S02.E05: Interlude II

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

Christmas, 1993. While Eli considers a tempting offer from an old friend, Baby Billy crashes the Gemstones' celebrations.

Original air date 2022.01.30

[patty1h]

Good backstory episode, but the placement in the season is a little strange.  The kid they got to play young Jesse is scarily good - voice and mannerisms to a tee.   Who knew M. Emmet Walsh was still alive and kicking.  He can still deliver.

[BckpckFullaNinjas]

Okay, #1: Who did Goodman’s 1993 makeup? He’s a year younger than me snd I think he looked better tonightthan he did IN ‘93!!!

Eli snd his father - John Goodman is king.  
Baby Billy - what a storyline. TRG is my first Walton Goggins experience but fella is a Prince. 
 

The child actors in this also blew me away. 
 

What is the name of the actor who played juvenile Harmon last episode? I’ve not been able to find him online.  
 

Episode ended with me saying, “Wow!”  Not much tv does that, anymore. This show delivers.  

[Zonk]

So does Junior know and that is why we got the machine guns on the bus last episode? It didn't seem like he did before...

26 minutes ago, BckpckFullaNinjas said:

Okay, #1: Who did Goodman’s 1993 makeup?

I was trying to figure out for the whole episode if it was just makeup or if they also used CGI. That has gotten crazy good and certainly within HBO-Budget. I can't tell.

[thuganomics85]

Didn't know we were getting another Interlude this season as well!

Once again, major, major, major gold star to both the casting department and the actors playing the younger versions of the kids.  They really just embodied the roles in a way that I easily see them growing up to be the Jesse and Judy we see now.  The cold open alone was just so on point that I could literally hear how Danny McBride and Edi Patterson would have delivered those lines with the same type of style, rapport, mannerisms, and interaction, and that isn't easy to capture all of that.  Seriously, hats off to these young actors.

Also great seeing Jennifer Nettles again as Aimee-Lee.  The Gemstone family were always going to be messed up in some ways, but they've really done an excellent job at showing how she was the glue that held them together and was able to quell some of their bad traits at times: especially with Eli.  And you can see how her eventual death would impact all of them and make them regress to the likely point of no return.  And she even manages to bring something resembling humanity to Uncle Baby Billy that helps make him rise above just being an entertaining, but one-dimensional scumbag.  I just find her to be such an interesting character and like how they are able to revisit her and what she was to them from time to time.

Cool seeing Martin's introduction into Gemstones' world and you can definitely see why he is loyal to the core to Eli!

Interesting that Kelvin apparently excelled at playing piano when he was a child.  I wonder what caused him to give that up (his mom's death, maybe?  Or something else?) and if that is something he will ever revisit?

If Junior really does know Eli covered up his father's death (or even thinks he did it himself), I wonder how he put the pieces together and why he waited so long to react.  Wouldn't be surprised if this ends up not being simply a case of revenge on his part.

Another great episode for me!

[aghst]

The young versions of Jesse and Judy were terrific.

So maybe Eli took Glendon's money after burying him in cement, to cover their tracks.

Crazy spending but I can see why their stage show, if they regularly did song and dance numbers like that Christmas performance, would appeal to a certain segment of the population and make them give a lot of money, making the Gemstones a huge enterprise.

 

But Eli didn't hesitate to cover it up, though they probably would have been fine legally, have his father committed for being mentally incompetent.  The scandal might have killed his church though.

Instead, he probably used Glendon's dirty money to build the arena.

Eli did shady things as a young man so didn't he claim he turned his life around when he turned to this televangelist thing?

 

It would be interesting to see how he got corrupted but then it would no longer be a comedy.  I'm trying to remember what happened to the attempt to rob him in season 1, that whole plot which included the confrontation in the parking lot.

Not surprising Eli and his family would have enemies or those trying to extort/rip them off because of their wealth and Eli himself having engaged in criminal activity himself.

But despite these plots involving malevolent actors coming after the family, they manage to produce a lot of comedy, mainly because of the over-the-top, prideful (very unchristian) personas of the characters.

[BckpckFullaNinjas]

Answering my own question: according to a source who says they know, the age regression is 98% computerized.  Well dang. There go my hopes for a big surprise at my next high school reunion. 
 

HBO MAX newby  here, with Questions:  How zoo will this episode be available on demand?

And where are people seeing the preview of the fire at Pluff Acres?  (I have friends in The Carolinas who say “pluffmud” is an especially stinky phenomenon related to the aftermath of hurricane storm surges. Cracked me up to see it used as the name of a high-end housing enclave! 
 

Thanks in advance for any & all info, accurate or otherwise. 8-D

[Carolina Girl]

9 hours ago, Zonk said:

I was trying to figure out for the whole episode if it was just makeup or if they also used CGI. That has gotten crazy good and certainly within HBO-Budget. I can't tell.

I wondered if it was the same process they used to "young up" Robert DeNiro in "The Irishman."

58 minutes ago, BckpckFullaNinjas said:

HBO MAX newby  here, with Questions:  How zoo will this episode be available on demand?

My experience with other shows has been that it is available On Demand the next day.  

[Words]

All the office/church lackeys call Eli DOCTOR Gemstone.  There is no way in his backstory he ever went to college at all let alone long enough to earn a Doctor of Divinity degree.  So that “Dr.” moniker has to be a lie, like so much else about his character.

[patty1h]

9 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

If Junior really does know Eli covered up his father's death (or even thinks he did it himself), I wonder how he put the pieces together and why he waited so long to react.  Wouldn't be surprised if this ends up not being simply a case of revenge on his part.

How did I not put it together that that was Juniors father?  Whoa, I gotta start paying more attention.

[revbfc]

2 hours ago, Words said:

All the office/church lackeys call Eli DOCTOR Gemstone.  There is no way in his backstory he ever went to college at all let alone long enough to earn a Doctor of Divinity degree.  So that “Dr.” moniker has to be a lie, like so much else about his character.

There’s almost 25 years of Gemstone history we haven’t even touched on yet, and that’s plenty of time to go to college & get advanced degrees.

Edited January 31, 2022 by revbfc

[aghst]

Probably honorary degree.  Some other evangelicals go by doctor as well, don't they?

In 1993 he was being called Doctor but not in the present.  The way everyone called him doctor, it may be something he just acquired and was making sure his employees used the title.

 

 

[hurrrz]

Knowing how Goodman looked in 1993 (so Matinee era), seeing him here was bizarre to me. It looked like prosthetics around eyes, nose and mouth. To me he looked younger, sure, but it was a weird version of him. I feel like his nose changed from back then to now, and that throws me off.

[tennisgurl]

John Goodman is so dang good, I didn't think we would get another interlude but I was happy to get one. It really is interesting seeing earlier versions of the Gemstone family, especially Aimee-Lee. While they were clearly always pretty dysfunctional, it does seem like Aimee-Lee managed to keep them more in line, and the family fully fell apart when she died. This is also back when Eli had a lot more morals because he had Aimee-Lee around to keep his morals on the straight and narrow, her death led to him becoming losing a lot of himself. I do think that his faith is real and his intentions in building his church were good, but after rising to wealth and power and losing Aimee-Lee, he just slipped further and further down a bad path. I also thought everything with Eli's father was great, it did really make me feel for him. 

Aimee-Lee even makes Uncle Baby Billy, one of televisions great lovable scumbags, feel like a real sympathetic person. I also thought he actually made a halfway decent point about how Eli sees money, even if he was being a dick about it. Eli grew up poor and not only did that make him obsessed with never being poor (or being seen as poor) ever again, but also led to him spoiling his kids rotten, giving them all of the things he dreamed about having as a poor kid, which helped them become the immature bratty weirdos we all know now. 

We also see how Martin became so ride or die for Eli, nothing brings people together more then burying a dead body in cement over an amusement park. 

The young actors playing the Gemstone kids are amazing, they really do not only look like the older versions of them, but they have so many of their mannerisms. Its uncanny. 

That ring is definitely going to come into play later, I am guessing that Junior suspects that Eli knows what happened to his dad, even if he doesn't know the specifics. 

[Bulldog]

Have they ever said how Aimee Lee died?  Seems I recall some mention of her being sick last season, but I could be mistaken.  I would love it if somehow they could say she faked her death and she returns at some point.  For some reason, the character just fascinates me.  Her return might be just what it takes to get the Gemstone offspring back on the straight and narrow.  

And for some reason I keep anticipating that BJ will turn out to be the adult Harmon.  He could have been adopted by his parents that we met last episode.  Probably not going to happen.  (I know, it would make he and Judy cousins.)  They are mentioning Harmon way too much for him not to show up at some point. 

 

[xaxat]

20 hours ago, patty1h said:

The kid they got to play young Jesse is scarily good - voice and mannerisms to a tee. 

And young Judy danced just like present day Judy,

I wasn't sure where we were headed at the beginning of this episode, but in the end it was about Aimee Lee. 

 

[Zonk]

9 hours ago, Words said:

All the office/church lackeys call Eli DOCTOR Gemstone.  There is no way in his backstory he ever went to college at all let alone long enough to earn a Doctor of Divinity degree.  So that “Dr.” moniker has to be a lie, like so much else about his character.

He probably bought a doctor title from the university of Manila or something.

4 hours ago, hurrrz said:

Knowing how Goodman looked in 1993 (so Matinee era), seeing him here was bizarre to me. It looked like prosthetics around eyes, nose and mouth. To me he looked younger, sure, but it was a weird version of him. I feel like his nose changed from back then to now, and that throws me off.

Well he was quite a bit heavier back then, too. In the world of the show it seems he never had that weight.

 

[lostsock]

12 hours ago, Words said:

All the office/church lackeys call Eli DOCTOR Gemstone.  There is no way in his backstory he ever went to college at all let alone long enough to earn a Doctor of Divinity degree.  So that “Dr.” moniker has to be a lie, like so much else about his character.

 

9 hours ago, aghst said:

Probably honorary degree.  Some other evangelicals go by doctor as well, don't they?

In 1993 he was being called Doctor but not in the present.  The way everyone called him doctor, it may be something he just acquired and was making sure his employees used the title.

 

 

 

Around 15 years ago, I was taking courses in a profession that had a lot of new-agey overtones. There were a couple of people I knew that used the designation “Dr." One of them even had the chutzpah to bill himself as both “Dr". before and “PhD” after his name (Like: Dr. John Smith, PhD) which was both tacky and amusing. Upon investigation, they had nothing more than a mail-order degree. I would hope Eli would be a little more ethical about his ‘degree’, but who knows. 

Harmon is definitely going to pop up soon, if he hasn’t already. I think the theory that B.J. is the adult Harmon is a good one. I can almost picture Judy's reaction, LOL. 

[Simon Boccanegra]

I'm glad Aimee-Leigh and Baby Billy knew another song. I didn't think I could take "Misbehavin'" again. I can't stand it, but then I can't get it out of my head. And just by mentioning the title, I'm probably making that your problem too!  

The interlude episodes (both of them so far) have been like...vegetables, but well-prepared vegetables. I"m more interested in the present-day story than in decades-ago flashbacks, but they do flesh things out and give fullness to relationships and ongoing events. So I guess they get the job done. 

Gideon's been blink-and-you-miss-him this season, compared to last. Maybe they had Gisondo for a limited time, given how ubiquitous he is these days? 

[SailorGirl]

1 hour ago, Simon Boccanegra said:

And just by mentioning the title, I'm probably making that your problem too!  

Why yes, yes you are. And now I feel the need to run around the house with a pickle in my mouth . . . 

[patty1h]

My memory of last season is foggy, so if they already gave some backstory on this, I'm completely not remembering.   Was it ever explained how Eli got "the calling".  We see his backstory of being a wrestler, and church leader is not something I'd expect to be his next profession.  Did he grow up in a religious household, did he have some epiphany/revelation or was it something he concocted as a means to make money and he "grew" into it.   It's been shown that many wrestlers get storylines and are actors who take on their "role" in the ring, so did Eli switch his role from wrassler to worshiper?  Again, this may have already been explained on the show but my brain ain't helping me with those answers.

Another question... does he have an official title, like preacher, reverend, minister?  I'm disregarding the title "doctor" cause that was from years ago and it's not used now as far as the show goes.

Edited February 2, 2022 by patty1h

[Simon Boccanegra]

8 hours ago, patty1h said:

Was it ever explained how Eli got "the calling".  We see his backstory of being a wrestler, and church leader is not something I'd expect to be his next profession.  Did he grow up in a religious household, did he have some epiphany/revelation or was it something he concocted as a means to make money and he "grew" into it.   

All we've seen of Eli's childhood household is the brief scene this season in which he comes home and the father (who will age into M. Emmet Walsh) insists that a blessing be said before they have dinner. The wrestler/mob enforcer version of Eli is very irreverent about it and does a half-assed job, and his father slaps him. 

So "yes" on religious household (to a degree), but we haven't heard anything I recall about what led him into religion. I'm thinking if the show goes on for a couple more seasons, they'll thread more in via flashbacks with the young Eli and the young Aimee-Leigh.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Simon Boccanegra

[hatchetgirl]

On 2/2/2022 at 11:26 AM, patty1h said:

My memory of last season is foggy, so if they already gave some backstory on this, I'm completely not remembering.   Was it ever explained how Eli got "the calling".  We see his backstory of being a wrestler, and church leader is not something I'd expect to be his next profession.  Did he grow up in a religious household, did he have some epiphany/revelation or was it something he concocted as a means to make money and he "grew" into it.   It's been shown that many wrestlers get storylines and are actors who take on their "role" in the ring, so did Eli switch his role from wrassler to worshiper?  Again, this may have already been explained on the show but my brain ain't helping me with those answers.

I thought Eli's father was a pastor of a small church.  I may have read that way wrong thought.  Pastor kids are known for being wild, so that would explain Eli's wrestling at night without his daddy knowing.