In the deeply gratifying conclusion of tonight's second season, Jesse and Amber stood on stage, front and center of their couples group, orchestrating a heartfelt reconciliation between their friends Chad and Mandy. The foundation of their marriage had crumbled in the previous season, when a compromising tape—featuring Jesse and his cronies indulging in wild partying—revealed Chad in a compromising position with a prostitute. This scenario is all too typical in the world of The Righteous Gemstones, where others often bear the brunt of the main characters' colossal blunders. Now, with a Bible in hand, Jesse sermonized to the gathered multitude about the divine imperative to grant forgiveness to those who seek it. "Even if they sin against you seven times in a single day," he proclaimed, "and seven times they come seeking repentance, you must forgive them." By his reckoning, Chad's transgressions against Mandy numbered but two, making forgiveness a relatively straightforward endeavor.
The Gemstones operate under the belief that if everything is forgivable, then everything is permissible. They engage in their CinemaScope, Technicolor sins without much forethought, knowing full well that the Lord, coupled with a steady influx of revenue from their devoted parishioners, will bail them out of any predicament. Yet, there was an undeniably charming aspect to this season. It sincerely tackled the beefs that threatened to eternally estrange many of its characters. The Gemstones forgive themselves all too easily, indeed, but their willingness to turn the other cheek is genuinely heartening to behold. For instance, Baby Billy's unexpected visit to his estranged adult son's home, where he praised his cupholder couch and yearned for reconciliation decades after abandoning him at a mall, may have seemed comically absurd. Yet, it was endearing to witness that some semblance of grace could still be salvaged in the end.
Perhaps The Righteous Gemstones could be accused of having its cake and eating it too. This show savagely satirizes American grifters, drawing parallels to everyone from private-jet-owning televangelists to the Trump family, while simultaneously admiring their effortless ability to forgive others as freely as they expect forgiveness for themselves. They do not harbor lasting grudges, even amidst disputes that seem insurmountable or long-standing. However, this flip side also implies that they never truly learn from their mistakes and will undoubtedly find themselves entangled in fresh scandals involving blackmail, murder, and fly-by-night schemes in the upcoming season. Jesse will continue to preach repentance and forgiveness for seven sins a day, because that's the pace at which he operates.
The finale masterfully underscores the show's intricately woven plot, a sophistication not typically anticipated from a raunchy comedy, enhanced further by its cinematic flair. All lingering questions from the dramatic scene outside Thaniel Block's cabin are finally unveiled: Who was the mysterious flashlight-wielder? It was Lyle Lissons. And what of the charred corpses scattered near the car and over a tree branch? It seems one of Lyle's less intelligent accomplices had mistakenly brought grenades instead of firearms. As for Thaniel's murderer? The answer is a surprising twist—Thaniel himself, armed with a sturdy skillet.
Lyle had been covertly feeding information about his fellow ministers to Thaniel, a maneuver to divert scrutiny from his own illicit activities. His refusal to divulge further dirt on the Gemstones stemmed from Jesse's financial commitment to Zion's Landing. Here, the bond between Lyle and Jesse is expanded, revealing them as next-generation failures eager to inherit their fathers' empires prematurely. Both command loyal entourages ready to jump into their half-baked schemes, and both understand that promoting the word of God requires a blend of showmanship and moral pliability. However, their differences become starkly apparent.
In perhaps the episode's funniest exchange—amidst many humorous moments—Lyle, like a child seeking forgiveness, tries to calm Jesse after the latter discovers his presence at Thaniel's cabin. He implores Jesse not to be angry about other confessions, such as hiring armed assassins, a.k.a. the "Cycle Ninjas," to shoot his father. ("Why ninjas? They've got nothing to do with martial arts!") Lyle banks on Jesse's understanding due to their shared ambitions, including co-creating Zion's Landing and escaping their fathers' shadows. While Lyle's claim that killing Jesse's dad was doing him a favor may seem absurd, Jesse's potential forgiveness isn't entirely far-fetched. What neither realizes—what Jesse might not even know about himself until he's physically sickened by it—is that their diverging paths are rooted in family ties, which, despite the Gemstones' constant squabbles and betrayals, remain strong and unbreakable.
To be a Gemstone is to embrace an unbreakable bond. This is evident when BJ gets excited as Eli bargains for his life while blood gushes from a gunshot wound in his leg, or when Baby Billy and Tiffany reconcile and snuggle up to their "toilet baby" within mere minutes. It all began with Eli, the original sinner of the Gemstones, who is the last person to cast stones. The season kicked off with his criminal past as "the Maniac Kid" in Memphis and concludes with him returning to a new wrestling gym alongside his old friend, Junior. They stand together, admiring a large portrait of Junior's father, Glendon, and his wrestlers—the same Glendon who denied Junior's inheritance, attempted to launder money through Eli's church, and ultimately got shot by Eli's father. Yet, it was Glendon's vision that set both of them on their respective paths, making it only fitting to honor him. Eli refuses to seek revenge on the Lissons, telling Junior, "It's not our duty to judge one another. That belongs to the Lord."
