Tearjerker / The Righteous Gemstones

"Don't you think God is being a little harsh?"

In spite of excess and depravity, the Gemstones do love each other, and are often shown to simply be a family that lost its way when they lost their wife/mother.

Unmarked spoilers ahead.

Season 1

• The Gemstone family's most sincere and genuine emotions always end up circling back to how much they miss Aimee-Leigh, who is implied to have died in the somewhat recent past.

  Kelvin: I just...I miss Mama. She always knew what to say to make me feel special.

• Interlude I is a full-episode flashback that goes into the fractured relationship between Baby Billy and Aimee-Leigh around when Kelvin was conceived. Baby Billy, in dire financial straits, is hinging all his hopes on a reunion tour with a freshly pregnant Aimee-Leigh. He guilts and gaslights his way into her agreeing and then they hit a breaking point. To see the most morally good character of the show treated so poorly by her own little brother is heartwrenching.
• By the end of episode eight, all the major characters have reached new spiritual lows
  • Having had Uncle Baby Billy rush out of her life, Judy goes back to BJ, only for him to say he's moved on from her. Judy sincerely wishes him well and has a violent breakdown in the parking lot.
    Judy: BJ...I hope you live forever. I hope you discover magic, and I hope you learn to fly like we always talked about.
  • Jesse confesses to Gideon that he knew he was in the wrong the night the blackmail tape was made. This is after Gideon takes the fall for the blackmail scheme and is kicked out of the house by Amber for attempting to extort the family. Jesse admits he has failed as a father, and the two share a tearful embrace.
  • After having most of his congregation cannibalized by the Gemstones' flashy megachurch, Pastor Seasons announces the closing of his church while one of his few remaining congregants cries in the pews.
  • Eli expressing to Kelvin how he doesn't believe that he can continue on without Aimee-Leigh.
  • Wracked with guilt for his complacency and "getting off easy" in his family's downfall, Kelvin has a crisis of faith and drives Keefe away. This leads to Keefe spiraling downward rapidly.

Season 2

• A flashback reveals that Baby Billy abandoned Harmon and Gloria during Christmas, promising Harmon a pet that he knew he wasn't going to be around to help care for. Gloria bought the cat and told Harmon that it was Baby Billy transformed to keep him company.
• Tiffany, not knowing that Baby Billy abandoned her, is worried about where he is, calling hospitals and tearfully expressing worry to her niece.
• In Interlude II, Eli tries to give his senile father a hug, only for Roy to forget who he is in the middle of it and fight him off.
• After breaking Kelvin's thumbs, Eli visits him and begs for forgiveness. Kelvin refuses.
• Baby Billy is plagued by visions of Aimee-Leigh pushing him to go see his abandoned son.
• Junior is initially in denial about the fact that Roy Gemstone shot and killed Glendon, insisting on his own fantasy of his father escaping to Bolivia. Even after it's revealed that Glendon robbed and assaulted Junior on his way out the door, he wanted the best for the old man.

Season 3

• May-May pleading with Eli to help her sons, who have gone astray now that her husband has been released from prison. Her fear for the safety of "her boys" is enough to bridge the clear divide between them.
• Gideon is injured and spending all of his time wallowing in self-pity at his parents house, his career (possibly permanently) on hold.
• Judy's escalating, ridiculous behavior upon returning home from tour is mostly hilarious, but it borders into sad as she watches BJ play with his VR headset. It's clear she's wracked with genuine guilt over her tour affair and is trying to hide it.
• "Please. Please keep that wicked man away from my sons."
• Baby Billy is singing at the Gemstones' resort Zion and everyone is enjoying it and singing along only to find out that Baby Billy was imagining the whole thing. He is still singing at Zion but no one is paying attention or caring.
• When the youth group parents confront Kelvin about Keefe, their (reasonable) concerns about the Smut Busters initiative don't come up. Instead, they latch onto Keefe's Dark and Troubled Past and when Kelvin attempts to vouch for his friend, the nature of their relationship as a whole is questioned, leaving Kelvin hurt and confused.
  Parent: With the rumors swirling about you, can't you see how strange this all looks?
  Kelvin: There's rumors swirling about me?
• After a disastrous Pistol and Cape Initiation, Jesse's mood for the entire episode is notably down. Ultimately, he's brought to tears at the sight of a hologram version of Aimee-Leigh that Baby Billy is trying to sell him on.
• Episode 4 on the whole ends on a dour note for almost all of the Gemstones.
  • Stephen spends the episode relentlessly harassing and stalking Judy and BJ, culminating in him revealing their affair. The final shot of Judy in the episode is her silently crying as BJ paces in the background.
  • Kelvin tells Keefe that they're moving him out of youth group into a different job. Keefe responds by moving out of Kelvin's house entirely, despite Kelvin's protests.
    Keefe: I need to give you space so that the air can be cleared.
    Kelvin: I don't want space.
  • The Montgomery cousins betray the Gemstone's trust to provide their father with thousands of pounds of explosives.
• Flashing back to the year 2000, Judy is shown as having a hard time in high school. Her weird, bad attempt at flirting prompts a boy she likes to cut a chunk of her hair out, which she only notices after being mocked in the bathroom for it.
  • Later on, she overhears her parents saying that she has mental issues and joking about hospitalizing her. When Jesse finds her later, she's crying alone in her room.
  Jesse: Jesus, Judy, what is wrong with you?
  Judy: I don't know, Jesse. Wish I knew! (breaks down in tears)
• The Reveal of what happened to Peter Montgomery in "Interlude III." He was a pastor at a small country church and, buying into the narrative that Eli was pushing about Y2K being the end of the world, he sank every dime of the family's savings into the Survivalist Buckets that the Gemstones were selling, despite advice from Eli to not spend more than he could afford. Eli offered to buy them back, but when May-May found out, she refused Eli's help. This drove Peter to attempt to rob a bank, leading him to shoot and kill a security guard. From that, he went to prison where he was apparently radicalized. May-May lost everything and was driven to attack Aimee-Leigh, who she blamed for enabling Eli's greed.
• Episode 6, much like Episode 4, ends with everyone in a dark place.
  • After everything, the Montgomery boys lie to the Gemstones and immediately return to their father.
  • For the first time ever Kelvin and Keefe get into a real fight. Kelvin, dismissive of Keefe taking up carpentry from the start, insults the rocking chair that Keefe made for him and Keefe accuses Kelvin of replacing him with Taryn and storms out.
    Kelvin: Keefe, you left me.
  • Judy is forced to pay off Stephen and his wife. She's comically angry about it until the exchange finally happens, and she breaks down in Martin's arms, as he's the only person who has offered her any comfort or sympathy.
  • Jesse takes his frustrations with the way things are going out on Amber, insulting her women's group and accusing her of not having his back. Jesse's Aimee-Leigh hologram goes over predictably bad, with Eli driven to angry tears at the insult and Judy and Kelvin finally so tired of Jesse's aggrandizing that they quit the church entirely.
  • BJ fights Stephen, and while he wins, he's clearly tortured by what he's been driven to do, ending the episode with an absolutely gutting one-liner to Judy.
    BJ: I hope you like me now.
• After the Cold Opening of Episode 7 shows the siblings kidnapped, it cuts to their respective partners figuring out something is wrong, and it's expectedly sad.
  • Amber is calling all of Jesse's friends, trying to find him. From her perspective, they had a fight and he didn't come home, and she's trying to put on a brave face for the boys.
  • BJ is leaving Judy voicemails, clearly both still angry and hurt but also worried, unable to stop himself from accusing her of cheating again.
  • Keefe finds Kelvin's Jeep at his work, but none of his coworkers have seen him.
• Kelvin earnestly thinks no one will care if Peter kills him.
• Peter continually belittles Karl, insulting his intelligence and mocking him for his bond with his cousins. The sweet, meek man Peter once was is entirely gone, and he seems to delight in simple cruelty to his youngest son.
• The Montgomerys are grief-stricken when it seems that Chuck and Peter have been blown up.