What I’m Watching: The Righteous Gemstones

The Righteous Gemstones: Season 2, Episode 4 “As to How They Might Destroy Him” (B+)

I’m not sure I’ve properly highlighted how great a character BJ is before this. I know I praised his roller-blading outing recently, but this show demonstrated just how difficult it is to be a part of the Gemstone family when you’re not blood. Amber has her own desires but Jesse is much better about noticing them and appeasing her, even if he’s not all that great to other people. Expressing the fact that he was getting baptized because marriage is about compromise didn’t land well with Judy, and his intellectual family’s arrival made things even worse. They’re nice, genuine people, like BJ, but there’s no place for them in this world. I did like that they were seated at the same table as Baby Billy, who offered his own perspective on his impending parenthood and his wife being born as a toilet baby. History does appear to repeat itself all too often in this family, as Baby Billy was compelled to once again abandon his family because he couldn’t deal with the pressures of being a father. I would have expected Jesse or Judy to be the one to incur Eli’s wrath, but instead it was Kelvin, who wanted to take his flock on a pilgrimage to Israel and then had Keefe round up food from the baptism for all of them when they weren’t let in the door. Breaking Kelvin’s fingers in his signature way was cruel and vicious, and I wonder what kind of united front the next generation is going to have now. Jesse and Amber made the best of a disappointing situation by commandeering Eli’s transportation home, but it looks like they’re now in danger thanks to the masked riders shooting at the party bus at the gas station.