Summary[]
Zion's Landing is a planned, Christian-themed beachside timeshare resort, originally the brainchild of Lyle Lissons and his wife, Lindy Lissons. It is located on an undeveloped stretch of land in Florida, but actually filmed at Morris Island and Folly Beach, SC.
The Lissons approach Amber Gemstone and Jesse Gemstone into becoming initial investors in the project. Other investors included Joe Jonas. The Lissons originally requested an investment of $10 million, which neither Amber nor Jesse had on hand. They approached Eli on multiple occasions, eventually with Eli relenting and letting them get involved, but not using his or the church's money. This left Amber and Jesse on the hook, with the Lissons constantly pressuring them to take over the Gemstones' church, much like how Lyle did from his own family.
At the Lissons' ranch in Texas, Lyle and Lindy put a fundraiser together where Amber and Jesse meet Joe Jonas and the other investors. All the Gemstones would eventually visit the tract of land in Florida with the Lissons, where the rest of the family would advise Jesse and Amber to not invest in what they believed to be a boondoggle.
Conveniently for those involved, multiple attempts of Eli's life would occur. However, two out of three were botched or stopped, with Jesse and Gideon fighting off the so-called Cycle Ninjas. However, the Ninjas would eventually ambush Eli at a rural crossroads, sending him to the hospital in a coma. The coma would prove formative for Eli, as he had a new lease on life and attitude following his convalescence. He approved of Jesse and Amber using church funds for the resort, and subsequently the project went through.
However, at the beach itself, Lyle would confess his involvement in both Thaniel Block's death and his sending the Cycle Ninjas to kill Eli, which almost killed Jesse inadvertently. Jesse would get into fisticuffs with Lyle, and eventually knocking Lyle out. Jesse believed he had killed Lyle, and enlisted his siblings and Benjamin Jason "BJ" Barnes to assist him in disposing of Lyle's body. However, Lyle would come to and confront all the Gemstone siblings + BJ. His wife, Lindy would then show up brandishing a gun, and kneecapping BJ. She forced all the Gemstones into the ocean, where they made their escape. While the Lissons fled retaliation at that moment, they knew that what they did had been witnessed and could be subject to future retaliation or that they might be wanted by the law for assaulting B.J. with a deadly weapon.
Jesse, Eli, and Lyle at the beach site of Zion's Landing
Months later, is revealed the Lissons are hiding out in Alaska at a remote luxury cabin. However, Eli's right-hand man, Martin Imari had been tracking them the entire time. He linked up with the Cycle Ninjas, former orphanage residents associated with the Lissons, whom had not been paid by the Lissons for their attacks on Eli. Lyle and Lindy had been watching the 1988 film, Young Guns, where Lyle tried to imitate a scene: he had Lindy put in a wooden chest and then pushed outside, thinking she was going to jump out of the chest, guns blazing. However, the chest broke apart upon landing, and the Cycle Ninjas would gun Lindy down in a hail of bullets. Lyle would try and run from the cabin, wearing only sweatpants and a tank top. He freezes to death and is devoured by a pack of wolves. It is then revealed that the Gemstones took full control of Zion's Landing, and rebranded it as a Gemstones resort property.
In Season 3, the property is shown fully open to the public and seems to be drawing large crowds. The hotel has booked Baby Billy for regular musical performances at its pool, and he lives in a beachfront penthouse at the resort with Tiffany and baby Lionel. Despite the perks of his position at Zion's Landing, Baby Billy is easily bored with the job and sees it as detrimental to his fame and power.