Priest

Tyler wonders how his parishioners will handle his departure, and he compares his situation to the arrest of the former priest. Unable to reach Bishop Bove, he leaves Bove a voicemail about his resignation. Tyler doesn’t have a wedding ring, but he picks flowers from the rectory garden for Poppy. In Poppy’s house, he sees Poppy and Sterling kissing. He compares himself to Biblical figures punished by God, including Jonah and Job, yet he doesn’t feel anything.

Now comparing himself to Adam after God banished Adam and Even from the Garden of Eden, Tyler drives to Jordan’s place and details his relationship with Poppy. For penance, Jordan orders Tyler to stay overnight and spend the next morning praying and reflecting.

If not for Poppy, Tyler would want to remain a priest. However, Bove calls Tyler at two o’clock in the morning to warn him that Sterling has released the photos. Bove wants Tyler to resign, but he considers letting Tyler remain a priest after discipline and relocation.

Millie takes care of St. Margaret’s and gives Tyler her support. At Jordan’s church, Tyler engages with God. Once again, he’s uncertain about what he should do. He thinks about how Jesus engaged with all types of people. Tyler concludes that he can help people outside the church, so he calls Bove and resigns.

Sterling’s pictures turn Tyler into a public figure. Some people villainize him, while others, due to his looks, romanticize him, forming a fan group called “the Tylerettes.” The parishioners of St. Margaret’s want him to stay, but Tyler returns to Kansas City and moves into Sean’s penthouse.

Tyler assumes that Poppy is in New York with Sterling, and Jordan advises him to find her and get closure. Tyler goes to the adult entertainment venue with Sean. Recognizing Tyler from Sterling’s photos, the woman bartender opens up to him and gives him something that Poppy left behind—Lizzy’s rosary. Now, Tyler is certain that their relationship is done.

Tyler listens to the soundtrack of the film Garden State as she tries not to imagine what Poppy and Sterling are doing. He realizes that he must move on, so he goes to a Kenyan village to help build a high school and improve the water supply.

The story moves forward seven months, and Tyler comes home from Kenya. Sean jokes that he looks like a “lumbersexual,” and his mother trims his beard before he goes to New Jersey, where he’ll pursue a PhD at Princeton University. Tyler’s mother understands that Tyler and her other sons must live their own lives.

At Princeton, Tyler uses the internet to locate Poppy, but he’s not successful. He goes to New York City’s Financial District to see Sterling. The receptionist blocks him, but once she realizes that he’s the person from the “Hot Priest” meme, she becomes flirtatious and lets him meet with Sterling.

Sterling is jovial. He refers to Tyler as “old sport” and gives him a glass of very expensive scotch. Sterling isn’t with Poppy, and he believed that she and Tyler were together. After Poppy kissed him in her Weston house, she forcefully kicked him out. Upset, Sterling publicized the photographs. He tells Tyler that Poppy turned a Danforth property in Queens into a dance studio.

Tyler finds the non-profit dance studio, Little Flower, where Poppy provides free dance classes for young people. Poppy isn’t there, but Tyler doesn’t give up. Inside a nearby church, he spots a woman in dance clothes: Poppy.

Tyler wants to have sex with Poppy right away; instead, he calls her “little lamb.” Poppy explains that her kiss with Sterling was a set up. She knew that Tyler was watching, and she wanted to make him leave her and remain a priest. Tyler says that God has a “plan” for them, and he proposes. After she says yes, they have sex in the church.

Poppy narrates the Epilogue, which takes place on their wedding day. Though a common superstition says that it’s “bad luck” for the groom to see the bride on their wedding day, Tyler and Poppy have sex in a small chapel in the church where their ceremony takes place. She compares their sex to communion, and she claims that God is with them. She speculates that they’ll have a son and that he’ll become a priest.