Preacher Episode 1.04 South Will Rise Again

In 1881, the Cowboy arrives in Ratwater and requests his daughter's medicine at the apothecary. The apothecary says it won't be ready until morning at the earliest.

The Cowboy requests a room at Cooley's Inn & Saloon but everything is booked up. In a back room, he sees a man raping a pioneer woman as her son is forced to watch. The husband lies dead on the floor. A debauched preacher vaguely recognizes the Cowboy's face.

The next morning, the Cowboy picks up the medicine and heads back home. He passes the pioneer family that he met on his way to Ratwater. The boy waves and says they're going to Ratwater. After some thought, the Cowboy gallops back to Ratwater to save the pioneer family from a potentially horrible fate.

In Ratwater, the Cowboy finds a dog lapping up blood inside the family's empty wagon. He strides to the back room of the saloon and finds... the pioneer father alive and well, selling scalps. The preacher and his men beat up the Cowboy.

Outside, the preacher finally recognizes where he knows the Cowboy from -- they fought each other at Gettysburg and the Cowboy killed many of his men and horses. He shoots the Cowboy's horse.

The Cowboy treks across the prairie by foot. When he returns home, crows are feasting on the bodies of his dead daughter and wife. He grabs his gun and saber from the closet.

Back in the present, Sheriff Root looks for intruders in his yard after hearing a noise. He sees a saw clattering in the wind and returns inside.

Sheriff Root tells Eugene to go to bed. Eugene calls him upstairs and shows him a message painted on his wall: "Finish the job." Eugene moves out of the way to reveal a shotgun that's been propped against the wall. Sheriff Root deduces immediately where Eugene has been and yells at him for visiting Tracy Loach.

Jesse looks out on the prairie from the Flavour Station window and smiles to himself. Emily sits across from him and asks him to explain what happened with Quincannon at the Sunday service.

A family at a nearby table commends Jesse on the powerful Sunday service and asks him to help decide on the best gospel. "This doesn't feel like you," Emily says.

Cassidy wakes up at Walter's house to Tulip watching him from the doorway. She interrogates him about being a vampire before ordering him to leave.

Instead, Cassidy follows her downstairs and asks for suggestions on how to obtain drugs. She ignores him. He admits that he's fallen for her. Tulip rejects him and says she's waiting for her boyfriend to ditch his job so that they can go kill a man who screwed them. "Maybe this boyfriend isn't the man you thought he was," Cassidy says, not knowing it's his best mate, Jesse, that she's referring to.

Emily watches on as Jesse chats up the family at the Flavour Station.

Over at Donnie's, he's moping in bed, telling Betsy he's still sick. Betsy rips open the curtains and threatens to sleep with a co-worker if Donnie doesn't get out of bed.

As the phone rings in their motel room, Fiore and DeBlanc rehearse what to tell their bosses about the "massive security breach."

Emily stops by the church. She cleans up Jesse's living area before heading to the bathroom. Tulip watches Emily from a dark corner and strides after her into the bathroom, demanding to know where Jesse is. Startled, Emily explains she doesn't know Jesse's whereabouts.

Eugene cooks breakfast for Sheriff Root, offering to cut his food for him. Sheriff Root erupts, throwing the plate of food to the floor, roaring, "If you really want to help, maybe you should do like they said and go ahead and finish the goddamn job."

In a mysterious control room, a man taps a gauge to release pressure. The needle lowers. He leaves the room.

Quincannon meets with Miles in his office and admits to being selfish and shortsighted. Miles isn't expecting this change of tune and connects it back to seeing Quincannon at Sunday service. Surprised to hear that Quincannon attended church, Donnie frantically asks him what Jesse said to him. "He said to serve God," Quincannon says. Donnie's mind races. Quincannon tells Miles he'd like to meet with the Green Acre executives.

At the Flavour Station, Jesse counsels a man about his relationship as a crowd lines up to speak with the preacher. "Be patient," Jesse tells the man, employing the Word of God. Tulip interrupts and warns everyone that Jesse is a bad man. "And look at me now," Jesse says unphased. "Really look and be honest: I have changed." A waitress tells Jesse that someone is waiting for him outside.

Outside, Eugene asks Jesse to help alleviate the suffering that he's caused his father.

Jesse visits Mrs. Loach. She sees Eugene in Jesse's truck and goes after him with a bat. "Drop it," Jesse says, employing the Word of God. She drops it. "Murderer!" she screams at Eugene. "Forgive him," Jesse says, using the Word of God. Mrs. Loach hugs a hesitant Eugene.

Donnie and Betsy eat lunch outside Quincannon Meat & Power. Donnie tells Betsy that Jesse has a power to force people to do things and that he forced Donnie to put a gun in his mouth. He cries. Betsy comforts him and vows that Jesse will get what he deserves.

In the truck, Jesse tells a confused Eugene that Sheriff Root no longer has to worry.

That night, Tulip puts on a ski mask and robs a drug store.

Fiore and DeBlanc rehearse Fiore's lines one last time. As Fiore goes to answer the phone, it stops ringing. They look at each other: This isn't good.

Tulip finds Cassidy leaving a strip club and gives him some stolen pills. They have sex in her car as she looks despairingly out the window.

Sheriff Root brings Fiore and DeBlanc to Jesse at the Flavour Station. They explain that they're from heaven and that they need what's inside of Jesse. Jesse laughs at the idea of God fitting inside a coffee tin. "What's inside of you, it isn't God," DeBlanc says.

Quincannon meets with the Green Acre executives in his office and, after serving them all a drink, he casually guns them all down as Miles looks on in confused horror.