Hello World,

It’s time for your weekly recap of the Mary Mary reality show, but I’m sad to say that as of tonight, this will be my last recap as this episode was the FINALE of Season 4…And what a finale it was y’all…Last week was all about Erica and her 1,2,3, 4 Dove Award nominations (see last week’s recap for the explanation of 1,2,3,4 instead of four or 4) and ended with Tina basically ignoring all of Erica’s accolades and asking her sister to sing background on HER solo project…

Erica’s Awards…

Well, if 1,2,3,4 Dove Award nominations wasn’t enough (she won one of the 1,2,3,4), this week’s episode begins with Erica finding out she is also up for a two Grammy Awards!!! I’ve got to admit that securing 1,2,3,4 Dove Award nominations and two Grammy Award nominations for a debut album is awesome!!! But before we find out if she won anything, we discover that Tina has to take care of some business…

Snitching On Mitch…

Now that Tina’s sisters have snitched on Mitch about his shenanigans at Tina’s wedding, she confronts Mitch during a lunch meeting at a restaurant…Mitch doesn’t lie about nor downplay his actions…”It was not one of my prouder moments,” he explains. He admits that he “spun around and lost it like a crazy man.” Tina shares that she, too, used to be controlled by her emotions, but she finally learned that doing the same things and expecting different results is the ultimate in crazy…Those are some of the wisest words ever said…Please believe them…We don’t get to see the end of the conversation so there is no telling what else transpired…Will Mitch manage Tina’s solo career? From the snippet we saw from the lunch meeting, I could not make any conclusions…

Grammy Awards…

At first Erica tries to be just happy that she was even nominated but a short while later, she starts begging Jesus again to win an award…And she does! She wins Best Gospel Album for her album “Help.” “To have your music acknowledged this way is priceless,” Erica says…

One-Woman Show…

Teddy and Tina discuss what Tina is going to do next in her solo career. Tina explains her vision to her husband….”I don’t want to do a regular concert. I don’t want it to be all about music or storytelling.” She proposes an “Evening With Tina Campbell” to be held at their church In His Presence Church (pretty name) in Woodland Hills, California. “It will be the most ‘truest,’ honest version of me the world is going to get.”

But as we found out in last’s week episode’s Tina’s vision for her one-woman show includes her sister’s background vocals. So Tina goes over to sister’s house to convince her sister to sing for the show…When she shows up at Erica’s house, she finds Erica in the kitchen shining her Grammy Award…Tina shares her joy, at least initially. When she found out that her sister won a Grammy, Tina says she “screamed for five minutes straight.” After she congratulates her sister again, Tina tells her sister about her one-woman show idea which will incorporate her music as well as excerpts of her book.

However, Erica, especially now that she is a Dove Award and Grammy Award -winning solo artist, says that her schedule is full and doesn’t know if she can fit in her sister’s show. She concludes by saying that she will do the best she can to make time to be her sister’s background singer…Tina may be a less fiery version of her former self, but she aine trying to keep her feelings to herself. ” Why don’t you stop the spit-shining and come sing?” Tina says to Erica.

Meanwhile at My Block…

So Warryn is feeling pretty good about his award-winning wife until he gets a call from Sony….He has been summoned to meet at its location but the reason for the meeting is not revealed…He concludes that it can’t be good. “Why does this feel like I’m going to principal’s office?” Warryn says…

However, in the next scene, we see that some potentially bad news is tempered by some good news…He calls his wife to tell her what’s going on…He briefly tells her about the Sony call, but then he shares the good news…Erica has been asked to perform at Lakewood Church….”They want you for the whole weekend,” Warryn says…It is the SAME DAY as Tina’s one-woman show…Sister or not, she decides this is too good of an opportunity to let slip by…

In the next scene Erica is at My Block studios with her husband…I’m no fashionista by anyone’s definition, but the first thing I notice is an old school Gucci purse…The one with black “G”s and the red stripe down the middle…Also, Erica is wearing black cat-eye framed glasses and has a top knot…The whole look is fabulous…While she is at the studio, she won’t be there for long as she prepares to leave to fly to Texas…Tina and more of the Atkins’ sisters are expected to arrive at the studio shortly, but Erica asks her husband to explain what had happened was…

All My Sisters Except Me…

But before she gets away without having to explain to Tina face to face, she runs into her sisters in the parking lot…Erica has to explain about her performance at Lakewood and the fact that she is getting ready to fly out of town…Tina tries to convince her sister to stay…”I aine asking you to cancel. I’m asking you to delay.” But when Erica is not convinced to stay or delay, Tina raises her hand in the air and states, “Daddy, this is the kind of child you raised.” Deep. Now, that’s a guilt trip to from Heaven to hell… “Me and the rest of my sisters gon get the job done,” Tina concludes. Erica is a little upset too. “I’ve got 172 sisters and ain’t none of them can be on my side?”

Showdown at Sony…

The student aka Warryn arrives at the Principal’s Office aka Sony…And just as Warryn thought, it’s not good. The last Mary Mary album came out in 2012 and Sony wants another one…yesterday…Warryn tries to explain how the sisters are pursing solo projects, but Sony is not having it…In fact, he is told that if there is no Mary Mary album, then Tina can forget about a solo album….”I spent weeks breaking them up and now I’ve got to get them back together again,” Warryn says….

From Test to Testimony…

It’s the day of Tina’s one-woman show “An Evening With Tina Campbell,” and Tina is coughing in spasms it seems…”I’m losing my voice of the worst possible time,” Tina shares…She prays…”God, you’ve got to heal me tonight because I need my voice tonight.” But it’s not just Tina’s voice that is wavering…Her faith is wavering…She feels emotionally drained…She doesn’t want to be a hypocrite…She is unsure about her songs because they are a departure from her Mary Mary music…She alternates between crying and praying…

She finally begins speaking in tongues…Even though she feels she may look weird, she explains, “When you are struggling in your faith, you pray in your Heavenly language.” Teddy also tries to comfort his wife…”God responds to faith,” he declares. “Look what you birthed out of being in pain.” As all of this was happening, I thought of two things…Maybe God was allowing Tina to go through all of those emotions so she could sing out of a place of total reliance on God and that was what she was supposed to be ministering about in the first place…The second thought I had came a result of Teddy’s statement about birth…Maybe was what was going on backstage was like the labor process because she was about to literally share new life…

Babeee, in spite of Tina’s nerves, her hoarseness, lack of faith, etc., her voice combined with her testimony of feeling schizophrenic and homicidal and turning to the Bible for comfort ministered to the audience…Teddy says, “She’s shining and I can’t believe she’s mine.” Sweet…Shoot, he has more of a testimony that Tina in my opinion…The two of them even performed together….

Tina is euphoric after her performance and thanks her sister who called to encourage her. “Thank you for pushing me out,” Tina says to Erica…More pregnancy imagery…Erica’s performance at Lakewood, by the way, seemed to go well from the little bit of the performance that was included in the episode…

Mitch, however, was there to see Tina’s performance…”Maybe the fact that I’m here and Erica is not speaks volumes.” I don’t know how good of a manager he is, but Mitch always comes through with the drama…

Sony or Solo?

Although Erica & Tina were high after their respective solo performances, a crash had to come…Warryn meets with his wife and sister-in-law aka Mary Mary to tell them about Sony’s ultimatum….But neither one of them bows down to Sony’s demands…Warryn finally realizes that his original plan worked too well…”Dear Jesus, I’ve created a two-headed solo monster.” And he can’t be mad about it because he did it…

So that concludes Season 4…No Mary Mary album on the horizon, but there is more solo news to share…Yesterday, on the National Day of Prayer, Tina released her new book I Need A Day To Pray and her album “It’s Personal.” Another “Evening With Tina Campbell” will be held at her church In His Presence in California on May 30. Go to eventbrite.com for ticket information.

In addition, according to Billboard Magazine, Erica has started a 20-city national tour entitled “Help 2.0,” which is the name of her latest album…She has also created “More Than Pretty,” which is a “female empowerment movement” that will begin at Los Angeles’ Faithful Central Bible Church on May 23.

So there you have it…For now, at least Mary Mary is now Erica & Tina…

Any thoughts?

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