by Jacqueline J. Holness | via After The Alter Call
Only 2 more episodes of OWN’s “Greenleaf” before it returns this summer, saints! And there is so much to share from this episode, I won’t even try to come up with a catchy intro…
The Gambler…
This episode begins with Sophia asking her mother for money to apply to get into Rhodes College, a Christian college in the area where she is considering majoring in religious studies, but instead of encouraging her daughter to apply to get into the school, Pastor Grace blows her daughter’s inquiry off. Why would Grace have a problem with allowing her daughter to apply for entry into a Christian school? Unlike Sophia, another pastor’s daughter, Zora, isn’t asking for money to apply to a Christian college, she wants permission to bring her boyfriend Isaiah to her cousin Sophia’s birthday party. Her mother Kerissa refers to the Triumph singer as a Christian thug in violation of her “no reprobate thug policy,” but her daddy, Pastor Jacob, grants her request as long as they don’t leave the property, which has been a problem for the young couple in the past.
Negotiations are also taking place at Calvary as Charity and Kevin along with their lawyers meet to begin the process of their divorce. The couple wants joint custody of their son Nathan, but Charity brings up the fact that she will be spending more time in Nashville than originally planned. Kevin shouts out, “Are you running off with Jabari?” To which Charity responds with, “What do you care?” Kevin flees from the meeting, prompting Aaron, Charity’s attorney, to ask her if he knows all of the details he should know to properly represent her. “Is there something going on with Jabari that I should be aware of?”
And the most unholy negotiations of them all are taking place at a car dealership (I hate buying cars) where Grace is car shopping with her new boo Darius, the journalist. She is searching for a truck to present to Sophia for her birthday but doesn’t like the sales shtick that you have to endure at a car dealership. Amen to that! She finds it so distasteful that she pretty much picks the first vehicle she looks at so that she won’t have to endure all of the haggling.
When Lady Mae corners Charity about the divorce proceedings, Charity reveals that Kevin may try to go for sole custody. Her mother still can’t understand why the two are divorcing anyway and tells her that although she is hiding something, “everything will come out sooner or later.”
Jacob does some cornering of his own when he confronts Basie about a Bass Reeves who contributes large sums of money to Triumph’s bottom line according to Triumph’s books. He wonders about the identity of the mysterious donor as he is unable to locate a contact for this man, who may be able to contribute to legal fees to fight Calvary. Instead of answering Jacob outright, Basie asks his protégé to watch him play with a deck of cards. He explains how he learned how to play cards on Beale Street before he challenges Jacob to play with him. Basie wins the game with a “royal family.” (I don’t play card games except for Uno and Speed so let me know if this terminology is wrong.) Jacob correctly guesses that Pastor Basie is Bass Reeves. Apparently, Pastor Basie supports his church Triumph with his gambling earnings! I want to be shocked, but I would bet there are plenty of pastors, unfortunately, who support their churches with unscrupulous undertakings…
Grace Under Fire…
Although Grace is still officially a Calvary pastor, she seems perilously close to falling away from the faith yet again. Even her wardrobe suggests her indecision. She is wearing beige – neither black nor white – for most of the episode. In fact, rather than encouraging her daughter to apply to the Christian college, she calls the admission office at her alma mater Northwestern where she graduated from in 1998. (This detail helps me to frame her age. I guess she’s about 4o or 41.) Also, apparently, Bishop learned about the wedding that didn’t happen in part due to Grace’s “counseling.” Grace doesn’t deny that she seems to be losing her religion, and Bishop, ever the doting father when it comes to his Grace, tells her,”As long as you know there’s a problem, there’s hope.” But just when she has gotten into his good graces again, Gigi asks her father if she can bring her boyfriend, the journalist who covered the Mac Greenleaf scandal, to the Greenleaf estate for her daughter’s party. Bishop asks, “Darius Nash, the muckraker?”
To read the rest of the recap, “The Royal Family,” click HERE!!!