1x05 South Will Rise Again

The story of the 1800s cowboy is furthered significantly. He arrives to a town called Ratwater, where he witnesses the disgraceful cruelty of his fellow men. In Ratwater scalps of Indians are sold while their bodies are hanged from the tree at the entrance of town. Husbands are murdered and wives raped while their children are forced to watch. All this in the middle of the tavern where men's only occupation is to get drunk. The cowboy stays away from it all, without intervening, waiting for the next day to buy the medicine for his family. As he is leaving, he sees the family he passed on the way to town (and who had shared their dinner with him). Thinking of their safety he returns after he has left the town, only to find them selling scalp; and he gets beaten up for his trouble on the way out by a group of good-for-nothings --- but he doesn't fight back, merely making sure to protect the vial of medicine. When the cowboy finally makes it back to his horse, the town preacher --- who is clearly as fallen as the town over which he presides --- approaches him, and tells him that he remembers him from the Battle of Gettysburg --- as a bloodthirsty soldier who killed many men and horses ----, and then the preacher kills the cowboy's horse! We then see the cowboy walking back to his home, clutching the medicine. But he arrives too late; his wife and daughter are dead by the time he arrives, while the crows feast on their bodies. It is finally at this point that the cowboy goes to his closet and retrieves his guns, with a look of righteous fury in his eyes. And don't the events in this tale deserve righteous fury?

Truly the cowboy character is maximally primed for vengeance upon the town preacher --- for without his horse he could not make it home on time. And isn't he one of the best comic characters brought to the screen? His back story of immense and patient suffering to the breaking point while the universe is intent on stomping him at every opportunity is a classic motivation for a comic book hero on a mission. And at what point will "Genesis" join the cowboy's righteous quest? For he is surely a precursor to the Preacher of the series title.

In the meantime, in the present, the two angels who have come to retrieve Genesis start planning about how to answer the heavenly phone that started ringing. And just when they finally decide to answer the phone and throw themselves on the mercy of their superiors, hoping that they don't get punished for the escape of "Genesis", the phone stops ringing. This pair of comic angels must surely not be the cream of the crop. But they are certainly funny. What will be the repercussions now that their superiors know they have gone AWOL?

In the town the Preacher Jesse uses his power to order the family and friends of the girl in a comma (whom he had ordered to open her eyes) to "forgive" a boy --- Eugene --- with a badly disfigured face who was being picked on, and who seemed to have some responsibility for the girl in a comma.

Meanwhile Mr. Quincannon, who up to this point has surprised everyone with his reform, sets up a high-level meeting with a rival company to negotiate the deal they are offering him (and the town), which deal would be advantageous for the town but not to him personally. But while the meeting is going on, he does something truly unchristian, and quite shocking: he shoots all those who attended the meeting, telling the town's major that the only options are either growth or death. It seems that "Genesis" has once again turned a (well-meaning) directive of the Preacher into an evil --- but how?

And it is revealed by the Angels that "Genesis" is not God (or the presence of God), as the Preacher believes. But this was obvious :given the results! Matthew 7:16 is clearly relevant. So, what is it?