Hello World,

As usual, the writers of OWN’s “Greenleaf” put their feet into this holy stew of a show, episode 2 of Season 2,…but thankfully, this episode was decidedly calmer though no less entertaining than the season opener…And for good reason too…I don’t think I could handle another explosive episode just yet…But what this episode did do was identify the strings that will be woven into the tapestry of this season…Y’all like that? My attempt at being poetic at 11 o’clock at night…

Alright, I’m going in…

Cross My Heart…

This episode starts with Bishop and Lady Mae having pillow talk about Basie Skanks and Jacob moving out of the Greenleaf estate. What I find most entertaining in this scene is that rapper-sized cross pendant that Bishop is rocking…Did I see chest hair nestled underneath the cross pendant? Not to mention his wave cap…Playa, playa even…Although Lady Mae doesn’t want her baby boy to leave, Bishop says he is ready for the movers to come and move Jacob’s furniture “piece by ill-gotten piece!” Lady Mae asks her husband to tell Jacob the truth about Pastor Basie, but Bishop refuses. Plus, he’s not really sure that Basie is who he says he is because he only remembers Daryl James, the caretaker, having two daughters..

In another part of the house, cousins Sophia and Zora giggle about Sophia’s crush on Isaiah Hambrick, the young hottie gospel singer at Triumph. Zora encourages Sophia to stop checking his Instagram page and slide into his DM. (Aww, #younglove) She also tells her cousin that Isaiah rehearses at Triumph every Saturday. You know Zora is fast, right?

And in yet another part of the house, Jacob and Kerissa discuss their impending move to the Triumph parsonage (a home for the pastor of a church for my folk who didn’t grow up in church). Apparently, even Jacob was surprised by Pastor Basie’s announcement that Jacob is going to be the new pastor at the second location. He says, “He should have told me he was giving me that church.” Still, while Jacob doesn’t like the way his pastorate was announced, in his heart, he believes he is making the right decision to move on from Greenleaf…

Cash Rules Everything Around Me…

Now that Bishop is no longer being investigated, he and his rib, Lady Mae, are free to scheme, I mean plan, in his office instead of at their home. They’ve decided that Carlton, the choir director, has got to go in order for them to raise money for the Fall Revival. Lady Mae summons her daughter to Bishop’s office by putting some weird bird sculpture on her desk. When Pastor Grace sees the sculpture, she knows that her mother is summoning her and shows up at Bishop’s office. Was the sculpture a bird? Was that a Phoenix rising? Anywho, Lady Mae tells Grace that she would like to have Betty Wilcox’s check before she leaves to go to New Orleans and that the only way that will happen is if Carlton is fired. In last week’s episode, Betty told Grace that church members weren’t giving as they once had because Carlton married his boyfriend and don’t approve of the union. Grace cannot believe that her father would co-sign on Carlton’s being canned, but he says, “I can’t lose half of my deacon board over one choir director.”

Although Greenleaf is paying Jabari Johnson $50,000 to produce Charity’s new album, he won’t be cut from the staff because it’s clear that Charity and Jabari have some chemistry…I’m not sure if that chemistry will just be contained in the music or will it evolve into something more….Judging by how Jabari described the vocals on one of Charity’s songs as “pressing against each other,” he could be pressing up on her during Season 2 of OWN’s “Greenleaf.”

The Devil is in the Details…

Pastor Jacob meets with Pastor Basie at Triumph church to discuss Pastor Basie’s surprise announcement and other matters related to his new position. He tells Basie, “You could have given me the heads up,” but Basie drops another surprise on him as Basie says he was directed by the Lord?! In other words, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision….Yeah right…Jacob continues to question his new boss until Basie shuts him down by saying that when Jacob was under his father, he “languished like an anemic little weed.” He also tells him, “I’ve given you everything you’ve ever wanted. Don’t accuse me of lying.” Jacob can see his point, but then Basie has yet another surprise announcement. He wants Jacob to go door to door in the neighborhoods surrounding Calvary Fellowship World Ministries and personally invite people to Triumph rather than Calvary. When Jacob points out that most of those people already attend Calvary, Basie does not care…

So Jacob goes door to door handing out bags and mugs with Triumph’s logo on them. One woman calls Jacob out! She says, “Does Bishop know you’re here recruiting?” Then she tells him, “I don’t care if that mug came wrapped in the cloth they wrapped my Lord in when he died. I’m with Calvary!” Let the church say, “Ouch!” LOL…Funniest line of the episode!

It’s also hilarious when Basie’s wife takes Kerissa to the parsonage for the first time. Some would call it modest. I call it homely. The roof was old and dusty looking. It’s one story. The grass looks like it needs cutting. Instead of moving up on like the Jeffersons, they’re moving from the palace to the poorhouse….But hey, for better or for worse, right? I wonder if Jacob and Kerissa would known about this detail in advance, would Jacob have agreed to be the pastor of Triumph’s second location? I think the Bishop forced Jacob’s hand as he said his (whom Jacob called a false prophet straight up in his face) father doesn’t respect him as a pastor, son or man. Lady Mae agrees with Jacob’s assessment of his father’s opinion of him, but when she points that out, Bishop tells her she is jealous of Grace. Probably…I mean Grace has the kind of relationship that any daughter would want with a father while Lady Mae obviously had a sick relationship with hers…

When Grace cannot get Charity to convince her mother to reconsider the decision to fire Carlton, she takes another course of action. She calls Darius Nash (Rick Fox…I cannot believe that most of his hair is gray…He’s been handsome for a long time and he still is!  A silver fox! ) ) who asked her out on a date earlier in episode. I thought she was going to tell Darius what was about to happen to Carlton so that he would write a story about it and shame the church board into keeping Carlton, but they end up going on a date after all.  It’s a dinner and dancing date (with Pastor Grace drinking beer and everythang…Darius assures her that no one in the club goes to church) but in the course of the evening, off the record, of course, she does tells him what is about to happen with Carlton. I still think she wants to know this tidbit on the sly, and she hopes he will run with it. But she does find herself attracted to him with the all the smiling and laughing that happened during their evening together.

Too bad Sophia is not having the same luck with Isaiah. He invites her to come see him rehearse at Triumph, but he pays more attention to Zora who came along with Sophia for moral support. So am I the only one who thinks Isaiah sounds like he is singing to a woman and not to God? Something about the way he holds himself as he is singing…

Man Down…

Daddy McCready is about to die. While Lady Mae refuses to visit him since he has already served his purpose by not testifying against her husband, her husband is willing to see him on his death bed. While there, Bishop attempts to ask him about whether Daryl had a son, but Mac, Daddy McCready’s son, shows up. Bishop tells him, “The Lord says I have to forgive you, and one day, I may, but I will never forget.” Then he says, “I will leave you to deal with your father until you have to deal with ours.” Another good line!” Daddy McCready admits to his son that he doesn’t want to die, but Mac attempts to comfort him by saying that his death will be like the time his father threw him in a lake. “At first, it will be cold and scary, but then you’re going to swim all the way across to Jesus.” That was sweet.

In another father and son scenario…Although Kevin and Charity’s son Nathan is here, Kevin is still staying in a hotel away from his family. And Charity still hasn’t come to one of his gay conversion therapy meetings.  He gets upset when he realizes that his son is suffering from a rash, and he didn’t know anything about it. The leader of the meeting encourages him to stand up as a man with Charity and demand that he be more involved with his son. His stance works, and Charity invites him to spend the night at the estate…In my opinion, they are still going to break up, but it was a nice moment…

Tired of waiting for Grace to fire Carlton, Lady Mae decides to fire him herself. She offers to serve as a personal reference should he need it for another job. Instead of simply accepting what Lady Mae is telling him (that it was a financial decision only), he plainly asks her what she thinks about gay marriage. She replies, “I believe what the Bible says about marriage.” Carlton offers to pray for her.

When Grace finds out what happened, she shows up at Carlton’s house and invites Carlton and his husband to come to Greenleaf even if Carlton is no longer the choir director. Carlton says, “I’m sick of people who love you all week, but shove you into a closet on Sunday morning.”

The episode ends with Jacob, who will finally be the man of his own house, and his family leaving the Greenleaf estate in a Cadillac. That Cadillac is going to crush their little bitty, new-to-them but otherwise old driveway. Still, Kerissa caresses her husband’s shoulder as the Greenleaf gates shut behind them. As a wife, you’ve got to stand by your man, that’s for sure…

Check out Darius asking out Grace below…

So that concludes my Greenleaf Season 2 Episode 2 recap!

Let me know how you liked this Greenleaf recap in the comments, please and thank you 🙂

Any thoughts?