Posted on Thursday, July 28, 2016

Greenleaf Recap Season 1 Episode 8: The Whole Book…

lady mae

Hello World,

So, this Greenleaf episode was sooo explosive, I’m tempted to start this Greenleaf recap from the end of the episode and write back to the beginning….but that would ultimately spoil everything so here I go from the beginning…

Wedded Bliss?

In the opening scene, Isabel is nearly drowning in the minutia that is wedding planning. She asks her fiancé Noah to decide whether he wants napkins with the words “Noah & Isabel” or the words “Mr. & Mrs.” on them? (Aside: As a kinda newlywed since I was married three years ago next month, I know the game she was playing. The truth is a typical bride pretty much wants to plan everything and just have the groom show up and say, “I do.” But to demonstrate egalitarianism since marriages are supposed to be about two equals coming together, a bride occasionally asks for the input from the groom although she really doesn’t want it…Marriage is about egalitarianism. Weddings are not…LOL…)So Noah picks the first option while Isabel was hoping for the second. And before they can get into why they haven’t really agreed on very much when it comes to wedding planning, in walks Grace. I see why Isabel is pushing for “Mr. & Mrs.” because when Grace is around, Noah isn’t really thinking about Isabel. Isabel knows that too which is why she asks Grace who will be her plus one at the wedding. When Grace replies her daughter Sophia will be her date, she offers to pray for her in a condescending but yet not entirely confident tone…

Security Breach

With every episode, we’re getting closer to knowing why Grace really came to town. I think her main goal is to bring Uncle Mac down and prove that his actions led to Faith’s death and if things fall apart in the process so be it. In this episode, Grace approaches Noah about hacking into her uncle’s computer. Noah says it’s no problem as the security team had to do something similar when a church employee was thought to be downloading porn onto a computer…smh…Noah has a revelation for Grace as well. He tells her that after the wedding, he and Isabel are moving to Denver, Colorado.

Pre-Wedding Jitters

While Noah and Grace are getting their digital I SPY on, Lady Mae and Isabel walk the grounds of the Greenleaf estate. As the First Lady is paying for the wedding, she explains how lavish it will be. She says the cherry trees will be like a white tunnel of love. That sounds divine, doesn’t it? Despite the fact that Lady Mae is paying for the wedding, Isabel isn’t entirely sure that her wedding day will go as planned. She confesses to Lady Mae that she is worried that Noah “is still holding a torch for Grace,” particularly since they nearly married 20 years ago. Lady Mae, however, assures her that Noah and Grace are in the past and says that all men seem to be indecisive as the wedding day gets closer. She says, “All men, Bishop included, think as their wedding approaches, is she the one?” She concludes with, “You mark my words. Noah loves you.” Hmmm….Noah may love Isabel, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love Grace more…As they say, you never forget your first love…

Black Lives Matter

Just when I thought this episode would focus on Noah, Isabel & Grace with a side of Mac (which is already a full course meal), the town of Memphis becomes incensed when it is announced on television that David Nelson, the police officer who shot an unarmed, 16-year-old boy Kenneth Collins, will not face criminal charges. Calvary is blamed for having influence in the city as Nelson is a member of the megachurch. Of course the Bishop is none too happy about being brought into the controversy.

Televangelism

Still trying to convince his father that he is a worthy partner in ministry, Jacob convinces his father to take a meeting with the Christian television network executive. Rather than to convince the Bishop that more people need to hear of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the reach of television, he emphasizes the material wealth that can be gained. He says, “I never thought I would own a Jaguar, and now I have three.” That is such a despicable reason to get on television if you are supposed to be a true preacher of the gospel. To me, there is nothing wrong with wanting to have nice things, but things should not be the aim of a ministry on television or otherwise…Okay, off the soapbox and back to the Greenleaf recap…Curiously, the Bishop shuts down the executive with the words, “I will not the hawk the gospel like a ginsu knife” and then tells him to “Get out!” If only I believed the Bishop because I do believe that he has no problem hawking the gospel…Jacob is understandably puzzled about his father’s strong reaction…

Black Lives Matter v. Blue Lives Matter

After the city erupts following the announcement that no charges will be filed against David Nelson, Grace is concerned about his safety and goes to see him in his hotel room. He tells her that he plans to move far, far away to escape it all, but she tries to convince him that he needs to stay and be a part of healing that needs to happen in the city. He listens but tells her he will send her a postcard from Delaware. I know that’s right!

Pastor to Pastor

The Bishop ventures off of the gilded campus of Calvary and into the city to see a more humble pastor who has been publicly calling out the Bishop for his support of David Nelson. This pastor is involved in the Black Lives Matter movement and is showing hanging protest signs. But instead of squashing the situation, the pastor tells the Bishop that he will “long for the days when all I did was call you out.” Okay…what does that mean?

What Happens in Nashville

As Grace requested, Noah delivers the contents of Mac’s computer to her on a hard drive. She discovers that he had appointment in Nashville presumably at an abortion clinic. With this knowledge, Grace tries to get Danielle to tell the truth about what happened with her and Mac. Danielle still denies that anything happened until Grace tells she knows what happened in Nashville. Danielle then reveals how Mac came seduced her. He took her to school when her mother wasn’t available, brought them dinner, etc. Finally, Mac took to the church camp to teach her how to “fish” and then she comes up pregnant. They go to Nashville where the abortion is performed. She ask Grace, “Am I going to hell for killing my baby?” Danielle is also concerned that her revelation would put her mom’s scholarship that she is receiving from Calvary in jeopardy. She also tells Grace that she will come forward if she is not the only one. It seems that Mac targets the daughters of single parents…Faith wasn’t the daughter of a single parent, but her parents are obviously distracted by Calvary business…just sayin’…

After doing more digging, Grace realizes that many women/girls have received scholarships over the years courtesy of Mac. They are given out at an scholarship reception that Lady Mae holds each year. Grace confronts her assistant about a scholarship that her daughter received without having to go through the usual application process. The assistant realizes then Grace knows her daughter’s secret and when Grace asks her why she didn’t go after Mac, she says that Calvary is her church and, “the Bible says don’t look back.” Grace also realizes that is if she reveals the scholarship payoffs she will end up wrongly implicating the church when Mac is the sole culprit.

The Secret

So the Bishop and Lady Mae have an intimate discussion in their bathroom. I would guess that all discussions in the bathroom are intimate…LOL…Anywho, as the Bishop is brushing his teeth or dentures (I’m not sure), they fall out or something like that…Obviously, he is sick….Lady Mae asks him when he is going to tell the children what is going on him…Apparently, the real reason he doesn’t want to be on television has to do with some sort of illness…That’s all I’ve got at this point….

First Love

When Grace goes to Noah’s home to tell him what she found out after speaking with Danielle, she expresses remorse that Mac is the reason why they broke up all of those years ago. Noah tells Grace that he always thought she would end up with someone more exciting than him anyway, but Grace says that when she was with Noah, she always felt like “you were home to me.” So that line got to me. Very good one OWN! And just like that, their clothes fall off. LOL

Grace does the walk of shame the next day back up to the Greenleaf mansion as Noah lives on the property and hope that no one notices. Unfortunately, her archenemy Lady Mae is up and confronts her with the words, “You look like you’ve been rolled hard and put away wet.” And that’s a GREAT line OWN! I will have to remember that line…She also says, “You won’t be satisfied until you’ve burned this place to the ground.”

Sunday Mourning

So Noah and Grace sneak looks at each other as they travel through the parking lot to get to the church building. Noah is walking with Isabel while Grace is with Sofia. In the midst of that, David Nelson shows up, walks up to Grace and tells her that he decided to stay in town after all. Right then, the brother of Kenneth Collins approaches Officer Nelson and shoots him in front of everybody!!!

And that was THE END…

Yeah, that was A LOT for one episode…So I’m thinking that the title of this Greenleaf episode comes the gruesome story that Sophia is telling her mother about throughout the episode. Sophia tells her about a Levite in the book of Judges who cut his concubine into 12 pieces. Sophia was puzzled by such a story being in the Bible and I think Grace told her to read the whole book….I think….Also, I think the fact this story came from Judges is about Calvary being judged….

We will see…We will see…We will see…

Any thoughts?

Check out the confrontation between Grace and Lady Mae below…

Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2016

Greenleaf Recap Season 1 Episode 4: Behind Closed Doors

Hello World,

My new favorite family megachurch drama Greenleaf (is there another family megachurch drama?) on OWN did not fail to disappoint in this fourth episode!

Black Lives Matter vs. Back The Blue…

The writers of this episode obviously drew from the ongoing war being waged between the Black Lives Matter movement and the boys in blue. In the opening scene, Deputy Mayor Baldwin Leonard comes to see Calvary Fellowship World Ministries’ Bishop James Greenleaf privately in his office to ask for his public support of Officer David Nelson, a Memphis police officer who mistakenly shot an unarmed black teenager Kenny Collins to death. The deputy mayor’s initiative is called “Back the Blue.” Bishop Greenleaf is obviously conflicted about lending his support to such a controversial matter but becomes convinced when the deputy mayor tells him that he will be able to get the rights to additional land to build a pool and community center when the church’s original attempt to acquire the land was halted. Bishop Greenleaf remarks that another pastor in town doesn’t have a pool! After the meeting, Bishop Greenleaf wastes no time in telling his daughter Grace that he would like to meet with Officer Nelson. Grace is surprised by his sudden change of heart in meeting the officer when he had previously shown no interest in meeting with Officer Nelson when she originally approached him about it. I’m not sure if Grace truly knows her father, but the good Bishop always seems to have an ulterior motive for whatever he does…

A Marriage of Convenience…

Inspired by the love story of the two deacons at Calvary Fellowship, Kerissa feels like her marriage is dead and drags Jacob into counseling although he told he doesn’t want to go. When the counselor asks Jacob why he is there when his body language and silence show that he doesn’t want to be, he replies, “She would have made my life a living hell if I didn’t come.” I hate to say this since I love the fact that Kerissa is rocking a short natural do. But she looks more like his stiff, suited up older sister than his wife. Anywho, Kerissa admits that she knows her husband is a serial cheater and that he knows that she knows and that he doesn’t seem to care. Jacob doesn’t say anything when the counselor asks him about Kerissa’s statements and she rightly assumes his lack of a denial confirms Kerissa is right. In another counseling session, rather than try to coax her husband into speaking, she chides him and says, “It’s like being married to a six year old” which further emasculates Jacob whom already feels like Kerissa run things…

However, in the next scene, when Jacob, who is wearing a crucifix chain, is laid up with his white and more feminine mistress Alexa, Bishop’s assistant, he cannot stop talking and seems like he doesn’t want to leave. In fact, Alexa has to tell him to go home.

Bishop James Greenleaf vs. Lady Mae Greenleaf…

When the Bishop tells his wife that he is going to offer his public support of Officer Nelson, she is shocked which shocked me because she seems just as much of an opportunist as the Bishop seems to be. He tells her that she should be objective and see both sides of the situation. She counters that the deacon board will not be pleased that he made such a controversial decision without consulting them to which he replies, “The deacon board doesn’t run the church, God does.” And Lady Mae shuts him down with these words. “You’re not in the mood to listen to Him either.” Game. Set. Match. (Incidentally, my mom is named May and is also a First Lady!)

Another face-off about Officer David Nelson happens when Grace tells her daughter Sophia she cannot attend a Black Lives Matter rally in support of Kenny Collins the slain teenager. Then Sophia tells her mother to “shut my door, please” in an indignant tone that would have gotten me slapped across the room had I used it with my mother as a teenager.

Lost Faith…

Speaking of Grace, she learns just how lost her sister was before she committed suicide. Noah Kendall, the leader of the security team for Greenleafs and Grace’s teenage boyfriend, tells her that a random man who had been lurking around the Greenleaf estate left a flash drive with something on it that she needs to see. When she inserts the flash drive on her computer, she is stunned by photographs of her deceased sister in her underwear in all kinds of poses and caught in sexual acts. She calls the random man and offers him $5,000, what he requested, to meet with her to discuss the photographs and prevent them from being exposed. He agrees to meet with her, and she meets him in the woods. When Grace asks the man why her sister allowed these photographs to be taken, he replies that she “would do anything to get high.” The man, who looks like a jittery junkie himself, also tells Grace that if you looked in Faith’s eyes, “nothing was there.” He then runs off with $500 rather than than the $5,000 as that is all the money Grace would give to him.

A Life for a Life…

Obviously still grieving the loss of her daughter Faith, Lady Mae looks through a photo album and stares at photographs of her daughter when she was an innocent little girl. Charity interrupts her reminiscing to tell her some good news. She tells her she is pregnant to which Lady Mae responds with, “That’s wonderful” and hugs her daughter. However, she continues to look at a photograph of Faith held behind Charity’s back as she hugs her. It seems that Charity’s baby may be a welcomed replacement for her dead daughter.

Don’t Mess With the Deacons…

When the Bishop’s plan to invite the city’s police officers to come to a church service as a way to publicly demonstrate his support finally gets back to the deacons, they are properly incensed! Deaconess Connie Sykes, backed up by the rest of the deacons, confronts the Bishop in a conference room. She explains to him that the deacons are supposed to operate in a system of “checks and balances.” Then she says, “You seem to be only interested in the checks.” She called it right! Finally, she says that if he goes through with the service, she and the rest of the deacons will be forced to walk out of the service in a public demonstration of their lack of support for the boys in blue.

Smells Like Teen Spirit…

Zora, Jacob and Kerissa’s undercover druggie daughter, convinces her cousin Sophia to defy her mother and go to the Black Lives Matter rally anyway. While there, they are spotted by the Bishop who seems to have attended the rally to get a better understanding of all of the issues surrounding the unarmed teenager being shot and killed by Officer Nelson. The bishop promptly takes his granddaughters back home where he promises he will not tell their parents on them. In a tender moment that made me miss my grandparents, he hugs them tight to him and they respond in kind.

Touch My Body…

Although Jacob is almost completely mute in the counseling sessions, it seems that he is listening because he is learning to process his feelings. He tells his mistress about an incident at Macy’s where he was followed around by a security guard and simultaneously ogled by a sales associate. The incident makes me feel like he is simply a body and the fact that his mistress seems to be content just sexing him without fighting to be with him further solidifies his belief that he is a body being merely used, he explains to her. So when Kerissa says they can stop going to counseling because he isn’t into it, he asserts himself and says that he will continue to go. Good for him…We are all cray cray in some ways…

Back the Blue Goes to Church…

Bishop tells his church essentially that all lives matter as he invites members of the church to support members of the Memphis Police Department many of which including Officer Nelson are in the audience in the Sunday church service. Charity leads the choir in singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” but Deaconess Sykes follows through on her threat as she leads the deacons in marching right out of the church in the midst of the hoopla!

Out of the blue, Bishop Greenleaf tells the deputy mayor in another closed door meeting in his office after the church service that he doesn’t want the land after all. Instead he tells the deputy mayor that the city needs to better control the police department. “Kill fewer of our children,” he says.

Meanwhile, Grace helps another pastor in the church get an office. I don’t know what it means, but since it was among the final scenes of the episode, I’m sure more will be revealed in future episodes…

I can’t wait to see what happens next week!

So how did you like my Greenleaf recap?

Any thoughts?

Posted on Sunday, May 22, 2016

Oprah Winfrey Network Unveils Extended Trailer For New Original Megachurch Drama Series ‘Greenleaf!’

The Family Megachurch Drama from Lionsgate Debuts with Two-Night Premiere on June 21 and 22...

Look at Oprah at the back looking all mysterious…

Hello World,

The new original series “Greenleaf,” featuring Oprah Winfrey’s first recurring scripted television role in two decades, will launch with a two-night premiere on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network on Tuesday, June 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT and Wednesday, June 22 at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET/PT on OWN. The show was originally supposed to premiere on this Tuesday, May 24 & Wednesday, May 25. The megachurch drama from Emmy nominated writer/producer Craig Wright (“Lost,” “Six Feet Under”) and Lionsgate Television will regularly air on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT for the remainder of its 13-episode first season.

“Greenleaf” centers on the journey of estranged daughter and disillusioned preacher Grace Greenleaf (Merle Dandridge, “The Night Shift”) who has returned home after 20 years on the occasion of the mysterious death of her sister, Faith. As she reenters the world of Calvary Fellowship World Ministries, the Memphis megachurch run by her powerful parents Bishop James Greenleaf (Keith David, “Enlisted” and “Community”) and Lady Mae Greenleaf (Lynn Whitfield, “The Josephine Baker Story”), it becomes evident that things are not as virtuous as they seem and that the family’s outward display of faith hides sin and misdeeds.

In the season premiere, directed by Clement Virgo (“Book of Negroes”), Grace and her teenage daughter Sophia (Desiree Ross, “Falling Skies”) are warmly welcomed home by Grace’s father, Bishop James Greenleaf, but tensions quickly rise soon thereafter at a family dinner in the Greenleaf mansion. Grace’s mother is cold and hostile; her sister-in-law Kerissa (Kim Hawthorne, “Rake”) questions her about her faith; and sister Charity (Deborah Joy Winans, “Whitney”) erupts with jealousy at the suggestion that Grace might preach at Calvary.

Later, blues club owner and Grace’s Aunt Mavis (Oprah Winfrey, “Selma”) discuss the circumstances of Faith’s death and Mavis reveals some shocking information about Grace’s uncle “Mac” (Gregory Alan Williams, “Terminator Genisys”). Mavis is still estranged from the Greenleaf family and it starts to become evident that she intends to use Grace to sow the seeds of its destruction.

The new original drama series “Greenleaf” from award-winning writer/producer Craig Wright (“Lost,” “Six Feet Under”) takes viewers into the unscrupulous world of the Greenleaf family and their sprawling Memphis megachurch, where scandalous secrets and lies are as numerous as the faithful. Like so many megachurches in America, Calvary Fellowship World Ministries is more than just a house of worship. It’s a home. It’s the center of the community for the thousands of predominantly African-American members who attend services there. But beneath its steeple lies a den of iniquity — greed, adultery, sibling rivalry and conflicting values — a multigenerational matrix of deception that involves the church’s founding family, but also extends to the congregation and prominent members of the Memphis community and beyond. Yet, amidst all of the mayhem and deception, the power of something greater persists, calling everyone to conscience for their sins.

“Greenleaf” stars Merle Dandridge (“The Night Shift”) as Grace Greenleaf; Keith David (“Community”) as Bishop James Greenleaf; Lynn Whitfield (“The Josephine Baker Story”) as Lady Mae Greenleaf; Kim Hawthorne (“Rake”) as Kerissa Greenleaf; Lamman Rucker (“Meet the Browns”) as Jacob Greenleaf; Tye White (“The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”) as Kevin Satterlee; Deborah Joy Winans (“Whitney”) as Charity Greenleaf-Satterlee; Desiree Ross (“Falling Skies”) as Sophia; and Oprah Winfrey (“Selma”) in a recurring role as Mavis McCready.

“Greenleaf” is produced for OWN by Lionsgate Television. Executive producers are Oprah Winfrey, Craig Wright and Clement Virgo.

Check out the extended trailer below…Kinda reminds me of a Christian version of “Empire.”