TV Review: ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Season 3, Episode 6
by Frank Martin
Shock value is a dangerous thing. It can serve a lot of purposes, but it can also be a distraction. When storytellers are trying to create shock value simply for the sake of being shocking, a story can become muddled and lose its way. The Righteous Gemstones does not do that. It builds up its characters slowly and puts them on a strong trajectory. Then, when their story arc reaches its climax, the show introduces shock value to make the audience stiffen up and pay attention. That’s exactly what happens at the end of this week’s episode.
After BJ (Tim Baltz) found out that Judy (Edi Patterson) was cheating on him, Jesse (Danny McBride) took him under his wing to get him past his heartache. This meant, essentially, training him to be tougher and get revenge. This scandal led Judy’s adulterer to blackmail the church. She was lost and confused about what to do, but people offered her very little guidance. The same went for Jesse as he tried to introduce his mother’s hologram to the family. It went horribly wrong and the family rejected it. In the episode’s closing moments, BJ went to visit the person Judy had been cheating on him with. It resulted in a huge fist fight while the guy was naked. After it went back and forth, it looked as if BJ had won and went home triumphant.
With so many different characters on their own story arcs, there was a lot going on in this episode. It was so jam-packed that the storyline involving Eli’s (John Goodman) brother-in-law wasn’t really touched upon at all. Instead, BJ stole the show with the fight at the end. He’s technically a supporting minor character, but he had a great arc this episode. It was a fully fleshed out plot line and the shock value that came at the end worked tremendously. It just goes to show that the people behind The Righteous Gemstones know what they are doing.
The Righteous Gemstones airs Sundays on HBO.
