking.
He remains super optimistic and asks God to forgive the Saint for the murder. When he tells the Saint he doesn’t like all this killing, he says,
“Tell God. It’s his plan.”
MASADA
Tulip’s in the infirmary, and before she leaves, the doctor wants to do a psychiatric test on her. This causes her to flip out, and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she probably needs one. After they sedate her, Tulip has a nightmare about Jesse’s letter. We hear a bit of it, but did he really call Tulip a “stupid, cheating, lying bitch?”
When she wakes up, the doctor is by her bed, and they start the psych evaluation. Every Rorschach test image she see has something to do with murder or blood or brains. Tulip asks what her results are when she finishes, and they’re not exactly out-of-character.
“The test results indicate that you’re an uninhibited deviant with a personality disorder prone to psychiatric outbursts and a gun fetish and unresolved abandonment issues.”
“Well, that sounds about right. I guess.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Some people just can’t be helped.”
While that’s happening, Herr Starr is working with a Grail member (Hoover 2) about the wording of a press release. He asks the man how he sees him, and Hoover 2’s response:
“Cunning, resilient, pitiless.”
Starr hedges and asks the man if he’s attractive, (“Terrible Beauty” right?) and the Grail member’s honest, and says that he doesn’t believe that Starr is attractive. Starr’s noticeably upset about this answer, but Featherstone shows up with the news that Tulip’s in Masada.
She goes to the infirmary, but Tulip’s already gone, so she moves onto the next logical place, Cassidy’s cell.
Tulip makes it to the cell before her, though, and sees that Cassidy’s already gone. The angel tells her he was taken to Bensonhurst.
MIDDLE EAST
Jesse is still on the plane, but he thinks back to his time in Jesus DeSade. Punches guy and goes upstairs. The camera angle is odd and wonky. It’s almost like Jesse’s drunk as he goes to the end of the hallway to find the boy.
He finds a man photographing the boy, and Jesse knocks him out. He tries to save the kid, but he doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal. He says Jesse’s more messed up than he is right now. Jesse blames it on the smoke that the witch blew in his face.
They open the door to leave, and the hallway is full of cosplaying orgy goers that Jesse must fight his way through. It’s one of the scenes that’s so purely Preacher it’s unreal. It also hits on the episode’s title, “Terrible Beauty”. All of the things we’ve seen so far are absolutely horrible, but we can’t look away. All of it is supposed to be a part of God’s plan, too. What kind of creator allows for such destruction?
At some point in the fight, the little boy went back in the room, but during all the shooting, a bullet went through the door and kills him. At that moment, Jesus DeSade shows up and says that Jesse broke his nose. Jesse beats him to death brutally.
The pilot sees and ask Jesse just what kind of preacher he is. They make it to the car, but the pilot’s hands are shaking so badly Jesse uses Genesis to calm him down. He realizes he’s left his pants inside the house, and Jesse is forced to use Genesis again to tell him it doesn’t matter.
They drive away from the house and God is watching them from a window upstairs in his latex dog suit.
At the airport, Jesse’s smoking and approached by Hitler. He just wanted to stop and say hello. He also wants him to come to Hell with him. Hitler’s full of fun facts, as he tells Jesse that Satan is dead, and he’s ruling Hell now.
“I’m not going to Hell.”
“After what you’ve done? You’re coming sooner or later.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that.”
Hitler tells Jesse that he’s never going to talk to God because God won’t let Jesse find him. That’s when Jesse makes Hitler get to his knees and choke himself. He tells Hitler that he has the greatest power in the universe, and nobody “lets” him do anything.
Jesse leaves Hitler at the airport as he goes to get on the plane.
On the plane, Jesse sees a bit of the news and how he’s the subject of a manhunt because of the murder at DeSade’s. He also sees Tulip, who tells him that he never said goodbye to her.
The plane shakes harder, and the pilot comes over the intercom, saying they’ve hit something… and the plane starts to go down.
We’ve hit the cold open from the season premiere!
What did you think of “Terrible Beauty”? Let us know!
Preacher airs Sundays at 10/9c on AMC!