Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Season 3 of The Righteous Gemstones.
She just wanted to feel like a rock star and have people fall in love with her, in her own words. In the third season of HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones, Judy Gemstone’s (Edi Patterson) singing success deepens her narcissism. She was out on tour. BJ (Tim Baltz) was at home. Her tattooed, frosted-tipped guitarist, Stephen (Stephen Schneider), wanted her. She wanted him. There was no actual sex, just dry humping, and kissing; Judy is a woman who is never bereft of details. She lets us know everything — which is, very often, TMI, to use an ’00s expression. Perhaps it’s because she finally feels good about herself that her inflated ego reaches new proportions, leading to her on-the-road fling with Stephen. It’s this spontaneous affair, however, that has real ripple effects on both Judy’s life and her marriage. This is why, even with her being in the hot seat this season, Judy Gemstone is the MVP of The Righteous Gemstones Season 3.
Season 3 of ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Shows Judy at Her Lowest
Prior to Season 3, Judy is never afraid to let everyone know what’s on her mind, sometimes — well, almost always — to a fault. Her relationship with BJ was chaotic and every synonym for chaotic. But despite the frequently turbulent nature of their relationship, there was an honesty to it. When she has one of her many episodes at BJ’s job in the first season, it was unhinged, but it was also her holding nothing back. In the second season, when she accuses BJ’s sister, KJ (Lilly Sullivan), of having an incestual attraction to him, it is, to put it compassionately, psychotic.
But Season 3 brings us a Judy we haven’t seen before. She’s concealed things prior to this particular transgression; she admits to her siblings about embezzling from the church in the first season, but there isn’t the shame attached to it as is with her affair with Stephen. This time, Judy’s hurt the two people in the world she cares about, and she’s one of them. The guilt is eating her alive, and she’s having to do all that she can to ward off an ex-lover who’s beginning to exhibit some serious Fatal Attraction vibes.
The Gemstone children have messed up before; the entire series is practically built upon the shortcomings of Eli Gemstone’s (John Goodman) children. Season 1 is premised on Jesse Gemstone’s (Danny McBride) prodigal son and him trying to prevent a drug-fueled video of himself partying from being released. All have sinned, but the greatest sinner at the beginning had been Jesse. He eventually comes clean about his debauchery and that of his posse to his wife and their spouses, and after his fall from grace, a humbled Jesse reconnects with his son and manages to repair his marriage. Season 2 also includes the personal deficits of the Gemstone children; arrested development is a permanent state for them. Kelvin Gemstone (Adam Devine) has bitten off more than he can chew with his bodybuilding followers who eventually try to overthrow him. He becomes so insufferable that even Eli slaps him. Ultimately, Kelvin, humbled, begins Season 3 with a new initiative: dismantling local sex shops… by buying all of their inventory.
Within the new season, Judy finds herself the problem child in a family where all the children are problematic. In priceless Judy fashion, she tries to end the affair coldly and bluntly, but Stephen refuses to let her go. For much of the season, she has to pretend that everything is above water with her and BJ while pushing back against her former lover’s constant intrusions. It’s a juggling act that she’s floundering at, and it’s fun watching her try to keep balls in the air and not break BJ’s heart, but she can only keep what’s hidden concealed for so long. BJ eventually learns of her infidelity — and even though he’s perhaps the only person that could survive a marriage with Judy, he has finally had enough. Judy has to show contrition by paying off Stephen’s wife (Casey Wilson), but more than that, her failings have taken center stage. She’s going to have to learn to grow up, even if it is just a little.
Edi Patterson Plays Judy Gemstone to Comedic Perfection
Edi Patterson holds nothing back with her portrayal of Judy — she’s loud, she’s deranged, she’s delusional. While all the Gemstone children have their quirks, it’s perhaps Judy who manages to stand out from the trio with her zero-to-one-hundred-in-a-second temperament. From her completely irrational behavior to her aggressive, bizarre disposition, Judy is the comedic gold of the show. Her self-aggrandizement is central to who she is. Externally, she behaves as someone who believes that the whole world is wrapped around her fingers and that men can’t resist her animal magnetism — but as she reveals in an earlier season, before dating BJ, her only sexual experience had been with a college professor, which, to be expected, ended weirdly enough. BJ saw her as the person she wanted everyone to believe she was. Behind the veneer, Judy is a deeply insecure person who, though she’d never admit it, feels intimidated by attractive women like her sister-in-law Amber (Cassidy Freeman). She’s aware that she’s not the hotshot that she tries to present herself as–more like a hot mess. Even her own uncle Baby Billy (Walton Goggins) levels her facade of self-confidence in the first season by making a swipe comment about her appearance.
Judy’s energy has always been megawatt, but this season she’s also had to pump the brakes and reflect on how she’s actually hurt someone she loves. Her brothers, naturally, are enjoying this parade of shame, and even Amber takes it upon herself to gift BJ with her pseudo-Christian marriage counseling program, which, as we see through Judy and Amber’s backstory, could appear to be a blow delivered to Judy when she’s down. Even confessing her “no-sex affair” to Eli ends with Judy shouting that she hates him like an eight-year-old. It’s really only Martin (Gregory Alan Williams) who doesn’t kick her when she’s vulnerable.
Season 3 of ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Leads to Judy Turning Over a New Leaf
It’s been enticing seeing Judy at the emotional nucleus of this season. Sure, the main conflict revolves around the militia which has its sights set on the Gemstones (and eventually society), but Judy gets the character arc this time around that she hasn’t experienced in previous seasons. However, lasting personal growth for her is still iffy. Her great takeaway from her unfaithfulness may simply be not to cheat on BJ again — which may be surface-level, but for the Gemstone children, you have to count their personal victories, no matter how small. While deep, lasting reflection is unlikely for Judy, she has exhibited improved behavior from the past, no matter how small of a metric.
A perfect example of internal growth happens in Season 2 — up until that point, Judy had also treated her aunt Tiffany (Valyn Hall) with the utmost contempt. We first meet Tiffany as the naive and much younger wife of Baby Billy, a vanity relationship for a man who runs from many things. At first, Judy views Tiffany with disdain; to Judy, Tiffany is just some “poor, dumb hill person.” But over the course of the second season, Judy develops a bond with Tiffany and takes on a maternal role to her aunt —yes, we realize it sounds strange. It proves that Judy has the capacity to treat someone kindly, and Season 3 reveals even more of the many sides of her personality that she tries to keep hidden. She’ll always have the wild antics she’s known for — accusing her sister-in-law of wanting to sleep with her own brother, vandalizing someone’s car with a shopping cart. But from the wreckage of her own making, Judy might emerge as a slightly more mature person.
Patterson’s casting as Judy was absolutely perfect. She’s managed to take a character who is devoid of maturity and would be a nightmare to encounter in real life and make her one of the best elements of the show. Judy may learn from her mistakes in Season 3, but regardless of her personal growth or lack thereof, she’ll always be a hilarious one-of-a-kind character to watch on The Righteous Gemstones.
The Big Picture
All three seasons of The Righteous Gemstones are available to stream on Max. The series has been renewed for a fourth season which has yet to receive a premiere date.
