Greenleaf – The Fifth Day

This week ain’t over yet. We made it to Day 5. Holy Sunday. Here we go…

The Greenleafs have planned a church service at their home on this good Sunday morning. Mae will be leading her family in worship. Grace comes to get Sophia who is still snoozing. She tells Grace that she’s not going to church because she’s tired. See. These are words I would have never been able to tell my parents back in the day. But Grace ain’t like my parents, so she continues to be calm and ask Sophia what the deal is. Apparently, she was up all night dealing with some girls at Hampton. Grace asks if she’s ok, but of course, Sophia doesn’t answer the question. Grace leaves and Sophia’s phone starts blowing up. I told yall before that whatever Zora did to get rid of those pictures Sophia sent to her boo wasn’t going to be enough. And now those pictures are circulating again and the peeps at Hampton have seen them. Looks like Sophia is gonna have to pray and put on her big girl panties to deal with this one.

All the Greenleafs gather for church. Even Noah and AJ make it. Charity is leading them in a song that’s quite appropriate – “Starting All Over.” Yes, folks. That’s where we are. Mae rises to give her family a word. She thanks Karine for joining. Bishop notes that Karine’s grandma is over at the church for the last service aka “the conjuring.” I mean what else can you call it when people gather ’round to breath unholy life into a corpse. He has a point. Mae gets them centered again. Let’s not dwell on the past, we have much to celebrate. At this point, Kerissa interrupts and side eye’s Jacob (who side-eyes her back). Mae presses on. And Kerissa interrupts again. Bishop has to intervene…and tells her to concentrate on Jesus and shut the hell up. He didn’t say that, but that’s what he meant. Again, Mae presses on. Her messages is “New Beginnings.” The church service was the disaster I thought it would be, but I guess they did the best they could.

Mae put together a post-church brunch for the family and it’s full of drama, too. Sophia tells Zora about the picture situation and how she can’t go back to Hampton with them swirling around the innanets. Karine is giving Charity a play by play of the foolishness going on at Calvary’s last service. Noah brings up the first Sunday in that church…apparently that was a big day. Grace lost her virginity there. Say what? Lawddddddd. Them two were wild back in the day. And in the church house. #blessit AJ is roaming around the house because he really doesn’t know what to do with all of this Greenleaf energy. He and Bishop end up having a deep conversation that leads them to the shed. They have some grandfather/grandson bonding over an unassembled car that Bishop has had forever. He got it from his father but never put it together. His dad was trying to teach him that faith without works was dead, but he never even had the courage to open it and put it together. He promises AJ that if helps him put it together, the car is his. So sweet.

While the fam is eating, Mae is getting ready to pay a visit to the “Skanks-adjacent Saint who wants to take her house.” Since TWO whole Greenleaf men went down to that raggedy church Tara is running and couldn’t get a resolution, Mae is ready to down there and fix this situation. She told Bishop that he better pray for Tara. #sheready Mae makes it over to Tara’s church and manages to make small talk about her ministry. Tara tells Mae that she knows she doesn’t have a solid legal claim to the house. But, if it was meant for her dad to have it and that didn’t happen, she has to see it thru. That house could be a shelter or a center for the less fortunate. And then…something happened. She tells Tara that she prayed for a new beginning…and God has a sense of humor. Ummm…huh? What does that mean? Mae returns to the house looking like the wind has been knocked out of her soul. Bishop asks her how it went over at Tara’s and Mae doesn’t want to talk about it. Nah, sis. You went down to fix it, now you gotta tell me what happened. And then Mae blew my mind. She told Bishop that they HAVE to give Tara the house…because Jesus said so. Bishop was like…nah.

Up in Grace’s suite, Grace is filling Noah in on all of the H+H, Bob and the house drama. Grace tells him that she thinks she can still stop all of this stuff from happening if she had the right information. They talk about AJ’s adjustment for a minute and then Noah sees that Grace is tired. Everything that’s going on plus being up all night thinking about the house has her spent. But she also told Noah that she was up thinking about him. Say word? Well, Noah was quick to jump on that comment. He fluffed up a pillow, put it in his lap and told Grace to lay it on down and get some rest. Grace was resistant, but she let go and followed his orders and made herself nice and cozy in Noah’s arms. Noah ain’t slick. He was waiTing for the right moment. I ain’t even mad. But he had a question about why Loretta Davis would leave the house to Darryl in the first place? Grace got cozy and slept for an hour in Noah’s lap. When she woke up, Noah told her that he remembered that there was a journal the old groundskeeper kept…and it may have some info Grace could use. There were some plans and sketches of what the groundskeeper was going to do with the place once Ms. Davis passed away. Ole boy was low key planning for an inheritance. There were several times where the caretaker wrote “that Negro came by.” What if “that Negro” was Darryl James? Noah for the win?

Mae got Bishop all in a tizzy. He went straight to Grace to come up with a plan. He tells her that Mae wants to give Tara the house…but maybe if they could offer Tara some money, that would handle it. At this point, Gigi is the only Greenleaf with some cash. Everybody else is unemployed and Bishop lost all of their play money last season. But good ole Gigi got the money from Lionel’s (her real pappy) trust. She’s all in. How much you need, Daddy? How much you got? Lawd. Gigi finna give up all her coins to save this house. So Bishop is thinking he may have solved Mae’s problem. Give Tara money. Yes, that’s it. Nope. Mae isn’t here for that resolution either. There is no way that they can use THAT money to make THIS problem go away. She lied to her family for 40 WHOLE years and kept the secret about Gigi’s daddy. This new venture is founded on truth and must be sturdy. They don’t get it. Mae has a moment (I guess God spoke) and tells Bishop they are giving Tara the house. Bishop was like…maam…you are making me look like a murderer. WTF? And then Charity comes in and tells them that they are going to the church one last time. They are not going to say goodbye…they are going to say thank you.

Since this Sunday is already a disaster, Jacob and Kerissa decided to keep the party going and tell Zora that they are getting a divorce. Zora played it cool at first, but then it went left. Zora tells her parental units that she wanted her mom to leave Jacob a LONG time ago…because who she gon get now? Some old dude? I cackled. Kerissa pipes up and tells Zora that it’s not all Jacob’s fault. Zora still isn’t buying it. She has literally seen her dad disrespect and cheat on her mom for years and she is over him. I get it, sis. Your daddy is a whore. Zora breaks down and leaves the two idiots to themselves. Kerissa had the nerve to be “mad” about the divorce. Guess she forgot she’s the one that put this thing in play. She really wants to stop the divorce, but it looks like Jacob is all the way over it and her.

In a surprising scene, AJ came thru for Sophia. Sophia told him about what happened and how she was basically ready to give up on life because of those pics on the internet. He asks her what she wants and she says she doesn’t want to go back to Hampton and deal with a bunch of *itches. Listen…I need for Sophia to get her life and stop referring to those upstanding Hamptonians as a bunch of *itches. Don’t be mad at them because your tits are all over the innanets…because of YOUR bad decisions. Sorry…had to clear my alma maters name. Back to the story. Sophia says she wants the pictures gone. But what do you want that you can have? She wants to stay there with him and Zora. AJ was like…really? That’s lame. He reminds her that she still has to grow up and leave. It is not normal for all these grown arse people to be living together. Tell her AJ. I been wondering about this compound setup since the first episode. Eventually, you will have to go somewhere, grow up and get on with life. Come thru Big Brother AJ!

Poor Zora is in her cabin crying her eyes out when Auntie Grace stops by. Zora tells Grace the news and Grace turns into Auntie Grace and tries to comfort her. Zora’s ok and Grace asks her about the stuff that may have been left at the cabin by the groundskeeper. Zora knows exactly what she’s talking about. Grace heads for the trunk and finds the ledger that Noah remembered.

The Greenleafs arrive at Calvary one last time. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I kept having flashbacks of them when Calvary was alive and well. When Bishop was the king. When Mae was the queen. When all was well. Each of them look around at the offices and different rooms and then they all walk together and down the aisle of the empty sanctuary. They go down memory road. Bishop did not let this last visit go to waste. He preached one last sermon to his family. Let us seal up this tomb and wait for our miracle. Jesus didn’t hang on to anything and let himself be called a criminal although he had done nothing wrong. And then Bishop decides that the house should go to Tara. *le sigh* And the Greenleafs stand together, hand in hand, at the alter and seemingly ready to embrace whatever is next.

Bishop and Mae wasted no time giving Tara the news. They head back over to the hood to talk to her. And guess who answered the door – Tara AND ROCHELLE! I knew her azz was going to show up. I bet that’s who Tara made the phone call to. Rochelle said she told Tara that them Greenleafs were going to show up again. And at that moment a SUV is pulling up. Mae and Bishop cannot believe this ish! Ughhhhhhhh!

In other (petty) news…

Let’s talk about these alfets these folks had on on this fine Sunday. I keep wondering why Charity’s dresses are a Smedium. Like…what’s going on? AJ had on a yellow and white polka dot shirt with a long sleeve shirt underneath. I am going to try to cut him some slack because that may have been the closest thing he had to a church alfet. In better news, Lady Mae was KILLING IT in the wardrobe department. Her kimonos have been giving me life and that pink blouse she had on was fiyah. Keep it up, Mae.

Baby Nathan got some air time this week, but Charity basically left him with Sophia. Even the baby was confused as to why his mama did this to him. But I think Sophia needs some therapy around those “I can’t have a baby” issues she has. She looked so uncomfortable with Nathan.

Soooo….what’s next for the Greenleafs?

Rochelle is back. I always knew she would return. I wouldn’t be surprised if Basie shows up next. I don’t trust any of them to be gone. Why are the Greenleafs so trusting? Jacob, Bishop…and Mae. They already know how ruthless Rochelle is. Why would they really think that she was gone for good? The real question is what does Rochelle have up her sleeve? And who was in the SUV that pulled up right on time?

In this episode, Charity made a call to Yusef herself. Yusef is the epitome of a crotchety old Black man and he really doesn’t want to talk to anyone about anything. But it looks like Charity might have made some progress with him and he shows up next week. Will he have the answers that they have been looking for? And what will Grace find out about the former groundskeeper?

So…will Grace and Noah get it in? It looks like Darius is back next week. It seemed like those two may have been on the road to reconciliation. But Noah is playing for the win. Who will Grace end up with. Noah? Darius? None of the above?

Sophia needs to take her arse back to school. PeriodT.

Ok folks. Let me know what you though about this week’s episode. We need to talk about this thang!