Herr Starr attempts to recruit Jesse to take God's place; Featherstone almost screws up with her deception of Tulip; Denis' vampirism begins to worry Cassidy.
Tropes
- Batman Gambit: Starr ensured that Jesse would overhear the remark about the Grail's Messiah, anticipating that he'd force Starr to take him to him, thus letting him see for himself the need for someone to step up and replace God.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Thaddeus (AKA Jude the Apostle) is the founder of the Grail, an Apocalypse Cult, in the universe of Preacher.
- Brown Note: Genesis has this effect on Humperdoo, causing him to go into a psychotic episode.
- Call-Back: Humperdoo's drawings show a dalmatian dog, quite similar to the man in the dog suit from the third episode of the season.
- Come Back Wrong: Clearly Denis's vampirism has some glaring negative effects.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Cassidy talking to Denis about his vampirism almost sounds like a father talking to his son about puberty.
- That and Vampire Denis has the mannerisms of a rebellious teenager.
- Drunk on the Dark Side: Denis is quite clearly enjoying his newfound vampirism. Good for him, not so good for the escorts Cassidy hired for his birthday, especially since, at the end of the episode, he's shown coming back into the apartment building with blood surrounding his mouth.
- Excrement Statement: Inverted. Humperdoo urinates on Jesse as a way of greeting him, but according to Starr it is a sign he likes Jesse.
- The Fettered: Jesus seems to know about his impending death and to not be very happy about it, but he's still intent on going through with it because he promised his father.
- Identical Grandson: Tyson Ritter plays both Jesus Christ and his descendant Humperdoo. Justified in that the Grail has actively been trying to keep the bloodline "pure."
- The Immodest Orgasm: Jesus and his lover have a few quite loud ones.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Featherstone accidentally lets slip something of Tulip's past that Tulip never told her. This almost gets her cover blown, but she manages to distract Tulip with the help of Hoover.
- Jesus Was Way Cool: Comparatively speaking, at least. In a show where even the heroes are invariably a bit shady and the angels of the Lord are portrayed as incompetent and thuggish, Jesus is shown as a Nice Guy about to make a Heroic Sacrifice, as well as a passionate and considerate lover. His latter-day heir, on the other hand, is... not very cool.
- Royal Inbreeding: Starr's explanation for why Humperdoo is the way he is.
- Royally Screwed Up: Humperdoo is mentally disabled due to centuries of inbreeding among the Christ bloodline.
- Title Drop: The song "Dirty Little Secret" by The All-American Rejects appears multiple times throughout the episode. Perhaps not coincidentally, frontman Tyson Ritter guest stars as Jesus and Humperdoo.
- Translation Convention: The flashback to Jesus' conception of his child is spoken in modern English, with words like "cool" and "dad" being employed.
