'Greenleaf' Season 5 Episode 5 Review: With Mae's generosity and [spoiler's] return, will Grace be their savior?
Spoilers for 'Greenleaf' Season 5 Episode 5 'The Fifth Day'
With Lady Mae looking near convinced that she could help the titular Greenleaf family still keep their house, viewers too could rest with the knowledge of Mae taking the wheel. We were almost too certain that her little chat with Tara James was going to yield more fruits than failures and she would rise to the occasion of being the Greenleaf's knight in shining armor. The verdict is out, and unfortunately, Lady Mae couldn't do all that we hoped she would be able to. We finally find out what's the big revelation she comes up with after her chat with Tara and none of that suits her wishes for the family. It's a wonderful portrayal of the anti-heroine's heart aching for the underprivileged — a character development arc we haven't seen so far in the final season. But regardless of Lady Mae's growing generosity, it looks like shifting faith to daughter Grace would be the smart thing to do.
On Mae's side of the story, her last sermon goes beautifully and successfully. Her visit to Tara, not so much. She finds out why Tara is so desperate to get the house. The James church community is small and works for the undernourished. Tara wants the Greenleaf manor — rightfully her own father's — to turn the house into a home for women and children. And that is something Lady Mae can't fight back against. Despite her husband and daughter's pleas to reconsider giving the church to Tara, Lady Mae's decision can't be altered. Grace and her father, Bishop James, even hatch a plan of paying back Tara to set up her home for the underprivileged elsewhere but Lady Mae's stance is unaltered. She won't budge.
Meanwhile, despite her earnest efforts elsewhere, Jacob decides to go ahead with divorcing Kerissa, breaking her heart. The two decide to tell their daughter Zora who doesn't take the news well at all. And considering the young girl is already helping her own cousin Sophia battle a nudes scandal, one can imagine how taxing all of this family drama must be for the 15-year-old. Speaking of Sophia she finds comfort in her brother AJ when she comes clean to him and he asks her to man up, take a lesson or two from his own personal ordeal. But AJ's tragedy is not only getting him a new car and new insights on young adults battling their demons, it has also managed to bring together his parents — Grace and Noah — in a healthier platonic manner. We hope it won't tamper Grace's budding romance with Darius, but Noah's company sure is offering her some much-needed peace clarity, and more importantly, leads to keep heir house and church.
At one point in the episode, Noah comforts Grace and she falls asleep on him. When she wakes up, he tells her he's found a book in the house and eventually, she gets a hold of it. We never find out what Grace comes across in the book, but the scene lingers for a little too long and poignantly to consider it a circumstantial development. It has to be significant, especially since the writers follow it up with a scene of the family taking one last look at the church before Lady Mae and the Bishop go to visit Tara. The fact that they come across Rochelle Cross leaving Tara's place raises suspicion. The looks they give indicate nothing positive, and knowing Rochelle's past one shouldn't expect anything of the sort either. So will Lady Mae's go back to being Lady Macbeth to acquire her motives this one last time? We haven't seen the messy conniving side of the matriarch in a while. Only makes sense that the final season would show her in all her twisted glory one last time.
'Greenleaf' Season 5 airs on Tuesdays at 9 pm only on OWN.