9/9/2018 Power Season Finale Recap: The Gang Take a Stroll Down Memory Lane That Might Prove Fatal For Angela; And Ghost & Tommy Will Never Be The SameRead NowWhen you’re right, you’re right. Didn’t I predict this would happen? Well, sort of…Last night’s season finale was classic Power, and the show at its best. Collusion, murder, lies revealed, hearts and promises broken. Our four main characters, must band together (one last time?) and trust each other to ensure they all avoid jail time or worse. All of the lies, double crossing, and selfish acts have led to this moment.
For the first time in the series we have a scene where the four principal actors are in the same room. Angela texts Tasha and tells her they need to meet with Ghost and Tommy. Tasha relays the message to Ghost. Ghost picks Tommy up after Tommy has a little coke binge to deal with the emotions of murdering his father. This was a nice moment for all us loyal viewers who have been with the series since day one. Power never does things by accident or happenstance. Having Ghost, Angela, and Tommy’s old high school be the place where they all meet up was symbolic. All the acts committed and the people they’ve become are rooted inside those walls. More on the location and some of the subtle things in extra thoughts, we need to dive into the meat of this episode. Angela reveals to the crew that her colleagues (the Feds) brought her in for questioning and are trying to indict them all under RICO. BOOM! A RICO case is no joke. People indicted under this act, designed to stop organized crime and criminal conspiracies, if found guilty, generally go to jail for life. But, have no fear, Ang has a plan. If everyone does their part and doesn’t break team, she thinks they can all get away free and clear. Of course there are moments of doubt during this discussion. How do they know they can trust her, or more broadly each other? Ang cooly points out that she has been protecting all of them for years. She’s right, in a sense. Yes, self-preservation was behind a lot of it. But, she has had their back and kept them away from the Feds. There was a moment in that scene that was particularly important. After they check Ang for a wire and she says, “None of you trust me. After everything I’ve done for each of you.” Tasha responds, “I know. But you’re just like Ghost. You always put yourself first.” In last week’s recap I talked about Angela and Ghost being the same side of a coin. When they have a plan and decide to do something, they put on blinders and will move heaven and earth to see their plans through. It’s what makes them really good at what they do, but it’s also their curse. It blinds them to other, possibly better, alternatives. It also highlights their extremely selfish sides, which to say the least has been problematic this entire series. Back to the plan. Angela knows that if none of them talk, they are in the clear. But, they need to tie up the loose ends, aka people on the periphery. She believes if they can keep, Silver, Proctor, and Lakeisha quiet, all is well. Plus, if she can guarantee Dre’s safety (WITSEC) he will have to implicate Alicia Jimenez in the Lobos and Sandoval murders, clearing them all of any wrongdoing. Pretty good plan, all things considered. Speaking of Dre, he had a rough episode. Homie was getting it in with his baby mama and next thing you know he’s got people shooting at him. Dre got his off in more ways than one, but he’s rightfully shook and needs Angela to deliver on WITSEC like she promised. What a scene! Who has the wherewithal in the middle of sex, to fend off a murder attempt? LOL. Kudos to Dre and his baby mama with the big time assist. When you’re about that life, it’s a 24/7 thing I guess… We talk about Dre being Ghost 2.0, but Dre makes mistakes I don’t know that Ghost would. Dre’s open disrespect of his soldiers and inability to see a few moves ahead has him caught between a rock and a hard place. We said that 2Bit situation would come back to hurt him and it has. 2Bit seeks out Tommy to let him know where to find Dre and Tommy lets Angela know, since Dre was her “loose end”, he has a line on Dre and is going to kill him. Angela counsels Tommy out of that plan and into her plan that ultimately forces Dre to implicate Alicia, clear the core four, and allow Tommy to become distributor again. That was all very neat and tidy. A little too tidy… You know what else was tidy? Keeping Silver and Proctor quiet. Our man Ghost took care of that. Proctor let Ghost know that Silver was back and cooperating with the Feds. Proctor also let Ghost know that there is a witness. A woman that will testify that he is Ghost and responsible for murders and is the head of a criminal conspiracy. Proctor does a tremendous job of presenting the two options, it’s either Tasha or Angela. Those are the only two women that know, right? Oh Ghost, you should’ve killed Maria Suarez along with Miguel… As for Silver, not only is he a snitch, but he’s smashing Tasha. Ghost can’t allow that. There is no way Ghost will allow Silver to be his downfall. Kill him and dispose of the body, problem solved. Although, how the hell did Ghost manage to kill a man in a public parking garage and dispose of the body? These structures have cameras all around them. The last loose end to tie up was Lakeisha. She and Tasha had a nasty encounter after Tommy threw Lakeisha out of his apartment. Tasha wanted to make sure Keisha was cool lying to the Feds again. Some friendship. They are supposed to be girls. Tasha has been using her since season 3 and things will never be the same between them. After Tasha’s unsuccessful visit, she texts Tommy to tell him, “get your girl in line.” Tommy calls Keisha back to his apartment and apologizes for how he treated her earlier. Keisha explains to him that Saxe came around looking for dirt, but she’s no snitch. In that moment it was do or die for Keisha. Tommy had his glock under the pillow, ready to shoot if she didn’t provide the answer he was looking for. Keisha for all intents and purposes said she’s ride or die. During their reconciliation Saxe arrives at Tommy’s apartment and drops the bomb on him that Angela knew Teresi was a snitch and she told Ghost. He played the recording where Teresi doesn’t implicate Tommy in anything. Tommy now knows he murdered his father for nothing and it was Ghost and Angela behind it all along. The important thing to remember here is that Ghost, Tommy, and Angela are a weird love triangle. Clearly, there is no romantic connection between Tommy and Angela. But Tommy loves Ghost like a brother. However, Ghost has broken Tommy’s heart and lied to him, repeatedly. Those lies and betrayals were almost always because of Angela and they caused Tommy to kill people he loved (see Holly and Teresi). When Tasha and Tommy show up to Angela’s apartment ready to kill her, how many of you thought she was going to eat it right there? Ol girl was shook. I mean who could blame her? She’s uncorking wine thinking everything is cool and then Tasha and Tommy are bearing down on her. In that moment she knew they’d be justified in killing her. She’s the reason Ghost’s head is all twisted up and why he does things that’s not in their (Tasha and Tommy) best interest. She manages to temporarily save herself, but not before questioning if Ghost has broken team, like he always does. We end at the beginning. Back inside the halls and stairwell of their high school. That spot where Ghost and Angela got busted as kids for making out. Ghost asks Angela to meet him there because he wants to know, if she is going to testify against him. She wants to know if he killed Silver, and if so, why? To say these two have major trust issues is an understatement. But it all goes back to that moment in high school and Angela leaving for Choate and the two never seeing or speaking to each other again until they were adults. Then they begin a torrid affair mixed in lies and secrecy. In many ways they were doomed from the very beginning. That intense teenage love they had was torn apart in a Romeo and Juliet-esque way. Think about it? Her parents did want her messing with a thug, they send her away to school. He experiences grief and heartache in his life, she never reaches out to comfort or connect back with him. Their teenage brains and emotions never truly recovered. Sure Ghost got married and had a family, but what were the circumstances of that marriage? He and Tasha get pulled over by the cops, she hides the gun, he knows he can trust her and then he proposes to her the next day? I mean, ok, sure. That’s a good foundation for a healthy marriage and relationship…More importantly since that break in high school (i’d say 9th grade) they both became singularly focused and turned inward to protect themselves from being hurt again. Both becoming extremely successful (albeit differently) but intensely selfish. Tommy arrives at the school with one clear mission. He wants to kill Ghost. There has been too much hurt and it needs to end once and for all. What are the chances that Tommy knew they’d both be there? He couldn’t have been following them, he was with the Italians. Perhaps he knows Ghost so well, that this would be the logical place he would go with Angela? As Ghost and Angela slip back into their 14-15 year old selves, after Ghost lied and said he didn’t kill Silver and Angela withheld the information about Maria Suarez, they’re in the stairwell clinging on to that teenage love. Angela sees a gun pointed at Ghost and pulls him out of the way and takes a bullet to the chest. The episode ends with Ghost looking up in horror and seeing that it was Tommy who pulled the trigger. Meanwhile, the love of his life is bleeding out in his arms, grasping for breath. What a visual to end the season with. Kudos to Courtney Kemp and the team, this was a tremendous episode. In that final moment, that was Angela’s last attempt to prove to Ghost how much she loves him. She literally took a bullet for him. If that doesn’t convince him nothing well. We can speculate on what will happen next season, suffice to say for now, Ghost and Tommy will never be the same. Angela may die as a result of the gunshot, she may not. But Ghost is now truly a man alone on an island. His family is fractured and his day one homie tried to kill him, instead shooting his love. A few extra thoughts:
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9/3/2018 Power Episode Recap: The Clock is Running Out on Ghost, Angela, Tasha and Tommy; There is a Path to Make This Series Even Better, But a Major Character Must Die…Read NowLies, hypocrisy, and mistrust. Our favorite characters traffick in a world built around these failing pillars and it’s all crashing down. Last night’s penultimate episode, There’s A Snitch Among Us has set the pieces in motion for an action-packed season finale next week. We’ve talked about it all season long in our recaps, the show is immensely popular, but you can see how the multiple storylines and the constant dragging on of others leave the show in need of a little makeover. The death of Kanan in last week’s episode gives hope that the finale will clean up some other loose ends.
We begin where the whole series begins, with Ghost. This man’s got some nerve. It’s the morning after Kanan’s shootout with the police, which left four cops dead, Tasha, Ghost, and Tommy are at the penthouse having a good old-fashioned family fight. Ghost, ever the “I got this” dude, is furious that Tasha and Angela put a plan in motion with the help of Tariq. Ghost’s “concern” was they put his son in danger. Come on my guy. Your whole existence puts them in danger daily. They were born into a crime family!!! We talk about how good the writing can be in this show and often it’s because you could see these conversations actually taking place in a real-life scenario. When Ghost says to Tasha, “Your plan needed Tariq to make it happen. What, one dead kid ain’t enough for you?” Tasha immediately responds with a slap to the face. It was good to see Tasha and Tommy both call Ghost out on his bullshit. Ghost is often the smartest man in the room and his plans are generally good and well thought out. But he is not above reproach. He’s done plenty wrong and has screwed up big time. Tariq interrupts to let his father know that he was part of the plan and knew exactly how it would all play out. ‘Riq still sees Kanan as the only person who has ever been real with him. Of course, he conveniently ignores the fact that while Kanan may have saved his life and seemed genuine. It wasn’t altruistic. He had his own selfish motivations and if it benefited him in the end, would’ve had no problem killing ‘Riq. The line ‘Riq delivers to the adults about Kanan was solid. He says, “I took a loss so you guys could win.” ‘Riq has broken all the way bad. He has no respect for his parents. Now, you could argue he should’ve just done what he was told from the beginning, but things are a bit more complicated when your family is full of drug dealers and murderers. He’s now working with the Italians on the distribution of his product and maybe plans to start his own little crime syndicate. Anyone else thinks it was creepy that he gets a fake id with the last name Stark and then goes to collect Kanan’s ashes. Suffice to say he has EXTREME daddy issues. Speaking of daddy issues. The Tommy-Teresi game has run its course. With an assist from the Italians (courtesy of Ghost by way of Angela), Tommy learns his pops is a snitch. Not before some slick talk from Teresi to convince his longtime friend Sammy that he will, in fact, turn Tommy in and then Sammy walking in on a call to the Feds where he hears Teresi giving up dirt on Ghost but not Tommy, for the death of Mike Sandoval. A pissed off Sammy is about to tell Tommy that his pops was going to snitch and then Sammy gets stabbed by Teresi with a butcher’s knife. Did you catch all that? The ancillary characters like Sammy and even Connie to a certain extent felt like they took screen time away from the main storylines. But part of the challenge with trying to give a main character like Tommy, a storyline and an arc outside of the other main characters, is how to wrap it cleanly and still keep him tethered to the main action. In all honesty, connecting Teresi to Tommy, Ghost, and Angela in this way wasn’t bad at all. As far as his character, you could tell Teresi was a conflicted man, all along. He did get close to Tommy and wanted to help the son he never really knew. But, it wasn’t meant to be. Another ancillary character, whom this week was in the thick of it, Joe Proctor. He’s got his law license back and things are looking good. Or are they? Mak and Saxe are on him about giving up dirt on Ghost. They are really putting the screws to him. We’re talking lengthy jail time and losing custody of his daughter to his junkie ex-wife. Watching Proctor tremble nervously while waiting for Ghost at Truth while wearing a mic, was comical. Also, when he writes on the napkin that he’s wearing a wire and the mood and tenor of the conversation sounds forced and contrived, how could a Federal prosecutor believe that? Yes, I always tell you to suspend belief when watching television and movies. But sometimes, it’s really hard. Ghost is not pleased when he learns Proctor is wearing a wire and almost chokes him out and throws him over the railing at Truth. Another dead body, and this time your lawyer would not have been a good idea. Good thing Ghost was able to restrain himself. LOL. After nearly dying, Proctor has his come to Jesus moment with Ghost. Proctor lets him know that the Feds are coming down hard on Angela and he needs to decide who’s it going to be. While it is true that all roads lead back to Angela and Ghost, there’s no way Ghost gets rid of her, is there? Power of love and all that… This brings us to Angela, who along with Ghost are the central figures in this story. From the pilot episode all the way until now, five years later. Every lie, betrayal, cover-up, suppression of evidence, murder has led to this moment. But, before we get there, we must give Angela her props for catching Alicia Jimenez. Too bad it won’t save her. Angela meets with Dre and convinces him that despite what he knows about her and Ghost, she can make his life far more difficult. But, if he helps her get Alicia off the streets, she’ll get he and his daughter protective custody. Of course, that’s bullshit as we know and, in this instance, Dre is no fool. He sees an opportunity to get rid of the Cristobal who was just promoted by Alicia to replace him. Angela and the Feds ride in on their white horses and arrest Cristobal and Alicia, giving Angela a huge win. Not everyone in the office is basking in her success. There are no two ways around it. Her colleagues slow played her. She knows Mak and Saxe don’t like her so when they were huddled up outside of her victory party, they set the wheels in motion. The thing about working with people for a while is you pick up on their habits. They set a trap and Angela took the bait. The files were conveniently left out in the open on Mak’s desk. Angela already thinks she can turn Mak as his boss and with the promise of a promotion to another office. She doesn’t see Jerry or Tameika as threats. Hell, Jerry warned her to “watch her six.” They wait for Angela to do what she does best “cover her tracks” with the assistance of Ghost. It’s only a matter of time before the Feds know their CI Teresi is dead and it links back to Angela. As we move into next week’s season finale it’s a pivotal moment in the future of the series. Angela’s actions, particularly this week, were ill-advised, stupid, reckless and illegal. She knew that telling Ghost would eventually lead to Teresi’s death. What’s more alarming was her belief that her position as Mak and Saxe’s boss and catching Alicia Jimenez would be enough of a buffer to protect her. Before Angela became a boss, she was insubordinate, broke all kinds of rules and laws as a means to her own end. Why would she think nobody else in her office was capable of the same? Earlier in the episode, after Ghost drops Tariq off at Grand Central and he heads to Angela’s to confront her about getting his son involved in a plot that could’ve killed him, they have an interesting response. Angela says to Ghost, “when you have a plan in your head, nobody can convince you otherwise.” The same can be said of Angela. Both she and Ghost always believe they are the smartest people in the room, and they often are. They are the same side of the same coin. No doubt that’s part of what draws them towards each other. They see themselves in the other. Now, whether it’s the best versions of themselves or not is a whole different story. In the previews for next week’s extended season finale, it appears that Angela has a plan that’ll save them all. Where have we heard that before? This was a really good episode, one of the best of the season in terms of developments and setting the stage for a dramatic conclusion. Ghost, Angela, Tasha, and Tommy are all in this together, for better or worse. These are people who do not trust each other. It’s easy to fall on the narrative of who will crack first and start snitching. That’s not what I see happening. These are all people who think they know what’s best and how to handle situations. Ghost and Tommy have a serious rift in their relationship. Angela and Tasha are not besties (hello Angie is a homewrecker) but they do work well together. We’ve discussed what happens when Ghost gets an idea in his head. The season can’t end with them all making it out unscathed. Angela going to prison is an option, but then we spend the rest of the series with what? Ghost trying to bail her out, with Proctor’s help? Tommy and Dre go back to beefing over territory and connects and product? Tasha does what exactly? This is merely speculation, but I think Angela has to go. Mind you, I’m not rooting for this. But, I think it’s right and would make the series even more compelling to the end. In Angela’s grand plan to save everyone, Tommy goes off and does his own thing to protect himself because he can’t trust, Ghost, Angela or Tasha. One of the connects and/or Dre get involved. Angela is in the wrong place at the wrong time, gets dropped. Ghost finds out is heartbroken and all the rest of it. He doesn’t believe Tommy or Tasha or what anyone else says. The love of his life is dead. He goes full scorched earth and seeks vengeance. Ultimately killing everyone in his path, but of course, getting caught or killed in the end. It’s possible, right? A few extra thoughts:
What do y’all think? Get at me on twitter and Instagram @jshector Please share with your friends and people you think would enjoy the show. |