Greenleaf: Season 5 Episode 4 “The Fourth Day” – Recap/ Review with Spoilers

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Director(s)	Princess Monique Filmz
Writer(s)	Art Alamo, Ivy Mariel Pruss
Aired (OWN)	7/14/2020
Introduced This Episode
Yusef Shabazz	Jay DeVon Johnson

This content contains pertinent spoilers.

Bye Bye Cousin – AJ, Noah, Grace, Sophia, Zora

With knowing how his mother and her family is, AJ decides he’d rather live with Noah than in the Greenleaf household. Which, of course, leads Grace to be in her feelings, but she isn’t alone. Both Sophia and Zora try to convince him to stay, but with him not wanting to talk about having HIV and being pushed like he knows Grace would do, he decides it is best to leave.

But, to show he still loves and cares for his mom, he kisses her on the head before he gives his goodbye.

Make Room For The Master Plan – Charity, Judee, Phil, Grace

Cavalry is only days away from demolition, and with that, even with being a turncoat, Charity is trying to have some reverence paid to the place her family built. However, ego pushes Judee to say no, and being that Phil has spent so long hoping to run a church, he goes along with what Judee says. Which, with Charity sick and tired of being sick and tired, with Grace talking about investigating Phil’s mother Gladys, who allegedly has been dead for years, alongside Phil’s dad Marcus, now Yusef Shabazz, there is hope.

How? Well, being that Gladys has been named VP, Comptroller, and more of some of Bob’s business holdings, specifically his lending company, that’s a lead. But with Yusef not willing to talk, that lead dies. Though the fight isn’t a total loss. Charity, just to try and fight back, she talks to Connie, who reveals the conversation to Judee, who still ain’t getting no D from Phil.

However, with her frustration comes her firing Charity who checks with Phil if he co-signs what Judee does, and he, like the wishy washy man he has become, does. Thus, Charity dresses him down and throws in a few insults Phil can pass along to his little girlfriend. Then, she rewrites what Judee and Phil think happened by noting she was not fired, but rather she quit.

Forgiveness Isn’t Given In One Conversation – Tara, James, Mae, Kerissa, Jacob

After Jacob reveals his reasoning for investigating the possibility of a second will and questioning if his father is a murderer, a few things happen. First and foremost, Mae confronts Kerissa, who she was ready to kick out of the house. At least until she hears about the affair and can barely handle the hypocrisy her son has shown. Especially when she learns there was an additional woman Jacob was involved with.

Thing is, despite Jacob getting to hear a couple of passages from the bible, all about forgiveness, judgment, and what have you, he just can’t bring himself to forgiving Kerissa. Leading you to think, he might have been waiting for a means to end their relationship for a long time. It’s just he wanted to make sure Kerissa would come off looking like the bad person when all was said and done?

Which is what James tries to avoid with Tara. He goes to her church, tries to clear the air about what happened to her dad, and there originally was some hope that the conversation meant she wouldn’t come for the house and property surrounding it. However, within a day of their conversation, and praying, Tara may have second thoughts so the Greenleaf family still may need to worry about whether they’ll keep their family home or not.

Collected Quote(s) & .Gifs

“Sometimes […] support comes in the form of releasing control.”

Highlights

Someone Sticking Up For Kerissa

Kerissa has been a kicking bag since the show started. Between Jacob’s affair, her demanding and wanting more of him, and her rarely getting afforded the ability to be vulnerable, usually Kerissa has been cold and upset. What of course didn’t help is we never met her mother or any of her family but, lest we forget, if you date or marry a Greenleaf, your family and past is the least of the show’s concern. Remember Charity’s first husband? Yeah, where is he at?

That thought aside, even if Mae didn’t want to defend Kerissa, at least someone finally realized the woman’s actions were not because she wanted to be cruel or outright hates the family. More so, similar to Charity, she just got tired of trying, doing the right thing, and waiting for reciprocity. So, she did what she felt she had to do to finally feel like she had some means to negotiate for what she wanted.

Zora & Sophia Trying To Convince AJ To Stay

When it comes to Zora and Sophia, I’d submit the whole Dante and Nikki storyline, like so many for the two, was less about growth and the girls coming of age as it was giving them something to do. Which, with seeing them with AJ, trying to give him puppy dog eyes to keep him from leaving, you can see where their focus should have laid.

After all, Zora introduced Sophia to the Greenleaf family, with weed and bad behavior. So it would have been a full-circle moment for her to meet another of Aunt’s Grace’s kids and instead of pressure them to be at their worst, invest in them being at their best. Add in how Sophia growing close to him could have led to a better reveal of his HIV diagnosis than what we got and, as often seen with “Greenleaf,” while you deal with what you get, in retrospect, you see how things could have been handled better.

This New Charity

This Charity we see now, that isn’t necessarily waiting for a handout and is less about whining and more about doing? We couldn’t have gotten her years ago? I mean, Jacob left for another church so why didn’t Charity? Why is it she had to repeatedly be treated barely better than Kerissa? I get she loved her family and wanted to hold a pastor position at Cavalry, but why is it she had to go through so much mental and emotional cruelty to reach this point, at the hands of the writers?

Judee

While Judee doesn’t have the flair of Basie, or the manipulation tactics of Rochelle, she makes you hate her. Granted, she is as basic as vanilla ice cream with no sprinkles, fudge, nuts, just plain nothing, but she is better than nothing. She is someone to point all your hatred at since her daddy has yet to be seen and has barely been seen since her family was introduced.

On The Fence

Tara

With Tara not having that usual Skanks attitude, nor the vibe she is up to something on a regular basis, it is hard to say how we feel about her. Is she going to bring peace or raise hell? Could she be working with Bob? Will she lead to the resurgence of Basie? I don’t know about you, but I’d love for one more hit of Basie Skanks.

Either way, I can’t say how we should feel just yet.

Final Thoughts

“Greenleaf” is the type of show you watch because you made it this far. Because of that, you take note of things it could have done better but settle with what it gives you.

Where To Watch

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