Tag Archives: Rochelle Cross

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Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 9: Runaway Train…

Hello World,

It’s hard to believe that yet another week has passed by and once again it’s time for another OWN “Greenleaf” recap and in this case: Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 9: Runaway Train…Some episodes are action packed with nary a moment for me to put down my pen and other episodes are more contemplative and I have time to consider the implications of what I’m witnessing on the screen. This episode was the latter. At long last, I think Bishop is finally starting to entertain the idea that Rochelle may not be what she claims to be, but more on that later….

Water Runs Dry…

The time has finally come for Bishop’s Silver Jubilee celebrating his 25th anniversary. It looks like it’s going to be a grand affair and shades of purple, the color of royalty, will be splashed over everything from the programs to the sanctuary. Grace realizes that some of the details that make such an occasion truly a celebration like the decorations will be lacking a certain cohesiveness without Lady Mae’s direction. “Who is helping you with this?” Grace asks her father. Bishop has to admit that he has no help even from his assistant Karine, whom he shares with Lady Mae, as she has been busy with the upcoming “A Day with Lady Mae” with Maxine. But Karine does find the time to hand Bishop the divorce papers that have finally been drawn up and delivered to Calvary via a courier. Karine specifies that both the Bishop and Lady Mae have to sign the papers. Bishop muses that he will be a “free man” upon signing the papers, but when he sits his office by himself, the expression on his face shows he is not at peace with the fact that the well that was his marriage is now dry.

Back at Percy’s house, it may not be too much longer before Bishop has worn out his welcome. Bishop tells his old friend about the divorce papers and Percy asks his living arrangements. “Now that you and Mae are done and Mae has the house, what arrangements have been made?” In other words Bishop, you don’t have to go home (because you don’t have one) but you need to raise up outta here! Bishop admits the divorce papers “threw me a bit.” Percy says, “Don’t let them sit too long. You have some living to do.”

Bishop and Gigi come together again for another discussion at the Greenleaf estate and he asks about his granddaughter Sofia. Grace tells him that she is still the same – isolating in her room. Bishop decides that he will visit her. However, but before he can do that, Grace asks him about Rochelle. “Is it true that you invested a large amount of money with Rochelle?” Apparently, Lady Mae told Grace that Bishop intends to make the money needed to pay the IRS through his investments with Rochelle. “I don’t trust her,” Grace says. Bishop asks his daughter why she is working with her on the legal defense fund if she doesn’t trust Rochelle. “I’ve accepted her help because I don’t trust her. The way she swooped in and drove a wedge between you and mama. Daddy, get that money back.” That’s right, Grace. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Who said that originally? Very wise statement. Another way to say that is, “Every shut eye ain’t closed and every good-bye ain’t gone.”

On the way to see Sofia, Bishop sees Charity, Kevin and Aaron playing with Nathan. “Look at the happy family,” he says. As he continues, Aaron comes up to Bishop and says, “My father has called you a few times. He has pancreatic cancer.” Y’all know Bishop ain’t been cool with Bishop Lionel Jeffries, Aaron’s father, ever since he discovered that Lady Mae and Lionel had an affair back in the day. “Are you two on speaking terms?” Bishop asks Aaron. “Barely, but he’s sick,” Aaron says.  Will Bishop reach down into his well of forgiveness and offer the water of reconciliation to a dying man?

Run To You…

Bishop finally makes it to Sofia’s room. “You got a second for an old man?” He assures her that though he and Lady Mae have their differences, he will be around. She invites him in. “I notice that Bible I gave you is out of rotation.” Sofia says, “I should give it back to you.” “Hold on to it for a while,” he tells her. She tells him that she hates her life.

He lets her know that he knows how she feels since he has to grapple with Parkinson’s Disease. Y’all, we haven’t heard anything about his condition in over a season it seems. In fact, this is the first episode since his condition was revealed that we actually see evidence of it. Throughout this episode, he is constantly stretching his hands I guess to alleviate the pain. I think it was a mistake to not address this condition in a consistent way as the story of Bishop and Lady Mae’s unraveling unfolds. We all know when someone is chronically sick, that very much determines how you interact with the person. Anyway, he tells Sofia that he understands why she stays holed up in her room as you get to avoid everyone’s “clumsily stated ‘concerns.'” He also tells her  that it’s a fact of life that the body eventually “falls apart and everything is taken away in the end.” He invites her to come to church on Sunday for his Silver Jubilee. “God has given me a special message just for you.” I must admit, as I watched this, I was  jealous remembering my own grandfather, who was also a pastor. He’s been with God in Heaven for several years now, but I can still hear his voice – booming and clear and brimming with wisdom. Sofia is lucky to have a grandfather that she can run too and I hope she realizes that before it is too late.

Bishop returns back to Percy’s place where he sees Percy’s “friend” Theresa, standing alone,  wearing a black dress that shows all of her shape. I loved her curly Afro! I’m trying to grow one myself ever since I cut my locs off. “Is Percy around,” he asks. “He’s conked out,” she replies. She tells him she can stick around, presumably to “service” him as well but Bishop is not interested in what she’s serving…

The next morning when Percy wakes up, he encourages Bishop to mend fences with his old friend Lionel despite his affair with Lady Mae. “You only get a few people in life you can work things out with. He may be one of yours.” Percy has so much wisdom to be hanging out with whores.

This is the Bishop World Tour episode because Bishop goes to see his son Jacob and his grandson at his home next. Bishop lets his son know that he sensed something when he interrupted Jacob’s meeting with Tasha. “When I came to your church the other day, it seems to me that you two were in the middle of something.” Jacob assures his father that he’s no longer the philanderer that he once was and nothing was going on. But tonight is not about Jacob’s pending downfall (and you know it’s coming), it’s about Bishop’s divorce. Bishop admits that he is conflicted about signing the papers. “It’s not about having doubts. It’s complicated. I don’t see anyway forward that looks right. The papers are sitting in my briefcase like a bomb.” Jacob encourages his father to not sign them – at least immediately- until he’s truly ready. In the end, do you think he will run back to Lady Mae?

Runnin’ (Dying to Live)…

The time has finally come for Bishop’s Silver Jubilee, but before it goes down, he has a behind-the-scenes discussion with his baby girl. Although Charity has been feeling better lately, right now, she is feelin’ some type of way about the fact that her ex and Aaron seem to be moving right along with their lives. She tells Bishop the couple is buying a home together, and they are considering marriage. “Why does everyone get their fairy-tale ending except me?” Bishop admits he has similar feelings when he sees Lady Mae not skipping a beat as their divorce is coming at a steady pace. In fact, she’s coming into her own, he says. But he cheers himself up by opening up the newspaper and seeing what “holy ruckus” Grace is causing on any given day, listening to Charity’s CD or watching Jacob’s online sermons. In those moments, he’s grateful to Mae for giving him these three children. All I could think about was Faith. He should have mentioned her in some way in this moment too. She’s dead, but she still existed. Was he not grateful for her too?

Shortly after that conversation, though, I forgive Bishop when he sings a beautiful duet with Charity. They sing, “If I Can Help Somebody,” which kicks off the service. Grace is up next. “That was some good sangin’ Daddy. Now what I can say by way of introduction, celebration and revelation about my Daddy, My Bishop…He’s a man of faith. He doesn’t walk by sight. We all owe so much to the faith the Bishop has had in us.” She encourages the congregation to welcome him with “holy enthusiasm.” When he walks up, he whispers to Grace, “Rochelle is not what you think.”

She says, “I hope you’re right.” Because you know Rochelle is there too. Bishop delivers a rousing word so much so that Deaconess Connie says that the Silver Jubilee turned out better than anything Lady Mae and Maxine have up their sleeves. Bishop points out that this is not a competition.

Bishop is really only concerned about one person, the one whom God gave him a word for, his granddaughter Sofia. When it becomes clear that Sofia was not moved by the Spirit in the service, (‘I don’t think I have a spirit,’ she says), he invites her to his office to tell her the “meaning of life.” He compares life to a runaway train and how our parents didn’t intentionally bring us into a world in which they had no control over, a runaway train of sorts, but that is the situation. He says God, the grand conductor of this runaway train, needs our help in letting people on the train know that He loves them and he’s trying to bring this runaway train to “safe and satisfactory end.” “Happiness isn’t the absence of sadness. It’s being in the adventure of life in God’s world with others.” I feel like this, as the Bible states, Remember your Creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come. In this world, we will have troubles and experience things we may never understand, but God is there to help us as we go through. Nothing separates us from His love although it feels like it sometimes. Sofia keeps runnin’ from God, but where else can she run? We are all “living to die and dying to live.”

Nowhere to Run…

Following the Silver Jubilee, Bishop is again at his BFF’s house. Isn’t funny that you never see Percy at Calvary? True friends don’t have to be in agreement about everything as long as they share some commonalities. Bishop asks him where is his “company” for the night. Percy tells him that sometimes he has to curb that appetite out of self-respect. “You never forget your paying for it.” He tells Bishop that he’s lucky to have that young woman Rochelle who is willing to “rub his feet” and more. Again, Bishop is stretches his hands, obviously feeling the effects of his Parkinson’s Disease again.

The next time he sees Rochelle at Calvary, he confronts her. “What are you doing in my life?” He continues. “I’m an old man. My hands shake. My body is not what it used to be. What do you want from me?” Rochelle pretends to be incensed and tells Bishop to look at the app where he can see that his investment is yielding a return. He hugs her and apologizes for doubting her interest in him.

In the next scene, Bishop finally gets around to see his former friend Lionel at the assisted living facility where he’s staying now that he is sick. When he finally enters Lionel’s room, Lionel says, ” I just want to say I’m sorry. I don’t expect that you will forgive me.” Bishop tells him it was the betrayal by a friend that broke the heart of Jesus. “I forgive you but this is the last time we will see each other in this life.”

When he returns to Calvary, he finally decides to sign the divorce papers. The revelation of Lady Mae’s affair with Bishop was part of the reason that we got on this runaway train leading to the divorce of Bishop and Lady Mae. Now that he has made peace with what happened maybe there is nowhere else to go but down the road of inevitability. He takes the papers to Lady Mae’s office and tells her that he signed them. “Why did you sign them, James?” Lady Mae says.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that we’ve seen her speak in this episode. Her question puzzled me. I think there was a part of her that never expected him to sign them. He says in response, “Because I know that I have no right to this marriage. Perhaps I never did. Whether you sign them is up to you.” Dressed in purple, Lady Mae does sign those papers. But both of them have tears in their eyes…

But be encouraged Saints, y’all know that Bishop and Lady Mae go together like peas and carrots. LOL. There is no separating them…

When Bishop returns to his office, he discovers the Bible that he gave to Sofia is on his desk. She still hasn’t figured out that she has nowhere to run except to God, but she will understand it better by and by…

Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 9: Runaway Train 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?

 

 

 

 

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Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 6: She Changes Everything…

Hello World,

Although OWN’s “Greenleaf” had a bye week last week, they got right back in the game with this week’s episode so keep reading for my Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 6: She Changes Everything…

Since I used an NFL term (bye week), one might expect that I would continue on the theme of male empowerment as depicted by sports, but I’m a switch hitter (baseball reference) because this episode was all about female empowerment and how women are changing the game! As least that is what Lady Mae would like to do, but more on that later…

Alright, let’s go…

She’s a Bad Mama Jama…

Lady Mae comes down the stairs with a revised proposal of what she and Bishop will say to the congregation about their divorce. “Oh the long awaited rewrite,” Bishop says. “I’ve printed it in large print so that you can read it on Sunday.” That was low-key shade although you’re supposed to print a speech in big letters so that you can see the words without straining. Y’all know Lady Mae has no problem with shade. She is the ultimate bad mama jama. Bishop notices that there is “nothing about saying good-bye” in the speech. Lady Mae says she has come to the conclusion that she is staying. Bishop and Lady Mae exchange more words before Lady Mae screams, “I will be praying for you.” If you have to scream that you will be praying for someone, maybe you shouldn’t…

Instead of a bad mama jama, Charity is a bad mama right now. She is face down on her coach passed out while her son Nathan is screaming his head off. It’s so loud that Lady Mae and Marisol, holding Nathan, confront her. Lady Mae says that Marisol heard the child over the dryer in another part of the house. After asking Charity if she is under the influence, she says, “I’m going to take this pharmacy of yours and throw it in the toilet.” And then she gets gully with it. “Don’t put me in the position where I have to agree with Kevin,” Lady Mae says. “On what?” Charity asks. “Your fitness as a mother.” Wow.

It seems that not even Sophia’s mother can comfort her daughter right now. And even Zora in all of her self-centered stupidity realizes it. She goes to Sophia’s room and apologizes for how she treated her cousin just before she was taken to the emergency room. “I didn’t know you were really sick.” Sophia says, “I forgive you. Now go to hell!” Yeah, she’s mad…”You made a joke about me getting pregnant,” Sophia says. “I don’t want an apology from anyone like you.” Was that Sophia’s way of calling her cousin a heathen?!

Grace is able to distract herself a bit from her daughter’s woes when her man Darius calls. He asks her is the legal defense fund she has created up and running as woman who was apparently abused has now killed her husband.

Speaking of husbands, Rochelle is still trying to steal Lady Mae’s soon-to-be ex-husband. Rochelle meets with Bishop at his office and says she can help him with his tax bill. After telling him about crytocurrency, she says, “People are getting rich quick.” “Can we?” Bishop asks.

Also now in her office as well, Lady Mae calls home to check on Charity. After Marisol informs Lady Mae that Charity is still on her sofa, she tells Marisol to have the power turned off in her suite. That should wake her up! But Lady Mae, like Bishop, also has a guest to entertain in her office. Maxine Patterson shows up at Calvary to much fanfare. After Maxine promises everyone that she will sign autographs and take pictures later, the two, called “sister warriors” by Lady Mae’s starstruck assistant Karine, retire to Lady Mae’s office.

Bishop and Rochelle come out of his office due to all of the hubbub. Rochelle says, “I wonder what Mae’s up to?” (Why does she feel comfortable calling her Mae rather than Lady Mae?) Bishop replies, “The devil only knows.”

Minutes later, Rochelle meets with Grace and Darius. Darius tells Rochelle about the abused woman who finally killed her husband, but all Rochelle can do is gawk at Darius right in front of his girlfriend! “Is that a custom shirt? It fits you so well.” Rather than be straight up offended, Grace is kind of amused by it probably it confirms something she already knows: Rochelle cannot be trusted. She has to keep an eye on her.

Meanwhile, back in Lady Mae’s office, their two assistants agree on a date that Maxine will speak at Calvary. But then, Lady Mae tells the two assistants to leave as a private matter needs to be discussed. Lady Mae tells her about Charity. Maxine says, “I know a soul doctor.” “But is she discreet?” Lady Mae asks. “No, but that’s not her gift.” LOL

She Wolf…

I am so through with Zora!!! The girl took Marisol’s cell phone from her purse to call Christian Breezy aka Isaiah. She played nice with her grandmother Lady Mae when she first came to stay with her at the estate, but now, she is acting like she was raised by a pack of wolves. After Lady Mae reminds her of the rules (no computer and no phone and no talking to that boy) Lady Mae rightly calls her out for her disrespect and Zora responds with, “I hate it here.” Lady Mae says, “What you hate is yourself.” Exactly. Any girl that would continue to be with a boy who beats and disrespects her on some level hates herself! Zora calls her mother Kerissa to tell her that she wants to come home, but Jacob vetoes that request.

Meanwhile in another part of the house, the Iyanla Vanzant (who is playing herself), Maxine Patterson’s soul doctor,  is also attempting to have a breakthough with Charity who looks like she was raised by wolves at this point – hair and eyes all wild… She asks her, “Why take painkillers? All I see is pain” with her trademark term of endearment “Beloved.” (Why is it that every time I hear her use this term, I want to laugh? It’s not right, but I know it’s okay! LOL. Y’all pray for me.).

Charity tells her that “no one cares about me.” Iyanla asks her “Did you embarrass yourself by marrying a man who is gay?” “He hid it from me,” she replies. “I find it hard to believe that he was able to hide a secret that big!” Iyanla says. Say that, Iyanla! I knew from the the first episode of “Greenleaf” that Kevin was gay! Charity goes on to tell her that she married Kevin because he made her feel safe in her home. Iyanla asks, “What would it take for you to feel safe and wanted?” I bet Iyanla helped to write her lines, don’t you?

And yet in another part of estate, Sophia is still in pain (and she will be for quite some time). It must feel like she’s been thrown to the wolves after learning that she is sterile in the last episode. I still find it harsh that the writers feel it necessary to put her through so much. But her boyfriend Roberto is trying to help her through it. He brings a pink teddy bear to her in her bedroom. Still in her pajamas, she says, “Sorry I’m such a buzzkill.” He says, “Want to pray about it?” Sophia responds with, “Not really.” She is feeling sorry for herself and says, “I will never have kids, and I have to take hormones for the rest of my life. He did this.” I’m a bit surprised that she shared all of the details with her boyfriend. I thought she would have kept some of the details to herself, but it’s good that she shared all of it with him. He’s pretty mature for a teenage boy as he is trying to be there for her when it seems that many teenage boys would have have just stopped seeing her. He tells her that the Bible is full of women who were barren but later had kids. She yells, “I’m not barren. I’m sterile.” Aren’t they pretty much the same thing?

Minutes later, Sophia asks her mother to take her place on Sunday and teach her Little Saints class. “How can I stand there and tell them that God is good when He isn’t?” She says that her mother shouldn’t be concerned that she won’t be in church on Sunday. “You quit going for 20 years!”

Everything She Wants…

Bishop and Lady Mae seem to have finally made peace with the fact that their marriage is over as they calmly discuss the statement they will be making come Sunday morning. Still, Bishop tells her to make sure that she adds a farewell because “there won’t be another chance to say it.” Has he met his soon-to-be ex-wife before? She always gets everything she wants…But in this moment, she doesn’t cause a ruckus as the two plan to meet with Iyanla and Charity before they go to church.

Iyanla encourages Charity to share her truth with her parents. “When I was growing up, I felt scared.” Y’all, I thought she was going to follow up that with she was also molested by Uncle Mac! But she said she felt like Faith and Grace were scared too. Then she says she didn’t tell her mother because “I knew you didn’t want to hear it. That scared me even more.” Lady Mae starts to get upset now because it’s evident that Charity has disclosed all of the Greenleaf’s business! And instead of hearing and trying to understand Charity’s pain, she tells her that she needs to get a “backbone.” She tells her that her childhood wasn’t perfect (i.e. she was molested by her father), but “I’ve never blamed my mother for any of it.” Wow, Lady Mae, it always comes back to you. Lady Mae should have blamed her mother to some degree. Lady Mae says, “The world is scary, but don’t look at me. You fix it. That’s how Jesus works not me.”  Lady Mae is a woman in denial and expects everyone else to play along…That’s how Satan works, Lady Mae. So it looks like if Charity wants to get some healing, Lady Mae is not truly going to help…

After this meeting and before church, Bishop says to Lady Mae, “You can have the house. I will take care of the IRS bill, but you have to leave the church.” Surprisingly, she agrees with one stipulation. “I want ‘A Day With Lady Mae.'” (I guess this is a Women’s Service of some sort) Bishop agrees but tells her that after that she has to move on.

At church, Zora is still intent on getting everything she wants and calls that boy while she is in someone’s office. That child is off the rails.

After Charity sings about the “Balm in Gilead,” Bishop, who is in royal blue, and Lady Mae, who is in continuous black,” announce that they have some “news to share. We’re only human and we’ve never claimed to be anything but. We’re divorcing.” Gasps can be heard from all points of the sanctuary, but Bishop continues. “Some of you may ask, ‘Have they prayed about it? Have they tried to work it out? We did. We have.”

Lady Mae goes on to tell the church that she will be still hosting ‘A Day With Lady Mae” and her special guest will be Maxine Patterson, who is in the audience. The theme of the all-day seminar will be “She Changes Everything.”

After the service, Grace walks out in the hallway and hears the chatter about the announcement. Among the statements that she overhears is “I can’t have a pastor who is divorced.” Outside in the parking lot, Maxine shares her plan with Lady Mae. It is one of Sankofa. “We’re reaching back and picking up what you dropped.” In other words, Maxine hopes to help Lady Mae take over Calvary, but she also has a Plan B if Plan A doesn’t work. “We will march up the road and plant a new one.”

Will Lady Mae get everything she wants?

There She Goes…

Instead of thanking Iyanla for getting through to Charity, Lady Mae tells her that she didn’t appreciate being “bushwhacked.” Iyanla points that it was her daughter’s truth. Lady Mae says Iyanla made it seem like her problems were all of her fault. There Lady Mae goes again…deflecting like the devil wants her to… She points that she is already blamed by her eldest daughter but she won’t be blamed by her youngest daughter. And there you have it. Why Lady Mae cannot stand Grace. Grace calls her mother out on her issues. Iyanla sees through the smoke screen and says she can come to her when she is ready to deal with her own pain.

Grace tells Sofia what happened in church and Sofia says she knew something was up because everyone was blowing up her phone all day. Then Grace tells her that although she didn’t go to church, she is going to have to come back. But Sophia sets her straight. “I’m not going to church ever again. “

She goes outside to the pier and throws her chain (I think she received it when she was baptized.) in the lake. And there she goes. Walking away from God. Not Good. But I understand.

Any thoughts?

Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 6: She Changes Everything 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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Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 3: Chain of Command…

Hello World,

I thought a major bomb was dropped in last week, but this week’s bomb, which I will reveal later in this Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 3, tops last week’s bomb Greenleafers! Yes, I know Lady Mae announced that she was divorcing Bishop last week, but we saw that coming. I did not guess that what was revealed tonight would be revealed tonight and so cavalierly too. But we will get to that later!

Tonight’s episode was entitled “Chain of Command,” and in keeping with that theme, I will proceed…

Ball & Chain…

So many of OWN’s “Greenleaf” episodes start with Lady Mae sitting at a table somewhere in her fabulous home and tonight was no exception. With her this time, however, are her daughter Grace and her granddaughter Sofia. They casually discuss weather. Sofia comments on the rain the night before and Grace says, “Everything was washed clean.” Lady Mae invites her granddaughter, not Grace, to have supper with her. Nothing too out of the ordinary happens until Marisol brings a manila envelope to her. Beware of being brought manila envelopes. I would endeavor to say that very few of them contain happy things. What’s in Lady’s manila envelope are papers asking for the dissolution of marriage between Lady Mae and the Bishop. Yes, Lady Mae threatened divorce last week and Bishop acted on that intention this week! Seeing the shock on Lady Mae’s face, Grace asks her what is in the envelope. Very rarely does Lady Mae having anything nice at all to say to her daughter. And she is true to form tonight! “After the way you spoke to me last night, if you weren’t family, you wouldn’t even be living in this house.” And then she storms off. I can’t say I blame her. She got grimy with her mother last night and then wants to get all in her grill the next day?! Chile please. With her grudge against Grace intact, she leaves the premises, racing off in her car.

Back at Calvary, instead of Bishop looking like he’s scored a victory in serving his ball & chain before she can serve him, he seems nervous. To make matters worse, his baby daughter Charity is waiting for him in his office. He’s got no patience this morning and refuses to coddle her per usual. Now that Charity has quit the tour, she announces to her father that she wants to preach! “If I’m goong to stay here, I want to move forward with my career.” She tells her father that she even has a sermon idea and everything…something about souls are songs and God being our heavenly choir director. Say what Charity?! She needs to stick making melodies because her sermons won’t be saving souls! After Bishop jokes about wanting to be a baker before he became a bishop, he tells her, “The call to preach is not anyone’s plan B.” That will preach Bishop! The chain of command will not be changing anytime soon.

Speaking of the chain of command, the daughter who Bishop believes is called to minister, Grace, meets with a donor to her legal fund for victims of domestic violence. At Rochelle’s urging, the donor gives a sizable amount to Grace in her office. Shortly afterward, Bishop asks Gigi has she seen her mother. After she tells him no, he tells what he has done!

Also on the chain of command, but at another location, is Jacob. Tasha slithers into Jacob’s office to tell him that she has noticed many torn envelopes in the offering. She thinks one of the ushers from the first service is stealing from the offering. Jacob tells her that he will be meeting with the ushers to see if he can sniff out the thief.

Chain of Fools…

Lady Mae is a lot of things, but a fool aine one of them. With the quickness, she consults with a lawyer regarding Bishop’s request for the dissolution of their marriage. This is one of my favorite scenes in tonight’s episode! Lady Mae tells the female lawyer that Bishop, a “shepherd of 4,000 souls,” has cheated on her with her sister and now he is taking up with a woman half of his age in addition to other scandalous secrets! The lawyer says, “Hypocrisy! Abuse of power! Sounds juicy!” The lawyer seems so delighted by the prospect of attacking this soon-to-be-sullied shepherd that Lady Mae is a bit hesitant to proceed. “Are you a Christian?” she asks. She replies, “No, and you’ ll be thanking me later that I’m not.” LOL. With a $10,000 retainer, she can start right now. However, Lady Mae is not the first soon-to-be former First Lady that she has represented in a divorce. She tells her that her expectations must be realistic. Lady Mae says, “I just want what I deserve.” The lawyer lets her know that what she deserves has nothing to do with what she will get. “Once your bishop is done with you, it’s Cinderella time. At midnight, the party is over.”

Well those words were enough to send Lady Mae to the club. At first, I thought it was Mavis’ club, but Mavis wasn’t anywhere in sight. When will Mavis return by the way? At the club, Lady Mae orders a Brandy Alexander. I’m not into alcohol like that but it sounds like a classy drink, so classy and rare that Lady Mae has to instruct the bartender how to mix it. As she sips, her face is aglow in the blue lights of the establishment.

Lady Mae aine no fool but her baby girl Charity can really be foolish. After Jabari hangs up on her last week, that woman calls him up and tells him she misses him. Within a minute or two, Jabari hangs up on her again and continues his conversation with the woman sitting next to him.

Back at Calvary, Grace has to speak with a reporter who was originally scheduled to speak with the missing Lady Mae. Lisa Noland from The Memphis Monarch is working on an article about the rise of women’s leadership in church. Since Grace used to be a journalist (Has she said that before? I don’t remember.) she takes pity on the journalist and decides to be her source. You know that once Lady Mae finds out, she will be hot!

Bishop still hasn’t heard anything from Lady Mae and now he is downright worried. He heads over to Triumph to see if Jacob has seen his mother. When Jacob tells him that he hasn’t seen Lady Mae either, he tells his son that he has filed for divorce from his mother. Bishop tells Jacob this sweet story about when he asked Lady Mae to marry him the first time. She said, “No” because she had “other plans.” To put a fire under her, he told her that he packed up his storefront church to follow her. I guess he wanted to show her that he was serious. Well, that was enough for Lady Mae to accept his proposal after all. “She’s the same woman as she was back then.” Apparently, Bishop thought that filing for divorce would shock Lady Mae into seeing how wrong she was to threaten divorce and back away from that proposition. It looks like his gamble backfired and he will be the one looking foolish in the end.

Unchained Melody…

Charity continues to be a lost soul as this episode unfolds. When she goes to pick up Nate from Kevin’s new apartment, instead of finding Kevin there, Aaron is there. Aaron is playing with Nate and has even bought him a new toy. She asks,”Are you moving in now?” As a matter of fact, since Aaron did receive a job offer, he will be moving into Kevin’s home. In last week’s episode, the prospect of Kevin and Aaron living together was upsetting to her, but in this week’s episode, she was more upset that Aaron has a new job on the horizon. “I’ve got my own things going on too,” she tells Aaron before taking her son and driving to Nashville!

As she enjoys the music, Lady Mae is still drinking at the club. In fact, Vernon the bartender thinks the drinks must be so good, he is considering adding the Brandy Alexander to the menu! Lady Mae even invites two other women to come to her table, telling them she will pay for their drinks! She asks them if they have heard about a famous preaching woman on TV named Maxine Patterson. When they tell her they have heard of her, Lady Mae tells them that Maxine was her college buddy and they once were going to Howard Divinity School together. At that very same bar, Lady Mae told her friend Maxine that she wouldn’t be going to divinity school with her after all. She was in love and had to stay in town. But now she has regrets. “You give your whole life to a man and in one fell swoop, he takes it all away.” Lady Mae sings the blues. And she is drunk. She is so drunk that she decides to stay at a motel next to the bar. “It may not be what you’re used to, but it’s clean,” Vernon tells her when she asks about the conditions. She stumbles to her motel room where she watches her old friend on TV.

Finally at home, Bishop still hasn’t heard from Lady Mae! And then she calls Sofia and tells her that she is sorry she won’t be making it for supper with her. She also asks Sofia to tell everyone that she is fine and will be back in the morning. Bishop hears and takes the phone from her but Lady Mae hangs up without saying a word shortly after hearing Bishop’s voice. Bishop pretends that he has a quick conversation with her although the dial tone is on the other end.

At Darius’ home, Grace reveals her reservations about Rochelle. “I can’t help but think this whole thing is about Rochelle Cross.” Darius offers to have a friend at the police department check out Ms. Cross.

After arriving in Nashville following a seven-hour drive, Charity busts into a rehearsal and tells Jabari she wants to come back on the tour. Jabari aine trying to her at this point. “I thought you loved me,” she says. He says, “I did.” Ouch. “I gave you what you said you wanted,” he says. Charity agrees and reaffirms that she is back. But Jabari says it’s too late and that the woman on stage (the woman he was talking to when Charity called before) has taken Charity’s spot. “Go home. I don’t want you here.”  I say, “Good riddance.” If you don’t want me, I aine beggin’ you to say.

Chain Gang…

Conspiring like some criminals, Rochelle and Tasha meet at a bar. Tasha says, “How did you get the IRS to reopen the case?” I should have known that Rochelle was behind this IRS shakedown. She’s a crafty one, ain’t she? Tasha expresses a bit of remorse about conspiring against Jacob. Tasha asks, “Don’t you ever worry about God?” Rochelle spits out “James Greenleaf killed my father. It wasn’t just Basie’s father. There are two generations making a mockery of religion…We have to stay the course. I have no time for backsliders.” And this is the revelation that we Greenleafers have been waiting for! The caretaker who died in the church fire that Bishop started to get insurance money was the father of Basie and Rochelle!!! I thought she would have revealed that information in some heated argument with an adversary, but it just came out of her mouth like it was nothing.

Remember Rochelle was once a member of Gethsemane Baptist Church and Gethsemane was the garden where Jesus prayed before he died on the cross. If Rochelle Cross has anything to say about it, she will be offering up Bishop for him to atone for his killing her father. And Bishop did remember that the caretaker had a daughter…Is Basie younger or older than Rochelle? Hard to tell…

Although we know that Rochelle is up to no good, Darius tells Grace his contact didn’t find anything on Rochelle, but his contact did discover a list that the IRS is using to come after churches in which the shepherds of the church didn’t pay taxes on their personal income. And Calvary is at the top of the list!

Speaking of criminal behavior, Jacob meets with the ushers to determine who has stolen from the offering, but all along he thinks his daughter is the culprit. She is the only new usher after all. After the meeting, Jacob busts into Zora’s room as Zora insists she did not steal. After turning her room upside down, he discovers bills in a box! “You lied to me,” he screams to his daughter. Kerissa, who didn’t think her troubled daughter was also a thief, is aghast!

On the other hand, Lady Mae, after having sobered up, returns to Calvary as calm as she wants to be. She asks Karine to schedule a flight to Atlanta. “I’m going to visit an old friend.” We know that is Maxine Patterson aka ThePatti.TheLaBelle baby! At Karine’s desk, she notices that Grace is on the front cover of the newspaper. “The reporter had a deadline and Grace handled it,” Karine states. I’m sure that Lady Mae will go off on Grace about this at another time.

And at the very end of the episode, Bishop, dressed in blue, finally sees Lady Mae at Calvary. He tells her his filing for divorce was a “stupid mistake.” “Let’s just start over,” he says. “We can’t, James,” says Lady Mae, who is dressed in black and resolute. AND she thanks him for filing the papers!!! She says it was her mistake to marry him and make their lives together her calling when she was called by God on her own. She’s ready to move on to “anything other than being at the mercy of a man who plucks at the web of my absurdly constructed life!” What a line!!! Regarding the divorce papers, she says her lawyer has begun to work on the case. “It’s time to go,” she says finally.

And sadly, a lone tear slides down Bishop’s downcast face. The chain of command is being broken…Lady Mae wants to head her own church!!! Y’all know when it’s all said and done, they will get back together…eventually…and what a wild ride it will be till then!

Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Recap Season 3 Episode 3: Chain of Command 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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