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For a show that started as a broad satire of megachurches, it’s fascinating that The Righteous Gemstones ended as a show about how you find faith, where you find it, and who you put faith in, whether god or human. In fact, in the series finale that aired May 2, 2025, the show doesn’t eschew comedy entirely. But it does become a surprisingly earnest meditation on religion that criticizes greed much more than the idea of Christianity.

Co-written by series creator Danny McBride, alongside writers (and executive producers) John Carcieri and Jeff Fradley, 'That Man of God May Be Complete' brought to a close the saga of the Gemstone family. Anchored by patriarch Eli Gemstone (John Goodman), most of this season has found the former preacher at a loss at what to do with his life, now that he’s retired and his three children have taken over the family business. While Jesse (McBride), Kelvin (Adam Devine), and Judy (Edi Patterson) have forged their own paths, it’s really through Eli that the series brings its message home, specifically, it’s with the final shot of the show.

Spoilers ahead for The Righteous Gemstones series finale.

That Righteous Gemstones series finale ending explained

With the requisite family drama mostly settled, at least for the time being, Eli is headed to his boat to sail off alone on his next great adventure. That’s when Lori Milsap (Megan Mullally), the long-time best friend of Eli’s deceased wife, Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles) shows up. This season, mostly against his kids’ wishes, he struck up an affair with Lori, and it was clear that their feelings went deeper than a simple, extremely sexual relationship.

Eventually, as the season continued, the 'kids' accepted Lori, and Eli and Lori decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, as usual in the Gemstones world, things went a little over the top thanks to Lori’s obsessed, gator-farming ex-husband (Michael Rooker)... And in the final hour of the series, her unhinged son Corey (Sean William Scott), who almost managed to do what no villain on the show has done before: kill the Gemstones.

He doesn’t, but due to these circumstances and others, Eli and Lori separate, and he’s about to head off to sea. Instead, thanks to a change of heart, Lori is there, on the dock. She asks for permission to come aboard. Eli smiles, the sun bright behind him. And that’s where we end the series.

So, why is this small, happy smile from John Goodman so profound? It’s pretty simple, actually: he’s found faith. Real faith, not the kind he peddled to millions of people over the years, ripping them off with Y2K kits like in Season 3, or constantly spiraling the size of the Gemstones’ performance space, lack of money be damned. Instead, Eli has realized that everything he believes in is right there on the dock, in Lori’s faith in him as the man she can spend the rest of her life with. Eli thought his romance days were done when Aimee-Leigh died, and he’s been living (sometimes literally) with her ghost ever since. Here he’s able to see the light, and his faith isn’t in god, or the church: it’s Lori.

This ending offers a nice counterpoint to the opening of the season, a stand-out, seemingly standalone episode that found Eli’s Civil War ancestor Elijah Gemstone (Bradley Cooper) killing a priest, adopting his identity, stealing his gold-plated bible, and ending up in the army, pretending to be a preacher while ripping everyone off with late night, drunken poker games. As that episode continued and Elijah proceeded to get deeper and deeper into his fake preacher identity, it seemed clear he’d either sneak off or get caught and hanged. Instead, after experiencing a real battle and losing, Elijah was given a second chance: the Northern army let him go because he was a preacher, and after offering last rites to his battalion, whom he then watched die, he returned to the Southern army a changed man. He read the golden bible for real, began to believe he was meant for a higher purpose, and started a cascade of events that led to the Gemstones we’ve been watching for the past four seasons.

Related: The bible of comic books based on the Bible

That past-set episode actually lays the groundwork for everything we’ve seen with all of the Gemstones in Season 4, as they discover their own take on religion that is not about the amount of money they’re making and spending, as it has been previously. Kelvin, finally out and proud, marries his best friend Keefe (Tony Cavalero) attended by all of his family, with nearly no classic Gemstones drama at all. Jesse has his own family, and a son who is finding his own path towards being a preacher – Jesse’s on a long journey, but has begun to realize that respect is about letting others take the lead, not forcing them to follow yours. Judy is back on even keel with her husband, BJ (Tim Balz). And even Baby Billy (Walton Goggins), who went out of control with cocaine and a spiraling budget, casting himself as Teen Jesus in his CW-style reinvention series Teenjus, has a revelation that God isn’t about himself being worshipped and sacrificed – it’s about his family, and his religion, without all the trappings.

How faith laid the foundation for the finale of HBO's Righteous Gemstones

Let’s be honest, if there were a Righteous Gemstones Season 5, Baby Billy would be back to his old shenanigans. That’s part of the package, though, right? Faith is an ongoing process, not a singular revelation. It’s a lifetime of work and thought, and changes as you, yourself, change. That’s what Righteous Gemstones leaves as a takeaway here, and to its credit, it does so without being derogatory of Christianity or the Church. Megachurches, sure. We don’t end the series with the Gemstones all together, triumphantly preaching to the choir. Instead, the final scenes are all quiet moments as the family is with the people they truly care about.

Perhaps most importantly, that gold bible Elijah stole hundreds of years prior is back with the family, but left behind. It’s always there, in all its gaudiness. But faith, real faith, isn’t necessarily found in a book, or going to Church every Sunday. It’s found in your family. It’s in your friends. It’s getting a second chance at love as you stand on a dock, ready to set sail into the great unknown.

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