14-04-2025
'The Righteous Gemstones' Season 4, Episode 6 recap: Young Kelvin just wants his Tiger Beat magazines
With last week's episode of The Righteous Gemstones Season 4 ending with Lori Milsap (Megan Mullally) telling Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) that they have to talk about her ex-husband, this week we learn more about Cobb, played by Michael Rooker. And it's through another famous Righteous Gemstones interlude episode, where we go back to 2002.
The Righteous Gemstones continues to prove that it does a flashback better than any other show. It moves the story forward, it's exciting, and Sunday night marked another great episode for Danny McBridge's series.
SPOILERS FOR THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES SEASON 4, EPISODE 6 INCLUDED BEYOND THIS POINT
Going back to 2002, we first see Eli and Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles) trying to get approval from Rogers County to expand their worship centre with a 10-acre parking lot. It's a plan that isn't sitting well with the community, wth protestor outside the municipal building who throw cream pies in their faces as they leave.
But Eli has plans to take Aimee-Leigh to the lake house, Galilee Gulch, which will hopefully cheer them up, bringing Lori, her then husband Cobb and their son Corey (Sean Ryan Fox). Amber (Keely Marshall) is also at the lake house, because she's pregnant with her first child with Jesse (J. Gaven Wilde).
Watching their husbands out on the water, Aimee-Leigh and Lori decide they should record another album together, and we get to see them write songs in Aimee-Leigh's home studio.
While Judy is in the studio watching Lori and her mom, Kelvin (Tristan Borders) takes his unsupervised time to go into Judy's room, and take out a box hidden under her bed filled with Tiger Beat magazines, admiring pictures of stars like Hayden Christensen.
But then Kelvin finds Judy's diary and reads an entry about a crush she has on a teacher, Judy walks into her room and catches him, chasing Kelvin out to his treehouse.
After church the Gemstones, along with the Milsaps, have a meal at Jason's Steakhouse, where Jesse announces the name that will be given to his "bastard baby" with Amber will be Stallone Gemstone. An announcement met with sarcastic remarks from his family.
But baby names aside, as the album writing for Aimee-Leigh and Lori continues, Lori says she really needs this record, sharing with her friend that her marriage to Cobb isn't going well, and she wants a divorce.
Their arguments have gotten so bad that they have a fight in the driveway of the Gemstone home. When Cobb, who's clearly drunk, starts putting his hands on Lori, Eli comes out and hits him, but then Corey leaves with his dad to make sure he gets home safe.
Visiting Cobb at the gator park he owns and operates, Eli apologizes for hitting him. Cobb says that while he has $1 million in the bank, Lori likes fancy, and that's just never going to be his style. When Eli offers for them to pray together, Cobb says he'd rather jump in the water with the gators, and says he never wants to see Eli's face again.
But one night Eli, Aimee-Leigh and Lori go out for dinner, leaving their kids at the Gemstone home to entertain themselves with Monopoly and karaoke to "Kryptonite" by 3 Door Down. Then Amber has the idea for everyone to go out for tacos, while Kelvin wants to stay home to take a bubble bath and look at Tiger Beat magazines.
Calling his son to find out he's not at the Gemstones' house, Cobb decides to rob the home, unaware that Kelvin stayed behind.
Cobb breaks in, drinks Eli's bourbon and pees in the bottle. Cobb then smashes the glass case surrounding the gold-plated bible. Yes, it's the one Elijah Gemstone stole in 1862, in the season premiere.
Kelvin is watching a masked Cobb, concealing his identity, break things around the house, and Kelvin eventually hides under his bed.
When Eli, Aimee-Leigh and Lori come back to the house and see the damage,hbo Aimee-Leigh finds Kelvin still under his bed, who then sobs in her arms.
While Eli and Aimee-Leigh talk to the police, Corey is sitting at the their dining room table. When Lori comes to check on him he lies and says that he saw his dad that night, that he had truck troubles and they gave him a boost.
As the episode winds down, Jesse asks his dad if he thinks he'll ever divorce Aimee-Leigh, and Eli says that's never going to happen. Jesse says he wants things to be the same with Amber, and their baby Stallone.
But then Eli says the strength Jesse wants for his son sounds like a Gideon, with Eli explaining he was "called upon by God to save the Israelites."
"The Israelites wanted to make Gideon king, he turned them down. He said, 'There is no king but God,'" Eli tells his son.
And that's how Jesse and Amber named their first son Gideon.
As Cobb is at his home looking through the valuables he stole from the Gemstones, he opens the gold-plated bible, looks at a picture of Elijah, and sees all the signatures of the Gemstones that took possession of the bible after Abel Grieves and Elijah.
