'The Righteous Gemstones' Season 4 villain is ... Michael Rooker! (2025)

The Righteous Gemstones is finally showing its cards and the joker is on full display — enter Michael Rooker.

After several episodes of faking fans out with a red herring in the form of rival pastor Vance Simkins (Stephen Dorff) — who is competing against Kelvin (Adam DeVine) to win the title of “Top Christ Following Man” — Episode 6 of Season 4 revealed that Rooker’s newly introduced character, Cobb Milsap, is really this season’s big bad.

Earlier in the season, the audience saw Kelvin witness a flashback in the form of a nightmare, where he was home alone as an intruder burglarized the Gemstone compound. The thief’s identity was not revealed at the time as Kelvin woke up just seconds before his face or voice could be revealed, but we now know it is Cobb — the ex-husband of Lori Milsap (Megan Mullally) — who entered the Gemstone home and terrorized Kelvin that night.

In Season 4 Episode 6, “Interlude IV,” the audience sees Cobb ransack the home while the rest of the Gemstones are out at dinner, angry over Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles) and Eli (John Goodman) empowering his then-wife to leave him. He also steals the gold-plated bible first held by the OG Elijah Gemstone (Bradley Cooper), whose wicked ways were introduced in this season’s opening episode.

Now, it is clearer than ever that Lori’s no-good ex is out to get her and take revenge on the entire Gemstone clan for breaking up his family and causing his son, Corey (Seann William Scott), to look at him differently. In fact, in Episode 6, Lori suspects Cobb may have been behind the break-in and asks Corey if he saw his dad the night of the incident — Cobb had called Corey and said his car had broken down — but was gone by the time they arrived at the location to jump his car. Corey ultimately lies and covers for his dad, providing an alibi and giving him the means to get away with the crime.

We can’t forget that Cobb is also the independently wealthy owner of an alligator park, which is a total villain occupation if I’ve ever seen one. In that same flashback episode, he gets rough with Lori as the entire Gemstone family watches, which causes Eli to step in and punch him in the face. Once again, Corey offers to drive his dad home — oh, he’s an alcoholic, too, did I forget to mention that? Bad stuff.

Long story short: Cobb is not going to go quietly into the abyss, especially as his ex-wife and the man who clocked him in the face ride off into the sunset. He is clearly dangeous and it’s just another example of The Righteous Gemstones‘ casting team giving us an incredible villain who we all love to hate.

The Righteous Gemstones Season 4 is currently streaming on Max. New episodes drop on HBO and Max at 7 PM PT on Sundays.