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50: The Land Of Bad Things

Starts off with Jesse meeting up with his Daddy's old Vietnam buddy, Spaceman, at that there big old war memorial they got at Washington. Jesse says how he found his Mom (I thought she was dead but there you go, still, this is Preacher, so that don't make no difference), who gave him his Daddy's medal - I think it's the Congressional Medal of Honour - and he asks Spaceman to tell him how he got it. Spaceman doesn't seem too happy about this, not wanting to tell him the truth, but he does. We join Texas and Spaceman trying to make an RV with a helo, but it got slotted (oh no, I haven't spent too long with the military!). Spaceman's been shot in the leg, so Texas kind of carries him off into the jungle and they work out its 200km back to base and Texas gets all pacifist which for some reason inspires Spaceman not to give up. Strange that. Finally, after quite a while, Spaceman does give up and decides to blow his brains out, so in a moment of pure logic Texas threatens to shoot him, oh yes, great thinking there. They have one hell of an argument, lots of insults, until Texas tells him to just go ahead. So, Spaceman cheers up and decides to carry on - this guy is very odd. They reach a friendly base, but know there's a whole bunch of unfriendlies between them. So they start getting across, the Americans in their wisdom hear something and fire a shell, and when everything lights up Texas and Spaceman discover they're standing in the middle of an unfriendly ambush! The Americans being American start shooting and our two heroes get hit. When the Americans work out who they are they med-evac them and they never see each other again. Jesse tells Spaceman he doesn't think he has the right to keep the medal, and decides to leave it at the memorial. This is a good one. You don't quite get why it's there, but it's a good story - bit full of the usual anti-Vietnam shit, but also quite a great buddy story. Couple of times I wonder if I'm watching lethal weapon, but you have to marvel at the way Ennis can digress completely from the ongoing plot, and okay you might be more interested in post meeting-God Jesse, but Ennis can keep you interested, and hell, I even got a bit sad with this one - Not going soppy just yet though!

Comments by Cassandra Courtney