Priest

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content and substance use.

Tyler drives to Kansas City to visit his confessor, Father Jordan Brady, who embraces the disciplinarian tradition of priesthood. Like Tyler, Jordan is attractive. Jordan is also “aloof” and doesn’t want to hear Tyler’s confession.

Tyler persists, and Jordan surmises that Tyler’s confession is about a woman. Jordan assumes that Tyler isn’t ready to stop his behavior. He tells Tyler that neither he nor God hates him, and he advises Tyler to be “exceedingly careful.”

Tyler thinks about his relationship with Poppy. He fears that his vocation as a priest makes their relationship unsustainable, but he wants to follow Poppy wherever she goes. He considers calling Bishop Bove and resigning, freeing himself from the Catholic Church’s rules. He’s unsure of how his two degrees would benefit him in the “real world,” and he thinks of being a priest as a “gift,” but he doesn’t want to lose Poppy.

Poppy and Tyler fall asleep together in Poppy’s bed; when she wakes up, she gets on top of him and has sex with him. After they have anal sex, Poppy reiterates Tyler’s worries about their relationship. She doesn’t want Tyler to leave her; simultaneously, she doesn’t want to jeopardize Tyler’s job.