'Preacher' season 4 episode 7: Jesse is offered God's job while Humperdoo is kidnapped by Tulip and Cassidy
What do you do when your best friend or your soulmate is dead? You dig his grave and hit the road on a revenge spree. It is sometimes easy to forget how messed up Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun), Tulip O'Hare (Ruth Negga) and Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) really are.
The show plays to their "good side", showing them fighting corrupt, evil figures or people who have messed with them in the first place. But they can also be deeply nasty. Tulip and Cassidy stop at a village church and a kindly, God-fearing man's house.
Cassidy looks at the chicken coop, looks at his burnt hand and decides chicken isn't going to cut it for the night. The man becomes dinner. In some ways, he is punished for his faith in God. Cassidy, in his current mood, sees anyone who is on God's side as fair game, no matter how innocent they may be.
Tulip, in agony after finally reading Jesse's letter, goes into the church. After howling for answers and breaking down a few pews, she burns the letter and sets the whole church aflame. Then they are off to wreak havoc in the Hasidic Jewish community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Jesse had stashed the real Humperdoo after he killed the All-Father and released all the Humperdoo clones.
It is interesting to see Tulip and Cassidy's dynamic in these scenes. Cassidy tiptoes around Tulip, trying to gauge her state as he backs her up 100 percent on her revenge quest. Tulip, dead-eyed and monosyllabic, talks with her guns and fists instead, as she goes about her business of getting Humperdoo out of his Jewish safehouse.
Between the two, you'd think Cassidy is unaffected by Jesse's death. But his rage simmers below the surface. It bursts forth in front of the orthodox Jewish congregation that has been sheltering Humperdoo.
When asked where they were taking "the Messiah", Cassidy goes into a typical long, winding tale, before pronouncing his judgment. They were "idiots" and "suckers" for loving God and since Humperdoo was God's favorite, they were going to kill him and make God watch.
While the duo kicked up some mayhem, Jesse found himself in a verdant Eden-like world that he assumes is Heaven. There he is met with a face from the past, none other than Fiore (Tom Brooke), the angel, aka the erstwhile babysitter of Genesis.
He takes Jesse to God's throne room and asks him to take over because, as he puts it, Jesus is trying but is "no Hitler". With God missing, Fiore is glad Jesse is there to take over Heaven's reins.
Jesse's hubris shows up for a second as he reaches to touch the throne. As his fingertips graze its surface, he is given a taste of what it would be like to be God. It is powerful and awe-inspiring but not for him.
He chastises Fiore for trying to make him commit the ultimate sin before wondering how he has made it to Heaven at all. A second later, he realizes he is actually in one of Hell's cell and what he has been seeing was one of Hell's custom-made immersive projections.
When he re-enters the projection, Fiore says that while he is in Hell and everything he is seeing is an illusion, the job offer is real. As soon as he accepts, he is free. And then, Fiore, after showing Jesse how God took off after Genesis escaped, drops the bombshell.
God destroyed the dinosaurs and made Man. Now, he was creating something new. Jesse realizes to his horror that God is planning to replace Man. Fiore interjects and says, "Unless..." before pointing to God's throne.
As fake Fiore tries to sell Jesse on the top post, Hitler (Noah Taylor) tries to get Jesus (Tyson Ritter) to take the Messiah's place because a Humperdoo clone wasn't going to cut it for the Apocalypse. Jesus ponders about doing just that.
Meanwhile, we see new Hoover (Aleks Mikic) talk to his real boss and we realize he is actually a cop who is deep undercover. Just as his character takes a turn for the better, Featherstone (Julie Ann Emery) disguised as a barista, shoots him dead.
Meanwhile, in the Outback, Herr Starr (Pip Torrens) crawls after the dingo who runs off with his (pixelated) man parts. As he collapses on the ground, a man approaches him but we only see his shadow - a mystery to solve for next week.
'Preacher' airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on AMC.