Review: The Righteous Gemstones, "You Have Hurled Me Into the Very Heart of the Sea" | Season 4, Episode 2

After last week’s audacious trip back in time, the second episode of this final season feels a bit like a mechanism to round up the gang and get some new plot rolling. When we left the Gemstones at the end of Season 3, the kids had united to step into full leadership roles in the church, allowing Eli’s retirement to get fully underway; Kelvin and Keefe had become more open about their relationship; Gideon had expressed a desire to become a preacher like his grandpa; and the 2nd-generation Gemstone spouses, BJ and Amber, had reconciled their differences. As I wrote at the time, the beautiful resolution of Season 3 could have been a fitting end to the series, with none of the usual cliffhangers or ominous loose ends. So to get eight more episodes in this series, we’re going to need to prime the pump and crank the starter.

The plot device chosen to accomplish this is Aimee-Leigh’s Birthday Celebration Give-A-Thon, an extravaganza of music, dance, and unfortunate technology. Eli should be there, right? That’s what everybody suddenly realizes, even though they seem to be at the dress rehearsal stage of planning. So the kids put on their best nautical fits and head out to find their dad, who is on a boat “somewhere in Florida” banging middle-aged chicks, deftly avoiding commitment, fishing for marlin, and not answering his phone. Eli is adamant that he won’t come to Aimee-Leigh’s birthday bash—he’s still wrestling with some things—but understandably crumbles under the kids’ relentless assault of crudity, which they invent on the spot and call the “pussy loop.” With that, Eli rejoins the party, which is reboot necessity number one.