Zion
Updated 2003-04-10 17:00:00
Johnny stands at David's coffin and stares real hard. He reaches down and touches David's corpse. I guess he's gotten over his issues with that from a few weeks back. Johnny has a vision of Teenager Bruce arguing with his dad. Teenager Bruce says that he lost his faith in God a long time ago. David backhands Bruce! Whoo! David admonishes Bruce for talking that way "in the house of God." Bruce accuses his father of using Bruce to fill the church and get money. David says that Bruce was doing God's work. Bruce talks about all of the things that he missed out on because of their religion: sports, girls, dancing. Wait, is this Footloose all of a sudden? It would be awesome if Kevin Bacon showed up. What, like he's got something better to do? Bruce sarcastically starts giving a sermon and then says that it was all just words with no religious conviction behind them. David says that he believes in God's teachings, and Bruce says that he doesn't. Bruce picks up his bag and starts to leave. David says that if Bruce leaves, he will be denying his destiny, God, and his father. That's a lot of denial. Bruce counters that nobody has a destiny and that they are all just stumbling around in the dark, and then walks out. David stares after him. Johnny stares at David. It's all about the staring.
Bruce walks into the church and finds Johnny still staring. Bruce says that Johnny's comments got his mother all worried. David walks up the aisle, and looks at his own corpse in the casket. Johnny says that Mrs. Lewis is worried about Bruce, and Bruce asks why everyone is worried about him. Bruce says that he has a good job, an apartment, and a lot of good white friends. Bruce adds that people want him to come back and save the church like he owes it to his father. Bruce sighs and says that maybe he does, and that he feels his father in the church, trying to pull him back in. Bruce reaches down and strokes his father's cheek. He huskily says that he could never touch his father when he was alive, because it was too personal. Bruce starts apologizing to his father for letting him down. Johnny walks up and puts his hand on Bruce's shoulder. Bruce starts having a vision montage featuring himself preaching as a little boy, and then Johnny getting shot in an auditorium, and then David talking about destiny.
It all ends with Teenager Bruce clutching his head and David comforting him. So the rest of this episode (until the end) is showing us what Bruce's life would have been like had he not walked out of the church on that day when he was a teenager. That's not really made clear until a little further in the episode, but it would be really difficult to recap if I pretended I don't know that, so screw it. Cut to Present-Day Bruce standing on the altar, except he no longer has his dreadlocks. He says that this isn't how it happened, and then notices that his father's casket is gone. Bruce walks outside, looking for Johnny, and is greeted by parishioners, who refer to him as "Elder." He looks at the church's sign and sees that day's date and an announcement that the service will feature a sermon by "Elder Bruce Lewis."