This mess has left me with more questions than answers, which is why I can’t wait until the new season! Darn you OWN!!!! Bring on Queen Sugar to fill in the gaps. Hope they did this staggered programming on purpose.

Grace finally speaks about sexual assault in the pulpit:

Jacob is working at Triumph, and Basie Skanks acquired that land across from Calvary—remember from Episode 4? The same land the Memphis mayor’s representative used to try and lure Bishop into hosting a Back the Blue tribute at Calvary. In the end, Bishop rejected the land. Turns out the plot was offered to Triumph Church “for a song,” as Skanks put it.

So Jacob tells Kerissa about it. She asks if Triumph can work out a partnership with Excellence—the school where she serves as principal. Jacob says he’ll check it out. (I think the reasons why Kerissa wants this partnership will come up later… Personally, I think it has to do with one of her co-workers. She was concerned about not having her lunch partner anymore. Since nothing is as it seems in this show, I can’t help but wonder if she’s having an emotional affair with him…)

Meantime, Jacob is torn… He tells his dad about Triumph’s plan to build a community center. Bishop tells his son not to worry—he has a plan, but Jacob shouldn’t worry about it.

Lady Mae, Mac and Mavis’ dad shows up at the church, of course while Lady Mae isn’t around—and asks for support. Mac was giving him money… hush money Mr. McCready called it. What for? That wasn’t totally spelled out. All he said is something about a fire that burned First Baptist church to the ground—and a caretaker who was in the basement when the fire broke out. Who was that caretaker? Did he die? Is/was he related to Bassie Skanks? But Mr. McCready says he didn’t leave because of the fire—at least that’s how I understood it. So why DID he leave? Did Bishop or Mac or anyone else they know or have anything to do with that fire?

Now to Charity and Kevin. HE thinks he can fix his attraction to men. But Charity knows better. She ain’t sleep in this matter. She knows her husband is gay. She informs him he can’t fix it. “You are what you are,” she tells him.  But Kevin still wants her to read about a support program for heterosexual couples that find themselves in this situation—where one partner is attracted to the same gender.  What the storyline doesn’t seem to be exploring is the idea that Kevin might be bisexual.

Can she get an (exclusive) amen?
Lady Mae delivers an inspiring talk at the ladies lunch—about being a virtuous woman. She told her audience that the person to lead Calvary through this trying time should be a virtuous woman. Ladies in the audience start standing… There’s applause… And this one woman, while clapping, turns turn toward Grace… the woman who slept with another woman’s man. [Didn’t want you to forget that…] But Noah and Izzy aren’t married, so is it fair game? (Nah, Noah and Grace are trifling and wrong).

Meantime, Isabel attends the ladies event… she also runs into Noah who has flowers for her… Izzy shocks my life when she tells Noah she got them a hotel room… and they bone. (In the room. They’re not crass like that sentence that just said “and they bone.” So technically, they “waited” to have sex… until they stopped waiting.

Mavis and Lady Mae fuss in Mavis’ now-empty bar. Mavis accuses Lady Mae of knowing what happened to Faith—berates her for not reporting her pervy brother 20 years ago. But there’s something beneath the surface. The disdain the sisters have for each other is palpable. It’s cuttable and smear-able. I get the sense there’s a cesspool of secrets in these ladies’ backstories that’s sholl-uh-nuff-nuff to fill a second season.

Sofia heads back to Phoenix with her dad, as part of their parenting agreement. Grace thought about joining her for the summer, but will stay in Memphis to preach instead. What keeps Sophia company on the drive back? A CD player and discs of her Aunt Faith teaching the Little Saints.

Well, Amen.

I love this show because it portrays church folks as human. Frail. Fallen. Effed-up mo-fos who still seem to love God and want to try to do better—even if there’s a brute struggle to do so. I also love the Jacob and Charity storylines. That.Is.Real.In.The.Church. And some church folks think homosexuality is a choice, that it’s like some broken cog that just needs fixing.  Charity’s stance is she knows her husband didn’t choose to be gay. In her words to him, “It’s who you are.”  That’s her view, even while Kevin sees his attraction to men as a character defect that can be prayed away (he tried it, didn’t work) or fixed. We’ll see if, in season 2, they participate in a program Kevin says is for couples in their situation.