Aimee-Leigh Gemstone

Aimee-Leigh Gemstone (née Freeman) was the matriarch of the Gemstone family, and wife of Dr. Eli Gemstone. She is portrayed by country music singer and Sugarland founder, Jennifer Nettles.

## Background

Aimee-Leigh has been deceased for a year by the beginning of season 1. She kept the family together and was able to assuage the petty bickering the Gemstone kids were known for. Eli rues her death constantly, believing that the family's misfortunes in the first season occurred because Aimee-Leigh wasn't there.

Following her death, Eli has a garden installed in her memory, with a bust statue of Aimee-Leigh's face surrounded by water fountains at their compound in Charleston.

### Season 1

According to her memorial plaque on the Gemstone compound, Aimee-Leigh was born in 1955 and died in 2018. She and her brother, Baby Billy Freeman, were a child country music duo prior to her meeting Eli Gemstone and becoming a central part of his ministry.

Aimee-Leigh and Baby Billy together recorded a song, *Misbehavin'**,* which would prove to be an enduring hit well into their adulthood. However, upon meeting Eli Gemstone, Aimee-Leigh would put her musical and dancing career on hiatus in favor of helping her future husband and father of her children in his evangelical endeavors. Having been a co-host of their Christian ministry show, Aimee-Leigh was a focal point of their episodes, displaying her musical and dancing talent regularly.

She would later be mother to three children: Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin. For a significant amount of time, the family consisted of Aimee-Leigh, Eli, Jesse, and Judy. However in 1989, Aimee-Leigh would become unexpectedly pregnant, much later in life than she anticipated. Seeing it as a miracle akin to Abraham and Sarah, Eli and Aimee-Leigh were rejoiced at the news. However, Baby Billy had been planning on starting a reunion tour with Aimee-Leigh, which was then put on hiatus due to the pregnancy.

Aimee-Leigh would later return to her childhood home now occupied by her brother. In pleading to delay the tour, Aimee-Leigh hoped to keep her brother happy. However, Baby Billy revealed his severe financial hardship, which was the driving force behind him wanting the tour. Baby Billy threatened to start selling parcels of their familial land to developers, which convinced Aimee-Leigh to go on the tour while still pregnant.

At a post Sunday church family lunch, Baby Billy's treachery was eventually revealed. Baby Billy stated that he had already begun selling off parts of the Freeman family's land, much to Aimee-Leigh's frustration. Baby Billy gaslit Aimee-Leigh into thinking he had already told her, but as seen in the previous scene in Freeman's Gap, Billy did not tell Aimee-Leigh he had already started selling. Aimee-Leigh then cancelled the tour and departed the restaurant with her family. This laid the foundation for the feud between Baby Billy and Eli in the present day.

### Season 2

Aimee-Leigh again appears in a flashback episode in season 2, Interlude II. Going back to 1993, it chronicles the Christmas Holiday season for the family and church ministry. The episode shows her brother Baby Billy abandoning his first family, which consisted of his wife, and his son Harmon. Harmon was displaying developmental issues, and while picking out a cat or dog at a pet shop, Baby Billy abruptly leaves and abandons his son. He later resurfaces at the Gemstone compound, essentially inviting himself to their home for Christmas. Baby Billy and Aimee-Leigh seem to be somewhat amicable after their fight in the previous season over Kelvin's birth. Baby Billy brings gifts to the kids, namely cufflinks that he was selling prior to meeting up with his sister's family. At first, Eli and Aimee-Leigh joke with Baby Billy about not having any gifts for him, but eventually bring out his gift and invite him for a paid appearance on their televangelism show. At the same time, Eli's former wrestling manager and boss, Glendon Marsh Sr. comes to Charleston to present a business proposition to Eli: Glendon had $3 million ($5,836,982.70 in 2022 dollars) that he needed laundered, and chose Eli because his church could launder it outside the IRS' purview as a religious organization. At first, Eli agrees thinking he could make some extra cash on the side, but when he discussed it with Aimee-Leigh, Aimee-Leigh talks him out of it given the legal and civil risk they would incur as a result. Eli backs out, and Glendon attempts to force his hand by kidnapping a young and newly hired Martin Imari at gunpoint. Aimee-Leigh and the rest of the family are on the back balcony, away from the commotion with Glendon. Eli's father, Roy Gemstone, ends up unexpectedly shooting Glendon, startling the family on the balcony. Eli explains it away as his father misfiring the weapon, and Aimee-Leigh and the kids are none the wiser to what just occurred. Eli would enlist Martin's help in burying Glendon where the roller coaster Exodus would eventually be built.

In the present day, New York Times journalist Thaniel Block meets with Eli to discuss his upcoming piece on the Gemstones. Block had previously led the take down of Makawon Butterfield, a fellow megachurch pastor that was outed for engaging in services from a prostitute with his wife. Block met Eli and discussed where he was going with his investigation - Block had interviewed former employees of Aimee-Leigh, who painted a completely different picture than what the public saw. Aimee-Leigh had a reputation from her former assistants for being overly controlling and a micromanaging boss, which clashed with her warm and kind public facade. However, Block would end up dead before he could publish his hit piece on the Gemstones, preventing the bad stories about Aimee-Leigh from coming to light.

## Season 3

Season 3 begins with a flashback, where Aimee-Leigh and Eli are at a demolition derby following Jesse's new stunt project, the Redeemer Monster Truck. As Aimee-Leigh leaves the derby, she is chased by a then-unknown figure wielding a giant monkey wrench. As Aimee-Leigh flees this individual, they catch up to her and eventually swing at her with the wrench, severely lacerating her forehead in the process.

In the "Interlude III" episode, Aimee-Leigh is shown alongside Eli during the late 90s in the lead up to Y2K. Eli begins selling survivalist kits, seeing the Y2K conspiracies as a business opportunity. Aimee-Leigh is less enthusiastic and admits to Eli that she didn't believe in the Y2K conspiracies. When Y2K passed without issue, thousands of people who purchased Eli's survival kits felt scammed since the Rapture/Apocalypse did not occur as Eli had predicted. One of those individuals that purchased a great deal of survival kits was Eli's brother-in-law, Peter Montgomery. In earlier episodes prior to the Interlude in Season 3, the woman who had attacked Aimee-Leigh in the first episode was revealed to be her sister-in-law, May-May Montgomery. The episode then explores as to why May-May had it out for Aimee-Leigh, which was in retaliation for the Y2K debacle.

Outside of Aimee-Leigh and May-May's knowledge, Peter reveals to Eli that he invested the family's life savings in the survival kits, and is now penniless and unable to support his wife and sons, let alone their Pentecostal church ministry in the Tennessee woods. Eli is revealed to have seen Peter as little more than a mark for his con, which he admits he didn't really believe in the Y2K conspiracies himself, either. Aimee-Leigh offers financial assistance to May-May, who sees through the veneer of respectability and calls out Aimee-Leigh to her face, saying the offer is more about assuaging Aimee-Leigh's guilt as opposed to genuine charity. In true Gemstone fashion, Peter, May-May, and their sons have a falling out with Eli and Aimee-Leigh at a post-church brunch session. Peter, driven into desperation, then attempts to rob a bank. Instead of making off with his loot, Peter is shot by the bank's armed security guard. Peter is able to shoot the guard before passing out from blood loss, caused by the bullet passing through his left cheek. This explains why May-May went after Aimee-Leigh, eventually resulting in Eli filing a restraining order against his sister. Separately, while discussing the various trials and tribulations that Eli and Aimee-Leigh just faced, they overtly acknowledge that Judy has untreated and undiagnosed mental illness that they've both more or less ignored over the years. Judy is shown eavesdropping on this conversation, hearing every word her parents had just said about the people in their family, herself included.

In the present day, Baby Billy and Jesse hatch a plan to use Aimee-Leigh's likeness using an Artificial Intelligence computer program and a Virtual Reality hologram projector. Believing that Aimee-Leigh's death and absence from the Church ministry is why attendance is falling, Jesse and Baby Billy hatch a sales pitch of sorts for Jesse's siblings and Eli, thinking Aimee-Leigh's star power could stem the tide of church departures such as Dusty Daniels. Baby Billy and Jesse both agree that it wasn't Eli's dry preaching style and ruthless business practice that got people to attend the Gemstones' church in the first place, but the clout and star power that Aimee-Leigh brought as a former child music star was really the main draw for the Gemstones. Baby Billy and Jesse then rent the hologram projector and try to pitch the digital version of Aimee-Leigh to Judy, Kelvin, Eli, and others involved with the Church. Seeing a realistic projection of Aimee-Leigh triggers an emotional and traumatic response from Eli, who is driven to tears given his recent feelings of despair without Aimee-Leigh present. Judy and Kelvin both hate the projection, with Judy calling it a "Babadook", to which Jesse retorts, "That ain't no Babadook, that's mama!" Eventually, everyone is so overwhelmed by the projection that one of them eventually destroys the equipment, in an effort to turn the machine off. Baby Billy later remarks that the church didn't own the machine, and only rented it from a local vendor.

After the events at the Montgomery Compound and Baby Billy's ill-fated gameshow occur, Aimee-Leigh's spirit is shown watching over the extended family bonding together at their property. The family finally was able to resolve their differences and get along, likely for the first time ever.