'The Righteous Gemstones' episode 3 sees tensions grow between the two churches after Jesse's attack
Spoilers ahead for 'The Righteous Gemstones' episode 3...
'The Righteous Gemstones' is a portrayal of a dysfunctional family that is at loggerheads over who should take the church - which they run like a business - over after their father, Eli Gemstone (John Goodman). The show itself has a couple of interesting subplots including rising tension between the Gemstones and pastor Johny Seasons (Dermot Mulroney) of the Locust Grove, first Baptist Church after Eli decided to start a new church in the vicinity of Seasons' church. In the first episode, a standoff was hinted at when Seasons tried to talk Eli into not starting the Gemstone close to his church. However, after Jesse Gemstone, Eli's son attacked Johny due to a case of mistaken identity, things have become pretty tense between the Gemstones and Seasons. Something to be noted here is that Eli is unaware of what his son did or how as a result, Chad (James DuMont), one of his son's sidekicks was shot. After showing the men behind the mask in episode 2, the show gets back to the tenuous connection with the two churches in episode 3 and we are also introduced to a new character - Baby Billy Freeman (Walton Goggins) - who will be running the new church.
Jesse (Danny McBride) had initially assumed that the men who were blackmailing him with a video of him snorting cocaine was none other than Johny and his cohorts and had reached his residence to get the truth out of him. What he didn't expect was to face a rifle, and see things get out of hand. Chad is shot, taken to hospital and Jesse continued his search for his blackmailers. Now that the blackmailers have vanished, what Jesse doesn't realize is how problematic his attack could be for the future of the new church. And so, in episode 3, we Johny take action. His men handout flyers that accuse the Gemstones of multiple crimes in an attempt to get them chased out of the neighborhood, but this doesn't work. Instead, Eli and Billy visit Locust Grove church where Eli not only picks an argument with Johny but ends up throwing a potato at the windowpane of the church. This, of course, calls for a rebuttal from Seasons and Billy is not happy about Eli's attitude. He says so and as a result, ends up bruising Eli's ego. The fact that Eli's children - Jesse, Judy (Edi Patterson) and Kelvin (Adam DeVine) - also speak behind his back doesn't help matters.
Here's where it gets better! Amber (Cassidy Freeman), Jesse's wife wants to throw a welcome party to welcome their son Gideon who was a runaway. What no one knows is that Gideon is the third person of the missing blackmailer gang who orchestrated the entire plan. In Gideon's words, he is back with his family with his "eyes on the prize" - the cash. This dinner is probably one of the most fascinating scenes to be portrayed by a dysfunctional family.
Eli announces to his children that he would appreciate if they voiced their thoughts about him to his face instead of going to Billy, and things turn tense. Jesse, who ends up taking out his frustration on his son Pontius is told to "shut the f*** up" by the kid in front of the family and this is reflective of what he did to his father. It is not something that they address at the dinner table, but it is something that Eli comments on when Jesse complains about his son's behavior in front of family. This conversation about how children treat their father diffuses the earlier tension that had set in Eli and also influences him to seek Billy out again regarding the church. He is also at a much better place mentally to deal with Seasons. Or so we think!
What comes next is not only unexpected but also intuitive about how the show treats faith in essence - as a business. The fight between the two churches is to gain access to more number of people who would open their pockets and donate with generosity. So when you see an encroacher in your territory, you do what any businessman does. Scare the opposition, humiliate them and harass them into submission. Which is exactly what Eli did.
What we cannot wait to see is how Johny would react to being humiliated so and how he would exact his revenge for the same. The next episode of 'The Righteous Gemstones' will air on Sunday at 10 pm on HBO.