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Season 4 debuted with an impressive flashback episode, where it’s revealed that during the Civil War, conman Elijah Gemstone (Bradley Cooper) posed as a clergyman as the South succumbed to the North, his life spared by Union soldiers solely because they believed him to be a man of God. Elijah is the original drinking, scamming, blasphemous Gemstone preacher, and his generational teachings — sacred and secular — have only snowballed into the absolute maniacs that are Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin. At the show’s start, “The Righteous Gemstones” operated almost like the Wario to “Succession.” They’re both centered on three children competing to replace their father at the top of the familial empire in the “rich people behaving badly” subgenre, but the characters in “The Righteous Gemstones” appear as if they were filmed through a funhouse mirror.
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As time went on, McBride pulled back the performative, superficial layers to reveal the way, the truth, and the life of the Gemstone family. Despite their riches, ignorance, and hypocrisy, they’re a family of broken people trying their best who deeply care about one another. Their late mother, Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles), is mythicized in death, but flashback scenes prove that she too had her shortcomings. The fun of “The Righteous Gemstones” is knowing how truly appalling all of these characters can be, and wanting them to get it together and bask in the glory we know they’re capable of achieving, regardless.
Faith, family, and forgiveness have always been the anchors keeping the show from flying too close to the sun, and it’s these three wise themes that ultimately offered the Gemstone kids their true salvation from themselves.
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In the most intimate, sincere preaching they’ve done in the show’s existence, the Gemstone trio asked God to forgive their friend as he lay dying for his shortcomings, traits they share with him. “Dealing with pain, Lord, it’s hard. It can do things to you. It can make you feel helpless, and it can make you feel crazy,” Judy preaches. “With all the doubts in our life and all the fears, help us let go, Lord,” Kelvin pleads. “Sometimes we let jealousies corrupt us. Sometimes we don’t think about how we act and how it affects others, and we do things we regret,” Jesse preaches in confession. “We all fall off the path, Dear Lord.”
And this touching moment of honesty took place immediately after Sean William Scott’s Corey “Core-Dog” Milsap stalked them around the house with a gun while dressed like Michael Jackson and set to UB40’s “Red, Red Wine.” Solana Token Creator
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