13. "The Thunder Shuffle"

Cody arrives with the caravan, but in the church parking lot, two fellows with "bad reputations" await. 

Cody, urged by the congregation to run off the "hypocrites," knows he is definitely lead pastor of Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name now, and there's no doubt about it.

It begins a season of battling church issues (marital and relationship problems primarily) until the point he can take it no more. Cody decides to get away, down to South Carolina. This initiates a string of trips to snake shows where snake trading is "wide open." 

"I wish I could change so much of what happened down there," he laments in this episode. "But unfortunately, I cannot."

What is Marked for Life?

Cody Coots is a fourth-generation serpent handler. By age 6, he handles mock serpents with his sister, Trina, in the church, using leather belts for props. Cody secretly yearns for a normal childhood.

He likes to ride his bike, play drums, and watch WWE wrestling with his father, Jamie. (Jamie is the world's most famous serpent-handling preacher.) A terrible act of violence befalls 8-year-old Cody, shocking the serpent handling community. A preacher pleads guilty to charges of deviant sexual abuse, but it's too late: Cody's innocence is shattered. Anger boils inside him, so he turns his wrath upon his parents, his church, and even his God.

As he cruises the backstreets of Middlesboro, Ky, looking for nothing but trouble, Cody's sins begin piling up. But the consequences do, too.

Is Cody beyond salvation? Or, is he as the community describes him: "Marked for life?"