Martin Imari

Martin Imari is one of the main characters in the T.V. series, *The Righteous Gemstones*. He is portrayed by Gregory Alan Williams

## Background

He is Eli's friend and longtime Gemstone organization member. As a top employee for the Gemstones, Martin has a front-row seat to the family’s dysfunctions.

## Season 1

As of Season 1, Martin is one of Gemstone Ministries' top employees and Eli Gemstone's right-hand man. He runs the day to day operations of the church, including the weekly Sunday collections, which fund the church. Jesse Gemstone approached Martin to try and secure church money to pay his blackmailers, but Martin refuses as Jesse would not go into detail as to why he needed such a large sum of money. Martin is also present at the family's post-service meals, regularly chastising the Gemstone siblings for their squabbling. Once Gideon Gemstone returns to the family and church, Martin takes him under his wing and teaches Gideon about church operations and security. Little did Martin know that Gideon was planning a heist with his fellow stuntman, Scotty, and was going to rob the church on Easter Sunday, one of its largest holidays in terms of donation hauls. Martin showed Gideon the vault and the collection process, exposing the security holes to Gideon. Gideon and Scotty were ready to execute the heist on Easter Sunday, before Gideon gets cold feet and backs out, leaving Scotty in the lurch. Scotty eventually kidnaps Gideon, Jesse, and Eli at gunpoint, and forces Eli to open the vault where the donations are kept until the following Monday, when they are transported to the bank. Scotty robs the donations and takes off with Lucy for Thailand. Martin and Eli discuss this with Gideon, Jesse, and Amber. Gideon admits to planning the heist alone, and doesn't implicate Jesse, as Jesse knew that Gideon and Scotty were his blackmailers and this heist was to pay Scotty for the blackmail tapes. Gideon chooses a self-imposed exile in Haiti to repay his debt to the church. Meanwhile, Scotty and Lucy get into a car accident with Baby Billy Freeman and his wife, Tiffany. Baby Billy and Tiffany abscond to Freeman's Gap, South Carolina with the stolen Gemstone money.

When Eli confronts his children at the site of the crash, he fires all of them from his ministry for their petty in-fighting and disastrous behavior of late. However, Jesse discovers a Jesus figure that was formerly on Baby Billy's dashboard, deducing that Baby Billy had the stolen money. Eli and his kids then go to Freeman's Gap, and confront Baby Billy and Tiffany. Tiffany lies and says Baby Billy dies, but they spot him running away from the house into an open field. Eli confronts Baby Billy, who claims that he deserves the money because of the income he lost when Eli married Aimee-Leigh and ended Aimee-Leigh and Baby Billy's musical career as a brother-sister duo. Baby Billy continues to flee, before being struck by lightning in the field. He miraculously survives, and agrees to give Eli back the money that Scotty stole. The church was then made whole again, much to Martin's delight. Baby Billy goes on to start his own rural tent-revival style of preaching, with Tiffany selling self-help books based on Baby Billy's lightning strike.

## Season 2

Martin plays less of an active role in the parts of the season that occur in the present day, but has a lot of his background revealed through flashbacks. Martin is still Eli's right-hand man and operations manager, but is not involved in the Gemstone siblings' shenanigans. During a post-service lunch where Judy and Jesse refuse to stop arguing, Martin gets up and starts yelling at the siblings, invoking Eli and Aimee-Leigh, and stating that they make these meals unbearable with their nonstop bickering. Martin and his family abruptly leave, which shocks everyone at the table as Martin is typically soft-spoken.

Martin's past is revealed in the episode Interlude II. He was newly hired as a low-level accountant for the church in 1993. He had replaced the prior accountant, who disagreed with Eli's plans for spending large amounts of money, having counseled Eli to go the opposite direction and do some belt-tightening. Eli promptly fired that accountant on the spot, and brought in a young and naive Martin to take his place. Eli expressed contempt toward Martin as Eli came to work one morning to see Martin seated behind his desk. Eli demanded to know who was he, much less sitting at his desk. The man identifies himself as Martin Imari and was told to go to Eli's office as the new accountant and was waiting for the boss. Eli ordered him out of his office, to which Martin immediately does so and humbly apologizes for sitting at the desk. Later, Martin is inadvertently wrapped up in Eli's conflict with Glendon Marsh Sr. Due to his refusal to launder Glendon's illegally obtained cash, Eli is forced into the deal when Glendon abducts Martin at gunpoint. However, this comes to an abrupt end when Eli's senile father, Roy Gemstone, shoots Glendon dead in self-defense. The rest of Eli's family did not witness the standoff or subsequent shooting, only Eli, Martin, and Roy could see what happened. After Eli shoos his family away, he and Martin take Glendon's body and bury it underneath the future site of the Exodus roller coaster. This cements Martin as one of Eli's most trusted advisors, and Eli expresses his sincere respect to Martin for his role in these events. Martin stays silent and keeps the secret, which proves his loyalty to Eli and the church, elevating his status from low-level staffer to essentially the #3 man for the entire operation.

Martin's only real presence in the main (present day) plot in Season 2, is his involvement in Jesse's attempt to lure the attacking Cycle Ninjas to the hospital that Eli was originally staying at during his recovery from a shooting by the Ninjas. After Jesse's armed security guards opt to leave the hospital, only Jesse, Martin, Benjamin Jason "BJ" Barnes, and Gideon Gemstone are left to fend off the Cycle Ninjas. As his plans typically do, Jesse's plan goes completely awry but is ultimately successful, as Gideon displays his motorcycle skills in running down and dismounting each Cycle Ninja, resulting in their arrest.

Martin later assists the Gemstones in tracking down the exiled Lyle Lissons and his wife, Lindy. He had located them at a remote cabin in Alaska, where he revealed their location to the Cycle Ninjas, who sought revenge on the Lissons for not paying them for their attempts on Eli's life. The Ninjas shot Lindy dead and saw Lyle flee his residence skimpily dressed. They were also prepared to shoot Lyle, but decided against it as he was running into the Alaskan outback in shabby attire. Some time later, Lyle died of hypothermia, becoming a literal frozen corpse in the tundra and last seen flanked by timberwolves.