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Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'The Righteous Gemstones' Recap: A Dysfunctional and Divine Finale
After four seasons, The Righteous Gemstones has concluded its sermon. The HBO comedy, created by series star Danny McBride (who also wrote and directed a handful of episodes), followed the dysfunctional, profane, sometimes violent and always funny misadventures of the Gemstone family and their thriving megachurch business. As disrespectful as the lead characters were, McBride always strived to portray the religious communities that inspired the show with respect. Instead, it was the Gemstones and those surrounding them that seeped with dysfunction: Themes like grief, workaholism, unprocessed trauma and internalized homophobia are just a handful of the issues that kept the show relatable amid all the chaos. Season 4 delivered nine formidable episodes that successfully tied up every loose end, provided closure to the characters who needed it, threw some unpredictable curveballs along the way and made that epic first episode in the season make much more sense. Spoiler warning: Before I continue, let this be your warning that major story spoilers are below. Proceed with caution. Read more: Max Streaming Service Review: Load of Content, but You Have to Make It Fit You The rivalry between Jesse Gemstone (McBride) and Vance Simkins (Stephen Dorff) finally came to a head in the finale, titled That Man of God May Be Complete, and it did so in the form of a classic two-man duel. Yes, the kind with guns. After Vance lost the Christ-Following Man of the Year award to Kelvin (Adam Devine), who stood in front of the cameras and crowd and pronounced his sexuality to the world, he unraveled. He dropped a yellow handkerchief on his foot in front of the Cape and Pistol Society, which was the provocation that led to the two men pointing weapons at each other. Neither man succeeded in hitting their targets. Instead, Jesse fired his weapon, looked around, and realized that this pomp and circumstance wasn't his bag. And then, he quit. Whether it was pursuing his Christian trivia game show, Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers, or going all in on his cinematic opus, Teenjus, Baby Billy's (Walton Goggins) workaholism has always been front and center. This season, all his focus was on the movie about teenage Jesus, which he ended up starring in, ridiculous wig and all. But remember, Baby Billy is also a husband and father, and throughout his story arc this season, his addiction to work conflicted with his responsibilities to his children and wife. I didn't expect Baby Billy to come to his senses, but surprisingly, he did, and in the end, he chose family over another one of his silly productions. BJ (Tim Baltz) becoming a competitive male stripper definitely wasn't on my bingo card, but it happened in season 4. After an accident on the pole left him paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, he and Judy (Edi Patterson) welcomed a therapy monkey named Dr. Watson into their home. Lo' and behold, the animal's help improved BJ's spirits and led to his ability to walk again. But the bond between Dr. Watson and BJ sparked jealousy in Judy, which led to the monkey's exit from their home. That break-up didn't last too long because after Judy discovered Dr. Watson had lost his mother, she found common ground with the animal and admitted out loud the reason she put up such a front was to fill the hole inside left by the death of her mother, Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles). I've been trying to make sense of the Bradley Cooper-starring season premiere, Prelude, for some time now. The episode took us back to Civil War times and explored the violent origin story of the Gemstone family. Elijah Gemstone (Cooper), a con man masquerading as a preacher, stole a gold-plated Bible from one of his victims before pretending to be a man of god to the soldiers dying around him. After a life of crime, the final moments of the premiere found Elijah turning toward religion and taking an interest in the book's lessons. Cut to the finale, and that gold Bible resurfaced. Earlier in the season, it was revealed that Cobb (Michael Rooker), the unhinged ex-husband of Lori Milsap (Megan Mullally), broke into the Gemstone compound when the siblings were children, vandalized the property and stole that gold Bible. This is an essential detail because all hell broke loose once present-day Kelvin discovered the book in Corey Milsap's bag. Traumatized by the experience of killing his father to save Eli and Baby Billy in a very horror movie-style plot point in episode 8, Cory cracked. He admitted that he assisted his father in all sorts of crimes, including murder. And then, he proceeded to hunt the Gemstone siblings down with his gun. Each of them suffered gut shots. But thanks to the assistance of one intelligent little therapy monkey, Jesse could retrieve his gun, and this time, his aim was perfect. He took Cory down with a headshot. The impromptu battle ended with the trio praying over their childhood friend in a fashion similar to Elijah praying over the dying Civil War soldier in the premiere. This was when the siblings, without ulterior motives, turned toward religion to deliver peace to a man in need selflessly. They got married. They dressed like Siegfried and Roy. It was glorious. Last but not least, there's Eli Gemstone. The ghost of his deceased wife, Aimee-Leigh, has been with him every step of the way. Season 4 found the family patriarch stepping away from the church to live a Jimmy Buffett lifestyle on a boat. His kids lured him back in, but you could tell his passion for the family business had dwindled. The return of Aimee-Liegh's best friend Lori Milsap, into Eli's life dug up old memories and new feelings. A romance was sparked that led to a consistent will-they, won't they theme that flowed through to the final moments of the series. After all was said and done, Eli went to Florida to live out the rest of his days on that boat. Lori, it seems, will be by his side. Closure was the main thing on the minds of McBride and his creative team when they mapped out these final episodes. I feel like they pulled it off. The Righteous Gemstones has solidified its legacy as one of the decade's best TV comedies, and it rode off into the sunset as only the show could -- on its own foul-mouthed, hilarious and heartfelt terms.
CNET
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
'The Righteous Gemstones' Recap: A Dysfunctional and Divine Finale
After four seasons, The Righteous Gemstones has concluded its sermon. The HBO comedy, created by series star Danny McBride (who also wrote and directed a handful of episodes), followed the dysfunctional, profane, sometimes violent and always funny misadventures of the Gemstone family and their thriving megachurch business. As disrespectful as the lead characters were, McBride always strived to portray the religious communities that inspired the show with respect. Instead, it was the Gemstones and those surrounding them that seeped with dysfunction: Themes like grief, workaholism, unprocessed trauma and internalized homophobia are just a handful of the issues that kept the show relatable amid all the chaos. Season 4 delivered nine formidable episodes that successfully tied up every loose end, provided closure to the characters who needed it, threw some unpredictable curveballs along the way and made that epic first episode in the season make much more sense. Spoiler warning: Before I continue, let this be your warning that major story spoilers are below. Proceed with caution. Read more: Max Streaming Service Review: Load of Content, but You Have to Make It Fit You Getty Image/Zooey Liao/CNET Jesse's duel of dysfunction The rivalry between Jesse Gemstone (McBride) and Vance Simkins (Stephen Dorff) finally came to a head in the finale, titled That Man of God May Be Complete, and it did so in the form of a classic two-man duel. Yes, the kind with guns. After Vance lost the Christ-Following Man of the Year award to Kelvin (Adam Devine), who stood in front of the cameras and crowd and pronounced his sexuality to the world, he unraveled. He dropped a yellow handkerchief on his foot in front of the Cape and Pistol Society, which was the provocation that led to the two men pointing weapons at each other. Danny McBride and John Goodman as Jesse and Eli Gemstone in the series finale of The Righteous Gemstones. Jake Giles Netter/HBO Neither man succeeded in hitting their targets. Instead, Jesse fired his weapon, looked around, and realized that this pomp and circumstance wasn't his bag. And then, he quit. Uncle Baby Billy's come-to-Jesus moment Whether it was pursuing his Christian trivia game show, Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers, or going all in on his cinematic opus, Teenjus, Baby Billy's (Walton Goggins) workaholism has always been front and center. This season, all his focus was on the movie about teenage Jesus, which he ended up starring in, ridiculous wig and all. But remember, Baby Billy is also a husband and father, and throughout his story arc this season, his addiction to work conflicted with his responsibilities to his children and wife. I didn't expect Baby Billy to come to his senses, but surprisingly, he did, and in the end, he chose family over another one of his silly productions. Edi Patterson as Judy Gemstone in the series finale of The Righteous Gemstones. Jake Giles Netter/HBO The monkey on Judy's back BJ (Tim Baltz) becoming a competitive male stripper definitely wasn't on my bingo card, but it happened in season 4. After an accident on the pole left him paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, he and Judy (Edi Patterson) welcomed a therapy monkey named Dr. Watson into their home. Lo' and behold, the animal's help improved BJ's spirits and led to his ability to walk again. But the bond between Dr. Watson and BJ sparked jealousy in Judy, which led to the monkey's exit from their home. That break-up didn't last too long because after Judy discovered Dr. Watson had lost his mother, she found common ground with the animal and admitted out loud the reason she put up such a front was to fill the hole inside left by the death of her mother, Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles). The Gemstones' gold Bible conundrum I've been trying to make sense of the Bradley Cooper-starring season premiere, Prelude, for some time now. The episode took us back to Civil War times and explored the violent origin story of the Gemstone family. Elijah Gemstone (Cooper), a con man masquerading as a preacher, stole a gold-plated Bible from one of his victims before pretending to be a man of god to the soldiers dying around him. After a life of crime, the final moments of the premiere found Elijah turning toward religion and taking an interest in the book's lessons. Cut to the finale, and that gold Bible resurfaced. Adam Devine, Danny McBride and Edi Patterson as Kelvin, Jesse and Judy Gemstone in the series finale of The Righteous Gemstones. Jake Giles Netter/HBO Earlier in the season, it was revealed that Cobb (Michael Rooker), the unhinged ex-husband of Lori Milsap (Megan Mullally), broke into the Gemstone compound when the siblings were children, vandalized the property and stole that gold Bible. This is an essential detail because all hell broke loose once present-day Kelvin discovered the book in Corey Milsap's bag. Traumatized by the experience of killing his father to save Eli and Baby Billy in a very horror movie-style plot point in episode 8, Cory cracked. He admitted that he assisted his father in all sorts of crimes, including murder. And then, he proceeded to hunt the Gemstone siblings down with his gun. Each of them suffered gut shots. But thanks to the assistance of one intelligent little therapy monkey, Jesse could retrieve his gun, and this time, his aim was perfect. He took Cory down with a headshot. The impromptu battle ended with the trio praying over their childhood friend in a fashion similar to Elijah praying over the dying Civil War soldier in the premiere. This was when the siblings, without ulterior motives, turned toward religion to deliver peace to a man in need selflessly. Adam Devine and Tony Cavalero as Kelvin Gemstone and Keefe Chambers in the series finale of The Righteous Gemstones. Jake Giles Netter/HBO Kelvin and Keefe, sitting in a tree They got married. They dressed like Siegfried and Roy. It was glorious. Eli Gemstone finds his happy ending Last but not least, there's Eli Gemstone. The ghost of his deceased wife, Aimee-Leigh, has been with him every step of the way. Season 4 found the family patriarch stepping away from the church to live a Jimmy Buffett lifestyle on a boat. His kids lured him back in, but you could tell his passion for the family business had dwindled. The return of Aimee-Liegh's best friend Lori Milsap, into Eli's life dug up old memories and new feelings. A romance was sparked that led to a consistent will-they, won't they theme that flowed through to the final moments of the series. After all was said and done, Eli went to Florida to live out the rest of his days on that boat. Lori, it seems, will be by his side. Closure was the main thing on the minds of McBride and his creative team when they mapped out these final episodes. I feel like they pulled it off. The Righteous Gemstones has solidified its legacy as one of the decade's best TV comedies, and it rode off into the sunset as only the show could -- on its own foul-mouthed, hilarious and heartfelt terms.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Righteous Gemstones Season 4: Danny McBride Explains Titular Family's Fate
The Righteous Gemstones creator and co-star, Danny McBride, reflected on the show's ending and why he and his collaborators decided to go in that direction in a new interview. The comedy series premiered on HBO on August 18, 2019, and aired for four seasons before concluding yesterday, May 4, 2025. McBride spoke on why the titular megachurch-running family got a happy ending in the Righteous Gemstones finale during an interview. He revealed that he considered giving the Gemstones some amount of 'comeuppance' for their actions throughout the series. 'There were always thoughts about, 'Does the church go down? Do they get arrested?'' he recalled, before explaining why he and his colleagues decided against it. (via Variety) 'Ultimately, for me, I don't know if I really want to see that,' McBride added. 'The design for me is, I want people to watch this again, and I want it to be something that ultimately feels fun,' he further stated. In The Righteous Gemstones Season 4 Episode 9, 'That Man of God May Be Complete,' Corey Milsap shoots all three Gemstone siblings: Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin. However, they survive with the help of Dr. Watson, BJ's service monkey, and Corey is eventually killed. Kelvin and Keefe get married, with Eli officiating. Baby Billy is shown spending time with his family. Elijah's gold-plated bible from earlier in the season is placed on display at the headquarters of the Gemstone Ministries. As for Eli, he reads a letter left behind by Aimee-Leigh and is later visited by Lori on his yacht in Florida. Co-writer and co-star Edi Patterson echoed McBride's sentiments, noting that one of the consistent themes of the show was that the Gemstones won regardless of whatever happened to them. 'Ultimately, the fun thing about the Gemstones is they win,' she pointed out, adding, 'Do what you f—— want to them. You cannot make them not win.' All four seasons of The Righteous Gemstones are available on Max. Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on ComingSoon. The post The Righteous Gemstones Season 4: Danny McBride Explains Titular Family's Fate appeared first on Mandatory.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Danny McBride and ‘The Righteous Gemstones' Team Say Goodbye to the HBO Comedy: ‘F—, I'm About to Start Crying'
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the series finale of 'The Righteous Gemstones,' now streaming on Max. In the end, 'The Righteous Gemstones' said goodbye as only 'The Righteous Gemstones' could: with a masturbating monkey. More from Variety Adam Devine of 'The Righteous Gemstones' on Kelvin's Big Moment and Doing His Own Stunts: 'It Looked Like an Alien Was Trying to Escape My Body' How Danny McBride Cast [SPOILER] in an Epic Civil War Battle for 'The Righteous Gemstones' Season 4 Premiere: 'My Pie-in-the-Sky Pick' Tim Baltz Mastered Pole Dancing for 'The Righteous Gemstones' Season 4: 'I Did Most of My Own Stunts' Though most of the HBO series' final episode, 'That Man of God May Be Complete,' takes place at the titular televangelist family's palatial vacation home, the last scene actually filmed was from the prior episode. After Sunday services, the Gemstones and their entourage have decamped to Jason's Steakhouse, the gang's favorite place to hold court and hit the salad bar. There, Dr. Watson — the capuchin monkey who acts as a service animal for BJ Barnes (Tim Baltz), a Gemstone in-law who's been paralyzed in a freak pole-dancing accident — pleasures himself and smokes menthol cigarettes as the crowd eggs him on. It's a very 'Gemstones' blend of creatively crude and strangely sweet. 'Church lunch scenes are always my favorite scenes to shoot,' says Danny McBride, the creator, star, and executive producer of the four-season comedy. (McBride also directed the finale, sharing script credit with longtime collaborators John Carcieri and Jeff Fradley.) 'We usually have a whole day to do it, and it's everyone from the cast there and everyone has fun.' But that day last fall, McBride wasn't in the mood to stop and smell the roses. He was just trying to make it through a grueling production that had already sustained such calamities as the devastation of Hurricane Helene on the 'Gemstones' home base of South Carolina. Even that day, Baltz learned his mother had been in a car accident and wasn't sure whether he could complete the scene. 'I was so obsessed with just getting it over the finish line that I didn't really take pause to think about the weight of like, 'Oh, we're finished. We've done it,'' McBride recalls. But then Gregory Alan Williams, who plays Gemstone consigliere Martin, pulled him aside to express his gratitude. 'As soon as we started talking, I was like, 'Fuck, I'm about to start crying. Is this going to be sad?'' Viewers may have had a similar question in mind as they watched the final minutes of 'That Man of God May Be Complete.' In past seasons, 'The Righteous Gemstones' has gone big before going home; in the Season 3 finale, a literal plague of locusts descends on a TV studio and razes it to the ground. But the series' final action set piece is dramatically, terrifyingly stripped down. Enraged by the recent loss of his father, despite his role in it, family friend Corey Milsap (Seann William Scott) goes on a rampage through the Gemstone lake house Galilee Gulch, wounding all three siblings — Jesse (McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson) and Kelvin (Adam Devine) — via gunshot. For several agonizing minutes, we're left to wonder whether this could really be the end for them, only for Dr. Watson to save the day when he fetches Jesse's gun from his cross-body bag for men. (It's certainly not a purse.) McBride did, in fact, want to mess with his audience a bit. 'Maybe it's just because, as humans, we're all sickos inside,' he says. 'But when a show's ending, my initial knee-jerk [response] is like, 'Who are they going to kill off?' It felt fun to play with that concept and really commit to it.' That meant a smaller-scale climax than 'The Righteous Gemstones' had pulled off in the past: 'It should feel haunting. It should feel scary and unsettling and oddly grounded for how ridiculous it is.' But there was also a thematic reason to have the Gemstones face their final challenge on their own. 'I always had the idea that in the end, they would be tested to see if they ultimately have what it would take to do this job, without monster trucks or jet packs or anything,' McBride says, referencing a couple stunts the series has pulled off in the past. 'I always imagined that the culmination at the end would be stripped down, simple, back to basics, just praying.' So after subduing Corey, the trio pray for him together as he lays dying. The Gemstone kids already share authority over their family's multimillion-dollar empire. Here, though, they work together on the fundamental mission that's supposed to underwrite all the glitz, glamour and Prayer Pods: offering spiritual guidance to congregants' eternal souls. The moment also calls back to the season premiere, an episode-length flashback starring Bradley Cooper as ancestor Elijah, a thief who accidentally becomes a Confederate chaplain and finds God along the way. McBride wrote the premiere's cold open — in which Elijah murders a preacher while robbing his collection box, then assumes his identity — several years ago. It took until the series' home stretch to find a place to put the scene, and expand the idea into an explanation of not just where the Gemstones come from, but who they are. 'They have this roundabout way of attaining righteousness,' says Carcieri, a longtime collaborator of McBride's dating back to their days in film school. (He continues to rep the University of North Carolina via T-shirt on our Zoom.) 'So many of the things they're doing are misguided and not on the right path, but at the heart of it all, they still do believe in God, and they still do pray in earnest.' Just as a career criminal Elijah, whose gold-plated Bible has been passed down through the generations, could become a sincere believer by praying for soldiers about to be executed, his descendants can be their best selves by helping a lost soul who just tried to murder them. 'This is who they are, in their blood and in their bones, and this is their legacy,' says Patterson, who wrote for the show in addition to starring in it. 'Them gathered around [Corey], praying for him — I think, in a way, it's even bigger than a full-on, massive action thing. It's weirdly got more punch.' The entire sequence unfolds at Galilee Gulch, played in the show by a mansion on Lake Murray, just outside the state capital of Columbia, that happens to be the largest single-family residence in South Carolina, at around 18,000 square feet. Finding the house was an enormous challenge for McBride and locations manager Kale Murphy; initial candidates weren't distinct enough from the Gemstones' other residences, and the search took so long McBride nearly called HBO to request a pause in production. But in a miracle that's only fitting for a show about religion, Murphy cold-called the mansion's owners, who agreed to let the 'Gemstones' crew take over for two entire weeks. Even better, the house happened to feature a 16th-century altar imported from a church in England and repurposed into a fireplace. The piece became the backdrop to Corey's big death scene. The lake house was a corner of both Southern bourgeois culture and Gemstone lore that McBride and his team were eager to explore. 'One thing I always thought was cool about the first three 'Star Wars' movies was, they would take those characters' and bring them into radically different environments, McBride says. 'These are those characters in the snow. These are those characters in the jungle.' I was always looking for, 'Where have we not seen the Gemstones before?'' Galilee Gulch also played into the otherwise coddled Gemstone kids' core trauma: they haven't visited since the loss of their mother, Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles), just before the events of the show. Letting a house of that size sit untouched is an act of thoughtless extravagance. It's also, in part, an understandable act of grief. 'We always knew the show was about dealing with loss — how to persevere as a family, even though they've lost their their matriarch,' Carcieri says. Another loose thread the writers had toyed with for years before weaving it into the final season was a romantic storyline for paterfamilias Eli (John Goodman) in a definitive act of moving on. Eli ultimately strikes up a romance with Corey's mother Lori (Meghan Mullally), Aimee-Leigh's best friend and musical collaborator. That storyline gave us the gift of Karen Walker and Sulley from 'Monsters Inc.' in a passionate 69 — and closure for a family unit missing its center of gravity. 'The Righteous Gemstones' has always been a big tent spanning several genres at once. It's partly a musical, and has some of the most ambitious action on television this side of 'The Last of Us.' At its core, though, the show is a comedy, and whatever its parallels to 'Succession' as the saga of three siblings squabbling over their aging father's empire, it was never going to end on as down a note as Kendall Roy contemplating suicide. After the showdown at Galilee Gulch, the ultimate ending of 'The Righteous Gemstones' is at Kelvin's wedding to Keefe (Tony Cavalero), his best friend turned partner once the deeply repressed youngest Gemstone comes out of the closet. Kelvin's sexuality is accepted with an ease that may be surprising for a group of red state evangelicals, but leaves every Gemstone child in a happy, healthy, stable relationship. Even Eli and Lori decide to give things another go despite the Gemstones' role in the death of her son and abusive ex-husband. 'Ultimately, the fun thing about the Gemstones is they win,' says Patterson, laughing. 'Do what you fucking want to them. You cannot make them not win.' McBride did toy with the idea of giving the Gemstones some final comeuppance for their many failings as people. (This season alone, they had Keefe dress in drag as the ghost of Aimee-Leigh to dissuade Eli from dating Lori.) 'There were always thoughts about, 'Does the church go down? Do they get arrested? And like, ultimately, for me, I don't know if I really want to see that,' he recalls. 'The design for me is, I want people to watch this again, and I want it to be something that ultimately feels fun.' Though he jokes that his next plan is to 'probably make a sandwich,' McBride is eager to move onto the next series that will join 'Gemstones,' 'Vice Principals' and 'Eastbound & Down' in an unbroken chain of acclaimed HBO series. Along with Patterson and author Grady Hendrix, he's developing an adaptation of the novel 'The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires.' Whatever makes it to air next, though, it'll be in conjunction with the team at Rough House Pictures, the production house McBride co-founded with David Gordon Green and Jody Hill whose informal roster includes consistent presences like Carcieri and a local South Carolina crew that often carries over from project to project. That relative consistency in an inconsistent industry contributed to the choice to end 'The Righteous Gemstones' on its own terms. 'Whatever we do next, those people will be a part of it,' Carcieri says. So as bittersweet as it is to say goodbye, 'I have faith in the talented people that we work with that we'll come up with something good.' Besides, McBride penned the pilot of 'The Righteous Gemstones' in 2017; between four seasons, two strikes and a pandemic, making the show has taken up eight years of the Rough House crew's lives, leaving them excited for a blank slate. 'When we wrote that Civil War episode, it flowed like water,' Carcieri adds, 'just because we were writing in this new setting, with new characters.' 'It's part of why I kind of wanted to put a pin in 'Gemstones' for now, because I do see how much time creating a story and creating a show takes,' McBride says. No matter how much fun he's had with these demented, selfish, slightly-more-grown-but-by-no-means-mature people, he's making the very un-Gemstones choice to say he's had enough for now: 'There's more stories I want to tell, and more things I want to do.' Best of Variety Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Netflix in May 2025
Express Tribune
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Danny McBride ends Righteous Gemstones with emotional finale and unexpected final scene
HBO's The Righteous Gemstones, a dark comedy about a dysfunctional televangelist family, concluded its fourth and final season with a fittingly outrageous and emotional finale. Created by and starring Danny McBride, the series ended on its own terms after a production marked by hurricanes, cast challenges, and years of creative evolution. Speaking to Variety, McBride recalled how the reality of wrapping hit him unexpectedly after a heartfelt exchange with co-star Gregory Alan Williams. 'I was like, 'F—, I'm about to start crying,'' he said. The finale, titled 'That Man of God May Be Complete,' centers on a tense showdown at the family's lake house, Galilee Gulch. Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin are each shot by family friend Corey Milsap before being saved by Dr. Watson, a capuchin monkey and unlikely hero. McBride said he chose a stripped-down, unsettling climax over the show's typical spectacle to focus on emotional impact. 'It should feel haunting... and oddly grounded,' he explained. The episode also deepens the show's themes of legacy and faith, connecting back to the season premiere's Civil War-era flashback. Co-written with longtime collaborators John Carcieri and Jeff Fradley, the finale ties in the Gemstones' spiritual lineage and explores redemption beyond their flashy image. The finale ends on a hopeful note with Kelvin's wedding to Keefe, giving each Gemstone sibling a moment of happiness. Eli (John Goodman) finds closure in a romantic subplot with Lori (Megan Mullally), offering emotional resolution for the entire family. While McBride considered a darker ending for the morally flawed characters, he chose optimism. 'Ultimately, the fun thing about the Gemstones is they win,' said cast member and writer Edi Patterson. McBride now shifts focus to new projects, including an adaptation of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, continuing his creative run with Rough House Pictures.
