Earlier in Episode 1.4, we learned that Keefe is gay, and Kelvin is afraid of sex, or maybe just the phallus. Next we see a normalization of the Gideon-Scotty relationship. Instead of being terrorized by Scotty, Gideon seems to actually like and care about him. This suggests disagreements among the showrunners about where the characters should go, similar to seeing Kelvin and Keefe as good buddies in one episode and romantic partners in another.
I'll let you buy me dinner: At the campground, Gideon gives Scotty the intel he learned from Martin: they receive an offering of over $1,000,000 on normal Sundays, but on big holidays, $3,000,000. It's counted and placed in the vault overnight Sunday. On Monday it's deposited into the bank. Wait -- is that all in cash? Don't people just throw a few bucks in the offering plate? If they're going to donate a lot of money, they'll write a check, or just have it deducted automatically from their bank account.
Scotty "goes dark" for a moment, brags about his own stuntwork, and criticizes Gideon's. Then he becomes downright friendly and says "I'll let you buy me dinner."
You Shine: Kelvin appears at Dot's lacrosse practice at North Jackson High School. The background music, Sweet Cheater's "Summer," seems to suggest a sexual interest:
It's driving me crazy, making me wild in the summer,
Spending my time alone with you
Take a ride, baby, to the stars, in the backseat of my car
Ooh yeah, it feels so right, you belong with me tonight
.
Her friend concurs: “Who’s that creepy man?”, “man” instead of “guy” highlighting Kelvin’s inappropriate age, but Dot assures her that he’s harmless, “just an asshole from church.”
He swishes down from the bleachers and squeals “What’s up, girl!” like the flamboyant gay friend in a romcom, a queer code that signifies his utter lack of romantic or sexual intent.
He apologizes for the Satanic Sweep, oddly characterizing it as a “hang” between friends, and invites her to a teen trampoline party at the Sky Zone tonight: “No presh, just come by. If you like it, great. If not, you’ll never see me again.” This is the rhetoric of someone who wants to make a friend, not find a girlfriend.
When she agrees, Kelvin adds: “What if we go no boyfriend tonight. Just you. You sparkle without him – know that.” Austin is too old for the teen group, so he wouldn’t be permitted anyway; Kelvin is simply stressing that Dot doesn’t need an older boyfriend, or “semen loads,” He skips off, still the flamboyant gay friend: “It’s gonna be fun, girl!”
When the episode first aired, some very desperate fans took it as evidence that Kelvin was straight, and interested in Dot, but what straight guy would ever make a date and then skip off with a "It's gonna be fun, girl!"
Dot at the Youth Group: We cut to the youth group meeting at the Sky Zone, an indoor trampoline park on Wando Park Boulevard in Mt. Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston with many Gemstone sites. Lots of kids somersaulting on bouncy-walls, and Keefe stretching Kelvin from behind as he groans "Harder. Harder. Yeah, oh, that's good."
Acting like they're having anal sex, har har.
Left: random twink
Notice that they're both wearing "Faith Factory" T-shirts, but none of the kids are. Keefe is now Kelvin's assistant youth minister.
Dot appears. Kelvin is "super-pumped that you didn't bring your idiot boyfriend." Do you still think he's straight, after the sex joke?
He clears a space. Keefe says: "These feats of physical strength are amazing." Yeah, Kelvin is hot. He performs some professional-looking acrobatic stunts.
Gideon and Scotty's Date: Dinner is pizza and beer at the Shem Creek Restaurant in Mount Pleasant, to the rather suggestively sexual song “You Knock Me Out.”
The way you talk when you say what you see
Your smile breaking my words – you knock me out.
The way you shake it, baby -- what’s on your mind?
The way you get when you get down – you knock me out.
Apparently Scotty or Gideon, or both, are overwhelmed by the intensity of their passion.
Scotty calls Gideon "Little Lord Fauntleroy,” a rather archaic phrase for a fragile, polite, feminine-coded “sissy,” named after a character in the 1886 novel by Francis Hodgson Burnett. In the 1936 movie version, Freddie Bartholomew’s Ceddie is redeemed through a homoromantic bond with the tough Mickey Rooney Likewise, here Scotty seems to be trying to masculinize Gideon, complimenting him on his ability to smoke, drink, and swear: "I like this side of you, man." They smile at each other, caring boyfriends far removed from the toxicity of Scotty’s earlier rant.
Gideon explains how he came to make the video: things were tense between him and Jesse, so his mom made him go to a prayer convention. Jesse had his friends in his hotel room, and didn't want Gideon around. "Dude wanted to fuck," Scotty says, the act coming to mind because of what he intends for later.
So Gideon left, but on his way out, he hid hid his phone with the video on, in case anything interesting happened. He ended up taping Jesse's sex-and-drugs party, and decided to blackmail Jesse to "get even."
Scotty envisions their new life in Thailand, after stealing the money from the vault. He mentioned the ladyboys earlier, but it's worth repeating that Thailand is a well-known destination for gay tourism. He also wants to repair the hard drive containing the sex-and-drugs party video, so "we fuck your Daddy in the butt again." Very graphic way of putting it.
Then he recalls their first meeting. Gideon was wearing a wig to be the stunt double for a woman (wigging," remember?), and Scotty was attracted: he came up behind him and grabbed "like you were a little piece." He means "a piece of ass," a potential sexual partner. Apparently he likes people who are androgynous or nonbinary.
Left: Gideon's butt.
He continues: "But you weren't. You were a friend." Gideon didn't mind being grabbed; apparently he liked it, since he accepted being drawn into a relationship.
"And I get you. I know you way better than your family does." He sounds like an abusive boyfriend: "No one understand you but me."
We cut to another scene on this busy Friday night: Jesse and Amber counseling Chad and his wife Mandy about the aberrant emails ("we were just fooling around"). Of course they mention cum again ("Water squirt emoji does not mean 'cum' -- it means ejaculation"), And we're off to Club Sinister.
Satanist cock after the break
