Warning: This essay contains spoilers, mentions of pedophilia, infidelity, suicide, drug use, and abuse.

Disclaimer: This is strictly based on my opinion along with the thoughts of others. So, if you liked what happened in the show, then there’s nothing wrong with that. I personally did not.

Greenleaf was a scripted primetime drama that aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), following the lives of the Greenleaf family and their megachurch. The original premise of the show involved the main character Grace Greenleaf returning after a twenty-year absence to expose family secrets—mainly the pedophilic deeds of their Uncle Mac. In the ongoing seasons, the show took on other premises and topics, but the megachurch remained the central point.

Zora Greenleaf (portrayed by the lovely, beautiful, and talented Lovie Simone Oppong) is the eldest daughter of Jacob and Kerissa Greenleaf, taking on the role of a rebellious preacher’s child. In the first episode, she’s seen snorting Ritalin (even though she doesn’t have ADD or ADHD), and in a couple of episodes later, she sneaks off from a church event to smoke marijuana. In later seasons, she developed from that rebellious preacher kid trope into a more grounded person searching for inner peace.

In promotion interviews for the fourth and fifth seasons, Lovie Simone said the audience would see Zora become more level-headed. Her character was humbled, but her development fell flat because of lackluster writing.

In the last two seasons, she barely did anything. The storylines she received was a possible exploration of her sexuality, her parents’ divorce, and her pursuing acting in New York. While I understand that this isn’t The Zora Greenleaf Show, the writers still could’ve given her storylines that actually enhanced her character. 

In the following essay, I will discuss how the writers failed her.

In the first season, Zora was a minor character and Simone wasn’t deemed a series regular until halfway through the first season. She first received recognition in season two when she began a relationship with gospel musician Isaiah Hambrick. What the audience thought was an adorable teen romance turned into a lesson in emotional and physical abuse. During the next two seasons, Zora chased after Isaiah, obsessed over him, paid Sophia less attention, gave up her virginity, and ran away with him twice. In later episodes of season three, we saw how miserable she was living with him and she left him because of infidelity and lack of appreciation.

The storyline was well-written, but I didn't like the direction the writers took in the aftermath.

After she returned home, she decided to attend therapy and focus on school. Her relevance on the show decreased, and her relationship with Isaiah only mattered when Jacob didn’t trust her out of their sight, and her telling Nikki it had been a while since she received a genuine compliment. I was hoping the writers would've explored her healing from that relationship, attend therapy, and confronting her parents' neglect. They breezed past it like it never happened, which took out the realism. 

In season four, we were introduced to Nikki—the girlfriend of Dante Saunders. Dante was a basketball player for the Memphis Red Devils that hired Jacob as his life coach to keep him out of trouble. Zora found him handsome and immediately took a liking to him (he was average-looking at best, but that’s my opinion). To her dismay, she discovered that he was in a relationship. Later in that episode, Nikki and Zora were hanging out at the cabin and she confided in Nikki about her toxic relationship with Isaiah. Then, Nikki touched her necklace and hair, and the two girls locked eyes until Dante interrupted the moment. 

After that, Nikki’s relevance revolved around Zora questioning if she could be friends with someone with different beliefs, and to stir unnecessary drama with Sophia.

No shade to Kadianne Whyte because she’s an incredible actress, but Nikki was a useless and obnoxious character. It seemed she was there to introduce a storyline about Zora questioning her sexuality, but nothing came of it for reasons unknown. Honestly, I’m glad because it was too soon for her to get romantically involved with someone when she should have been focusing on herself. The way she shrunk at Nikki’s compliment showed that she was still unlearning toxic behaviors and was emotionally unequipped for another relationship.

Other than that, Nikki only hung out with Zora, causing Sophia's jealousy and an unnecessary love triangle.

The writers couldn’t keep this dynamic duo together for anything, and it’s such a shame because their love is evident both on and off screen.

Their first fight happened in season 3 when Sophia felt Zora was too obsessed with Isaiah, and that she shouldn't be with someone that abuses her. It made sense to the plot.

As previously mentioned, Sophia was jealous of her cousin’s friendship with Nikki, so she hooked up with Dante as revenge. Zora was unhappy with her actions and called her a derogatory name. They didn’t talk until Season 5 when Sophia needed a favor, and in the blink of an eye, they were best friends again. Zora even kicked Nikki out of the cabin for making a comment about Sophia's inability to have children. It is unclear how she got that information, but Zora said she didn’t say anything (and I believe she would never release that kind of information).

The fight between them seemed like the writers didn’t know what to do with them, so they came up with this to give the actors screen time. They would’ve done better by writing them off.

Zora’s reaction to her parents' divorce felt out of character. Hurt is understandable, but her need to defend Kerissa didn’t feel real. She’s observant and intuitive, so the writers can’t expect me to believe she thought Kerissa was the perfect wife. Jacob wasn’t a faithful husband, but her mother was controlling, and I know for a fact Zora picked up on that.

Off-topic though, but this needs to be said, Kerissa’s victim-playing was annoying. Jacob cheated on her multiple times, but how long was she going to keep demanding respect before she decided to leave? She chose to stay, so I don’t feel sorry for her.

By the way, does anyone remember that Jacob possibly has a child with Alexa, or is it just me? Another topic for another day.

I’m addressing this point because it has been raised by multiple fans. Some audience members felt that Zora’s character was poorly written because of colorism.

Colorism is the prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic group. In this context, Zora (a dark-skinned teen) is written as rebellious while Sophia (a light-skinned teen) is meek and mild-mannered.

The concern was brought up during the earlier seasons of Greenleaf’s run, and I don’t know if the writers addressed it. In later seasons, Sophia developed a nasty attitude while Zora became humble, yet still sassy. Some can argue it was done in response to the colorism backlash, while others believe that people change for the worse.

I’m neutral. I believe Zora was supposed to be the rebellious preacher kid, so that’s how I viewed her. However, I can see why other fans found it colorist.

- Zora should’ve been in therapy, and here’s why:

(1) In Episode 2x16, the night Isaiah slapped her at the cotillion, Jacob Kerissa was having a conversation and she wanted to know what was missing in her daughter that she felt she deserved to be abused. He mentioned that Faith (his sister that committed suicide) was also in an abusive relationship. That and Zora running off with Isaiah the first time should’ve been enough for them to put her in therapy.

(2) Zora didn’t love herself, but how can she when she has broken parents? Jacob and Kerissa weren’t the worst parents, but they were neglectful of their daughter’s emotional needs. When Jacob wasn’t cheating on his wife, he was competing with Grace for Head Pastor and his father’s love and acceptance. Along with that, a YouTuber commented that he only saw Zora as a rebellious kid, even after she started maturing, and he treated her as such. As for Kerissa, episode 4x05 revealed that she had issues from her mother treating her like competition. I believe that resulted in her control issues, which lead to her pressuring Zora to be the best. Because of this, Zora sniffed ADHD medication to maintain good grades and please Kerissa. Do you see the unhealthy pattern here?

(3) Another point to Zora’s rocky relationship with her parents, they were controlling throughout Season 3. Yes, she shouldn’t have run off with Isaiah the first time, nor should she have stolen the money from the offering, but locking her down from everything like she was a prisoner was not the answer. All that did was alienate her until she felt the need to run off again.

(4) This is a fan theory, but I would’ve loved if the writers explored this. Zora accepted Isaiah’s disrespect because she watched her mother constantly accept it from her father. She never saw what a healthy, loving relationship looked like, so it should be no surprise that her first real one was toxic. 

(5) Allow me to reiterate, her reactions to Nikki’s compliment showed that she had toxic behaviors to unlearn. The writers should've focused on that instead of having her chase after yet another trash boy even just for a second.

- Her parents should’ve tried to be more involved in her life—showing  interests in her and spending more quality time with her.

Bottom line: The writers didn't know what to do with her character, and it shows. Instead of giving her actual character development, she was thrown in random storylines that did nothing for her.

Seasons 4 and 5 seemed to change a lot of characters without notice, and that’s why I find the writing garbage. I congratulate the actors for performing well with the material they were given, but the only character who showed true and actual development was Lady Mae. It makes sense considering that the spinoff series will center around her.

The Greenleaf writers should've done better. 

Zora Greenleaf deserved better. 

Lovie Simone deserved better. 

The audience deserved better. 

I deserved better.