Title: "For I Know the Plans I Have for You." Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I hope so, because word on the street is that this season gets very dark.
Rogers County Fair, 2000: The teenage Jesse Gemstone is announcing a demolition derby featuring his monster truck, the Redeemer, while his parents, megachurch pastor Eli Gemstone and his wife Aimee-Leigh, argue: the Redeemer is putting butts in seats, but is this really appropriate for a Christian ministry? What are we going to do next, sell beer? At that moment, a muscle hunk comes by selling beer!
Eli and Aimee-Leigh's three kids look very young, but according to the fan wiki, Jesse is 19, Judy is 15, and Kelvin is 9 or 10.
While Aimee-Leigh is off smoking a cigarette, May-May, a shabbily-dressed middle-aged woman, approaches, furious: "You pretend to be all sweet and caring, but I know the truth -- what you done to my family." She attacks; Aimee-Leigh runs through the crowd, screaming for help, but May-May catches up and hits her with a wrench. As she lies bleeding on the ground, a car hits -- May-May!
Eli Retires: Present day. Time to introduce the main conflicts of the season. First up: the now-elderly Eli is hanging out with his Mason-like Cape and Pistol Society. They ask how he's enjoying his retirement. Actually, he's only semi-retired: he's writing another autobiography and taking speaking engagements, but his kids are running the church. Gulp! His friend: "You scared your kids are gonna blow it?"
A Cold Fish Kiss: Eli's second child, Judy, is now a famous singer. She has just returned from a tour, and her husband BJ wants to snuggle, but she yells at him for pressuring her, gives him a "cold fish kiss," and runs out again. Uh-oh, marital trouble.
Smut Busters: The primary conflict, judging from the amount of air time it gets: someone named Keefe is showing the youngest son, 32 or 33 -year old Kelvin, a giant novelty dildio. He exclaims with glee, "That is gonna hurt!" So he's abottom, and Keefe is his boyfriend, showing him their new toy.
We pan out to see kids examining a pile of s ex toys, mostly dildos and butt plugs of various sizes and shapes, intended for gay men. Notice the "Size Queen" dildo.
Psych! Kelvin and Keefe are actually youth ministers, running an anti-sex toy project. I guess: notice the t-shirts, with the name "Smut Busters" over a splatter of...jizz? They buy out the inventory of local adult stores, to force them into bankruptcy. Wait -- anyone know basic economics?
The youth group kids, also in Smut Busters t-shirts, are just examining the latest haul. Do they take the kids to the adult stores? They wouldn't be allowed inside. Besides, "exposing children to sex" is a misdemeanor.
They ask the kids and adult volunteer Taryn to join them in the Smut Buster chant: "No smut (touch nipples), no lust (feminine hip wiggle), no coconuts (hands to waist, grimace)." No one joins in.
After extensive research, I conclude that "coconuts" doesn't have a symbolic meaning, except maybe to evoke testicles. It was chosen for its near-rhyme. The chant reflects the playground phrase "no butts, no cuts, no coconuts" (no cutting in line), and its variation, "No ifs, no buts, no coconuts" (no disagreeing).
Left: coconuts
Pretending to have never seen these characters before, I conclude that they are a gay couple: notice how Kelvin plays with Keefe's nipple, an intimacy that platonic pals would not enjoy, how Keefe gets all bitchy around Taryn, and how most of the sex toys they buy are for gay men. They can't conceive of something used by straight men as erotic: "There's a naked lady on the box. Keefe, I said sexy, not disgusting!"
So the main conflicts of the season will involve the transition of power, marital problems, and coming
Old Slow-Eyes: Then Sunday dinner at Jason's Steak House. They argue about who is responsible for the decline in church members and donations since Eli stepped down, then about church leadership: Jesse thinks that he should be the sole leader, but the others think that they should lead together.
How closeted are Kelvin and Keefe? They are presented as the equivalent of the other couples, Jesse/Amber and Judy/BJ; Jesse even refers to them as a unit. Plus Kelvin displays some feminine traits that anyone would pick up on instantly. Maybe they are out to the family, but closeted to the church.
Jesse criticizes the Smut Buster project -- preventing truck drivers from getting "dick pills" but not doing anything to help the church. Kelvin says that they have bought up the inventory of 16 porno shops along the I-95 corridor. Of course, they get to keep the dildos. This is a call-back to Season 2, when Jesse complained that Kelvin's God Squad, a collection of musclemen, was solely for "popping boners," his own erotic enjoyment, not to help the church.
Geography alert: The I-95 corridor runs through South Carolina about 50 miles from the ocean. The nearest junction is an hour's drive from Charleston. That's a long drive just to pick up some rubber dicks.
Next on the agenda: A wealthy donor, famous racecar driver Dusty Daniels (Shea Whigham, left) planned to bequeath his entire $200 million fortune to the church. But now that Eli has stepped down, he will be going with the rival Simpkins family instead. Uh-oh, the church can't afford to lose this!
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The Evil Simpkins: The siblings visit Dusty at his private racetrack to convince him to change his mind, but he thinks that the Simpkins display more fraternal affection. The Gemstones can't even hold hands properly (this will become important later).
Queer code: Jesse accuses Kelvin of using Botox to maintain his youthful appearance. Most Botox users are in their 40s and 50s, much older than Kelvin, suggesting gay-coded vanity. Plus 85% are women.
Kelvin keeps fiddling with a ring on his wedding-ring finger, to draw viewer attention to it. Are he and Keefe actually married?
The Simpkins arrive: two brothers and a sister, about the same age as the Gemstones. They have no trouble holding hands! Plus they are self-made millionaire pastors -- they didn't inherit a dynasty..
Shay Simpkins flirts with Dusty, so Judy says that she also finds him hot. Kelvin nods his agreement. Wait - how out is he? Dusty, openly bisexual, returns the compliment: "All y'all look good, but this ain't about looks." Kelvin: "That's a good thing because if it were, we'd win by a mile." They flex and posture.
Ok, Dusty says, why don't you battle for me? In stock cars. He's putting himself in a feminine role: traditionally suitors compete for the attention of a young lady.
Jesse against Craig Simpkins, who claims that he has no experience. Uh-oh, he means he's not experienced in the basic stock cars used in NASCAR racing. He's an expert in the more advanced Formula 1 cars.
There isn't even a race: Jesse stalls and then spins out. The fortune goes to the Simpkins!
Bonus: From Ayacucho, which I thought was in Brazil. It's actually in Peru.
The Book Signing: Eli is at a bookstore, signing copies of his "definitive autobiography" -- his third. Did you mention having a gay son? Suddenly May-May, who attacked his wife Aimee-Leigh back in 2000, hands him one of his earlier books: Y2K: When the World Goes Dark.
In 1999. many claimsmakers worried that computers were only set up for the 1900s, so on January 1, 2000, they would all reset. Bank accounts would empty; airplanes would fall from the sky; the world would descend into chaos. Some evangelists, like Eli Gemstone, made money by connecting the Y2K bug with end-time prophecies.
Eli is not happy to see his May-May -- he has a restraining order against her. But she needs his help. Wait -- you storm in and throw his old book at him to ask for help?
Later, Eli records the section of his autobiography about Y2K: when the world didn't end, he and Aimee-Leigh had to face anger and ridicule.
More after the break
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