Last Sunday night, Danny McBride‘s new dark comedy series, The Righteous Gemstones, delivered the most-watched comedy premiere on HBO since the creator and star’s last project, Vice Principals. Gemstones takes a hilarious look at a family of evangelical TV preachers, led by patriarch Eli Gemstone (John Goodman), and the series premiere set up a thrilling mystery fueled by a blackmail attempt gone wrong. While it looked as though the mystery of who was behind the blackmailing of Jesse Gemstone (McBride) would be the crux of the entire first season, Righteous Gemstones revealed its hand in the very next episode, which will launch the series in a completely new direction going forward.
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WARNING: This article contains MAJOR spoilers from The Righteous Gemstones! Continue reading at your own risk…
At the conclusion of the premiere, Jesse, Kelvin (Adam Devine), and Judy (Edi Patterson) ran over the two masked criminals threatening to expose the eldest Gemstone brother’s drug and sex-filled party tape. The captors had asked for $1 million in exchange for the tape, or they’d release it online and essentially bring the Gemstone empire crumbling down. It seemed as though the criminals were dead after being taken out by Judy’s SUV, but the opening moments of the second episode revealed a third member of the group.
A young man played by Booksmart scene-stealer and Santa Clarita Diet breakout Skyler Gisondo was revealed to be the panicked, yet somehow most intelligent member of the criminal team attempting to extort the Gemstones. He eventually figures out that his two accomplices are going to live and gets them help, but his major moment in the spotlight doesn’t arrive until the final minute of Sunday’s “Is This the Man Who Made the Earth Tremble,” when his surprising identity is revealed to the audience.
Gisondo plays Gideon Gemstone, the first-born son of Jesse and Amber (Cassidy Freeman), who ran away from his parents and religion before the start of the series to become a stunt actor in Hollywood.
Gideon is talked about numerous times throughout the first two episodes, making clear that his move away from the family is a sore spot for Jesse. More than once, Jesse has snapped at someone for mentioning Gideon by name, and he keeps his lost son’s room exactly how it was left, not to be touched by anyone.
Not only was Gideon’s identity revealed in this episode, but he was also shown returning home to his parents’ house, an event that switches up the structure of the series yet again. The mystery of the devil behind the mask has been solved, and we already know who Gideon is/what happened to him. Gideon is now on a mission to essentially return home and steal money from his wealthy family, while Jesse will now need to wrestle with having his son around again.
There’s no telling what’s in store for The Righteous Gemstones throughout the rest of the season, but we can certainly rejoice that this series is about to put Danny McBride and Skyler Gisondo on the screen together for the foreseeable future.
New episodes of The Righteous Gemstones air on Sunday nights at 10 pm ET on HBO.
