In case you're new here, The Righteous Gemstones is a HBO Max sitcom about the famous, ultra-rich televangelist Eli Gemstone and his three children, who live in separate mansions on his compound and get into constant squabbles and scrapes. But of course they love each other deep-down. Kelvin (Adam Devine) is the youngest son, 29-34 years old during the four seasons, a muscle enthusiast who usually works in the low-prestige teen ministry, and has to constantly prove himself. Keefe (Tony Cavalero), a former Satanist whom he saved, is his boyfriend.
Kelvin has a standard fiction coming-out process, one that we've seen a hundred times in movies and tv-shows.
Season 1: Falling in love with his best friend, sexual experiences, feeling guilty, denial, then recognizing that he is gay.
Season 2: Becoming obsessed with the erotic, refusisng to admit that he and Keefe are romantic partners, eventually coming around and coming out to the family.
Season 3: Trying hard to stay in the closet, refusing to call Keefe his boyfriend, leading to their breakup and reconciliation, and a kiss.
The problem is, up to the Season 3 kiss and even after, many viewers insisted that the two were straight buddies. The queer codes were all misdirections or misreadings.
Which brings us to Season 2, Episode 6: Kelvin is standing naked in front of the mirror; distraught: he has lost the respect of the God Squad, his cadre of muscle men; his father hates him; he is worthless, nothing, no better than a beast. Keefe suggests that he will feel better if he gets dressed for the day. His hands are broken, so Keefe will have to dress him.
What happens next is about as explicit as a sex scene can get on television, yet some viewers insisted, that Keefe is just helping Kelvin on with his underwear. Even after Season 4, when they two are out as boyfriends and eventually get married, viewers insist that they were not sexually active until the after the wedding.
Maybe a frame-by-frame analysis will convince them.
3: A sharp breath, and then Kelvin cries out in pleasure. Adam is obviously simulating having an orgasm. Notice that Keefe's head is no longer visible, as he's going way down, but Kelvin is still guiding his actions. You would steady yourself for putting on underwear by grabbing your friend's shoulders, not his head.
7: Keefe returns to the task of pulling up Kelvin's underwear.
8: Cut to Keefe finishing the job of dressing Kelvin. He gazes with a mixture of fatigue, pride, and sexual excitation and boops Kelvin on the nose.
They could have easily staged "Helping Kelvin Get Dressed," from the waist up, having Keefe buttoning Kelvin's shirt, or have him pull up the underwear with a swift down-and-up motion, the way a nurse or straight friend would. Instead, the director ordered (or Adam and Tony improvised) gestures and facial expressions that precisely mirror the stages of someone receiving oral sex. In universe, there is no other explanation.
Why bother? The only conceivable reason is: they wanted viewers to conclude that the pair are indeed having sex, thus definitively answering the "are they or aren't they?" question.
Left: We don't see a dick during the scene, so here's one. I think it belongs to Pontius (Kelton DuMont).
Except: the whole exchange takes exactly three seconds, such a short time period that many viewers won't catch what is happening at all. Or they 'll conclude that Kelvin is in pain from his injury (which makes no sense: his hands are injured, not his legs), or that he just enjoys putting on underwear.
Surely such a major transformation in their relationship deserves a reasonable amount of time. Or even if I am mistaken, and the purpose of the scene is to establish that the two have sex regularly, why go to great lengths to depict something that you have to go through frame-by-frame to see?
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