I give up – I can’t deny it, I think I’m REALLY going to
love this show. It’s just so much damn fun.
And since I’m going full on “no shame” I also has to say Cassidy managers to be very sexy in his evil naughty self. But then this is exactly what Joseph Gilgun does so well.
He and Jesse have a fun relationship – perfect drinking
buddies; Cassidy is all the fun evil that Jesse is trying to turn his back on.
I can see their friendship – he’s everything Jesse is trying not to be but just
can’t really let go. Also Cassidy is immense fun even if he is wrong in all
ways. He’s one of those characters you’re trying desperately not to like but
can’t help it. Emily can, Emily hates him
That’s this show entirely
Anyway, in between talking theology (with surprising
moments of depth: including Cassidy’s assertion that his selfish life is very
honest and Jesse hitting back at the idea that Boring is such a bad thing to be),
Cassidy also tells Jesse that he is, indeed, a 119 year old vampire from Dublin
on the run from hunters. Jesse doesn’t believe him of course but yes, Cassidy
is honest.
Jesse still has that weird alien thing in his head giving
him powers – and two goons are still watching him. Goons that, on discovering
Jesse unconscious after unwisely drinking Cassidy’s booze, finally decide to a)
play a music box at him (which… ok? That was random) and when that doesn’t work
then decide to use a chainsaw. Cassidy assumes that the hunters are caught up
with him and, besides, he objects to his drinking buddy being chainsawed
(Cassidy shows he does care by not stealing Jesse’s stuff. Yes, this counts as
caring from Cassidy). After a brutal fight in which Cassidy gets a little
mauled, he then beats one to death with a Bible (of course) and uses the
chainsaw on the other. Of course he uses the chainsaw.
That was the end of that storyline… yes? Except both guys
appear alive again afterwards. Despite being chopped up and buried by Cassidy.
Ok so we can expect the spooky music box in the future.
Meanwhile Jesse’s church has had a real turn around after
last episode with the shiny speech powers he now has. He’s baptising people, he’s
doing outreach and visiting the sick… including an absolutely devastating scene
where he goes to try and offer some comfort to the mother of a comatose girl.
And she brutally, heart rendingly tells him exactly how useless his prayer and
comfort is (even an absolutely excellent comforting speech). There’s also an
exceptionally difficult scene when Jesse takes the confession of a paedophile
struggling with his feelings towards children.
…ok, I didn’t expect this fun and whacky show with lots
of gorey violence to hit such difficult emotions and topics. That’s a hard edge
I didn’t expect this show to bring.
Along the way we have Tulip who continues to be great fun
– and continues to tormenting poor Jesse and determined to get him on side for
her job. She’s very very determined. She also continues that theme of harsh
commentary with a harsh, to the bone take down of someone laughing at her
alcoholic uncle.
We also have Eugene return – we learn he is scarred
because he tries to commit suicide with a shotgun to the face… and he is
shunned because someone calls him a “murderer”. He despairs at ever feeling
better about himself, especially after baptism failed and he asks Jesse the
very poignant question: what if this is what god wants me to be?
Which pretty much collapses Jesse who has been struggling so hard to be a different person (as Tulip reminds us quite often) and he finally cracks. His desperate, gentility collapses and he rages to the paedophile’s house, demanding he forget about the child he’s obsessing over. He tries a new baptism – this time with waterboarding. That doesn’t work – but the new compulsion voice does. And Jesse finally realises he has this new super power – compulsion and decides to put it to the test. He goes to the comatose girl and orders her to open her eyes….
What happens with that comes next week – but we also have
some random scenes. We have a flashback to 1881 and a man travelling from his
isolated homestead to get medicine for a sick girl. Along the way he finds some
happy pioneers telling him what a wonderful paradise settling America is… and
it contrasts bleakly with a graphic and brutal depiction of how Native
Americans were tortured and massacred. The contrast between the settlers
calling it paradise and the brutal “cost” of that paradise is powerful – but I’m
not sure what this is.
Similarly we have some people moving around and buying
property. I have no idea who they are, but the guy with a broken arm is super
strong.
