The Greenleaf Family
In General
- Theme Naming: The Greenleaf siblings are named with a Christian theme; Grace, Faith and Charity are named Christian Values, while Jacob was the father of the Israelites in the Bible.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: The family is incredibly wealthy and beloved by the community, but with it seems to come a great deal of power abuse and lack of frugality, often spending money gained from the church on jets or fancy lunches.
Grace Greenleaf
The oldest daughter of the Greenleafs. She returns to her childhood home after 20 years with her daughter Sophia to uncover why her sister killed herself.
- Action Girl: While her female family members prefer to not get physical, she’s the quickest to physically defend herself and resort to violence, including killing Uncle Mac.
- Anti-Hero: Grace is typically a normal person who upholds Christian Values, and is probably the most functional sibling, but she shows a lot of exaggerated and morally unscrupulous actions.
- Black Sheep: Despite being the patriarch's favorite, out of every family member, she’s the one who tends to receive the harshest criticism from Mae and every other family member. Even when problems aren’t her fault, people tend to blame her for it.
- Deadpan Snarker: Grace can be very sarcastic, especially towards Mae.
- Freudian Excuse: Her parents are severely emotionally abusive and her uncle tried to molest her.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Deconstructed, as Grace struggles with viewing herself as a problem to her family and her murder of Mac, despite how awful all parties involved are. She seems to project a lot onto weaker people.
- Psychological Projection: Grace has a tendency to project her own feelings others, including her boyfriends, her kid, and her clients.
- Windmill Crusader: Grace seems to struggle with indecisiveness and generally tends to pick fights where there are none.
Bishop James Greenleaf
The Patriarch of the household and Bishop of the megachurch.
- Abusive Parents: While not as bad as his wife, he still shows blatant favoritism towards Grace, tends to be very critical of Charity and Jacob.
- Always Someone Better: A common conflict is that someone is aiming to take his position or kick him from his job as Bishop, demonstrating that he’s getting older and can’t do the job as well as he used to.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite their arguments, his cheating revealed in Season 3, he genuinely loves his wife. He also loves all of his kids, but has difficulty displaying it properly and tends to be emotionally distant.
- Character Development: He starts the show being emotionally distant and insisting that he has the moral high ground even when the contrary is clear. By Season 5, he's much more willing to own up to his mistakes and display humility.
- Innocently Insensitive: His biggest flaw towards his family. Because his family is constantly pinned against each other, and he doesn't want to lose face with anyone, he tends to take nobody’s side and tries to stay objective and distant, even when the person in the wrong is clear.
First Lady Daisy Mae Greenleaf
The First Lady of the megachurch and Matriarch to the Greenleafs.
- Abusive Parents: She's definitely the worst out of her and her husband; she tends to push everyone to gang up on Grace for no real reason, ignores Charity, and despite her favoritism towards Jacob, she tends to baby him and prevent him from branching out.
Sophia Greenleaf
Grace's teenage daughter and James and Mae's granddaughter.
- Foil: To Zoe; at first, Sophia can be seen as the 'good' one, being more polite, sensible and down to earth, compared to the witty, abrasive Zoe. Intriguingly, after leaving her abusive boyfriend, Zoe becomes colder and more distant during a period when Sophia becomes more fulfilled and closer to God. Even stranger, when Zoe is finally recovering from her trauma, Sophia becomes traumatized by her ovarian infection and loses her faith.
- Nice Girl: She's genuinely a sweet girl who wants to be closer to God, despite how corrupt her family is.
Zoe Greenleaf
Kerissa and Jacob's teenage daughter and James and Mae's granddaughter.
- Foil: To Sophia; at first, Sophia can be seen as the 'good' one, being more polite, sensible and down to earth, compared to the witty, abrasive Zoe. Intriguingly, after leaving her abusive boyfriend, Zoe becomes colder and more distant during a period when Sophia becomes more fulfilled and closer to God. Even stranger, when Zoe is finally recovering from her trauma, Sophia becomes traumatized by her ovarian infection and loses her faith.
