Hello World,
As the title of tonight’s episode of OWN’s “Greenleaf” suggests, Season 3, with only two episodes left, is coming to an explosive ending soon so keep reading for Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 11: The End is Near…
Is This The End?…
A conversation with Bishop and his daughter (or is she?) Grace begins this episode. While in Bishop’s office, Grace tells Bishop that when Rochelle’s mother went to prison after her father died in a fire, Rochelle and her sister Tara went to live with the Flannery family who took them in as foster children. “Basie Skanks was their half brother,” Grace tells him. When Bishop doesn’t immediately respond to her suspicions about Rochelle’s motives for inserting herself in Bishop’s life, she follows up with, “Why is this so hard for you to believe?” Bishop starts to list reasons why he trusts Rochelle including the fact that she raised money for Grace’s legal defense fund, but before he can continue his ridiculous rationale for his blind trust, the FBI busts into the office! They are on a search and seizure mission as Calvary AND Triumph are being accused of embezzlement of church funds!
Meanwhile, in another part of Calvary, Lady Mae is being interviewed about the upcoming “A Day With Lady Mae.” She says it will be a day of “renewal and rededication.” To Lady Mae’s surprise, the interviewer asks, “Will your daughter be speaking?” and calls Grace the “new face of Calvary.” Lady Mae responds with, “The fabulous roster is full as it is. The Spirit of God will be speaking no matter who is in the pulpit.” I swear Lady Mae stays trying to keep her daughter in the background although it is impossible. But before the interview can be completed, the FBI busts in there too! As can be expected, Lady Mae runs up on her daughter and asks if the FBI raid has to do with her helping Coralie. Grace says she has nothing to do with what is happening and Lady Mae finds out her name is on the warrant! As the FBI is seizing everything, Lady Mae nearly loses it as her sermon, music and PowerPoint presentation for “A Day with Lady Mae” is on one of the computers that is seized. She goes up to her ex-husband and pounds him on the chest. “Get off the phone,” she says. “They’re taking everything.” While the ruckus continues, Grace calls an attorney. “We need your help,” she says.
Over at Triumph, Jacob learns that he is being accused of transferring $200,000 from the church’s treasury into an account that he shared with Bishop. Supposedly, Bishop was able to withdraw the money and used it as a down payment for the IRS. Still in denial, Bishop swears it was a legit investment account and that he was able to periodically check the balance on an app on his phone. But when he tries to access the account this time, there is nothing to access! “Both of you got played by these women,” Kerissa says to Bishop and her husband about Rochelle and Tasha.
Back at Calvary, as Lady Mae and Maxine meet her in her office, Lady Mae is told that Lionel Jeffries is calling her. She doesn’t take the call but Maxine calls Lady Mae out. “Have you talked to Grace yet?” she asks. Later she goes by Grace’s office but Grace is not there. Her assistant says, “I can let her know that you came by.”
Charity finds herself caught up in the commotion as well. Using the power of her femininity (batting eyes etc.) approaches an FBI agent about some risque pictures that are on her computer that has now been seized. She asks the agent if he has heard the expression “PK.” When he says that he is not familiar with the term, she explain those initials stand for “preacher’s kid” and that to be a PK is to feel like you’re “walking on a tight rope.” And sometimes you do things, silly things, to break free from the mold! Amen to that I must say as a PK myself. She asks if she can get those pictures back somehow since they are unrelated to the investigation. By the looks of things, he seems to be willing to help her.
Also, Darius the journalist shows up at Calvary and Grace goes off on him as he is there to get the story. He tells her that he wants to “confirm a few facts which were going to come out anyway.”
End of the Road…
Now that Jacob knows that Tasha is the one who took the money, he calls her to confront her. “I know that you took the money but I know that you couldn’t have come up with this by yourself. I promise I won’t press charges.” When Tasha remains mum, Kerissa, who is next to Jacob, tells him to tell Tasha that he loves her. Y’all when he says those words, Tasha melts like a hot Popsicle and Basie and Rochelle, the evil Wonder Twins, are right there to see her reaction.
In Atlanta, Jacob and Kerissa’s spawn Zora and her buster boyfriend Isaiah discuss her going to the studio with him. She wants to go, but Isaiah says she will just be bored. Instead, he gives her some money to get her nails done. You already know that is a set up. He is not being nice for no reason…
Apparently a day has gone by but the fallout of the FBI raid continues at Calvary. Grace pulls up on Rochelle as she is on her way to Bishop’s office. “I know you’re Basie’s half sister. You set up my father to make him pay for the death of your father.” Rochelle admits that she is Basie’s half-sister but she says that Grace is “paranoid” and will not put up with her “PTSD bull****.” Futhermore, she says that she was in Bishop’s bed last night and that they professed their love for one another. “If we decide to marry, you have to let go of this mania.” At that point, Rochelle would have had to marry my fingers but my fist would have kissed her mouth.
In another part of the church, Deaconess Connie meets with Bishop. She tells him she is calling an emergency meeting of the deacon board. She tells him that she will recommend that he step down from the pulpit as Calvary needs a “fresh start” after the IRS scandal. But Bishop disagrees.
At the Skanks household, Basie and Tasha continue their tense reunion. She tries to serve some food to her husband. Basie tells her to stop playing that she is a “good wife.” He says that while they were apart, he was “begging God to put you in my dreams.” Tasha responds with, “You had me thinking you were dead.” He goes to say, “I don’t trust you.”
At Triumph, Kerissa says, “It’s a good thing I didn’t quit my job because we are done.” Just then Tasha calls Jacob. When the call is done, Jacob says. “She wants to meet.” Kerissa has a startling revelation as she watches her husband speak with Tasha. She says, “You care for her. I can see it.” Everyone can see it, but Jacob tries to deny it. “I’m not having this conversation,” he says.
Across town at Calvary, Lady Mae is also startled from a phone conversation. Aaron Jeffries tells her that his father is dead. “He had a bad reaction to a chemo treatment.” Lady Mae offers perfunctory condolences and ends the call. Afterward, Grace shows up at her mother’s office as her assistant told her that her mother wanted to see her. Now that Lionel is dead, he will take a secret with him. Dead men tell no tales. More on this later. Lady Mae says that she wanted to apologize for her behavior around the FBI raid, specifically for accusing Grace of having something to do with it. “I was presumptuous and infantile…” Grace should know her mama by now. If Lady Mae is apologizing to Grace, something is amiss. Still she accepts the apology and leaves.
She tracks down her father in the storage area of the church. “Did you sleep with Rochelle last night and tell her you loved her because that is what she told me?” Eeewww….parents have sex lives?! Yuck…
Meanwhile, Lady Mae goes to the sanctuary where she finds Maxine rehearsing. Maxine stops singing and asks how Grace responded to Lady Mae’s news. Lady Mae says, “I no longer have to talk to Grace. Lionel died.” “You still have to tell Grace. You’re about to ascend. You don’t want to give Satan any hooks to pull you down.” Amen. When you’re about to go high, the devil does want to bring you low so you have to careful. Maxine goes on to say, “The future may be female, but women have to tell the truth.” True…A reference to the #MeToo movement? Quite possibly.
Loose Ends…
For the first time this episode, Sofia makes an appearance but she is STILL in her room. SMH. She sees a video of Isaiah and some girl getting more than friendly and sends it to her cousin. “Have you seen this?” Apparently not. Zora asks Isaiah, “Is she the reason why I couldn’t come to the studio? Are we really together?” Isaiah responds with, “You know you’re my First Lady.” He kisses her then and Zora falls for it. But later on, she watches the video again. Little by little, she is starting to see the light.
Back in Memphis, Charity has gotten through to the FBI agent! After he tells her that he knows there were no scandalous photos as she originally represented, he returns some of the computer files to her anyway as they have nothing to do with the investigation. Among the files are Lady Mae’s PowerPoint presentation and accompanying photos which Charity gives to her mother. Lady Mae is surprised and impressed. Charity is starting to come into her own. As the baby of the family, she is used to being coddled. As a result, her family downplays her contributions. But now she is starting to prove that she is an invaluable part of the family and doesn’t need special treatment.
Unexpectedly, Aaron shows up at Calvary, but he is there to see Grace not Lady Mae. He tells her that his father passed away and Grace expresses her condolences. “I know this is hard,” she says. He responds with, “It’s even harder than you think.”
Speaking of shocking encounters, Basie rather than his wife shows up to meet Jacob. Basie says, “What happened with you and my wife? On the phone you said, ‘I love you.'” Jacob reluctantly tells Basie that it was one kiss and that it meant “nothing.” “One man’s nothing is another man’s everything.”
He goes on to say, “Don’t worry about texting Tasha. I got her on the phone right here.” Apparently, Tasha was listening in via his cell phone. Somehow, I don’t think this is going to stop the affection between Tasha and Jacob, but they only have two more episodes to make something happen on the other hand. We will see, we will see…
Bishop finally catches up with Rochelle to straighten her about lying to Grace. “You told Grace we slept together. That didn’t happen.” In some kind of Jedi mind trick, Rochelle keeps on insisting that the two did sleep together. What’s up with that? Did she drug him or something or is she delusional? He also asks her if she is Daryl James’ daughter? She confirms that she is. At long last, Bishop finally realizes that he has been hoodwinked. Regarding her misdeeds, Bishop says, “You won’t get away with it.” When Bishop walks way, Rochelle says, “B****, I already did.” Yeah, she said that…
Thinking that she averted more than one crisis, Lady Mae, by her lonesome, reviews her PowerPoint presentation in Calvary’s sanctuary which is dark except for the light coming from the screen. But Grace comes into the sanctuary and disturbs her mother’s peace as usual. Lady Mae tells her that Charity saved “A Day With Lady Mae” by returning her PowerPoint presentation to her, but Grace interrupts her to tell her that Aaron Jeffries came by. She says that he told her that Lionel his father is dead. And then Grace asks the question of the episode. “Is Lionel my father?” Lady Mae looks at her straight in the eyes and says, “I don’t know” with the backdrop of the words “She Changes Everything.” And indeed, Lady Mae has and will continue to do so…but maybe the she in this scenario is Grace… (Where is Maury with the paternity test?)
One “loose end” that I’m not sure about: Was Triumph’s new accountant an FBI plant? What y’all think?!
Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 11: The End is Near 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 🙂!
Any thoughts?
Juan Winans began his career with the Billboard #1 Gospel Album, “Winans Phase 2: We Got Next,” which birthed the hit single “It’s Alright (Send Me);” and continued on to write and produce for a myriad of Gospel, Pop and R&B artists including Mary Mary, Lalah Hathaway, Smokie Norful and Michael Bolton. In 2016, Juan Winans and his sister Deborah Joy Winans (“Greenleaf”) began a series of tours in the original musical Born For This: The BeBe Winans Story.