Eli and Baby Billy reconcile with the ghosts of their pasts in the penultimate Righteous Gemstones

Eli Gemstone and Baby Billy are haunted by their pasts—Eli by the cover-up of Glendon Marsh’s death and Baby Billy by running out on his son Harmon—and “The Prayer Of The Righteous Man” finds both men grappling with their pasts as the new generation looks to the future.

There is a joyous aura surrounding Eli that we’ve only caught twice prior to this season: When he’s carrying on with his old friend Junior, and way back in 1993 as he compares wrestling promotion to running the church. As he hobbles around his home, still recovering from the attempt on his life, he praises his children who finally put aside their differences and came together as he lay near death. Since the onset of this season, Eli has been coming to grips with his own mortality, and being gunned down has put a fine point on it. Jesse expressed as far back as the premiere that Eli should be planning for retirement and that he, the eldest son should be taking over as head pastor. While Eli was out of commission, Jesse got a taste of it and realized that maybe he wasn’t ready to take on the responsibility.

Jesse and Martin’s scheme to lure the cycle ninjas out of hiding was a success and they’re now sitting in police custody, but there are still no clues as to who sent them. But the situation helped Jesse prove himself to his father. Eli is proud of his boy. Eli saw Jesse come into his own as a leader, but he explains to Jesse that it is just not his time yet. Eli is stubborn, strong-willed, and still has something to prove—like father, like son—but he does offer a concession. Looking back at his own aspirations to build the Gemstone stadium back in 1993, he wants Jesse to succeed as he did and offers up the money to go in on the Lissons’ timeshare. In coming to grips with the past, Eli begins looking towards the future, but first, he’s got to come clean with his own sins. He reveals to the children that he covered up the death of Glendon Marsh not only to protect Grandaddy Roy but to avoid any negative press. Eli lifts a decades-old weight off of himself, but he won’t be free of his past until he comes clean with Junior, who he still believes ordered the hit.

But this week’s cold open reveals that Junior’s relationship with his father is not what it has appeared to be. In a flashback to Memphis, 1993—presumably a matter of weeks before Glendon came to Eli with the suitcase full of cash—Junior whines to Glendon that it’s time for him to retire and let him take over the family business. Junior’s relationship with his father mirrors both Eli and Jesse’s. They all have had aspirations to expand and grow and met with obstacles along the way. Junior wants to sell off the gambling operation and reinvest that money into the wrestling organization which has fallen on hard times.

Glendon is still stuck in the ’70s, bringing in ancient gimmicks and Junior is looking to take on the WWF. Glendon allows Junior to sell off his video poker machines, but after making quite a bit of money, Glendon rips off his son and heads to Rogers to meet up Eli. It changes the perspective on Junior’s arc throughout the season. Junior wasn’t looking to avenge his father’s death, in fact, he thinks that Eli helped him abscond with the cash to Bolivia. Was Junior simply looking to make amends with an old friend or was he planning on killing Eli, but for different reasons? Eli—unbeknownst to the kids—makes his way to Memphis to settle things with Junior and confesses that he covered up his death, handing over Glendon’s pistol to his old friend. Eli was the son that Glendon wanted, and Junior has been jealous of Eli for years. The two men make amends, and Eli promises to get Junior the money that Glendon ran off with, but Junior reveals that he was not behind the attacks, meaning that the culprits are still out there.

Elsewhere, after a pitiful performance at the old-folks home, Baby Billy is having a sad sandwich when he’s visited by the ghost of Aimee-Leigh Gemstone. Aimee-Leigh is the conscience of the Gemstone family, even in death. Eli frequently reminds those around him that meeting Aimee-Leigh changed his life and set him on the right path. She always encouraged her brother, Baby Billy, to do the right thing—even if he rarely listened—and tried to instill that pure goodness in her children. So many of the integral family meetings happen in front of her bust in the compound’s garden. From a certain point of view, it would appear that Aimee-Lee, despite her best efforts has failed. Eli resorted back to the violence of his past, Baby Billy ran out on another wife and child, and the kids? Where would we even start?

Since Billy hit the road after B.J.’s baptism, I’ve wondered if he was on the path to redemption, to visit his estranged son Harmon. In a family of selfish, unsavory characters, Baby Billy is arguably one of the worst; always scheming, always up to no good. But it just felt like his current situation with Tiffany and the unborn Lyle awakened some guilt in him, and that he was looking to reconcile. When he’s visited by the ghost of Aimee-Leigh, she reveals that he’s so close. He was looking to visit his son, but got cold feet and sidetrack by another scheme as is Baby Billy’s way. Billy is frustrated because, even in death, Aimee-Leigh is right.

And Billy does make his way to Harmon in a sequence that features Walton Goggins showcasing the dramatic acting chops and sly comic timing that has made him a favorite of compelling television since The Shield. It’s a sad, funny, touching scene as he asks Harmon (Macaulay Culkin) for forgiveness and, typical of Baby Billy, it appears it’s more for his sake than the child that he ran out on. Even when apologizing, Baby Billy is selfish, looking out for number one. He explains that he needs Harmon’s forgiveness so that he can move on. Harmon only wants one thing, to punch Billy with an open fist and Billy obliges.

While the older characters are reconciling with their past, the Gemstone children are focusing on the future. There is a newfound camaraderie between the three of them. Kelvin does away with his God squad while Judy leans into her maternal instincts taking in Aunt Tiffany. Judy puts a fine point on it, stating that the thought of Tiffany leaving made her “gooch pucker.” Jesse, who has spent this whole season looking to take over for Eli admits that he isn’t ready but he’s excited about the big step he’ll be taking getting involved in the Lissons’ timeshare.

But everything is not wrapped up just yet. Whoever attempted to kill Eli is still out there and the episode ends with a thrilling jailbreak. The cycle ninjas are out and they’re going to finish the job.

Stray Observations

• Stellar performances from Walton Goggins and John Goodman this week. Since the beginning, they’ve been my two favorite actors on the show: the pathos Goggins brings to the Baby Billy character, and the matter-of-fact, confident way that John Goodman confesses his sins to Junior.
• “You’ve been a better friend to me than I was to you.”
• “Why don’t you save it for your heavenly homeboys!?”
• “Why don’t you just get outta here? Rattle some chains or walk through some walls. Just leave me alone.”
• Jennifer Nettles brightens up any episode with an appearance as Aimee-Leigh Gemstone.
• “You and Queef have been such a help.”
• Could Amber be behind the cycle ninjas? It’s farfetched, but the scene when she mentions to Jesse that they should have wired money to the Lissons while Eli was laid up suggests that she had plans in place. Eli shares a moment of newfound maturity when he says that he wasn’t trying to do business deals while Eli was on his deathbed.
• Who killed Thaniel Block? Junior admits that the journalist visited him before his untimely death.
• “These are ninja midgets, they are huge in Mexico.”
• Harmon believing that Baby Billy turned into a cat: a nod to Eric Roberts’ performance in A Talking Cat!?!
• “Meow, meow, son.”
• “That ain’t like daddy to miss a photo op with a poor people family.”
• The jailhouse breakout at the climax is reminiscent of the “man in black” escape at the end of Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers.
• HBO getting all the Culkins on the payroll.
• “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” Matthew 6:15