Chuck Montgomery

Lukas Haas as Chuck Montgomery

### Relatives

Peter Montgomery (father), May-May Montgomery (mother), Karl Montgomery (brother), Eli Gemstone (uncle), Aimee-Leigh Gemstone (aunt), Jesse Gemstone (cousin), Judy Gemstone (cousin), Kelvin Gemstone (cousin)

## Overview

Chuck Montgomery is the son of May-May Montgomery and Peter Montgomery, also the brother of Karl Montgomery. He is the cousin to Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin Gemstone, as well as the nephew of Eli and Aimee-Leigh Gemstone, being the son of Eli's sister May-May. Chuck is played by actor Lukas Haas.

## Season 3

Chuck grew up relatively impoverished in his immediate family, as May-May and Peter ran a Pentecostal, primitive type of Christian ministry deep in the woods of Tennessee. Their church, in contrast to Eli and Aimee-Leigh's, featured events such as snake handling and speaking in tongues during their services. They were in a small, roughshod church building that was falling into disrepair as of 1999 when Peter gets suckered into Eli's Y2K-prepper business. Peter, Chuck's father, had decided to invest the family's life savings into Eli's Y2K doomsday-prepper kits that he had sold in the lead up to January 1, 2000. Peter believed Eli's predictions about the End Times occurring as a result of the Y2K event in earnest, thinking society was actually going to collapse and he had the means to support his family in an apocalyptic event. When Y2K passed without much fanfare, Peter and his family was financially destroyed. This led Peter and the Montgomery's to have a falling out with the Gemstones, and Peter eventually deciding to rob a bank to restore his finances. Peter was unsuccessful, however, and ended up going to prison for armed robbery and murder. Later, after the ruin of the family because of Peter's actions (and indirectly Eli's), May-May would attack Aimee-Leigh with a monkey wrench at a county fair/demolition derby, resulting in Eli and Aimee-Leigh filing a restraining order against May-May.

Fast forward to the present day, and Chuck and Karl are living with their released father, Peter, and have started a local militia, Brothers of Tomorrow's Fires. Their mother May-May reaches out to her estranged brother Eli during a book tour, asking to help her track down Chuck and Karl, hoping to lure them away from Peter. Eventually, Eli relents given Aimee-Leigh is no longer around, and helps May-May track down the boys and Peter at their location in the woods. Eli elects to visit Peter and the militia at their compound, imploring Peter to let the boys contact their mother. After Eli's visit, the militia compound is raided by Federal Agents. Peter believes that his sons ratted him and his organization out to their mother, and begins sadistically torturing a member of the militia until the brothers admit doing so. After he cuts off the ear of said man, Peter is attacked by Karl, who then assists Chuck in escaping the compound to return to their mother after a car chase.

Karl and Chuck then begin living with the Gemstones at their compound, and the request of Eli and May-May. The Gemstone siblings do not take well to their cousins at first, seeing them as rural, redneck yokels in contrast to their more refined and affluent aesthetic. However, slowly but surely, the cousins come to start to bond, through "cousin night" at the compound, which goes completely awry along with Baby Billy Freeman, who brought his wife Tiffany and son Lionel to enjoy cousin night as well. The Gemstone siblings come to eventually respect and enjoy the presence of their cousins, eventually leading Jesse to allowing Karl and Chuck to ride and eventually own his monster truck, the Redeemer. Karl and Chuck start attending regular church services with their family, including their traditional post-service restaurant brunch. After one such service, their father Peter resurfaces and confronts the extended group at brunch. Peter calls out the Gemstones as false Christians and Charlatans, after promising to reconcile with his boys when he found out that it wasn't them who called in the raid by the Feds. Fed up with Peter's nonsense, each of the Gemstones (and their spouses) pulls out a firearm of sorts, mainly pistols. They all threaten to shoot Peter, and Peter stands down.

Later, it is revealed that the boys stayed in contact with their father and functioned as double agents the entire time. The boys assist in the abduction of their three cousins, and also absconding with the Redeemer to the militia compound. Hailed as heroes by their father and the militia, both boys assist Peter in trying to extort Eli for ransom, threatening to kill one of the Gemstone kids if Peter isn't paid by Eli. Eli believes Peter is bluffing and refuses to pay. Peter, now in a bad position, feels he has to engage in some sort of violence against one of the three Gemstones. As Peter debates which to kill, Karl has a change of heart and contacts May-May to help get them out of the compound. Chuck, however, remains loyal to his father and is unaware of Karl's backchanneling to May-May. May-May then goes to the compound and with Karl's assistance, breaks the three Gemstones free and takes them to her car to escape the compound. As they are driving away, Peter orders Chuck to shoot the vehicle with his family in it, which Chuck cannot bring himself to do. In a fit of rage, Peter has the militia chase after May-May, but they are thwarted by Jesse's son Gideon Gemstone, whom had sneaked into the compound himself and got into the Redeemer monster truck, destroying a good bit of the militia compound and allowing May-May and the others to escape.

After the ransom debacle and losing their permanent location, the militia begins to turn on Peter, especially after he decides to camp out under an overpass until they find a more permanent solution. One of Peter's top lieutenants Marshall grows weary of the situation, opting to counter-protest left-wing protesters at Confederate statue and monument sites, like other militia groups do throughout the South. Peter is intent on his revenge against the Gemstones, an increasingly personal ambition not related to the mission of the militia. As Peter grows more and more delusional as the militia's leader, Marshall and other members decide to remove Peter as their leader, forcing Chuck out of the militia as well. Peter then intends to bomb the Gemstone church complex, having set up explosives that were stolen from the Gemstones by Karl and Chuck earlier when they left with the Redeemer. Chuck, however, had serious misgivings about Peter and the direction they were heading, with Chuck wanting to reunite with his brother and mother after seeing how Peter had lost his mind. While stopping at a gas station, Chuck detonates one of the explosives, leading Peter to think Chuck had passed. Peter then assembles an even larger explosive in a Uhaul van, intended to blow the Gemstones to kingdom come, having nothing to lose after Chuck's "death". Chuck, however, survived with no issues and was able to escape to May-May. He reunites with his brother where he was confronted by his cousins, and Chuck admits to not being able to shoot them and deciding to leave Peter after that.

Chuck and Karl are eventually selected to join the three Gemstones on Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers, competing against the Simkins family. However, a plague of locusts descends on the studio, drawing comparisons to the Book of Exodus. During the chaos and locust infestation, the entire Montgomery Family hides out underneath bleachers, prompting a catharsis when Peter realizes Chuck is still alive. However, Peter accidentally sets the timer for his bomb when he swats off a locust and inadvertently knocking his FitBit dead man's switch off his wrist. Peter then decides to drive the explosive-laden van as far away from the compound as possible, sacrificing himself. Chuck, Karl, and May-May are devastated by this, but it is later revealed that Peter escaped the explosion by jumping out of the car last second, sacrificing his leg in the process. The entire Montgomery Clan is seen later celebrating with their extended family at the Gemstone compound, each enjoying watching and driving/riding in the Redeemer.