Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Righteous Gemstones” Season 4, Episode 9.
Over the course of six years, “The Righteous Gemstones” took some wild turns. What started as a plot to steal money from a megachurch to cover up an affair morphed into a saga about a money-losing teenage Jesus show — or “Teenjus” — by Season 4. But even in its own wild universe, the series finale of Danny McBride’s HBO comedy feels surprising.
Most of Season 4 follows the Gemstone family facing off against Cobb Milsap (Michael Rooker), a former family friend who has grown to resent the Gemstones’ wealth. The penultimate episode sees Cobb dying in his own gator pit. In “That Man of God May Be Complete,” his son Corey (Seann William Scott) steps in to finish the job. After asking this family for $7 million, Corey goes on a rampage, shooting Jesse (McBride), Kelvin (Adam DeVine) and Judy (Edi Patterson) in their lake house. But thanks to an assist from Dr. Watson (yes, the monkey), it’s Corey and not the Gemstone children who suffers a deadly blow.
Season 4 started with Elijah Gemstone (Bradley Cooper) scamming his way into becoming a minister yet being asked to pray for the sick and dying during the Civil War. Hundreds of years later, his ancestors are put in the same position. In a surprisingly heartfelt moment, Jesse, Kelvin and Judy put aside their wealth and vanity to pray alongside their dying friend.
“With all of the s–t that the Gemstone kids have done or been through, in that moment at the end they have to do what the job requires without monster trucks or jet packs or anything,” McBride told TheWrap. “They weirdly rise to that occasion, as strange as it is.”
It’s this unexpected moment that spoke to why McBride has been so fascinated by this particular family for so long.
“Sometimes in the Bible or in some of those religious stories, God isn’t known for picking the perfect person to deliver the message. A lot of times they’ll say stuff like, ‘He makes ready whoever is chosen,’ or whatever. I always thought that was an interesting concept, even for the Gemstones,” McBride told TheWrap. “They’re scoundrels. They’re making money, and they’re not living what they preach. But I do think what makes them interesting is they’re believers. I do think that they believe this. But I think their wealth and their money makes them feel like they don’t have to follow the rules for real.”
From afar, “The Righteous Gemstones” may look like a takedown of Christianity at large, but that’s never been what’s in this show’s heart. McBride’s raunchy comedy isn’t mocking religion; it’s mocking the vanity and hypocrisy of this particular family that controls a megachurch. This sincerity around faith carries through the show’s finale, which never scoffs at Corey, Jesse, Kelvin or Judy for their belief.
“With that approach, weirdly, I just felt like I hadn’t seen it before. Very rarely does someone tell a story in modern times that’s in the world of religion without having some judgment on religion, you know?” McBride said. “I’m a student of the world. I appreciate all religions, and I appreciate everyone’s quest to figure out what this is all about and where we all land in that. So it wouldn’t be in me to be judgmental about belief. I could be judgmental about somebody being a con artist.”
McBride likened his approach to Christianity to shows about the entertainment industry that are full of monstrous characters. “It doesn’t mean that everyone in the entertainment industry is a monster,” McBride said. “That was a line I always wanted to make sure we rode with this. Ultimately, I hope that people that are religious watch the show too. The joke isn’t at their expense.”
This refusal to pass judgement is also why “The Righteous Gemstones” concludes in an open-ended way. Corey’s death isn’t the final moment of the series. Instead, the HBO comedy shows vignettes to each of main characters moving on with their lives. The uncertainty around “The Sopranos” finale inspired McBride to take this open-ended approach.
“There’s a finality to a show ending with judgment, and I didn’t want it to end that way,” he said. “At the end of the day, the justice that you want to see in real life doesn’t need to like happen in this story. That’s not what this is ultimately about. It also creates an end to the story, in a way, and I feel like it’s better to leave things where you, as the viewer, can imagine that their lives continue. It lives on in your brain, in a way of like, ‘What happens next?’ or ‘What are they up to now?’”
Ultimately, McBride is proud of his religious comedy. Despite all of its monster trucks, car crashes, elaborate musical numbers and period costumes that make this the biggest budget show he’s ever worked on, McBride emphasized that it’s genuine emotion underneath all of these stories that make “The Righteous Gemstones” work.
“All this stuff, as someone who just loves creating, it was so much fun. It was fun to push other creatives to embrace this craziness. But as far as we go with it, there still has to be something underneath it that was real so that you can really land it at the end and have it add up to something other than just being insanity,” McBride said. “That was the line we always were trying to ride: pushing ourselves to be as indulgent and crazy as we want, but trying to make sure that, underneath it all, there was still something that resembled a human experience.”
“The Righteous Gemstones” is now streaming on Max.
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