Last night was the penultimate episode in season 4 of the Starz prestige drama Power, and it was excellent. That Ain’t Me was light on the big action scenes, but left us with a shocking death and the St. Patrick family will be out for blood in next week’s finale. Tommy has lost control of his network, is snorting coke and being set up to get worked over by his dad. Dre is seemingly the man at the head of a drug network. Kanan is still lurking in the weeds. Ghost may have temporarily secured leverage over Simon Stern, but now has to deal with Councilman Tate. Angela received a promotion and is now the new head of Criminal Division for the eastern district of New York.
It finally happened! One of the St. Patrick twins got killed. But it wasn’t the one everyone was hoping for. In many ways, Courtney Kemp and the writers had to go here to give the show more room to flex its muscles. R.I.P. to Raina St. Patrick, daughter and sister, a good kid who didn’t deserve to go out like that. Her death will have a serious ripple effect. Tariq will have to live with the fact that his lying got his sister killed. What will make it even worse for him is the fact that his sister was going out on a limb to protect him. Despite how shitty he treated her, she still loved him and wanted to help him because he was in trouble. This lean addicted, lying, punk ass, disrespectful bum Tariq now sees the game for what it truly is. He thinks he’s hard and knows how to handle himself, thinks he ain’t shook. Well he’s definitely shook now. He really handled this entire situation poorly from jump street. Does he remain about that life? Or does the guilt eat away at him and he ultimately caves under the weight and kill himself? On the lowest of keys that Tariq has been the star of Season 4, because you have to be a really good actor to be as hated as he is. How clever was it of Angela to plant the seed in the new U.S. Attorney’s mind that she should be head of criminal division? In all honesty it is the right move. Saxe is too much of an ass kisser, Mak has too much hubris and as lead counsel botched the Ghost prosecution. Say what you want about Angela, but her tenacity and dogged determination wins the day. Does she do illegal and shady stuff? Absolutely. But everyone on Power does. She seems to be the best one at playing the game on the side of the justice system. At the Gala when it was announced that she would be the new head of criminal, it was the culmination for her and she wasn’t surprised. It was as if she knew she was getting the gig? Anybody else notice that? To many it seems unfair that she get rewarded after all that she’s done. But, that’s how the game goes. Mak and Saxe are clearly none too pleased and will be problems for her moving forward. The scene with Angela and Ghost at the Gala shows there is still chemistry between the two. Despite all the messed up stuff they’ve both done to each other, they have history. We learned Ghost had the option to go to Choate, but bailed. Interesting. That doesn’t fit the narrative that has been developed for us over the last four years. Angela got into Choate for a chance at a better life and left Ghost behind. Anyway, what’s next for these two? Will they reconcile? As the new head of criminal, Angela is a bigger threat to Ghost. But the directive from U.S. Attorney Robinson is to never speak the name James St. Patrick again. Tommy’s need for family is clearly making him blind when it comes to Teresi. Knowing that Teresi is indeed his father has obviously changed his relationship with his mom. The scene where he’s rummaging through her things is great. Tommy’s singular focus of finding the birth certificate that legitimizes him was packed full of emotion. In her mind, she was protecting her baby from a bad man. Tommy holding and ultimately smashing the limited edition Kate Moscatelli Suzie Jane doll was a nice touch. These are precious to Kate, but he wanted answers. When he didn’t get the answer he was looking for, he threatened her. Revealing he killed Holly made it very clear to Kate that he would kill her, if need be. This looks like the end of the road for Tommy and Kate. No way that relationship is ever the same again, right? Tommy is already “indebted” to Teresi. He had Sandoval killed while he was under lockup in the MCC and now Tommy is asking him for help in a war against the Jimenez drug cartel. At what point do we think Teresi starts looking to collect on these debts? Sure he’s Tommy’s dad and wants to help his son, but nothing is done for free. Keep in mind Teresi knows who Ghost really is. While Ghost may have beat the charges filed against him, Teresi is still a loose end. One that Ghost needs to tie up, and that will be difficult because of Tommy. Dre and Cristobal’s plan to torch the warehouse containing the product is crazy. But Dre is willing to push the envelope, and that ambition has him close to wearing the crown as the biggest drug dealer in NYC. The plan was thought out carefully and executed relatively well. Tommy played it out like Dre expected for the most part. The problem of course is still Kanan. Dre and Cristobal thought they had that handled, but Kanan managed to stave off his own attempted murder and will now tool up for war. Dre has no idea what is coming at them from both sides. Meanwhile for Ghost, he realizes Stern is screwing him over on the business end of the real estate redevelopment deal. Ghost reaches out to Tate for assistance who delays approval of the contract until it’s amended. Ghost tries to play it off like he was blindsided by Stern. When he reaches out to Tate for help, he plays the race card to get an already sympathetic Tate to do his bidding. But as is typical with Ghost of late, he underestimates Tate. He does Ghost a solid, but now wants something in return. Is Tate the clean cut politician he presents himself as? Besides, what politician isn’t dirty at some level? Ghost is finding out that the game is crooked on the legit side as well and he has just as many people looking to take advantage wherever there is an opportunity. Who do we think Alphonse, the “community liaison” is? This was a really good penultimate episode, the murder of Raina will drive next week’s finale. Ghost, Tommy and Tasha will go scorched earth. There will be some collateral damage along the way, but at what cost? Will their fledgling alliance remain intact or fracture even more? A few extra thoughts:
What do ya’ll think? Get at me on twitter @jshector Please share with your friends and people you think would enjoy the show. As always thanks for reading and visiting BSO. See you next week!
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8/14/2017 Power Episode Recap: Tariq Runs Like McGregor Trains; Proctor’s End Game; Angela Still Has Some Ghost in HerRead NowAfter last night’s episode, It’s Done, there are only two more episodes remaining in the season. The standard television practice has been to do something big in the penultimate episode and then use the finale to deal with the aftermath. Power has done both in its four seasons thus far. It seems to me that the show is at a tipping point in some ways. There needs to be a major turn for the story to maintain its juice. Even bigger than the previous three seasons. Last night’s episode gave us the payoff for the murder of Greg Knox. What else might have been foreshadowed?
The “A story” this week was the payoff we’ve been waiting for. Mike Sandoval finally got what was coming. We predicted death as the logical outcome for Mike as he was boxed in a corner with very limited options. See, the thing about covering your tracks, is that it usually involves you doing more of the thing you’re trying to cover up. Lying is the one we’re all most familiar with and the series has shown us countless examples of that. The other is murder. If someone knows something that is damaging to you, permanent silence is the only way to keep that secret from getting out. Sandoval was already feeling claustrophobic last episode when he went to Donovan’s house to kill him. When he wasn’t there his panic level heightened, that coupled with his solo conversation with Mak had him bugging. When he saw Saxe this week he knew something was up, and Angela and the team played it brilliantly. They organized a sting operation and used Sandoval’s panic against him. The scene was great. Who thought Sandoval was actually going to kill Angela? It would’ve been an interesting play by Courtney Kemp and the writers. But, as we all know Angela has a larger role to play later. Angela puts the pieces of the puzzle together and when she lays it out all out for Sandoval, he knows it’s over. Say what you will about Angela, but she’s like a dog looking for a bone (get ya’ll minds out the gutter). She wouldn’t rest until she solved Greg’s murder and make Sandoval pay. Angela also knows how to play the game for herself, as we all know. Slick move, disabling the wire so there would be no evidence to incriminate her for her part in the prosecutorial misconduct. How convenient was it that her gun was available? She played that perfectly. Telling Sandoval that shooting her in the back will not look like self-defense was the opening she needed to turn quickly and fire the gun. Nice shot too. Got Sandoval’s shooting arm without killing him. Was anybody else curious about the procedure following the Sandoval shooting? Would Mak tell Angela where they would hold Sandoval and their plans to question him? To that end, we knew Angela would use that information to her advantage. She tells Silver that Sandoval was the mole and where he will be detained. Why? Because she knew Ghost would find a way to have Sandoval killed. Not only does permanently silencing Sandoval save Ghost and Tommy, it also saves Angela. She knows this. Having Teresi set up the hit against Sandoval is potentially a good move (it was their only choice) as it may take the Feds a while to connect the dots. That is of course, unless things with Teresi, Tommy, Kate, and Connie don’t all blow up. The emotional subtext behind Tommy, Teresi, Connie, and Kate is so weird. Connie already suspects there is a connection between her husband and Tommy. Kate apparently knows the devastation that will occur if she tells Connie about her affair with Tony. This little love triangle has the feelings of some tawdry Atlantic City incident from the early 80s. An Italian guy messing around on his Italian wife, with an Irish girl; check out the history of the Italian and Irish in this country. Our “B story” is the pending drug war that Tommy wants to start with the Jimenez drug cartel, and the threat he doesn’t know about, Dre. To be fair to Tommy, a lot has been going on for him. With Ghost being locked up, he had to look out for the family and deal with Jason, the Chicago connect. Plus he’s still dealing, internally; with the death of Holly, and now the revelation that Teresi is his dad will have his head all twisted. The chaos and commotion was the perfect opportunity for Dre to lay in wait and plot his takeover from the inside. The primeras already don’t trust Tommy, and back Dre 100%. Ghost showed up in time to seemingly get Tommy the territory and demands he wanted. But now that Dre has met with the Jimenez’s (more on them later) and offered up the Bassett Hotel Group this will get even more interesting. Dre has to deal with Tommy and Jason on one side, and Ghost and his legit club business on the other. Can he deliver the Bassett group now that Ghost has been exonerated? For the primeras it doesn’t matter who the connect is, coke is coke. Dre wants to be the biggest goddamn drug dealer in NYC, he better be ready. Does anybody see where this is headed? We’ve had deaths of fairly important people, but nobody really central to the overall world of the show. What do you think will happen when Tommy gets word that Dre has been plotting and met with the Jimenez’s behind his back? What makes you think Dre will let him find out? A showdown between these two is obviously looming, but what if Dre is the one that prevails? The “C story” is Tariq and the life of crime he no longer seems to be interested in. What’d he think was going to happen when they gained access to that woman’s house? Seems like the violence and depravity that often accompanies that life is not for him. He decides to push the issue his sister Raina brought up at the beginning of the episode about attending Choate. Tariq and Raina are both at crossroads. They are going through what we all went through at that age, the realization that our parents are not mythical, god like or superhuman. I touched on this in a previous recap. That fall from grace is a difficult thing for kids to handle, and is intensified when your parents are felonious, lying, murdering drug dealers. They are not equipped to handle any of this and their fight flight response is leaning heavily on flight. Tariq has already become a master liar and manipulator. We all eventually become some version of our parents. Overall, it seems like the pacing is starting to get back to normal. A solid episode, if only because Sandoval finally got what was coming. The inability to secure the extra two episodes still has a lingering impact. But, all the pieces are in position for next week. A few extra thoughts:
What do ya’ll think? Get at me on twitter @jshector Please share with your friends and people you think would enjoy the show. As always thanks for reading and visiting BSO. See you next week! 8/7/2017 Power Episode Recap: Was Tasha’s Cheating Justified & Will Someone Please Shoot TariqRead NowDid the pacing in last night’s episode seem really fast, or was it just me? Many of you thought that about last week’s episode as well. Last week we learned that creator and showrunner Courtney Kemp asked Starz for a twelve-episode season, they refused. It seems that the material they have for this season would’ve been best served with an additional two episodes. Despite the frenetic pacing, which will continue through the finale, last night’s episode You Lied To My Face brought many characters up to date with what we’ve known for a long time.
Glad to see a lengthy dialogue scene between Ghost and Tasha. Omari Hardwick and Naturi Naughton really capture the emotions of a diminished relationship that still needs to exist on some level due to extenuating circumstances. You see it as they hurl insults at each other, show vulnerability, and make momentary peace for the sake of their kids. Good stuff by the actors, with some great lines. More on that in this week’s extra thoughts. Mirrors are a consistent presence on this show, the creative team uses them to illustrate and illuminate who these characters really are. There is no hiding in front of the mirror. When Ghost and Tasha are arguing in the bedroom after he brings Tariq home, they are in their huge walk-in closet in front of the three mirrors. They both are exposed in that scene for who they are, liars and criminals. Tasha is trying to explain why she didn’t tell Ghost Tariq had been kidnapped before. Ghost is placing the blame on her, and she reminds him they wouldn’t be in this mess if he didn’t stray, among other things. We also learn that Tasha told Ghost to kill Kanan, and he didn’t. How ruthless is Tasha? She’s stone cold. Many truths throughout the show’s run have been exposed in front of those specific mirrors. Up until now they’ve been experienced by a singular character, either Ghost or Tasha. Having them both in front of the mirrors was really clever. The mirrors are about exposing parts of one’s self that are hidden. Tasha sums it up perfectly when she says, “You left me because our life together was real. And with Angela, you could pretend to be something you never were.” Meanwhile, we told you this Dre coup might have a hiccup. When Dre and Tommy meet outside the warehouse before they discover Julio’s dead body. Tommy confronts Dre about Kanan. Dre dodges the bullet, for now. But something tells me he won’t able to keep the lie going. Inside the warehouse Tommy finds Julio’s body with the Toros Locos tattoo cutoff and tells Dre to set up a meeting. During the exchange we see Dre’s ambitions and just how cold he is. Julio’s body isn’t even cold and he’s asking for a promotion, which he ultimately gets. Tommy’s no fool and doesn’t buy that the dude the Toros Locos offered up, actually did the deed and killed Julio. Even though he does kill him. Shooting that man in the head and pointing the gun at Uriel was a show of strength. We finally meet the leaders of the Jimenez Cartel, Diego and Alicia Jimenez. A brother and sister act no doubt introduced to be a part of the upcoming drug war. You remember the Jimenez Cartel, they were going after Felipe Lobos and had him stabbed him while he was in prison. Diego and Alicia forced one of their employees to overdose on coke and shot his woman in front of their kid. No joke. Tommy shows his development as a character in his scene with Diego and Alicia. He shows his hand and is not afraid to let them know that he was the one that killed Lobos and that Ghost had a deal with the locos that is still being honored. There is no way season one Tommy could handle this kind of meeting without saying the wrong thing or upsetting the applecart. He makes his demands and Diego and Alicia have to think, but he warns them not to take too long in deliberation. This is high stakes drug warfare now. Julio and Dre were playing at one level, but this is something else all together. Can we talk about the suspended prosecution team running around the streets like a rogue 80s rock band? Saxe literally will believe any theory from anyone. First Sandoval convinces him that Donovan might be the mole. When Mak approaches Saxe about his contact with missing (we know he’s deceased) Homeland Security Agent Bailey Markham he rushes to tell Angela, whom he hates, that they need to push on the Donovan theory. At this point Angela and Donovan have already realized that Sandoval was in the office at Truth before the gun was discovered. Speaking of Sandoval, we have been saying all season it’s only a matter of time before he runs out of options. He already killed Greg and was ready to cancel Christmas on Donovan. How does that storyline resolve itself? He is either found out or arrested, or he kills himself, right? He can’t continue on a killing spree. I suppose he can try and frame someone else. But they are closing in on him and it will look really suspicious when he points the finger at someone else. On a side note, the Feds need to step up the security of their computer systems. All series long, characters can download files and video footage and pass it along to anyone inside and outside the office. Don’t the systems log this stuff? Donovan is currently on desk assignment. Angela, Sandoval and Saxe are all suspended and locked out of the office. Donovan just copied the files on a flash drive and walked out? So, are we supposed to be on board with Traiq being hard now? Dude is hooked on Lean, plays violent video games all day, talks real greasy to his folks, and has no respect for authority. Not to mention he got physical with his sister in this week’s episode. Kanan twisted this kid’s head up and who knows what he’ll do next. In many ways he’s really just a typical teenager. Going through physical and emotional changes but he still lives in a world of black and white. He’s not equipped to handle the truths he seeks. He is experiencing what we all have, which is that realization that our parents are not these God like beings that are all powerful and do no wrong. They are human, imperfect, and fallible. The problem for Traiq of course is that his parents also happen to be murdering, drug dealing, criminal conspirators. Dude will be lying down on some therapists couch in 20 years talking about his feelings. Terry is mad corny. How you going to say BeBe and CeCe Winans after Tasha says, “we could’ve been something.” Everyone see what’s happening here right? Yes, we predicted Tasha and Terry would smash. That was obvious. But Tasha is essentially playing Ghost from the first season. Remember when Ghost and Angela reconnected it was all about what his life would be like if he was with Angela instead, if he was legit from jump. Tasha echoes that sentiment when she says to Terry, “I just keep thinking, what if I had never met James. What if I had met you first?” Just like Ghost during the first season, Tasha withholds who she really is from Terry. But I’m skeptical of Terry. I think he knows more than he’s letting on. Not saying he doesn’t have any feelings for Tasha but something’s going on behind the scenes with him. The episode ends with the reveal many people were waiting for. Tommy finally calls Tony Teresi who reveals, as we suspected, that he is in fact Tommy’s dad. Tony met Tommy’s mom Kate while she was a dancer at the Tropicana in Atlantic City. Apparently lusting after redheads is hereditary. I’ve written it many times before but it bears repeating. Tommy is an emotional character; the news that Teresi is his dad will definitely rock his world. The impact could be devastating and it’s coming at a time when he needs to be focused on other things. Aside from the pacing this was an important episode to get certain matters cleared up, positions established and set the pieces in motion for the penultimate and the finally. Last night was episode seven, only three more remaining in this season. I see a war coming, and Ghost’s legal situation is not over yet. A few extra thoughts:
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