- Return to Character index
Only spoilers from the current season will be marked.
open/close all folders
The Gemstone Empire
Martin
Martin Imari
Portrayed By: Gregory Alan Williams
"I answer to your Daddy."
A top employee for the Gemstones; Eli's closest confidante and right-hand man who cleans up a lot of Gemstone-related messes.
- Affably Evil: Martin has no problem with both arranging and covering up murders, but he's genuinely kind and patient towards everyone and seems to be much more level-headed than any of the Gemstones.
- The Consigliere: To Eli, to whom he's been a friend, confidante and fixer for decades.
- Happily Married
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: He and Eli are very close.
- Honest Advisor: To Eli throughout the series. He also becomes one to the three kids in Season 3, when he serves as a mediator after Eli’s semi-retirement.
- Honorary Uncle: Martin and his family aren't related to the Gemstones but they're still close enough to be invited to their after-church family lunches and Jesse, Judy and Kelvin certainly treat him more like a family member than their Daddy's employee. At the end of Season 3, he’s invited to the Gemstones’ family reunion and even gets his turn to drive The Redeemer.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: To Eli, and to Jesse while Eli is incapacitated.
- Nice Guy: Although he’s willing to get involved with the church’s dirty laundry, he’s also a Punch-Clock Villain who treats everyone with kindness. This is most on display when he handles Judy being blackmailed over her affair. He gives Jesse and Kelvin the wrong date so they won’t be there when the papers are signed, and he comforts Judy in her despair.
- Pet the Dog: Offers an incredibly upset Judy a reprieve from her brothers and a comforting hug after Kristy blackmails the church over her affair.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Serves as this in season 3, after Eli retires and the kids rely on him for advice in running the church.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers one to the Gemstone children in season 2 after Eli has been hospitalized.
- Start of Darkness: Helping Eli dispose of Glendon Sr.'s corpse marks the point where he grew from a simple accountant to Eli's right-hand man.
- The Unfettered: He never shows himself as remotely bothered by the things Eli asks him to do, up to and including arranged assassinations.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Appalled at the idea of not ransoming Jesse, Judy and Kelvin when they're abducted by Peter.
Keefe
Keefe Chambers
Portrayed By: Tony Cavalero
"I know not everybody wanted me here."
Kelvin's best friend, a former Satanist who turned his life around to become Kelvin's assistant youth pastor.
- Ambiguously Bi: Season 1 implies he was somewhat sexually indiscriminate, and
Word of God from Tony Cavalero says he feels like Keefe has "done everything under the sun" sexually. He's romantically involved with Kelvin as of season 3, so while he's canonically interested in men, his actual sexuality remains ambiguous. - Break the Cutie: Season 3 puts Keefe through the wringer. Church parents find out about the "Smut Busters" initiative and blame Keefe, and Kelvin fails to solve the issue, which leads to Jesse and Judy pushing Kelvin to transfer him to a different department. Rather than take the new job, he quits and moves out. Kelvin is disparaging about his new job and Taryn takes his place in the youth group, driving Kelvin and Keefe into a serious fight. Then Kelvin gets abducted.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: He shows shades of this after Taryn takes over his job, equating it with he and Kelvin's relationship for no reason.
- Creepy Good: Keefe tends to scare people around the church due to his intense and eccentric demeanor, along with his gothic fashion sense and still-present Satanist tattoos. However, he is incredibly loyal to Kelvin and the church, seems to have become a genuine Christian, and is a much kinder person than any of the Gemstones.
- Cloud Cuckoolander
- Club Kid: Used to be one, until he met Kelvin and converted to Christianity. He goes back once, but Kelvin saves him and brings him home.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He was a Satanist before Kelvin supposedly "saved" him. He also used to dance naked as a teenager at weird warehouse goth raves at Club Sinister and clearly had some issues with drug use.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Despite his all-black clothing and Satanic tattoos, Keefe is one of the more genuinely kind (albeit weird) people in the Gemstone orbit.
- The Ditz: Or as Jesse calls him "Old Slow Eyes."
- Extreme Doormat: Kelvin can pretty much get away with anything and Keefe won't complain. This gets subverted in season 3, when Keefe leaves Kelvin over scandals in the church. He comes right back when Kelvin gets kidnapped, though.
- Goth: He's no longer a Satanist, but he still dresses distinctly Goth outside of work.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Over Taryn taking his place in youth ministry, down to asking if she and Kelvin had "physical connections."
- I Owe You My Life: Considers Kelvin to be his savior for showing him the light of religion in his darkest hour.
- Jerkass to One: He's normally at least polite to everybody he speaks to, even when he's upset, but is very rude to Taryn, especially when he visits the church to drop off a chair he made for Kelvin.
- Manchild: While he shows a bit more sense than Kelvin in season 2 (understanding when they need to call a medic for an injured man, or that they need permission slips to take teenagers on Biblical field trips) he is still very emotionally stunted.
- Mr. Fanservice: Keefe favors mesh or lace shirts and in season 3, he's shown to be in great shape, with a scene of him fire-dancing just serving to show it off.
- Nice Guy: As strange as he is, he’s unflinchingly kind and polite (unless you’re Taryn).
- Relationship Upgrade: With Kelvin.
- Running Gag: The Gemstones mispronouncing his name. He’s been Chief, Quiche, Heath, even Queef.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Quitting the church might have been for Kelvin's benefit, in Keefe's mind, but cartwheeling out of an argument with Kelvin qualifies.
- Undying Loyalty: Will follow Kelvin to the ends of the earth, and believes him to be destined for greatness.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: If Keefe is wearing a shirt, there's a good chance it is somehow see-through.
Rev. Seasons
Rev. John Wesley Seasons
Portrayed By: Dermot Mulroney
The pastor of a smaller congregation competing with the Gemstones.
- Good Is Not Soft: Seasons is the genuine man of God that the Gemstones claim to be, but come into his home with violence on your mind and he will not turn the other cheek. He'll shoot you down.
- Hero Antagonist: He's the pastor of a small church standing up to a rich, scandal-ridden, hypocritical family of televangelists. Eventually they come to an agreement and he begins working with them.
- Meaningful Name: The preacher John Wesley was averse to what he saw as opulence in the Church of England. Likewise, John Wesley Seasons (while not exactly an ascetic) is opposed to the Gemstones' extravagant displays of wealth in a church environment.
- Named After Somebody Famous: John Wesley was an 18th century evangelist whose teachings originated Methodism as well as other Christian denominations. This hints that Seasons comes from a Wesleyan background of some sort, despite being a Baptist pastor himself.
- Non-Indicative Name: In regards to his denomination, not role in the story (see Meaningful Name above); one would expect an American Pastor named after John Wesley to be either Methodist, or involved in one of the branch-offs like the Holiness movement. However, Seasons pastors a Baptist church. (Though his parents may have been Wesleyan)
Taryn
Taryn
Portrayed By: Maggie Winters
"My name is Taryn and I look forward to sharin' all my love with y'all."
An employee who helps with youth group.
- Big Fun: A heavyset woman who loves having fun as much as (if not more than) the youth group kids.
- Nice Girl: Kind and agreeable to a fault.
- Only Sane Man: Reacts the way a normal person would to Kelvin and Keefe's bizarre Manchild fighting.
- Replacement Goldfish: Keefe accuses Kelvin of using her as one for him, after he catches them having a friendly conversation about tumbling and getting kids into exercising.
- Romantic False Lead: She and Kelvin aren't interested in each other romantically, but Keefe perceives the three of them as in a Love Triangle.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: Keefe views her this way. She seems to like him just fine.
- Superior Successor: She's a lot better at connecting with the kids of the church than Keefe.
Gemstone Congregants
Jesse's Entourage
Chad, Levi, Matthew, Gregory
Portrayed By: James DuMont (Chad), Jody Hill (Levi), Troy Anthony Hogan (Matthew), J. LaRose (Gregory)
"ATL was dirty dirty for suresy."
Jesse's entourage of friends who attend the church with their families.
- Ambiguously Gay: Levi is the most handsome, well-groomed of Jesse's friends, and he attends couple's therapy with his mother and expresses concern about being able to adopt despite being unmarried. Jesse mentions having "homosexual" friends in season 1.
- Butt-Monkey: Their sole purpose seems to be to take verbal or physical abuse on behalf of, or from, Jesse. Especially Chad.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: The very odd Gregory, who has coins made to commemorate the fact that they are being blackmailed and their lives could disintegrate at any moment.Jesse: "We did it"? You made coins with our names on it that says "We did it"? And we're trying to put what happened behind us! You can't be making fucking souvenirs about it!
- Hen Pecked Husband: Chad, Gregory and Michael.
- Humiliation Conga: All of them, but Chad in particular has to deal with a lot, much of it arguably deserved.
- He has his infidelity, drug use and penis exposed on-camera as part of blackmail footage;
- He's bullied by Jesse into attacking Johnny Seasons, which results in him getting shot in the stomach;
- His dirty deeds are discovered by his wife and he's subsequently chastised by Jesse for getting them all in trouble.
- In Season 2, he attends a large church group centered on second chances and reconciliation. His wife also attends, but only to show off her new boyfriend.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Levi, according to Judy.
- Nice Guy: Levi is rarely anything other than placid and pleasant.
- Out of Focus: Jesse and Amber want cooler friends, so they don't hang out with these guys as much in season 2.
- Stupid Crooks: They're all remarkably stupid, hence why Jesse is their leader.
- The plot kicks off because they were caught on camera doing drugs and hiring prostitutes.
- Jesse accuses Pastor Seasons of being the blackmailer and suggests they break into his house to assault him. Not only is Seasons the wrong guy but the plot ends with Chad getting shot.
- To top it all off, Gregory makes commemorative coins about their crimes.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Chad finally gets a moment of happiness when, in the Season 2 finale, his wife agrees to give their marriage a second chance.
Mandy
Mandy
Portrayed By: Mary Hollis Inboden
Chad's wife and a member of Amber's church posse.
- Cassandra Truth: She was right about the guys being up to something, but her friends refused to listen.
- Out of Focus: In Season 2, Jesse and Amber's desire to have cooler friends puts her and Jesse's posse on the backburner.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Definitely a sight prettier than Chad.
The Nancy Family
Dale, Gaye and Dot Nancy
A wealthy family that attends the Gemstone church and owns a fast food chicken restaurant, Fancy Nancy's.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dot takes several sarcastic jabs at Kelvin.
- Expy: Fancy Nancy's is one for fried chicken places like Mrs. Wienner's or Bojangles, but the family itself is one for The Cathy family of Chick-Fil-A fame.
Dusty Daniels
Dusty Daniels
Portrayed By Shea Whigham
"See, that's the problem. I don't feel the love."
An aged race car driver who attends the Gemstone church.- Ambiguously Bi: He's a bachelor well into his old age, and the only mention of his sexuality is Baby Billy's story about the two of them in a wild orgy with lots of women, where they may or may not have "touched dicks".
- Catchphrase: "Whoowhee, suckers!"
- Expy: Shea Whigham calls him an amalgamation of several old-school NASCAR drivers such as Dale Earnhardt.
- Grumpy Old Man
- I Owe You My Life: Jesse saving him during the locust attack wins him back to the Gemstones' church, and he leaves his entire fortune to them when he passes.
- Killed Offscreen: Makes it out of the Bible Bonkers locust attack unscathed with Jesse’s help, but dies some time after of unspecified causes.
- Meaningful Funeral: Dusty’s buried in his racecar wearing his full NASCAR uniform, while Eli leads the congregation in saying his “whoowee, sucker” catchphrase one last time.
- Remember the New Guy?: He's stated in his debut episode to be a long-time congregant whose tithes and donations make up a significant part of the church budget. Despite this, we never see him before the siblings meet him on the track.
Civilians
Block
Thaniel Block
Portrayed By: Jason Schwartzman
"I want the Gemstones."
An investigative reporter exposing hypocritical evangelists with his sights set on the Gemstones.
- Accidental Suicide: The Season 2 finale reveals he killed himself by firing wildly at Lyle and hitting a cast iron skillet, causing the bullet to ricochet into his head.
- Asshole Victim: As it turns out, he's a dick who only cares about his own ambition and is willing to cross all kinds of ethical lines to get what he wants.
- Death by Irony: He's shown to be dismissive and contemptuous of the South and southerners. He's killed when a bullet hits a cast-iron skillet, a southern cooking staple.
- Decoy Antagonist: Initially seems like he's going to be the main threat of season 2, before being abruptly killed off, with the mystery around his death being the actual plot driver.
- Hero Antagonist: Played with. At first, he seems to be a slightly prickly guy who is just doing his job and earnestly cares about exposing hypocrisy, however after his death it's revealed that he's a deeply unethical journalist who cares more about his own career than doing anything good for anyone else.
- Hollywood Atheist: A total dick about religion for no reason.
- Jerkass: He's just kind of an asshole who looks down on other people, as shown when he acts like a dick toward his friendly neighbor.
Glendon
Glendon Marsh Sr.
Portrayed By: Wayne Duvall
"You and me is the same."
A wrestling promoter and mobster from Memphis who Eli worked for when he was a young man.
- Accidental Murder: Possibly. Roy always hated Glendon, but he is suffering from severe dementia around the time he kills him, and the show leaves it ambiguous as to how intentional the killing really was.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Trying to back out of a deal with him at the last minute is a good way for him to pull a gun out and start blasting.
- Beard of Evil: He has a little goatee, which fits his image as a corrupting, Satan-like figure.
- The Corrupter: Glendon lured a young Eli into becoming muscle for his criminal operations. When the Gemstones have financial trouble, he tries to insert himself into the Gemstone empire, hoping to use it to launder his ill-gotten gains.
- Deal with the Devil: He's the devil in any deal that's made. He tries this with Eli, offering to solve his financial difficulties in return for getting a stranglehold on the Gemstone empire.
- The Don: He's no Vito Corleone, but he is a shady criminal with his fingers in many illegal pies, and doesn't seem to answer to anyone.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Racism doesn't seem to be one of his many flaws; he smacks his son and gives him an apparently sincere rebuke when Junior heckles black protestors fighting Jim Crow, expressing sympathy for them wanting to get a "piece of the pie."
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Played with. In the season 2 finale, after the one month time skip Junior hangs up a photo of everybody in the 1960s in his wrestling gym, saying he didn't consider his father a good man, but he did start the place and deserves some respect for that.
- Expy: He's an expy of every single one of the pre-WWF expansion territory promoters. He does seem to share some traits with Bill Watts and Fritz Von Erich in particular, though.
- Faux Affably Evil: Glendon is a gregarious, charismatic man who's quick with a compliment or a joke, but genial as he might appear he's still a ruthless gangster who'll turn on you the moment things don't go his way.
- Mirror Character: He and Roy Gemstone are the opposing forces that influenced Eli growing up, making it all the more appropriate that he meets his death at Roy's hand.
Junior
Glendon Marsh Jr.
Portrayed By: Eric Roberts (adult), Tommy Nelson (teen)
"I set 'em up and you knock 'em down."
Click here to see young Junior
A mysterious, avuncular figure from Eli's past who works in the world of professional wrestling.
- Affably Evil: He might be incredibly sketchy, but he's also infectiously jovial.
- Good All Along: "Good" might be stretching it since he's still a shady criminal, but as it turns out he sincerely means no harm toward the Gemstones, forgives Eli for his involvement in Glendon Senior's death and wishes to be his friend, having only reappeared because Thaniel Block came sniffing around asking questions.
- Inadequate Inheritor: His father was a fairly powerful criminal, but the old man seemed to hold Junior in contempt. Averted: it turns out that his father completely failed to change with the times, whereas Junior wanted to invest in the new, WWE-esque style of wrestling which has paid off in the present day.
- Laughably Evil: Junior very clearly has a dangerous edge to him that makes him a somewhat unnerving presence, but he's also quick-witted and gloriously hammy.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Junior is very touchy-feely with Eli.
- Psychopathic Manchild: He acts very much the same in the present day as he did when he was barely out of his teens, being a reckless loudmouth who gives little thought to the consequences of his actions.
- Red Herring: He's a character from Eli's shady past, played by an actor who is chronically typecast as the villain, and his appearance coincides with the Thaniel Block murder mystery and the Cycle Ninjas' assassination attempts. Eventually it turns out he has nothing to do with any of it.
The Barnes Family
Mrs. Barnes, Ken, & KJ Barnes
Portrayed By: Harley Jane Kozak, Jim Turner and Lily Sullivan
Judy: They're from Asheville, Daddy, they hate God.
BJ's mother, stepfather and younger sister.- Annoying Younger Sibling: KJ teases BJ relentlessly. Usually it's in good humor but sometimes it seems like she does go too far, such as making fun of BJ's outfit at his baptism when he was earnestly excited about it.
- Hollywood Atheist: KJ particularly, who is a bit dismissive and cold towards religion.Ms. Barnes: We're a secular people.
Lyle's posse
Doug, Chet & Shane
Portrayed By: Jeff Fradley, Chad Mountain and Michael Smallwood
Lyle Lissons' bumbling henchmen.
- Asshole Victim: It's hard to feel too bad when Lyle burns two of them to death when they were there to murder a journalist.
- Mirror Character: They are this to Chad, Levi, Gregory and Michael, just like Lyle is one to Jesse. Somehow, they're even more incompetent as crooks, and definitely worse people.
- Posthumous Character: It turns out they're the dead bodies Kelvin stumbles upon at Block's cabin.
- Stealing from the Till
- Stupid Crooks
- Too Dumb to Live: Brought multiple grenades to kill one guy.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: They're dead by the second episode but not introduced until the ninth, and only briefly.
Cape & Pistol
The Cape & Pistol Society
A secret society of evangelical pastors that Eli Gemstone is apart of.
- Brotherhood of Funny Hats: They're a realistic portrayal of a Freemason-like secret society as a social club.
- Glove Slap: A ritualized punishment for minor infractions. The members stand at attention on either side of an aisle. A masked man walks down the aisle, puts on an embroidered white glove, and slaps the offender twice. There's also a Black Slap for more serious offenses where the offender is naked.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: They have to talk this way while at the lodge, or else they get the White Slap.
- Secret Society Group Photo: The group is introduced with a photo of several members in their trademark capes and flintlock pistols.
Other
God
The... well, God that the Gemstones worship; the deity of the Christian note religion.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: Supposedly used one on Baby Billy and gave him visions.
- God Is Good: The actions attributed to Him end up helping the family become better people.
- Good Is Not Soft: Assuming the unexplained acts of nature are from a higher power, His methods of dealing with the Gemstones aren't exactly gentle, but they always walk away slightly better people.
- Jesus Was Way Cool: Since the Gemstones are Trinitarian Christians, they believe God and Christ are one in the same. And Kelvin in particular loves to emphasis how cool Jesus is.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: A lot of improbable things happen to the family in the series, that they interpret as divine intervention; Baby Billy being zapped by lightning, the swarm of locusts attacking Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers, etc. It's ultimately up to the viewer to decide.
- Pest Controller: A terrifying swarm of locusts attack the church while they film Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers. This experience ends up leading to reconciliations and Peter's ultimate Heel–Face Turn. While the show leaves it up to the viewer to determine their origin, May-May is convinced it was God. This lines up with the plagues in the Book of Exodus, so she may be right.
