Hello World,

So Charity quits her AP job and Jacob Greenleaf is a male chauvinist hypocrite, but before I break all that down, let’s get into another exhaustive and entertaining Greenleaf Recap Season 5 Episode 4 : The Fourth Day… For real dough, any other recap just doesn’t compare…

Four Walls…

It’s time to break out A.J. out of the four walls of his hospital room as his treatment is officially over, but the issue is where will he go afterward AND with whom…Grace wants A.J. to leave with her and Noah, but the medical personnel suggests that he be placed in a residential facility in Cordova for people living with HIV. AJ walks in on the powwow and tells the group that he has been stuck with so many needles that he feels like a voodoo doll. Once he realizes what’s being discussed, he shocks Grace and Noah. He says, “I want to go with him.” I’m not really surprised though because boys typically want to spend more time with their father as they mature. I’ve read that this happens around age 13. A.J. is beyond that, but he clearly wants to make up for lost time. By her downcast disposition, it’s clear that Grace is both shocked and saddened by A.J.’s decision.

PLOT. TWIST. #Greenleaf pic.twitter.com/JPgVL54bU8

— Greenleaf OWN (@GreenleafOWN) July 15, 2020

Speaking of shocked and saddened, in the next scene, Bishop is going off on Jacob at the Greenleaf estate. “What did I ever do to make you think I was capable of murder?” he says. He cannot believe that Jacob just didn’t come to him first regarding the will situation. Jacob explains to his father that Kerissa was blackmailing him so he was trying to get to the truth before it got to be a big to-do. Lady Mae is incensed that Jacob went to speak with Tara Cross, sister of Basie Skanks and Rochelle Cross, without telling them first. Although Jacob attempted to sing her praises as the leader of a mission in a bad neighborhood, Lady Mae is none too impressed, calling her God’s Florence Nightingale handing out sandwiches and needles! Ha! Jacob says she is doing good work, but Lady Mae points out that the Greenleafs have been doing good work for 40 years.

The couple points out that Tara may think she has a claim to the house because of Jacob coming to see her. “You planted something in her head.” Just as a reminder, Loretta Davis, the original owner of the Greenleaf estate, may have left the house to Darryl James and not the Greenleafs. And you know that Lady Mae is going to blame Kerissa for this. “Her bony, wiggly hand set this whole thing in motion,” she says. She says Kerissa is conniving like “David Duke in a head wrap!” LOOOL!!!

But Lady Mae and Bishop set aside that discussion for a bit to discuss Calvary’s last Sunday in the building! Apparently, they had been discussing this before Jacob showed up, but Lady Mae had to remind him of that. Obviously, Bishop is getting to be somewhat forgetful, and I’m sure more will be revealed about that later in the season. But for now, Bishop tells Lady Mae that he doesn’t want to attend the last service. I don’t blame him. Even if I could, I don’t want to attend my own funeral. Because a funeral is what will be going on at Calvary because the spirit of that church died when Grace and her family left it. Still, Lady Mae wants to hold a Bible Study at home. “This is no time to stop praising God,” she says. She’s such a force, right?

Speaking of Calvary’s last Sunday, Charity, Phil and Judee are discussing the program for that last service. Judee wants to show a video about what the new church campus will look like once it is completed while Charity wants to show a video in which the history of Calvary will be highlighted. Judee doesn’t understand her need to recount the history of Calvary as it was the location where Bishop shot a man and Charity’s uncle touched girls’ privates. I really dislike Judee but that is a valid point. Charity warns that this new church won’t survive in that “stank-foot gym without a Greenleaf.” When Judee walks off in a huff, Charity explains to Phil that she is “just trying to protect [him] from [himself.]” She points out that the 4,000 people who made the church need to be recognized or they will just leave when the “white people show up for church.” Phil is not moved. “We’re going with Judee’s idea.” Why does Charity think that she needs to protect Phil? He’s obviously not protecting her.

Typically, the three bicker without an audience, but this time Grace shows up and sees the exchange. She hopes that Phil and Judee’s treatment of Charity will give her some leverage in what she is about to ask of her. She tells her that she knows that Phil DeMars’ mother, Gladys, will somehow enable the Greenleafs to get Calvary back. She interrogates her sister. Some kind of way she did a favor for Bob and Eden Vale Lending has something to do with it. But she needs Charity’s help to find out the identity of Phil’s father, who is also a piece of the puzzle. Grace says his name is Marcus DeMars. “Help us find his father.” Do you know that dizzy chick Charity fixes her mouth to say, “Look, I’m finally an AP (associate pastor).””At an H&H church,” Grace says. She then attempts another way to get at her. Grace knows that Charity still loves Phil, but a critical component is still missing. “Do you respect Phil?” And then Grace tells her that for all of her contempt for Judee, she will be like Judee in 10 months. “Let’s find a way to get her out.” Well, that’s all Grace has to say. Open sesame. Charity tells her sister that Marcus DeMars no longer exists because he changed his name to Yusef Shabazz and is now a Black Panther.

Four Letter Words…

Period. #Greenleaf pic.twitter.com/SEQvlaHoeV

— Greenleaf OWN (@GreenleafOWN) July 15, 2020

You know that Lady Mae doesn’t lose an opportunity to unleash on Kerissa. Since Jacob told her that Kerissa is using the will to blackmail Jacob and by extension his parents, she has to get Kerissa told. After making sure that Winkie is not in Jacob’s suite, she tells Kerissa that she wants her out of the house (as long as she has it anyway…). “You are blackmailing this family for a few extra hundred dollars in a divorce settlement.” She also wants to know why Jacob and Kerissa are getting divorced in the first place. At first Kerissa doesn’t want to give up the goods, but she finally relents. Despite the fact that Jacob got down with various women including Malise, Lady’s Mae cook before Marisol came on board, he cannot find it in his heart to forgive Kerissa for her one indiscretion. Jacob is a male chauvinist hypocrite for that, right?

Lady Mae is stunned, particularly by the fact that Jacob got around even to the maid. But still Kerissa really doesn’t want to divorce Jacob. “If you can get him to forgive me and move on, I will let it go. But if he wants to play rough, game on.” I knew it. For better or worse judgment, she does love Jacob although she has a funny way of showing it sometimes. But still, I don’t think they should stay together anyway. They just don’t seem right together…Do you agree or is that just me?

In another part of the home, Aaron the attorney, Grace’s half-brother, discuss the will with Bishop and Jacob. The second will in which Loretta Davis gave the home to the Greenleafs supersedes the first will, but the court of public opinion may render a different decision. And it doesn’t help that Basie, Mac and Darryl James are dead and gone. But Bishop believes that he can reason with Tara and get her to see things his way. “I talked Basie out of killing me with a bullet in a chamber. It couldn’t be any harder than that,” he says. “Famous last words,” Lady Mae says once she joins the discussion.

Gigi has a hard task to complete as well. She calls Yusef Shabazz. She reaches the man, who is wearing a beanie and playing some sort of board game with other people, like at a home or something. She tells him she wants to ask him a few questions and tells him she is not a reporter although she used to be a pastor. Phil’s father says that is her first strike. When she mentions Phil’s mother and how she worked for Eden Vale Lending, Yusef points out that she is his ex-wife and has been dead for 20 years. Yusef says that’s her second strike. And when she mentions Phil, Yusef says that’s her third strike and then hangs up on her.  It looks like she will have to see him face to face in the Nola to find out what she needs to find out. And I’m sure that Darius will ride out with her when the time is right…

Well, now that Lady Mae has found out the deets on the impending divorce, she now has to confront her son. She mentions Mark 11:25, Romans 3:23 and John 8:7 which all suggest that you should forgive even if you can’t forget. She cannot believe that for all of his antics that Kerissa endured over the years, Jacob cannot forgive Kerissa for the one time she got entangled. “You bought all of us a ticket to the poor house,” she says. And furthermore, “You go and forgive that woman. This is about you and what you think about women and what you think about me. You forgive her and move on.” Obviously, Lady Mae is talking about the fact her oldest child is not Bishop’s child.  What she did was worse than what Kerissa did actually. At least Kerissa didn’t get pregnant by another man and pass that child off as her husband’s child for years…

But nobody makes more stupid decisions than Charity does. At Calvary, she approaches Connie the deaconness about her idea to highlight Calvary’s history in the final service. She tells her that Phil and Judee told her, “No.” “I’m saying, ‘No” too,” says Connie. “I can’t think of anything worse.” Welp. What a traitor Connie is.

Four Leaf Clover…

Now that Bishop is free of Calvary’s business, he has more time to roam about and that is just what he does. He finds himself in the bad neighborhood where the New Revelations Memphis Mission (I wonder if the New Revelation has to do with the will) is located. Tara James can’t believe that Bishop came to see her. “This is the second day in a row that a Greenleaf  paid me a visit,” she says. Bishop says, “I want to set things straight once and for all.”

He tells Tara that he did not make the call that led to Darryl James being in the church the night of the fire. He believes that it was most likely Mac. “Why would he have wanted Daddy dead?” she asks. Bishop points out that Mac was the one who amended the will. “Is there any way we can get past this, the both of us, once and for all?” Bishop asks. I believe in God and not luck, but some luck wouldn’t hurt in this situation, right?

Another delicate situation is unfolding at the Greenleaf estate. Noah and Grace are with A.J. to help him gather his things to move in with Noah. Grace makes Noah promise that he will see about getting Noah to a doctor and on medication. “He’s not asymptomatic.” That’s a word we’ve become more familiar with than we’d like to be, right? AJ gets mad that Grace is talking his condition. Although he is sick, I’m kinda sick of him. I want all of his truth told, and I’m just not convinced that it has been at this point. What say you?

And I’m sick of Judee too. She confronts Charity about going to Connie and fires her for trying to usurp her authority. “I’m Bob Whitmore’s daughter.” After all the ways that she disgraced herself to become an associate pastor, of course, Charity is hot about this. She confronts Phil as if he’s going to side with her. “You’re going to let her do it?” she asks. “What you did was unproductive,” Phil says. He then says something using the phrase, “truly, madly, deeply” which is Judee’s favorite movie, he reveals. Charity says her favorite movie is, “You can’t fire my black a$$, I quit.” Okay, den, Charity. Then she compares her bosom to Judee’s less than buxom bosom and says they can have their “oreo church.” “How I wish you were the man that I thought you were.” And despite the fact that she wants to hate him, she can’t because hating him would be like hating a sponge – a “passive, porous thing.” She ends with, “What a waste.” Well, I’m glad she is developing a bit of a backbone.

Back at the estate, Bishop drives on the property where he finds Grace walking alone.  I wonder how many acres they own? The property on which the show is filmed must be huge. It’s season five and we’re still seeing new vantage points on the property. Bishop picked up some Memphis barbecue on the way home because he is feeling good after his discussion with Tara apparently. He discovers that Grace is feeling some kind of way about A.J. “You’re afraid that everything you broke will never be put back together again.” He assures her that there is still hope. “Leave some room for God.” He reminds her what she did. “You came back. Don’t forget that. After 20 years, you came home. No one saw that coming.”

Speaking of seemingly impossible impasses, Jacob approaches Kerissa with the intention of telling her that he has forgiven her, but he can’t get the words out. Kerissa tries to help him by literally telling him what to say. “Here’s all you have to say. Kerissa, I’m sorry that I left you so alone in our marriage that you defiled yourself with another man to feel something.” Still, even with the words supplied for him, he cannot fix his mouth to say that. Kerissa realizes that they can’t get past this no matter what she threatens. She says, “I will lay off of the will because Mae knows I’m right.” Still, she tells him their marriage is over. Sorry not sorry.

What a dismal episode, right? But Zora and Sophia try to lighten the mood by horsing around with A.J. until they collapse on a bed with laughter. It’s really nice to laugh with your cousins. They try to convince him to stay and tell Grace that he has decided to stay when she comes in the room. She ask the girls if she can speak with her son alone. He makes sure that he tells her that he is not staying despite the girls’ audible wishful thinking. “You know you can always come back,” she says. “I’m not,” he says. But as he leaves, he kisses the top of head in her hair. That bit of affection causes the mother to dissolve into tears. (I have to wonder if this is the writers way of writing him off the show because you know that Noah tends to say gone for long periods. It took him whole season to get to Memphis from Denver. Remember? I think Denver is where he was…)

Settle in, #Greenleaf is about to start! pic.twitter.com/62EshcbNhJ

— Greenleaf OWN (@GreenleafOWN) July 15, 2020

Judee aine crying about Charity leaving Calvary at all. “It’s for the best,” she tells Phil as they relax at his home. “Daddy is counting on you.” Phil, on the other hand, can’t shake it off as easily, particularly as Charity said that H&H won’t make it past Calvary by Tuesday. “It was almost like something is in the works,” he tells Judee. Judee aine trying to hear all that and wants to get affectionate with Phil but he blocks her. “Is it because I’m not legally divorced? I’m never going back to Ken,” she whines.

Although Phil is troubled about Calvary and what is ahead, Bishop is no longer thinking about Calvary. He has gathered his family in the dining room to tell him that the Spirit was present in his meeting with Tara and that their home is safe. “This is the day that I take back my joy.” Charity is feeling good too and tells her family she is no longer working at Calvary. “Free at last, free at last,” she nearly sings.

🙌🏾 Hallelujah! #Greenleaf pic.twitter.com/v9CrsrRgi1

— Greenleaf OWN (@GreenleafOWN) July 15, 2020

Bishop tells the family that the next morning, they will worship in church at their home and that Lady Mae will lead the service. In fact, he tells them that he wants Lady Mae to lead the church going forward. But before the episode can end on this seemingly triumphant note, Tara James calls Bishop on his cell. The family listens as he says, “I’m sorry to hear that.” Once the call is over, he says that Tara James wants to talk again about the house AND as soon as possible. Gulp…That doesn’t sound good…Now I have to wonder when Bishop meets Tara again will Rochelle show up…Because Tara did call someone after she met with Jacob… Well, I guess we will have to keep watching to find out what happens!!! Thank God for new content in these COVID-19 times!!

Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Recap Season 5 Episode 4: The Fourth Day… and my other recaps so far. If you would like to keep up with OWN’s “Greenleaf,” and my recaps, please click on this link to subscribe to my blog !

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