Dre may think he’s playing everyone else, but he’s really playing himself.
Dre is playing both sides of the field, and he’s eventually going to get himself hurt.
He has Ghost thinking he’s on his side, but he also has Kanan thinking he’s riding for him. Nothing good can come from this, seeing as Kanan has no problems taking people out, and Ghost has been known to cut lives short himself.
In case you forgot, Kanan (aka “Slim”) got Tariq drunk off the lean, took a picture of him while he was unconscious and sent it to Tasha, asking for ransom. After several failed attempts to get in contact with Ghost, a panicked Tasha hit up Tommy, informing him of what’s going on.
Oh, by the way, Keisha is alive and well! When Tommy receives Tasha’s frantic phonecall about Tariq, he’s in the middle of informing Keisha that the coast is clear and she can finally come out of hiding because Milan is dead. It’s good to know Tommy isn’t as bad as we assumed him to be, and Keisha seems very appreciative of what Tommy did for her. “You saved my life,” she tells him. He reminds her to not tell Tasha about their dealings, and something tells me that they’re going to get closer and closer (if you know what I mean) as the season progresses.
But back to Dre and his two-faced azz. After Tommy finds out that Tariq is missing, he goes straight to the club to confront Dre and to find out who Slim is. At this point, Tommy has no idea that Ghost has been arrested, so when Dre informs him of that, he looks confused as hell. “What the f**k?!” he says to himself. Yes, Tommy. SH*T IS REAL RIGHT NOW.
Back at Jukebox’s crib, while they’re waiting on a phone call from Tasha, they hear a knock at the door. It’s Dre, and he’s come to collect Tariq “before Tommy kills me and you both,” he says to Kanan, who seems happy to hear that Ghost has been locked up. “That clean motherf**ker finally got caught?” he says with a huge smile on his face.
Jukebox wants to continue with the ransom plan. “That just puts more pressure on [Tasha],” she says. “When Ghost finds out you got his kid, and he’s in jail? That’s a level of pain you didn’t even plan on, plus the money.” Dre tells her that money isn’t an issue because he can give them that. In exchange for Tariq, Dre reluctantly agrees to deliver $45K a week to Kanan, Jukebox and co. “If you do your job right, they won’t even miss it,” Kanan tells him. Oh, yeah, right, as if almost $200K/mo is chump change. I can already tell this isn’t going to end well.
When Tariq wakes up, Kanan tells him that his father is locked up and feeds him a lie about Ray Ray texting Tasha a photo of him asleep “pretending” that he was kidnapped. Tariq, who was obviously raised too sheltered to even know what it means to be street smart, believes him because he trusts Kanan — err, I mean, Slim. Kanan gives Tariq a burner phone and sends him along his merry way.
Tasha is relieved to know that Tariq is OK, and he tells her that he was just hanging out with his friends, and keeps the lie up about the whole ransom thing being a “joke.” Now, we all know damn well in real life, this would NOT fly, especially with a black mother who is the wife of a drug dealer. I’m just going to assume that Tasha’s mind is too messed up for her to even inquire any further, and she’s just happy her son is back home safe.
But Tommy isn’t going to let Dre off that easy. “How’d you know where to go?” he asks. “He was in Brooklyn. I texted him, and he hit me back,” Dre responds. Tommy doesn’t seem convinced that’s all that happened, so he asks Tariq straight up, “Who is Slim? Do I know him?” (Me to the TV: Yes, Tommy, YOU DO!) Tariq glances at Dre, who looks like he should sh*t his pants at any moment, and comes up with another lie. “I just made him up.”
Tommy asks Tariq whose arm was in the photo, and Tariq says it was his friend’s uncle, which is another lie. Tasha asks about his new friends, and Tariq says “he’s no snitch,” as if he’s living by some street code or something. (Me to the TV again: BOY, IF YOU DON’T GIT!) Sticking to his lies, Tariq asks about his dad, whom he knows is in jail, but he can’t let Tommy and Tasha know he knows about that, or else they’ll start asking even more questions and eventually catch him up.
While Tasha is explaining to Tariq and Raina what happened to their father, Tommy, still not convinced Dre is as innocent as he seems, asks him again, “How’d you find him? For real?” Going along with Tariq’s lie, he says he picked him up on a street corner and he saw him with some kids, but he didn’t get their names. “Why do I think you’re bullsh**ting me?” Tommy asks, and Dre immediately flips the script: “What about a goddamn thank you?”
Even though Tommy can sense that Dre isn’t telling him the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him God, he thanks him for bringing Tariq back home safe and sound. He lets it go for now, but I hope Dre doesn’t think he’s going to get off THAT easy.
Later, Dre meets up with Kanan to drop off his first $45K payment and tries to convince him to lay off of Tariq. “If [Tasha] catches him with you, this whole thing is over,” he says. “Ghost and Tommy are going to try and kill us both.” But Kanan ain’t afraid of no Ghost, obviously.
Dre pleads with him to stay away from Tariq — “I’m giving you as much money as I can,” he says — and Kanan says “fine.” But we all know Kanan is going to do whatever the hell he pleases. Before Dre can even get back to his car, Kanan pulls out his phone and texts Tariq on his burner. That damn Kanan…
