Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Righteous Gemstones Season 4, Episode 8With just one episode left of the final season ofThe Righteous Gemstones, the two main villains of Season 4 – Vance Simkins (Stephen Dorff) and Cobb Milsap (Michael Rooker) – finally got their comeuppance. While Vance is booed off-stage for hishomophobic attacks on Kelvin(Adam Devine), Cobb, Lori’s (Megan Mullally) abusive ex-husband, meets a grisly death that has been hinted at throughout the season. While antagonists like Vance and Peter (Steve Zahn) of Season 3 are somewhat grounded in reality but taken to an exaggerated and comical extreme,Cobb is arguably the most nefarious antagonist the show has ever seen.
While the introduction of Lori’s character gave us another look into the Gemstones’ past, Season 4’s flashback episode, “Interlude IV,” also shows us what a dangerous man Cobb has been for decades. Not only is he a domestic abuser, but he was the masked man who broke in and ransacked the Gemstones’ home, traumatizing young Kelvin (Tristan Borders). Unlike Peter, Cobb is an irredeemable villain, andEpisode 8 veers into some seriously dark, horror movie-esque territory in its final moments.
Michael Rooker’s Cobb Milsap Is ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Most Terrifying Villain
Though Lori first appears in Season 4, Episode 2, Cobb is introduced in Episode 6, when he and Lori are established as family friends of the Gemstones. Cobb owns a local alligator farm and even tells Eli (John Goodman) that he has a million dollars in the bank, but he still harbors resentment towards the Gemstones for the way they flaunt their wealth. Lori confides in Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles) that she’s planning to divorce Cobb, and recording their joint album will allow her to earn enough money to do so, but Cobb is enraged when he finds out they’re working together. Drunk and volatile,Eli fights off Cobb and later tries to reason with him, but this only turns him further against the Gemstones, leading to Cobb breaking into the Gemstones’ mansion to destroy their things and steal their gold-plated Bible. In the present day, despite their separation,Cobb’s abuse continues, slandering Lori’s reputation and convincing Eli she’s an escort trying to scam him.Cobb’s lies, and the discovery that one of Lori’s previous boyfriends, Big Dick Mitch (Regan Burns), disappeared after they dated, leads the Gemstone siblings to believe she may actually be a danger to Eli and their family.
Cobb’s obsession with antagonizing and sabotaging Lori’s romantic relationships is a clear example of the toxic, abusive, “if I can’t have her, nobody else can” mindset, and his ability to successfully manipulate and twist the facts topaint Lori as the villainnearly ruins her life. Even Eli, who defended their relationship to Jesse (Danny McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson), and Kelvin, fell for Cobb’s lies and turned against Lori as a result. Cobb is also abusive towards their son Corey (Seann William Scott), both verbally and physically, hitting him at his own birthday party when Corey refuses to tell him about Lori and Eli’s breakup. Though Episode 6 showed us Cobb at what we thought was his worst, Episode 8 reveals him to be even more dangerous and abusive than we already knew him to be.
Episode 8 Gives Some of the Darkest Moments of ‘The Righteous Gemstones’
The last ten minutes ofThe Righteous GemstonesSeason 4, Episode 8, takes one of the darkest turns in the show’s history and proves Cobb to be the most terrifying villain in the series. As Eli and Baby Billy (Walton Goggins) climb into Baby Billy’s Cybertruck, they’re both shot with tranquilizer darts and later wake up cuffed in Cobb’s bunker along with a naked and emaciated Big Dick Mitch. Cobb’s previous comments to Lori about making Eli disappear weren’t empty threats, as he really did kidnap Mitch and keep him in his soundproofed bunker as a sex slave, intending to do the same with Eli and Baby Billy.The two men find themselves in ahorror movie come to life, but thankfully, unlike Big Dick Mitch, it doesn’t last very long. When the police show up to investigate Mitch’s disappearance, Cobb is shown to be evenmoreevil, not hesitating to kill two cops and one of his employees when Eli and Baby Billy manage to escape.
With ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Ending, I Need This Character To Get Their Own Spin Off
There’s more to this flamboyant character than meets the eye.
Out of all the antagonistsThe Righteous Gemstoneshas introduced over the course of four seasons, Cobb is undoubtedly the most terrifying. Though he doesn’t appear until the second half of the season, he not only inflicted intense trauma on Kelvin in the past, but continues his campaign of abuse into adulthood with Lori. Like Peter, Cobb was put off by the way the Gemstones show off their wealth, but, while Peter eventually abandoned his religious extremist group and ultimately redeemed himself,there is no path to reconciliation for Cobb, who is a moreunambiguously evil character.It’s only fitting that such a character would wind up literally stabbed in the back by his son and then torn apart by his own alligators, making for an incredibly satisfying death.
Throughout the series,The Righteous Gemstoneshas done a great job of introducing antagonists who are at least somewhat grounded in reality — like with Vance’s bigotry and Peter’s extremism — but taken to an outlandish extreme. More so than in the previous seasons,Season 4 has leaned into some more serious moments, from theCivil War-themed season premiereto Cobb’s break-in during the flashback episode, and the incorporation of Cobb’s character in the latter half of the season introduced some real stakes for the Gemstone family. It makes sense that a man as abusive and manipulative as Cobb would actually have a secret torture bunker, but even as Eli and Baby Billy are facing the threat of sexual assault, there’s still some humor injected into the situation when Baby Billy is confused as to why Eli would comment on Mitch’s penis size. Cobb’s character arc, which brings us some of the darkest scenes in all ofThe Righteous Gemstones,shows just how well the show succeeds in framing real-life issues in a humorous light while still packing a punch.
The series finale ofThe Righteous Gemstonesairs on Sunday on HBO and Max in the US.
The Righteous Gemstones
Follows a world-famous televangelist family with a long tradition of deviance, greed, and charitable work.
