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.