The Righteous Gemstones Review: They Are Weak, But He Is Strong (Season 1 Episode 3)

Accusations and harsh truths bring the Gemstones a need for honesty (as honest as they can be) on The Righteous Gemstones Season 1 Episode 3, “They Are Weak, But He Is Strong.”

First thing’s first: Walton Goggins as Baby Billy Freeman. As he often is, Goggins is genius in the role, fitting into Danny McBride universes with a bizarre comfortableness. Baby Billy is a proud man despite his humble lifestyle, and while there’s a level of madness underneath the surface, he’s not on the level of throwing potatoes through windows and taking on thugs. He’s a simple man.

Baby Billy is this strange creation, both competent and completely nonsensical. Walton Goggins finds a perfect balance between the two, where he manages to make simply picking up food at church into this fascinating character study. When he’s on stage, dancing strangely and selling himself, with the incredibly tanned skin and white as snow hair, it’s all comedy gold.

The way each family member characterizes Eli’s recent complacency is a window into their fear of being entirely truthful to one another. Instead of confiding and checking his well-being themselves, it’s through gossip and bickering to Baby Billy where their truths come out.

That the war with the small-town churches is the thing to wake Eli from his slumber comes as a fun little moment. It’s hard not to laugh at the thugs jogging through the mall naked, but it’s John Goodman’s absolute enjoyment in the final moment of the episode that helps sell Eli Gemstone a little more and shows there’s still life in him.

The Righteous Gemstones hasn’t utilized John Goodman especially well in terms of substantial story, but this episode does make up for that issue. The melancholy of his character, and the desire to return to older times, makes for good drama, Eli driven by the need for more, when there’s not much left to take.

His need to be right and to be in control leaves his argument with Baby Billy, his treatment of Reverend Seasons at his church, and the confrontation with the thugs as a reminder that while he may be diminished from a personal loss, he’s willing to take on a worthy battle to settle scores.

Jesse Gemstone continues to be a fountain of entertainment with his thuggish behavior. He’s told at multiple points Gideon is sprightly, but when watching the security footage of someone sprightly, immediately goes after one of his own. The cries of, “help,” throughout the scene is equal parts hilarious and dark, where how unhinged all of these people are becomes the best level of comedy.

While Jesse’s suspicions of Gideon do run deep, they’re not enough yet for him to cross the finish line. There is a duality to the Gemstones, where fathers of multiple generations look upon their children with disdain. It’s easy to see the disappointment Eli has in his children, as much as he loves them; his glare over them during dinner scenes is especially telling.

But the children scheming behind the father appears to be another generational thing, just as much as the disdain.

Something The Righteous Gemstones Season 1 Episode 3, “They Are Weak, But He Is Strong,” manages to convey is that despite disappointment, despite the scheming, there is a closeness behind all of the snide remarks. The family has each other’s backs, Baby Billy included. They will need each other, with Reverend Seasons and Gideon both having plans of their own.

But they’re sure to mess themselves up a few more times along the way.

 

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The Righteous Gemstones airs Sundays at 10/9c on HBO.

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