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!
2 Comments
Virgilio
10/7/2017 06:02:56 pm
Cool
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10/8/2017 11:11:00 pm
Tariq and Raina really on the crossroads already. Well, at that age, I don't think I encountered that. Well, I never imagined that my parents are immortal or someone who has magical powers. Well, I somewhat agree that a child is more or less what their parents are. Well, they averred that we are the younger version of our parents. It could either be mom or dad or it can be the combination of them. I think I'm more of my mom but with a svelte combination of my dad.
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