'Greenleaf' Season 5 Finale Preview: Is Lady Mae giving a sermon at Bishop James' funeral in Episode 8?
Five seasons, 59 episodes, and countless tear-jerking moments later, OWN's 'Greenleaf' is finally coming to an end with its 60th episode, 'The Eighth Day'. The series finale, which is Episode 8 of Season 5, will be followed by a one-hour special where the cast will reunite to look back at all the milestones of the hit megachurch drama. Airing on August 11 at 10 pm ET/PT, right after the series finale, the special is expected to get a little emotional as we will still be reeling under the shock of finding out whether or not the titular family's patriarch, Bishop James (Keith David), makes it out alive or not. Even though as of yet, all fingers point at the likelihood that he is, in fact, dead.
One look at the official promo for Episode 8 will reveal what we are dreading the most. Lady Mae (Lynn Whitfield) can be seen speaking about “what is yet to be,” in what sounds like part of a sermon she is giving in the wake of a tragedy. There's a grim poignance about her speech that suggests this might as well be the Bishop's funeral. Also, the fact that the Bishop makes no appearance in the trailer, but that can be excused for obvious reasons of suspense. Especially after the note that the penultimate Episode 7 ended on, this doesn't seem too far off a deduction.
Episode 7 ended with Lady Mae going to tell the Bishop she is ready to marry him once again, the very next day, but the Bishop couldn't answer. He was almost unresponsive and all he managed to do was write "I do" on a piece of paper. His situation deteriorated but looked like it was already too late for the ambulance, thus leading us to speculate he is dead. Now if they choose to bring him back from that heartbreaking scene the way they brought back AJ, the whole drama will fall flat and this will look like another futile attempt at shock value. So perhaps it's best that the Bishop retires and the anti-heroine turned sassy, assertive matriarch takes his place in what was going to be their brand new, joint Cavalry.
There's also a heavy chance the finale ends with a decent time jump to the future and we see Grace (Merle Dandridge) settling in with Darius, or even Noah, considering his recent soar to popularity amidst fans. Jacob (Lamman Rucker) can be expected to have ignited something with Tasha, as Kerissa (Kim Hawthorne) and he co-parent their children. Speaking of the kids, AJ is expected to go home with Noah, while Sophia and Zora most likely become roommates and live a very Blair and Serena life. We're super thrilled Charity (Deborah Joy Winnans) finally closed the Phil chapter for good and here's hoping she finds respite and love in the finale's fast forward too.
The 'Greenleaf' Season 5 finale will air on Tuesday at 9 pm on OWN.