Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 7: That Was Then…

Hello World,

Tonight’s episode was one of those turning point episodes and was aptly titled “That Was Then” so keep reading for this Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 7: That Was Then…

We’ve Only Just Begun…

The episode begins with Grace reading about the Coralie Hunter murder case on her computer as she is planning to take on the case with the newly created legal defense fund for victims of domestic violence. She takes in some gory images that must have been sent to her by Darius. Photographs with blood strewn about the bed like red paint had been spilled. A bloody hammer was the focus of another one of the photographs. The blood and gore take her back to the night she squared off with uncle in a fight for her very life. She recalls the cracked bottle that she used to sink into his neck, which proved to be a fatal blow. Her daughter Sophia interrupts her thankfully, taking her away from that dark place in her memory. But Sophia is still smarting from being told she is sterile. She wants her mother to tell a pastor at Calvary that she is done teaching the Little Saints class. “I’m never going to talk to them like I used to,” Sophia says. This is a new phase in Sophia’s life, a phase that calls for her to believe in the goodness of God even though her current experience doesn’t feel good. This is not easy.

This is also a new phase in Zora’s life. It’s her 18th birthday! Lest Zora believe that her Bible reading will be postponed for the next day, Lady Mae tells her they will have less time with the text in light of her birthday breakfast but their reading will still be done. Also, to help her celebrate her birthday, Jacob & Kerissa have been invited to breakfast. Kerissa tries to give Zora tickets to a Broadway musical that they can attend together, but Lady Mae says she is not allowed to go because it’s past her curfew! “Actions have consequences,” Lady Mae says in front of Zora’s parents.

Charity and Bishop share a tender moment in her suite. Since Charity doesn’t leave her room very much at this point, Bishop updates her on the goings-on in the estate including that Lady Mae has Zora on a 7 p.m. lockdown even on her birthday! Charity says, “When is she going to get herself together?” in reference to her wayward niece. Bishop responds, “When are you?” Charity changes the subject and asks him when he is leaving, but Bishop doesn’t get offended. Instead he tells her that he misses her. While they hug, she says, “I’m gonna miss you too.”

Plans have begun for “A Day With Lady Mae” but Maxine’s assistant Gloria doesn’t believe the space at the Templeton hotel will be big enough. Karine, Bishop and Lady Mae’s assistant, clearly doesn’t like Gloria (I guess it’s because they are both assistants.), but she agrees that with Maxine Patterson, maybe a bigger venue is needed. Gloria suggests that “A Day With Lady Mae” should be held at Calvary. Lady Mae and Karine like the idea as well. However, Karine checks Bishop’s schedule and as it turns out he will be hosting a “Silver Jubilee” on the same day. Karine worries about having to run the idea of having Lady Mae’s event at Calvary instead of off-site by Bishop. Lady Mae responds by saying, “Let me caution you about overvaluing Bishop’s opinion in this time of rapid evolution.” That woman stays speaking in poetry, doesn’t she?

To make matters worse, Lady Mae tries to enlist Grace’s help in meeting with the Boys & Girls Club of Memphis. She wants this organization to be involved somehow with “A Day With Lady Mae,” but her daughter tells her she cannot meet with the organization’s representative. Instead, she has a meeting scheduled with Coralie Hunter. Lady Mae refers to her as a “murderess” and a “tawdry woman who bludgeoned her husband to death with a hammer while he was sleeping.” She is incensed that Grace is choosing Coralie over the “flagship event for the church” and accuses her of doing so out of “sadism and spite.” Calling her mother’s event a “pep rally” and with sarcasm, Grace says, “You understand me perfectly.” Lady Mae says, “You don’t understand me at all.” Somehow and in some way, these two need to begin their relationship again…

Shake It Off…

From his office, Bishop places a call to his friend, Percy Lee Thompson, the funeral home owner. Just like his name suggests, the man is country. When Percy realizes it is his friend not a business call, he says, “When you call, use your cell phone. You had me talking like white folks for nothing.” Bwaaahhaaa! For my white readers, some black people do change how they speak when they are talking to people of different races…

But before the men can continue their conversation, Lady Mae comes into her soon-to-be ex-husband’s office. Lady Mae tells Bishop that their daughter is sponsoring a murderess like she is a child from Africa! “Is this good pr?” she asks. Behind them is this magnificent cross metal sculpture that is embedded in the wall, but I digress. Speaking of cross, Bishop tells Lady Mae that Rochelle Cross is advising him to invest in crytocurrency and this is how he will get the money to pay the IRS. However, he needs more money than what is in his personal account. He also wants to take money from their shared account. Calling her a “strumpet with a bad reputation,” Lady Mae cautions Bishop about accepting her financial advice. “She’s broken our family in half. Do you have to let her take our money too?” She compares him to the old foolish king in Ecclesiastes 4:13. “Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning.” Lady Mae knows how to rightly divide the word, right?! He needs to shake off Rochelle some kind of way. That’s for sure.

Grace goes to the jail to meet Coralie Hunter, but before she is able to do, the Memphis DA, who I presume is there on official business, stops her. He reminds her that he elected not to try her for manslaughter and warns her not to help Ms. Hunter. “Coralie Hunter is no victim.” She tells him that Ms. Hunter was abused by her husband. He responds with, “There is no shred of admissible evidence that he ever abused her. That pond you are about to step into is deeper than you think.” What does he mean by that? Once Grace is allowed inside of inner sanctum of the jail to actually see Coralie Hunter, she is reminded that the jail is where she could have easily been after what happened with Uncle Mac. She can’t shake those feelings off. Ms. Hunter notices Grace’s demeanor and Grace says, “I was once very close to sitting where you are.” She explains exactly what happened to Grace and how murdering her husband was self defense.

Now we discover why Bishop called Percy. Percy reaches out to Charity after a singer cancelled on singing at a memorial service for a dearly departed grandmother to be held at his funeral home. All he has at this point is “prerecorded music and Spotify.” With an open bottle of something next to her, Charity hesitantly agrees. But once she is there and singing for the grieving relatives, it’s clear that she is in her element. Awww, that was sweet of Bishop — getting his daughter out of the house and singing, what she was born to do.

Across town at Triumph, Jacob and Kerissa are still in disagreement about Zora being discipled and disciplined by Lady Mae. Kerissa thinks Lady Mae is just too strict. Jacob asks, “Isn’t being strict your whole brand?” Kerissa says, “If she knew what she was doing, it wouldn’t have taken me 20 years to get you to straighten up and fly right!” And this line was the best line of the episode. In that once sentence, we now know why Zora is willing to accept abuse. Her own mother did and for 20 years. No, it wasn’t physical abuse, but the end result is still the same. Her mother allowed herself to be devalued. Why should she be any different? Jacob is mad that his wife cannot shake the memories of who he used to be and discusses the matter with Tasha Skanks. As expected, she sympathizes and says she wasn’t always First Lady material and that she used to get her swerve on on Saturday nights and come to church the next morning. And instead of proving that they have changed, the two kiss! We all saw this coming…The thing is I feel like Tasha is truly feeling Jacob but at same time, her last name aine Skanks for nothing! Shake Tasha off Jacob!!!

And back at Calvary, Karine tries to get Bishop to sign some papers. I think she hopes he doesn’t pay attention to what he is signing, but he does. He sees that additional security will be needed to secure “A Day With Lady Mae” to be held at Calvary. He confronts Lady Mae about the additional security and the change of venue. Lady Mae explains that with Maxine Patterson more security and space is a must. He agrees but reminds of their deal. Once “A Day With Lady Mae” is over Lady Mae must leave the building. Lady Mae says, “As for me and my future plans, I will go where the Lord leads me to go.” In other words, she aine going nowhere but Bishop is in her sanctified imagination. Bishop and Lady Mae just can’t shake off where they are in their marriage.

Bye Bye Bye…

Darius and Grace discuss her conversation with the DA. “This DA is going to use my story against her and me.” Darius says she need not worry. “That was self-defense too, right?” She flashes back to the moment Grace could have called someone to save Mac who was bleeding his life out of his neck. “I’m not going to call anybody till you tell me where my daughter is.” Self-defense? Hmmm….Will Grace have to go bye bye bye during season for the death of her Uncle Mac? She returns to the jail to tell Coralie that she is going to bail her out of jail! Coralie is astonished at her generosity. Grace says, “You should have more faith.”

I want to say “Boy Bye” when Bishop meets with Rochelle Cross. He tells her that he has more money to invest. “I trust you and your expertise.” And then they both drink something! Is Bishop actually drinking liquor, and brown likka at that, in the house of God? Where dey do dat at? Lady Mae later discovers that Bishop has emptied their shared account! He assures her that their account will be full again in two weeks. She told him NOT to take money from their account. And now he must say good-bye. “You will leave tonight and this time, you will take every last tie and purple robe and gaudy knickknack!” LOL. Bishop goes to stay with Percy the undertaker at his funeral home, which makes sense because it represents the ultimate death of Bishop’s marriage.

In another part of the house, Sophia is trying to find a way to say good-bye to her faith. She literally tears out sheets from the Bible her grandfather gave her and flushes them down the toilet. “The Bible is all lies,” she says. At the same time, she is crying hysterically when Grace finds her. She wants to flush her faith down the toilet, but she can’t forget how her faith in God made her feel. “I don’t want to love someone who treats me this badly.” (Tell that to Zora.) “Why won’t He just let me go?” Because that’s how God is. Chile, there have been times that I’ve been so mad with God, I just want to shut Him out but where else is there to go but to God, particularly when you’re heartbroken?! Sophia is starting to realize that, but she doesn’t want to. God help her.

Meanwhile, Jacob wants to forget his dalliance with Tasha, but he cannot say good-bye to his guilt just like that. Instead, he tries to make amends somehow, telling Kerissa that Zora can home after all. Kerissa is elated because now that her daughter is 18, she realizes that their parental control is coming to an end. She also apologizes for bringing up Jacob’s past.

But before Zora’s parents can tell her that they are taking her home, Zora decides to emancipate herself from her grandmother’s jail, Lady Mae refers to it as a “grand escape,” now that she is 18 years old! That’s is what she meant when she said, it won’t be much longer in a previous episode. Right in front of Lady Mae, she packs her things and flies out of the Greenleaf home where Christian Breezy aka Isaiah is waiting for her in a black BMW jeep! Bye Bye Bye Zora 🙁

Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 7: That Was Then 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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8 thoughts on “Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 7: That Was Then…

  1. Sister Jackie,

    I just loooooove how you capture all of the symbolisms in each episode. That’s why your recaps are awesome. I really hope that Sophia is able to feel the grace and love from God soon. Her pain is indescribable, but like you, I agree that Sophia knows that God still loves her and could go back to him.

    As much as I don’t like Lady Mae, I feel her when it comes to money being used for foolish things. I wish that some men could understand the true concept of “sacrifices” that women go through instead of making financial decisions with no impulses along with bad communication. I was totally with Lady Mae’s rage about the money being gone, and Bishop better be lucky that he came out alive.

    I like the depiction of Grace’s PTSD as a reminder that the trauma of killing her uncle wasn’t just for one season but will continue on for a very long time. It will be interesting to see how she will help the woman win her case possibly.

    The last bit is about Zora….I can’t wait til she finds out that she is pregnant just like you predicted. I can’t wait for Isaiah to kick her to the curb when he finds out that she is pregnant, and I ESPECIALLY can’t wait til Kerissa “wakes up” and understand what really took place with her daughter. Sis Jackie, I have a question for you…Do you think Kerissa is genuinely blind or chose to be blind when it comes to Zora’s issues? Jacob was right when he said that Kerissa use to be the “strict” mom; however even in her “strict” mode, Zora still had some bad habits that were well hidden. I remember when Zora showed red flags and Jacob would try to be the “dad”, but it’s too late. You know you’re mentally broken when you choose a guy who is physically abusive over the father who is trying to protect you.

    Again fabulous review!

    • Thank Ilyssa for taking the time to comment 🙂 Yes, I try to break thangs down as best as I can! As far as Kerissa is concerned, I’m not sure what to make of her. In the first season, she seemed like an opportunist who only married Jacob to become a Greenleaf. And it also seemed like she wanted to be in control of him but maybe that is because he was so out of control. Now, she seems want to be the perfect wife. I don’t know if the writers changed the direction of Kerissa’s charter development on purpose or if they somehow “forgot” how she was portrayed in the first season. All of that to say, I have no idea how this particular character will develop. I’m really not sure how Jacob all of a sudden stopped cheating either. I know that the woman he was cheating with was fired, but if the man was a cheater as is implied, one woman being fired wouldn’t stop it…to me, their character development is not as defined as other characters like Grace, Lady Mae, Bishop and even Charity…

  2. Hello, great recap as usual! I can’t remember what happened exactly that made Jacob stop cheating in S1, but I think he had an attack of conscience spurred on by the Bishop? At any rate, I don’t think he and Natasha knocked boots. They just acknowledged the insane attraction.

    And…does anybody else see a STRONG resemblance between Rochelle and Vivian Fox??? My goodness, they have the same mannerisms and voice incantation!! They must be related!

    • Thanks so much for reading Vicki! I remember that Bishop got on him about that, but his turnaround seemed to happen too quickly. But hey, it is TV!

      And now that you mention it, Rochelle and Vivica Fox do resemble in their mannerisms and in the way they speak…Who knows? Maybe she is a fan of Vivica!

    • Nahhhh. I would rather say Vivian fox resembles Lady Mae somehow. When I first saw Mae in this Greenleaf I was like where did I see this lady recently, I thought she was Cookie lyon’s sister in Empire but I later remembered, It was in 30 days in Atlanta.

      For Rochelle(Letoye) her resemblance with Grace Byers (Anika in Empire) geeezzzzzz! It’s something else.

      Nice recap Jackie. I’m hooked to your blog.

      • Lady Mae and Vivica Fox have a similar shaped face and they are both diva type of women. I don’t know about Rochelle and Grace Byers resembling each other except for the cute short haircuts 🙂

        And thanks again for reading my recaps!!!

  3. Did it come out somewhere that GiGi is a lawyer? I thought her profession was a journalist all this time. Just wondering how she came about to develop this “women’s defense fund”. I understand her being an advocate for domestic violence, but where did it originate.

    Also, lets not forget that Zora’s grandma and her Aunt were victimized and that also rolls down hill. Grandma by her own Dad and the poor Aunt victimized by nasty Uncle Mac. That low self esteem/self hatred runs deep in her family….mother and father side.

    And it would be better if Jacob got Tasha Skanks pregnant and not Zora. He just can’t seem to help himself when it comes to women, he deserves to ‘get got’ if you know what I mean.

    • Hi Elle Elle, as far as I know, Gigi is a former journalist, not a lawyer. Rochelle and Gigi helped raise the money for the fund, and I presume that Gigi will help find lawyers to defend the women. The money will pay for the defense, but Gigi won’t actually be serving as a lawyer. Yes, abuse affects the whole family. As far as Zora is concerned, it would be interesting to see what happens to her relationship with her cousin if she turns out to be pregnant. Given that Sophia has been “good” and Zora has been “bad,” it will make for a difficult relationship between the two I’m sure! And thanks for reading 🙂