[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Director: Michael Morris
Writer: Sam Catlin
Starring: Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, Joseph Gilgun, Paul Ben-Victor, Graham McTavish
Summary
“We know fun like nobody’s business!”
This week in New Orleans, Jesse and Tulip reminisce on the defining experience they shared in Dallas, in the weeks and months after that fateful botched bank job with Carlos. This episode takes a long hard look at Jesse and Tulip’s dysfunctional romance with some especially frightful scenes showing Jesse’s fury when it comes to Tulip’s dishonesty.
Positives
This week’s episode was a grounded, dark and emotional drama that kept the farcical fight scenes and shoot-outs to a minimum – mostly. We spend a lot of this episode in flashbacks taking us to the time in Jesse and Tulip’s relationship just after their failed bank job in Houston. That event was tragic for them both, as it caused a miscarriage for Tulip. Skip forward a few months, and the couple are struggling to cope with the loss and change in lifestyle.
It’s a dark night of the soul for them both, and both Cooper and Negga bring out an amazing performance. It’s a very real, domestic dread – okay, they’re master criminals being chased by a demon and questing to find God on Earth – and yet the show finds time for this incredibly human story about these insane characters.
Speaking of insane characters trying to act human, everyone’s favourite vampire Cassidy gets up to some subtle tricks in this episode. If you’re the kind of fan that’s invested in any of the potential romantic entanglements possible in this little triad then you’ll be well excited by this blood-sucking snake. One thing rang very clear throughout this episode, and that is that no one here is a hero like John Wayne, and no one is in a position to be forgiven for what they’ve done.
Negatives
Dennis barely gets his arm on screen in this episode. If you’re obsessive like me and you’ve been searching out the translated French subtitles for the character’s little rants, you’ll be disappointed to find out there’s nothing to decipher from the mysterious Frenchman this week.
Verdict
As the climax of the trio’s time in New Orleans, this episode delivers a compelling story which fills us in on the missing years of Jesse and Tulip’s relationship. We get to see in great detail the flaws which keep the three apart– Jesse’s rage, Tulip’s dishonesty and Cassidy’s selfishness. It wraps up Viktor’s part in the show excellently, and after all that character-driven drama we still get one awesome Saint-of-Killers shootout.
