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People are starting to push the wrong buttons with Ms. Lady Mae (Lynn Whitfield) and pretty soon, heads are going to roll. The question is, who will be dealt with first?

There’s the newcomer, Rocshelle Cross (LeToya Luckett), who finally meets Lady Mae face to face in episode 11, and needless to say, it wasn’t the best first impression. In fact, they meet by accident when Lady Mae unexpectedly walks into Bishop Greenleaf’s (Keith David) office finds a beautiful, younger woman sitting on the bishop’s desk as he stuffs his face with cake.

Of course, an introduction is inevitable at this point and Bishop does the right thing by introducing his lovely wife to the stranger. He identifies her as the church benefactor he’s told her about. At first, she’s put at ease and turns on her charm for the guest she now knows is the woman who recently made a 10k donation to the church. But that charm doesn’t last very long.

Once Bishop tells Lady Mae that the pineapple upside down cake he’s stuffing his face with is a homemade gift from Ms. Cross, the cake isn’t the only thing in the room that turns upside down. Lady Mae can smell a rat even with the fresh citrusy smell of pineapples floating around the room.

The look on her face instantly turns from “Oh, it’s a pleasure to meet you” to “B-tch if you don’t get your hind-parts off my man’s desk, heads will roll.”  But, this new face quickly becomes an ally to Lady Mae when she mentions she’s very good friends with Dr. Jacinta Butler, (Lana Young) the president of the St. Josephine’s Society that’s hosting the upcoming cotillion.

Her granddaughters, Sophia (Desiree Ross) and Zora (Lovie Simone), have both applied for a spot at this year’s cotillion, a family tradition. Neither of the girls are accepted which baffles Lady Mae because she personally sent the recommendation emails for both girls to the committee herself (or so she thinks.)

But when she pays a visit to Dr. Butler, she finds out that the recommendation letters for her family members were never received. And to make matters worse, the new committee member in charge of receiving the letters is none other than Tasha Skanks, (Asia’h Epperson) Basie Skanks’ (Jason Dirden) wife.

Lady Mae assumes the worst. Tasha and her husband have it out for the Greenleafs and now they’re messing with her granddaughters. She pays a visit to Tasha and accuses her of purposely deleting the letters for Sophia and Zora. Tasha vehemently denies these accusations and tries to convince Lady Mae that despite their differences, she would never do anything like that. Lady Mae vows to get to the bottom of the situation.

The recommendation letters were emailed to the committee and after some research,  it’s discovered that the emails were sent to the wrong email address. Maybe Tasha would’ve been more understanding of the mix-up and still allowed Zora and Sophia to attend the  cotillion had Lady Mae taken a nicer approach during their first meeting.

But, since she didn’t, Tasha isn’t the slightest bit interested in helping out someone who behaved like an “entitled white woman” upon her first visit. Lady Mae threatens to go over her head and take up the issue with Dr. Butler, but Tasha lets her know that Dr. Butler isn’t interested in helping her after hearing of her rude behavior.

But, you know that’s not where it’s going to end for Calvary’s first lady. She plans a dinner party where she invites the family, plus a special invited guest, her new frenemy Rocshelle, who she now knows is very close friends with Dr. Butler.

Things get a little heated during dinner. Not between Lady Mae and Rocshelle but, between Grace “Gigi” Greenleaf (Merle Dandridge) and her brother’s wife Kerissa (Kim Hawthorne) yet again.The conversation goes left when Ms. Cross mentions how she once attended service at Basie Skanks’ church, Triumph, and something about him rubbed her the wrong way. Of course everyone at the table agrees with her, except Gigi.

Gigi has taken a new interest in Basie after attending the Metro Memphis Council of Churches monthly meeting. Bishop Greenleaf, her brother Jacob (Lamman Rucker) and she were all in attendance, with Basie hosting. At the meeting,  the story of a 16-year-old boy who’d tried to commit suicide because he’s gay and feels the Lord won’t love him is recounted. The boy now suffers from brain damage.

His story touches Gigi’s heart and inspires her to get involved. She reaches out to Basie and now the two of them are working together to help. When the boy comes up in conversation during dinner Kerissa and Gigi are on opposite sides.

Gigi believes something should be done and stands on the side of showing Godly love to everyone despite the homophobia in the church. Kerissa believes that preaching only about God’s love but leaving out the sin part is “irresponsible.” Of course, this conversation leads straight to Kevin (Tye White), with his still missing behind, and also stirs the pot a little more on Gigi’s recent murder of the barely missed Uncle Mac (Gregalan Williams).

It’s not until after dinner that Lady Mae finds a calm moment to approach Rocshelle about Dr. Butler. Though it’s clear she doesn’t like her, Lady Mae puts on a brave and phony face to ask her to speak with Dr. Butler and convince her to allow her granddaughters to participate in this year’s cotillion. Roschelle comes through and the girls get in.

Meanwhile, these granddaughters that Lady Mae is going to bat for are off somewhere being GROWN! Well, at least Zora is. She’s still hanging out with Isaiah (Roshon Fegan) or more correctly “making out.” And that lead to – Yep, Zora’s not a virgin anymore. One can only wonder how her mother, father and grandparents will handle this situation.

So far, only Sophia know because Zora confides in her. But Zora may not be the only young woman in the Greenleaf family to start a new sexual relationship. Charity (Deborah Joy Winans) and Jabari (Sean Dominic) could be next.

Charity is still pursuing her music career but has come to a creative roadblock in the writing and composing process. She seeks out the help of Carlton (Parnell Damone Marcano), the former choir director who was fired for his sexual preference. Their meeting brings up some unresolved issues between the two of them.

He feels she mishandled his termination after he was let go for being gay; and also feels a little slighted that they haven’t spoken since. She tells him she’s divorced Kevin and that she’s still hurting and mourning the baby girl that she lost.

That heart to heart with Carlton does wonders for her spirit and she is able to not only write but, sing her azz off for Jabari when he comes to visit. Of course he loves the music and she may just love him. She kisses him out of the blue and… end scene.

We’ll see where this goes in the next episode and also keep a close watch on Rocshelle whose misguided intentions are not only visible to Lady Mae but to Gigi too.

PHOTO: OWN

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Wanda J. Coppage is a full -time Music Director at an Urban AC radio station, journalist and proud Virginia State University alum – Go Trojans! As a music enthusiast who can’t go a day without hearing R&B/Soul or Classic Hip Hop as well as a TV passionista, why not live a life that covers both?