A shocking flashback in Season 2 of HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones revealed that an important figure in Eli’s Holy Empire had a murderous past.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for the first five episodes of The righteous gems, now available on HBO.
In HBO Season 2 Virtuous Gemstones, fans have been made aware of shocking information that has shown what Eli (John Goodman) was like before he became a pastor. He revealed that his father, Roy, aka Grandaddy Gemstone, was not the senile old man that fans saw in the first season, and there were many skeletons in Eli’s closet before he died. build his holy empire. Things got even darker, however, when a sleazy reporter, Thaniel, arrived years later and attempted to shake up the church, leading to infighting and a slew of deaths. However, in a key history lesson, if it turns out that Eli isn’t a killer, the same can’t be said for Roy.
Many thought Eli had this deadly instinct in him from his wrestling days in Memphis as the Maniac Kid, where he raced with Eric Roberts’ Glendon, aka Junior, and his father, Glendon Sr. The boys were enforcers, helping a corrupt senior get rich, beating up those beholden to him, and participating in criminal enterprises. Fast forward to now, Thaniel’s investigation has led Eli’s children – Jesse, Judy and Kelvin – to think that Eli ultimately killed Thaniel, because when they visited the writer’s AirBnb, they found the reporter dead and a bunch of other thugs. However, Eli was on a date, accidentally severing his testicles while shaving, so the blood on him that night was his, not Thaniel’s.
All of this prompted Eli to spend more time at the family theme park, riding the roller coaster alone to meditate. Turns out it was a cemetery for Senior. He tried to get the family to launder money in the 90s, but when Eli turned him down, he got violent and showed up with a gun. At the time, Roy was suffering from dementia and was in his final days, causing him to fire a shotgun and blast Senior outside the mansion.
Only Eli and his new assistant, Martin, were there to witness the gruesome death, so they covered it up by placing Senior in a ditch and burying him with cement in what is now the site of the roller coaster. Eli carried his father back to his room, grateful for the rescue. It spoke a lot about their relationship because while Roy verbally abused him in his youth, he confessed that he loved his son at this vulnerable time.
As such, the roller coaster represents a mixture of emotions for Eli, reminding him of his ethics and moral compass, and the idea of family loyalty, but there is a danger ahead because while Junior has first visited and had fun, he was rebuffed by Eli for being too rowdy. Now it seems he knew something happened with his dad and he secretly went to town to play a mean game.
Junior might have even killed Thaniel as a twisted way of trying to join the family, only to now realize that Eli betrayed him the same way he betrayed Senior. It might even be a long-con to frame the gemstones. Either way, Junior arms himself for one last visit, which could lead Eli to follow in Roy’s footsteps to keep his loved ones safe.
New episodes of The Righteous Gemstones air Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.
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