The fifth episode of each nine-episode season of The Righteous Gemstones, right smack dab in the middle, is always a flashback. For season three we get two origin stories: Chaos Judy and Outlaw Peter. We’re back in Rogers, South Carolina in the year 2000. Judy has her eyes on a hot classmate, but he humiliates her by chopping off some of the luxurious locks that she insists on splaying over his worksheet. And Peter is on the edge of financial ruin after sinking $25,000 into Gemstones-branded Y2K prepper supplies.

Let’s take Peter’s storyline first, because this character gets so much new depth, and Steve Zahn brings a special brand of pathos to his performance. In 2000, Peter is handling snakes at a small church and May-May is collecting change in a brown jar as the congregation leaves. They define themselves in opposition to the ostentatious wealth of the Gemstones; when Karl says he wants to be rich like Uncle Eli, he gets a swat from his mom…only to get the same swat when …

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