Hawk Ripjaw
The following recap contains spoilers for The Righteous Gemstones S4E2 “You Hurled Me Into the Depths, Into the Very Heart of the Seas“ (written by John Carcieri, Jeff Fradly and Danny McBride and directed by Jody Hill).
After last week’s compelling prelude episode that focused on the advent of the family, The Righteous Gemstones S4E2, “You Hurled Me Into the Depths, Into the Very Heart of the Seas,“ catches us up with the Gemstones proper, as the family prepares for a birthday telethon to honor the late Aimee-Leigh. And, as expected, the return to the modern Gemstone shenanigans is as hilarious as it’s ever been.
In classic Baby Billy (Walton Goggins) fashion, the dress rehearsal for this event is ridiculously bombastic, with the Gemstone kids dancing in stupid angel costumes, a dance troupe featuring the rest of the Gemstone family including extended members and others, electric guitars, a massive gospel chorus, and jetpacks. That’s right—jetpacks. Set to everyone singing “rising up,” the core three Gemstone siblings begin literally rising into the air, but Jesse (Danny McBride) is unable to control his jetpack, and blasts forward into the dance troupe, which ends the rehearsal. Judy (Edi Patterson) blasts backwards into a drum set, Kelvin (Adam DeVine)’s jetpack sends him face-first into a massive screen televising his late mother’s face, and Jesse’s jetpack continues to spin him on the ground as he screams for it to stop. “F*ck my handsome white ass,” an exasperated Baby Billy says, before a cut to the title card.
In the green room with the siblings, Baby Billy expresses displeasure at the mishap and doubles down on his insistence that they wear the jetpacks. When faced with dissent, Baby Billy drops his trousers to reveal his spectacularly gross genitals. The siblings rightfully react in disgust, but Baby Billy doubles down, swinging his junk around for no particular reason except for…well, to do it, and remind his nephews that without Eli (John Goodman), the birthday memorial extravaganza is meaningless. He tasks the kids with hunting Daddy down to bring him back to be an integral part of the proceedings.
Eli has disappeared from the Gemstones’ lives and has now spent his time retiring to Florida: sleeping around, drinking and growing out his hair on a boat at the docks. He prepares some eggs for a woman he’s apparently been seeing, and finally slept with the previous night, but carefully explains that he’s not ready for anything serious, having still not moved on completely from Aimee-Leigh. Brief trysts, however, are apparently not off the table. Indeed, Eli seems to be really enjoying his retirement, until he sees a boat speeding towards him on the horizon. His smile disappears quickly.
“F*ck.”
Sure enough, Jesse, Judy and Kelvin are making their way towards Daddy, intent on following through on Baby Billy’s wishes to get Eli back to the show, and their father is clearly not interested in seeing his children. But as we’ve seen in three seasons, these three lovable monsters are nothing if not incorrigible, and no force on Earth will stop them from trying to get what they want. On Eli’s boat, the kids are disgusted to find evidence of another woman in Eli’s sex life. Judy and Jesse use their usual explicit language, Kelvin says “Yucky Ducks” at the prospect of Daddy finding someone new, and all three of them pressure Eli to come to the telethon. Eli refuses, stating that he’s trying to “wrestle with things, trying to figure out what I need.”
I feel like this season, we’ll get some more character development with Eli and the grief he still carries for his late wife, and is possibly still trying to run away from, stating that his head is not in the right place. Perhaps he feels that Baby Billy’s bombast is not the right vessel for honoring Aimee-Leigh. For now, however, his kids are having none of it. It comes to a head when the three of them decide to start chanting the word “p*ssy” repeatedly until Eli finally breaks, agreeing to accompany them to the telethon as long as they stop using that word.
We next meet up with BJ (Tim Baltz), who is doing a pole-dancing class for fitness. He’s good at it too, easily matching pace with everyone else in the class. Judy shows up to meet with him, and while we got a taste of her vulgarity on the boat, she unleashes a jet stream of nasty dialogue that is, at the very least, eyebrow-raising in reminding us how crass she can be. Judy objects to BJ’s new hobby and wonders whether the life they have together isn’t enough. BJ manages to assure her that he just enjoys the workout, and congratulates her on getting Eli back for the birthday telethon. Judy also mentions that she had, in the event of Eli standing his ground in not returning, prepared a “f*ck you” note complete with cut out magazine letters and smeared dog poop. BJ’s facial response is just a reminder that Judy is not only a psycho, but she’s our psycho, and we love her.
Kelvin and Keefe (Tony Cavalero) are now heading up Prism, a queer-centered examination of the Bible. Prism is a more modern and accepting (and in my opinion, correct) interpretation of the Bible. Old-school interpretations seem to condemn homosexual activity, but there’s a growing argument that the handful of verses that appear to be against homosexuality are not as transparently so as some would believe.
Back at home, Keefe cautiously floats the idea that he and Kelvin be more public with their relationship, even suggesting marriage. However, Kelvin rejects this, stating that Prism is more successful because the do-they don’t-they of their private acts is what keeps the audience invested. I’m fully in support of the two tying the knot, and I believe (and hope) that his character development this season, following the kiss with his best friend last season, will end with the two of them finally getting married or, at the very least, taking their relationship public.
We’ve seen plenty of growth with the Gemstones, but once a Gemstone is always a Gemstone, so this week we’ve got the new addition to the grift (or at the very least, misguided religious paraphernalia), the Prayer Pod. It’s like a photo booth, but bigger (and with a vaguely—whatever the butt version of phallic is—logo). And once inside, you can swipe your credit card, unfold the included kneeler, and access the sermons, devotionals, and Bible Bonkers. The entirety of Jesse’s family is involved in the commercial, and while the rebellious Pontius does have a part in the commercial, he’s not remotely interested.
A new character introduced this season is Lori (Megan Mullally), Aimee-Leigh’s best friend. The Gemstone kids excitedly greet their surrogate aunt, while Eli waves awkwardly. The siblings note that Eli is being a little awkward with Lori. Baby Billy excuses himself to film Bible Bonkers, and Eli and Lori catch up while the kids continue to practice with the jetpacks. Lori presses Eli as to why he had to be coerced to come to his wife’s birthday telethon, and Eli avoids the question before both of them admit to how much they miss Aimee-Leigh.
While Gideon (Skylar Gisondo) has made some progress in launching his own preaching enterprise, he’s not particularly good at it, having to consult note cards, relying on a PowerPoint and awkwardly delivering his message with palpable stage fright. Post-sermon, Jesse offers some relatively useless advice, while Eli’s words speak more to Gideon. His preference to Grandpa’s advice clearly rattles Jesse, but he brushes it off. Earlier in the episode, Gideon admits to his father that he receives advice from Eli, something that irritates Jesse. In probably my favorite line of the episode, Jesse says, “Fine, go be butt buddies with your grandpa, see if I care.”
We’ve finally arrived at the live telethon! It’s even more extravagant than the dress rehearsal was, and now that Eli is there as the centerpiece, things feel more personal at the same time. While the kids wrestle for the limelight, Eli brings things back with a tender message about Aimee-Leigh’s love as the camera focuses multiple times on an emotional Lori watching from backstage. And during Lori’s singing segment, Eli watches her.
There was blatantly obvious chemistry between Eli and Lori from when we first saw her, but the tension from when a smile spreads across his face when watching her sing, to when they banter in the green room, to when she starts to walk away. About to let her go, Eli instead chases after her, and they share a passionate kiss in the parking lot. I don’t know exactly what this means. Is it some sort of rebound? Repressed feelings that have always been there? What will this look like going forward? It doesn’t appear that there will be some sort of scandal/kidnapping plot this season, and we’ll be focusing more on the characters. Eli might very well be a core focus here.
The Gemstone siblings take off in newly-designed, futuristic jetpack suits. Jesse still has issues with his, kicking some of the audience members in their heads, and when he finally does sort of get a handle on it, he rejects his siblings’ offer to fly higher and decides to rise on his own. As reaction shots from the audience and most of the core cast flash across the scene, Jesse continues to rise towards the disco ball, and the episode ends before he either crashes into the ball or back down to Earth.
It was a joy to get back to the main Gemstone family, and they are as funny and compelling as they’ve ever been. This is, again, the final season of Danny McBride’s baby; the searing takedown of prosperity gospel, the shocking vulgarity, and the rock-solid emotional core are as prominent as they’ve ever been. These two opening episodes have been an incredibly strong start to the season, and I can’t wait to see what these lunatics get up to next week.
The Righteous Gemstones airs on Sundays on HBO at 10pm ET, and is streaming on Max.
