The Righteous Gemstones follows the titular Gemstones, a dysfunctional
family of televangelists who have let the power of their megachurch go to their heads.
The patriarch of the family is Eli Gemstone, a widower and pastor who is trying to expand his
network of megachurches while also having to deal with his obnoxious and troublemaking children.
His expansion plans put him at odds with smaller, neighboring churches,
including one run by Reverend Johnny Seasons. Eli also brings in his estranged brother-in-law
“Baby” Billy Freeman to run a new church despite decades of conflict between the two.
When they were younger, Baby Billy and his now deceased sister Aimee-Leigh were child
star singers who toured churches across the country. Now an old man, Baby Billy was still
obsessed with the fame that his hit single “Misbehavin’” brought him and continues to
mooch off of the Gemstone family name, with his much younger wife Tiffany by his side.
Eli’s youngest son is Kelvin Gemstone, who serves as the church’s youth pastor. Kelvin lives with
his best friend and recent convert Keefe, who was formerly a Satanist. Following his conversion,
Keefe views Kelvin as his spiritual leader, doing whatever is asked of him.
And it doesn’t help that Kelvin believes that he may in fact be Jesus reincarnate.
Eli’s daughter is Judy Gemstone, who is often overlooked by her father and
often acts out for attention. She gets engaged to the sensitive and neurotic BJ,
but their relationship becomes strained throughout the season. As a spiteful Baby
Billy tries to woo Judy to his side and her ego grows larger, BJ becomes frustrated with
his fiance’s power trips and breaks up with her. Although they do reconcile by the season finale.
And then there’s Jesse Gemstone, the eldest of Eli’s children. Looked at as the successor of the
Gemstone empire, Jesse has let the fame and power corrupt him and he struggles to hide his arrogant
personality and his debaucherous behavior. On a wild night of partying with several of
his friends from church, Jesse is caught on tape doing drugs and cheating on his wife,
Amber. That tape gets into the hands of Scotty, a washed up stuntman from LA looking to blackmail
the Gemstones to collect some cash. Unbeknownst to Jesse, Scotty is also working alongside Jesse’s
estranged son Gideon. Gideon had grown tired of his family’s hypocritical ways and moved to
LA to be a professional stuntman, but when his career failed and he met the scheming Scotty,
the two formed a plan to swindle money from the Gemstone empire.
Gideon returns home to his parents with the true motive to gain information and act as
the inside man on the heist he planned with Scotty. During his time back home,
Gideon begins to bond with his father and feels guilty about his betrayal. And so, when Scotty
shows up at the Gemstone compound and holds Jesse at gunpoint, Gideon intervenes to save his father.
Scotty locks up Jesse and Gideon in a vault and flees the Gemstone compound with a huge
stash of money. Unfortunately for Scotty, Baby Billy is…ahem…distracted by his wife
Tiffany while driving and crashes into the thief. And though Scotty survives the crash,
he doesn’t survive the accidental bullet to the head he takes from a scared Tiffany.
Baby Billy and Tiffany then find the stolen money and take it for themselves.
Back at the Gemstone compound, Gideon’s betrayal has now been exposed to his family,
and Amber banishes him. Gideon gives his father the incriminating blackmail video and leaves.
Jesse, feeling inspired by his son’s honesty, decides to gather his friends and their
spouses to play the video and confess his own sins. This obviously backfires horrendously,
as the wives are understandably pissed and Amber shoots her own husband in the butt with a rifle.
When the Gemstones discover that Baby Billy had stolen the money, they head to his house
to confront him. During this confrontation, Baby Billy is struck by lightning. After awakening from
his near death experience, Billy claims to have seen Aimee-Leigh, who encouraged him to reconcile
with Eli. Baby Billy returns the stolen money and then goes on tour, exploiting his supposed
spiritual experience. To replace Baby Billy as a pastor, Eli hires Johnny Seasons. And as the
season comes to a close, Jesse Gemstone reflects on the sins he’s committed and the damage he’s
caused, potentially costing him his family. And so, a repentant Jesse heads to Haiti to
perform missionary work with Gideon, father and son both hoping to atone for their sins.