After a highly anticipated wait, The Righteous Gemstones is back with its fourth and final season, and based on the premiere episode, we’re in for one hell of a wildly hysterical, eye-opening, heartwarming ride. Season 4 episode 1 is all about Gemstone family history, taking us back to the very beginning when the first Gemstone experienced a divine wake-up call. It also gives us a bloody look into the origin of the family’s secrets.
When we last left the Gemstones, they’d managed to mend some family fences after Jesse (Danny McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson), and Kelvin (Adam Devine) were kidnapped by their radical fundamentalist uncle then righteously rescued by their nephew Gideon (Skyler Gisondo), who’s been the series badass since season 1. Eli (John Goodman) semi-retired from the church, which was succumbing to a fleeing congregation and rapidly dwindling funds, BJ found his manhood, Keefe (Tony Cavalero) found his place in Kelvin's life, and Uncle Baby Billy (Walton Goggins) came up with an ingenious idea for a religious game show called “Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers.”
In the end, oddly enough thanks to Uncle Baby Billy, the church’s funds and congregation were restored, family feuds were redeemed, and Gideon stepped up to answer his divine calling by becoming Eli’s protégé.
The Righteous Gemstones season 4 episode 1 recap
What better place for the final season of The Righteous Gemstones to open but in church? Except we’re not in modern-day church. We’re in Civil War times, and things weren’t so shiny, opulent, and safe back then. Episode 1 introduces us to Elijah Gemstone (surprisngly and delightfully played by Bradley Cooper!), who is no doubt the first Gemstone to have heard the divine calling and been led to the Lord. Only, it happened in a darkly comedic although brutal way, just as we’d expect from a McBride-written script.
It's 1862, and we're in Virginia for the whole episode. A young, 20-something-year-old Elijah slips into a sermon and waits for everyone to leave. He then shoots the pastor and steals from the church, robbing it of collections and the preacher of his gold-plated Bible. However, he quickly finds himself in for more than he bargained when Confederate soldiers show up to wrangle the new chaplain, as he has been assigned to their division. Now Elijah's forced to come to face-to-face with death and preach the word of God, which he does not know and totally must wing in moments that are reminiscent of Cam Brady's prayer in The Campaign ("Our Father, Art, who lives in Heaven, Aloe Vera be thy name...") and Ricky Bobby’s prayer in Talladega Nights: blisteringly funny.
So, how does a Gemstone from 1862 start a sermon to preach a word he knows nothing about? By blowing a snot rocket, of course, right from the pulpit. Classic McBride comedy. Elijah then continues: “Um. Bless the Lord. Bless Jesus Christ. All is good, friends. Amen. I’m not gonna take up your whole Sunday. It feels like we’ve already been here an hour." It's literally been just minutes, but hey, who really wants to sit through more than five minutes of church?
While spending time at the Confederate camp praying over the sick and wounded, Elijah meets a man named Ned who claims to remember him from before the war. Elijah corrects him, saying his name is Abel Grieves and he’s a preacher. When Ned mentions there’s a Confederate major with deep pockets who loves to gamble coming to camp, Gemstone salivates, knowing he and Ned can team up and wipe the Major clean. And they do. They win all his money. But as soon as they’re alone, Elijah kills Ned. He has to: Ned has a big mouth and loose lips, and Elijah can’t afford to take any chances.
Things get worse when the Union stages an attack on the Confederate camp and Elijah is captured. And, in a reminder that everything comes full circle, he’s also robbed. Literally the only thing that saves him from being killed is the gold-plated Bible.
“We don’t put men of the cloth to death,” the Union soldier tells him upon finding the Bible, and he’s released.
Then in a cruel twist of fate, they task Elijah with telling the other captives they’re all gonna die. It’s a tough moment for him, who prays with each of them before their death. It’s the first time he takes it seriously and forces out a prayer that’s a real conversation with God. He then watches everyone die by firing squad, which is an earth-shattering, eye-opening moment for Gemstone, who—for the first time in his life—does the right thing and sticks around to load up the bodies and return them back to their Confederate base.
After telling everyone that “It was God who saved me,” Gemstone sits alone in his tent in disbelief, then pulls out the golden Bible and starts reading. Just as he reads aloud, “Let there be light,” there was, indeed, a light so bright, it made his entire tent glow. And thus we have the origin story of the righteous Gemstone family legacy, which was born out of blood and cast in secrets.
Season 4 episode 1 review
Season 4 episode 1 is a golden prelude to the Gemstone legacy. We’ve been wondering for three seasons now (at least I have) how the Gemstones fell into the ministry, and McBride and series creators serve that meal up on a shiny platter and present us with plenty of liquid comedy gold with which to wash it down.
This season, at least in the beginning, The Righteous Gemstones gives us a look at the ugly side of life, i.e., war, injuries, sickness, and death. There are moments in episode 1 full of things we’ve not yet seen in this superbly absurd comedy series, such as gore and brutality, surprise attacks and gun fights, and mangled bodies (mad props to the special effects department!). These viscerally affective moments incite such extreme fear, they force Eli to his knees to beg God for forgiveness and protection. See, fear brought Eli to the Divine, but belief kept him there, and that belief would pass down through Gemstone lineage for decades to come and flourish, except for maybe when it reached Pontius (Kelton DuMont).
Right out the gate, season 4 paves the yellow brick road of the Gemstone legacy that would last well into the 21st Century, and if they keep up the outrageously absurd antics and relatable family dynamics, the final season of the hit series should welcome us right into the castle and deliver us all from evil.
The Righteous Gemstones season 4 airs new episodes every Sunday on HBO and Max at 10 p.m. ET.