Jesse Gemstone

Jesse Gemstone is one of the main characters in the series, The Righteous Gemstones. He is the oldest son of Dr. Eli Gemstone and Aimee-Leigh Gemstone. He is portrayed by actor and show creator, Danny McBride.

Background
Jesse Gemstone is the hot-headed oldest of the three Gemstone siblings, as well as the associate pastor for his father's church, Gemstone Ministries. Jesse is known for his hot tempered personality and foul language, especially when baited by either of his siblings, Judy Gemstone and Kelvin Gemstone. He shows a special level of contempt for Kelvin, due to his status as an oops baby when Jesse didn't want more siblings.

Season 1
As of the start of season 1, he was married to Amber Gemstone. The pair had three sons: Gideon Gemstone, Pontius Gemstone, and Abraham Gemstone. They lived together in a mansion at the Gemstones' gated Charleston compound, nearby Jesse's father and siblings. Jesse's preferred choice of vehicle is a white Dodge Challenger or a white Hummer.

In the first episode, Jesse receives threatening text messages along with a video of himself snorting cocaine, with his friends also in the video, but nude and participating in sexual activity with prostitutes. His friends that participated in the drugs, sex, and drinking included Chad, Levi, Matthew, and Gregory. Chad, in particular, had sex with one of the prostitutes and it is unknown what level of participation the others had.

The sender of the video then demanded a cash payment in exchange for the video. Jesse attempted to get said cash from the church without his father Eli's knowledge, however this proved fruitless because the church administrator, Martin Imari, refused to do so. Jesse enlisted his siblings' help, and attempted to "drop off the cash" in a parking lot of a strip mall.

However, instead of exchanging the cash for the video, Jesse decided to run the extortionists over instead of paying them. He ran over a man in a Devil mask, and another accomplice in full view of an auto parts store's security camera. He would later enlist the friends in the video in stealing the hard drive from the auto parts store so as to wipe the camera footage off the hard drive.

It is later revealed that hitting and running over two of the extortionists didn't kill them, and that there's a third extortionist participating. This third participant is none other than Jesse's estranged son, Gideon. Before the start of the series, Gideon had left the family in favor of pursuing a career in show business in Los Angeles. He left his family on bad terms and disagreed with their lifestyles.

However, with his plan gone awry, Gideon contemplates other ways to obtain large amounts of cash for him and Scotty to abscond with to Thailand. Once Scotty recovers from his injuries, he and Gideon cook up a heist scheme that will net them nearly $3 million from Gemstone Ministries, under the guise of Gideon reconciling with his family and wanting to take a job at the church.

Meanwhile, the wives of Jesse and his friends begin to piece together what happened the fateful night that got recorded. Chad's wife, Mandy discovered emails sent by Chad to Jesse describing the night in question. Originally playing it off as lies or a hack, Jesse convinces his wife that the emails are a nothing burger. However, Mandy and the other wives aren't convinced and believe something more nefarious is afoot. Eventually, Chad, Mandy, Jesse, and Amber have a sit down about the emails, where Jesse reveals they were joking and referring to the film ATL instead of the night in question.

Things start converging and later crashing down when Gideon returns to his family with his colleague Scotty in tow. As Gideon convinces the family to give him a job working for the Church, the two plot a major heist on Easter Sunday, the church's biggest day for collection cash hauls. Gideon would grow cold feet on the operation, choosing to abandon Scotty on Easter Sunday. However, later that night, Scotty would return, and force Eli, Gideon, and Jesse at gunpoint to open up the church vault, and then force Gideon and Jesse to stuff cash bags full of Easter collection cash for Scotty. Scotty would drive off, leaving Gideon and Jesse tied back to back inside the vault.

Upon confronting Gideon, Eli discovered Gideon was in on it and came up with the idea himself. However, Gideon did not throw his father under the bus and reveal the root cause of the heist, which was blackmailing Jesse over the cocaine and hooker video.

Jesse would then be motivated by coming clean to his wife, and his friends' wives, electing to show them the video once and for all. Having realized the depths of his depravity, Jesse's wife Amber and Jesse have a long drawn out fight. Realizing that Jesse is a pathological liar, Amber chases him around their house before grabbing a sniper rifle out of their gun vault. While Jesse runs through the yard towards a nearby forest, Amber picks him off from behind, shooting him through his butt cheek and anus.

The next step for the Gemstones was then to recover the stolen money. Jesse would have an epiphany upon someone mentioning Baby Billy's name. He would return to the crash site and deduce it was Baby Billy that crashed into Scotty. However, his siblings and father would confront him, with Kelvin and Judy spilling the beans about Jesse's indiscretions to their father Eli. Eli then fires all three from the church, disgusted at the recent events regarding all three.

Jesse meets up with Amber again and begs her to reconcile. Amber refuses to do so unless Jesse returns Gideon and reunites their family. Gideon had joined a mission in Haiti to volunteer as a way of paying off his debt to the church, and Jesse tracks him down. Once they meet, however, Gideon rebuffs Jesse's attempts to bring him home, calling his father out for only wanting to solve his personal problems and not actually do what's right.

Jesse returns home to Charleston and reveals the news to Amber. Amber refuses to reconcile with Jesse, leading Jesse to elect to go back to Haiti and join his son.

Season 2
TBD