Previously on Power, “Damage Control” was the key, this week everyone is trying to find out if they are on the same team when it comes to their respective parties. Power’s fifth season is still young, but everyone’s ulterior motives are starting to come to light in the hit Starz show. So let’s unpack episode 3— there is a lot to discuss.
A New Tip Sparks More Questions
The show opens up with Ghost, whom we saw playing vigilante at the end of last week’s episode. The revenge killing of the drunk driver that murdered a grieving family’s son him and Tasha met during grief counseling is getting to him. It is bothering him so much, in fact, he imagines blood on his hands while he is washing his face but quickly comes to his senses. The penthouse phone rings, and it’s the front desk alerting him that an NYPD Detective is waiting downstairs to see him and Tasha. Ghost tells the front desk to send the detective upstairs.
It’s none other than Detective Leary bearing what he believes is “good news.” Councilman Tate’s bad idea to set up a public tip line was the right move. Leary wants to talk to Tariq because a witness stated they saw Riq running out of the building and his sister following him the night she was killed. This new information throws a big ass monkey wrench in Riq’s statement because he said he went out after her. Riq went nervously trying to clear things up by lying and is saved by his mother, Tasha. Leary takes Riq’s word for it and leaves, Tasha immediately asks her son if he was outside when his sister was killed but Riq doubles down on his lie and insists he was not out there when Raina’s Christmas was canceled.
Ghost heads to “takeout Dre” headquarters aka Tommy’s apartment to link up with his brother in crime and partner for now, Kanan. Fresh off hearing the new information from Leary, Ghost asks Kanan if he knew how Ray Ray was looking for him. Kanan tells Ghost no, and that Riq only said to him that he was looking for Ray Ray. When Ghost asks if Riq hasn’t hit him since Kanan replies saying “I ain’t supposed to be talking to little n****.”
Blanca Is Proving To Be A Serious Thorn In Angela’s Side
Remember Blanca Rodriguez, the Internal Affairs officer from the season premiere? Well, she is finally back and is definitely making her case to be the most annoying character this season. She is investigating Detective Raymond Jones aka Ray Ray’s death and pays a visit to Detective Leary. She discovered he accessed Riq’s witness statement regarding Raina’s murder. Leary didn’t know that juicy tidbit and that Ray Ray examined his case, but he points out that he did come up in his investigation. Leary informs Rodriguez that Detective Ray Ray visited Riq at school but the juvenile delinquent cut school that day so he spoke to Raina instead. He also dropped the bomb that headmistress told him that Angela stopped by the school asking about Jones the day after Raina was shot. Blanca’s detective senses immediately went off after that.
Blanca immediately pays Angela a visit to build off the new information she acquired from Leary. Unfortunately for her, she gets nowhere as Angela basically doesn’t reveal anything telling her she can’t give her details about an active investigation. Angela quickly dismisses Blanca from her office and hits up Tasha on the burner phone and says they need to meet ASAP. Angela informs Tasha about Blanca and the questions she is asking about the investigation. Angela is going to have to obstruct the case for the second time, but if that doesn’t work in stopping Blanca, they should get Ghost involved. Tasha immediately shuts that idea because she knows that Ghost played vigilante last week.
Angela has one good play to make Blanca go away and that is SAC Jerry Donovan. While meeting with him she discloses all the details about Blanca without revealing too much and he needs to tell her to shut her investigation down. Jerry agrees without asking too many questions and heads to Blanca’s office to hand her a court order stating her investigation is now under FBI jurisdiction. Upon reading the document, she learns that Angela is behind the move and implies that Angela is involved. Jerry asks her if she has proof about that but Blanca says she doesn’t so it looks like Angela wins this battle for now. She can now focus on bringing down the Jimenez and discovers that not only is Diego in NYC but the mystery woman with him is his sister.
Diego Is Making Dre’s Life As A Boss A Living Hell
Dre learned last week that being the head of a major drug operation isn’t easy. It also doesn’t help that Dre’s connect, Diego is crazy as hell to boot. Diego unexpectedly pops up at meeting explaining what happened with the murder of Lorenzo. We all know that Dre’s moronic goons took out Lorenzo but Arturo seized the opportunity, lies, and says he killed Lorenzo as revenge for killing Yuriel. 2-Bit and Spanky are not too happy to hear that someone else is taking credit for their hit. Keep in mind a lot of this is their fault in the first place remember this dissension among the ranks we will come back to it. Also, Dre could have avoided all of this if he listened to Cristobal last week. On top of that, Diego isn’t quite sure about Arturo being the new leader of the Toros gang. He also points out there are some supporters that challenge Arturo’s accusation that Lorenzo killed Yuriel and whether he was justified to take out Lorenzo.
Arturo does his best to keep his lie going and invites Diego to come to his HQ and witness him handle business and snuff out those who are not willing to follow his lead. Of course, Diego’s crazy ass agrees even though Dre insists they shouldn’t. Diego isn’t too keen on taking orders from anyone that is not his sister. Anyway, Arturo rounds up Lorenzo’s remaining followers so he can execute them in front of Diego. Arturo takes each one of them out one by one after some more questioning from Diego. Once they are dead, Diego informs Dre that Cristobal is going to be his No.2 from now on to make sure things run smoothly. He also warns Dre to keep his eyes off his sister even though Dre insisted he is not interested. We have a strange feeling this will come back up again sometime during the season.
Kanan Makes A Power Move
Kanan is working alongside the man that tried to flame broil his evil ass, but if you thought for a second, he didn’t have some scheme in the back of his mind you were dead wrong. Kanan plants the “I want to get back into the game” seed on Tommy when he makes a play for Ghost’s cut. Kanan makes his offer just a bit more enticing by telling Tommy that moving the weight faster is a possible plus helping him payback Jason. Tommy says his deal with the Italians should be enough and adds that even if he did allow Kanan in he would have to pay upfront like everyone else.
So, of course, Kanan has a plan to get back in the drug business and 2-Bit and Spanky are his way in. During their meeting earlier, Kanan pointed out to Tommy and Ghost that he thinks he can use 2-Bit’s growing hate towards Dre to their advantage. Ghost at first isn’t too sure about the plan but eventually comes around. Kanan sets his plan in motion by surprising 2-Bit. Kanan tells 2-Bit that Dre is lying about Brock sowing the seeds of discourse between Dre and minions. Kanan’s manipulation works, and he gets 2-Bit to open up about Dre taking away is gambling ring and giving it to Cristobal. We can assume from here 2-Bit gave up valuable information to Kanan at that point.
We catch up with Dre’s new No.2 Cristobal as he just completes a pickup. He gets in his truck with the money and Kanan is inside waiting to greet him with a gun. The professional stick-up kid tells Cristobal to open the trunk, and two individuals come out of hiding to swipe the cash. Looks like 2-Bit got his revenge on his boss Dre for siding with Cristobal all the time. Kanan takes his stolen funds to Tommy and repurchases his way into the business with it. This directly goes against Ghost warning Tommy not to involve Kanan in the drug business.
Ghost Gets Played
Ghost and Tate are at odds due to the stunt he pulled at the press conference, but they are still managing to work together. They meet with a powerful and wealthy businesswoman named Linda (Garcelle Beauvais) in hopes of securing $12 million from her to help finish the project and memorial to Ghost’s daughter. Linda doesn’t bite due Ghost mentioning retail space being available and Tate expresses his anger about it. He tells Ghost to get in line and follow his lead, but Ghost points out that this was his vision in the first place. Tate suggests that with “all due respect” Ghost should take some time off, Ghost disagrees tells him it’s his project, he will get it done and Tate can see himself out.
Now when Ghost said he was going to get it done, we didn’t think he meant taking a trip to pound town with Linda. But subsequently, that’s how Ghost figured he would hammer home the deal. We will quickly learn from Tate that Linda played Ghost. She confirmed to Tate her primary concern was Ghost’s lack of professionalism. The night of great sex all but confirmed Linda’s worries about Ghost. Tate tells James that “he is not his pimp” and that immediately rubs Ghost the wrong way. Ghost reminds Tate that he pimped both he and Tasha as well as his dead daughter. Tate suggests Ghost that their big fundraiser is coming up and that they should not let this sour their working relationship. Ghost promises Tate he will get the money and the only way he can get it that quickly is by getting back in the drug game.
Tasha Tells Riq The Truth
Tasha and Keisha have a much-needed heart to heart conversation. After Keisha shares details about how she managed to kick Tommy out of her crib without giving up the buns things get serious. It’s at this point Keisha makes Tasha realize that it’s time she tells Riq the truth about his parent’s lives. Keisha feels Riq is only doing what he has known his parents to be doing for so long, and that is lying to them.
Tasha uses the moment to tell Riq and his father the truth and gets the troubled teen to open up about what really happened. Riq tells his mother the real story about how Raina died that fateful night and finally shows some remorse for his sister’s death. It’s honestly the first time we have felt sorry for Riq in a long time because he expresses he does indeed miss his sister.
Angela Makes A New Friend
Ghost isn’t the only one looking to get his boots smoked on this episode. His ex side-chick as well is in dire need of some action, and it will come from a new face on the block. While at work Angela bumps into a gentleman who is in town from DC. The two flirt with each other which leads to the gentleman asking her out to dinner. Things happen very quickly on this show, and the two end up enjoying a meal together. Now we’re not sure if it’s the wine kicking in or not but Angela mentions her case against the Jimenez for whatever reason. He then suggests they should finish drinking in his hotel room, but she declines the first time.
She eventually takes him up on his offer being that he is only in town for one more day. Before they can initiate their night of passion Angela’s phone rings and it’s Jamie. She sends that ass straight to voicemail and focuses on the matter at hand. Now no character is unimportant on this show, we are definitely getting some dark vibes from this new guy Angela is dealing with. Plus, she just has terrible luck with men in general so we won’t be shocked if he’s a spy or works for the Jimenez
Teresi Flips On Tommy
Looks like one of the shows real “stand-up guys” is just a snitch after all. Saxe and Mak pay a visit to Teresi and want to know what exactly is up with Tommy visiting him so much. We learn that Teresi had us all fooled into thinking that he wanted to reconnect with his son. Instead, he was using Tommy to lure in the likes of Saxe and Mak to help commute his sentence in exchange for information on Tommy.
(Damn these twists on this show are so insane.) It looks like Tommy’s cokehead mom was right about Tony Teresi all along when she told her knucklehead son that Teresi always wants something. Now Tommy isn’t all that receptive to the news of his dad getting out so soon because he knows that is just not normal. After a talk with Keisha, and a failed attempt to get the draws she gives him some perspective on the matter. Tommy no longer as paranoid as he was about his dad getting out shows up in his car —with the tracer still on it— to pick up Teresi from prison. Oh, things are starting to getting very interesting now, this can only make matters worse for Tommy, Ghost, and Kanan.
