This week on Power, EVERYBODY dies. OK, not literally “EVERYBODY,” but the death list is hella long this episode. And for those of you who can’t stand Angela and her co-workers, you will be glad to know that none of them appear in this episode at all. (But don’t get too excited because they’ll be back next week!)
Now let’s get to unpacking this episode—Season 4 Episode 6 (“New Man”)—shall we?
There’s nothing like comfort of your own bed, and Ghost is finally back at home sleeping under his own roof after being freed from jail. He’s suddenly awoken by a nightmare/flashback of him killing Marshal Williams in jail. He also looks at the other side of the bed and sees that Tasha’s not there. She didn’t sleep in the bed with him, choosing to sleep in Raina’s room instead.
He hops in the shower solo dolo (which had to feel good after showering with a bunch of other guys for weeks and gets dressed for his first day back at the club. For a minute, it looks like he’s coaching himself in the mirror on how his first conversation with Tommy is going to go, but nope. He’s just leaving him a voicemail. (Tommy’s not answering because he’s up in Chicago and left his phone back home, but Ghost doesn’t know this.)
On his way out the door, Ghost asks Tasha where the kids are and why she didn’t sleep in the bed with him. Yaz (aka Judy Winslow) is with Tasha’s mother, and Tariq and Raina are sleeping over with friends. Or at least Raina is. What Tasha doesn’t know is that Tariq lied to her and went to meet up with “Slim” (aka Kanan) instead, and she’s supposedly holding him hostage right now while she waits for that ransom payment from Ghost.
Tasha coldly lets Ghost know that they are NOT “back together,” and she isn’t interested in reconciling. They’re just keeping up appearances for the feds in case they come back around. “Terry [Silver] says the case isn’t over yet,” she tells him. Oh, so we’re on a first name basis now? Gotcha. Something in the milk ain’t clean with those two (Tasha and Silver.)
Ghost tells Tasha that he wishes Angela never came to the club, and he’s 100% over her and she’s over him too. But Tasha ain’t buying it: “Are you kidding me? I just watched that bitch blow up her whole life in open court so you could walk.” Sigh. I guess it’s true what they say: You can’t please everybody.
Kanan is lurking outside Truth waiting for the right moment to grab Ghost and put Jukebox’s plan in motion to secure that Ransom payment for Tariq and bring him to her so they can kill them both. Ghost is surrounded by reporters and photographers (and the feds taking the chains off the doors), so Kanan waits until Ghost is alone to make his move. But his plans are foiled when Simon stern pulls up. Guess you’ll have to wait until next time, Kanan!
Inside the club, Ghost looks the happiest he’s been all season (besides the moment when he found out the charges were dropped), but that happiness soon turns to annoyance when he sees Simon Stern’s face. “James! It’s so good to see you back in a suit. You look like a new man,” Stern says. “And you look the same,” Ghost snaps back (LOL!)
Ghost wants Stern to make his exit, but Stern is there to collect on his “investment.” Remember when Tasha made that phonecall? Well apparently she took a large sum of money, and now Stern wants to use that to bribe Ghost into getting back into business with him. How’s that for a welcome home present?
Stern wants Ghost to be the CEO of his new real estate group, not because he appreciates Ghost’s business acumen, but because he needs a black face for tax breaks and a minority business loan. “Diversity is all the rage these days,” Simon says with a huge smile. He seems really excited about this. Ghost, on the other hand, is far from it.
In the middle of his unwanted meeting with Stern, Ghost receives an urgent phone call from Tony Teresi, who is getting hella impatient with him. “You’ve been out long enough to put that phone in Tommy Egan’s hands.” (It’s barely been 24 hours dude, cool your jets man.) Tony reminds Ghost of their little deal about him keeping quiet about what happened to Marshal Williams in exchange for him being able to talk to Tommy, who, unbeknownst to Ghost and Tony, is currently out of town and unreachable. “I haven’t forgotten, and I repeat, old man, I will be in touch,” Ghost tells him.
Jukebox is also getting hella impatient with Kanan regarding his “special delivery,” but Kanan lets her know it’s all good, he’s just waiting on the heat around Ghost to die down. But Jukebox could care less. “You better get moving mothafucker, or I will put a bullet in this boy’s ass FOR FUN. I ain’t no fuckin’ babysitter. Don’t fuck this up,” she tells him. “Don’t call me until you got good news.”
Speaking of impatient… Lakeisha is over it with Tasha, and everyone else too, for that matter. Tommy’s not answering her phone calls, and she’s ready to get back to work, but she wants out of the “business” with Tasha laundering Tommy and Ghost’s drug money through her salon. She wants her “normal” life back, but Tasha says they needs more time. Tasha tells Keisha they’ll give her a way out as soon as possible, but Keisha’s on some “I don’t believe you, you need more people” mess. After all that’s happened, what with having her life threatened by Milan, the shop getting shut down and her being brought in for questioning, among other things, she has lost her trust (and faith) in her BFF.
Meanwhile, Tariq is safe (for now) with Jukebox. He’s playing video games and waiting for Kanan. Jukebox takes his phone and lies to Tasha(via text message) about his whereabouts. Tariq asks Jukebox where she got her nickname from. She says it’s because when she was little she knew just about every song on the radio. Tariq wants to hear this, so he asks her to sing “this song called Midnight Train to Georgia” and a song from Mahalia Jackson (he pronounces it MaHAWlia Jackson) but he passes out from the lean (Dammit Tariq! Not again…) before she can even fix her mouth to carry a tune for him. “Lights out lil nigga,” she says, ironically, after singing the gospel tune “His Eye Is On the Sparrow” (a song Mahalia Jackson is famous for singing).
Back at the St. Patrick’s penthouse, James confronts Tasha about the loan she took from Stern, telling her Stern lied to her about the terms of the deal. Tasha thinks Ghost can spin working for Stern in their favor, but Ghost has no interest in going back into business with that snake. “You’re smarter than him,” Tasha says, adding that it would be good for Ghost’s image. Ghost says he doesn’t know how to trust Tasha anymore, to which Tasha replies, “I don’t know how to trust you either, Ghost. But if we’re going to make this work, we don’t have another choice.
Up in Chi-town, Tommy meets up with the Chicago distro Jason, who informs Tommy about Ghost’s prison release. He wants Tommy to cut all ties with Ghost, and Tommy thinks that means killing him, which he refuses to do. Fortunately for Tommy (and Ghost), Jason doesn’t want Ghost dead, he just wants him far away from the drug game, considering he’ll most likely be heavily watched by the feds regarding the murder case (even though his charges were dropped the feds are still on the hunt for Greg’s killer).
Jason wants to expand the business to the West coast, and he wants Tommy to do it by himself, without Ghost. “And that’s what you brought me to Chicago for?” Tommy asks. (Sidebar: I’m with you Tommy, this could have been done over the phone.) Tommy’s ready to hit the road and head back home to New York, but Jason insists that he stay in Chicago for a “celebration tonight,” which sounds like trouble.
And my suspicions are correct, as Tommy gets super drunk and brags about killing Milan at the table. He tells Jason how surprised he was that he signed off on Milan’s death, to which Jason responds with a smug smile as if he wants to “return the favor,” or so to speak. As they’re heading out, Jason knocks Tommy out and throws him into the trunk of his own car.
Jason and his goons transport Tommy to a second location and walk him to a shallow grave. Tommy’s hella confused about everything, but then he sees Petar and it all starts coming together. He realizes he’s been setup! Petar told Tommy that Jason approved the hit on Milan, but apparently he didn’t.
In an effort to save his own life, Tommy explains that Petar didn’t just tell him to kill Milan, but he was in the room when it all down. Petar, for his part, says that’s not true. Now Jason doesn’t know who to believe so he turns to Milan’s widow, Tatiana to help him decide who to bury in that shallow grave. When Tommy hears his name and Tatiana looks at him, he’s certain he’s going to die (he even has a flashback of Holly), but Jason ends up putting a bullet in Petar instead, killing him instantly, and they bury him.
After clearing all that up, Tommy tells Jason he likes the way Jason and his crew work. “But trust me,” he says, “I ain’t never gonna let you walk behind me again.” And to prove his point, when Jason returns to him the keys to his, Tommy says, “After you,” instructing him to lead the way. “You’re a funny guy Tommy,” Jason says laughing. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Tommy says.
On his way home, Tommy takes a detour through Cleveland, Ohio and arrives at what is apparently Holly’s old house. He pulls over and sees Holly’s uncle, who used to rape her when she was young, trying to sell the house. So Tommy walks in pretending like he’s interested in purchasing the home, but things quickly go left when Tommy asks about the man’s family. “You love your little girls don’t you. You like fucking your little girls, Sam?” Tommy inquires.
As Sam reaches for his phone to call 911, Tommy slaps it out of his hand, grabs a bat from all the wall, and beats him to death with it as he grossly attempts to defend raping his niece when she was 9 years old. “You shouldn’t have touched her!” Tommy yells as he bashes Holly’s uncle’s head in. (Does that make you feel better for killing Holly, Tommy?)
Back in New York, Julio confronts Dre about his private meeting with Kanan and basically threatens to rat him out to Tommy. But Dre sells him a lie about Kanan wanting to get back in the game and him shutting down the idea, and Julio falls for it. Dre then diverts Julio’s attention by telling him about a potential deal to expand and make more money. Julio says he has to ask Tommy first, but after Dre makes him feel like a little bitch who always needs permission, Julio agrees to meeting with Dre and some potential new clients.
But, as it turns out, there was no deal. Dre goes solo dolo to meet with Cristobal and the Del Toros gang to discuss their plans to take out Julio. Ghost “bought” Julio’s way out of the gang, but since Ghost isn’t a part of the drug game anymore, Julio is fair game.
When Julio arrives at an abandoned warehouse for his “meeting” with Dre, he realizes there was no meeting at all and Dre set him up. After a brief struggle, Julio is stabbed to death by a Toros leader (it was 3 against one, Julio held his own well, but was eventually overpowered), but not before the Toros gang member literally cuts his “718” tattoo from his neck as he yelps in pain. Ghost is not going to be happy when he finds out his boy was murdered.
When Tariq wakes up from his lean coma, he makes an attempt to leave Jukebox’s hideaway so he can be at his friend’s house before Tasha gets there. But Jukebox ain’t having that, so she knocks him out and ties him up. Now he’s a hostage FOR REAL FOR REAL.
As Ghost is walking to his car texting Tommy, trying to figure out where the hell he is, Kanan surprises him. “You couldn’t get rid of me that easy motherfucker,” Kanan tells Ghost, who looks like he’s just seen a ghost (pun intended). Mind you, this is the firs time Ghost has seen Kanan since leaving him for dead in that warehouse, so imagine his surprise. “Don’t try no stupid shit, we got Tariq. You do exactly what the fuck I tell you, or we gone kill that lil nigga.”
With Kanan holding Ghost at gunpoint, he tells him Tariq is somewhere being held hostage and they want ransom money. Unfortunately for Ghost, he just got out of jail and his assets are still frozen. “Well if you want your son alive, you’ll figure some shit out,” Kanan says. “Not having no money never stopped you from getting money before.” Can’t argue with you there, Kanan.
Ghost comes up with the idea of robbing Tommy’s hideout spot. When he gets there, Big Grim seems happy to see him, but he won’t let him upstairs (where the money is) without Tommy’s approval, so Ghost pistol whips him, knocking him out cold. (That makes the THIRD victim of a pistol whipping this episode alone.)
Upstairs, while Ghost has another henchman distracted, Kanan walks up behind him and knocks him out too. And in the back room, where another one of Tommy’s guys is counting money (he didn’t hear any of the commotion because he has headphones on), Kanan opens fire, leaving his brain on the wall behind him. Kanan and Ghost load up a duffel bag with cash and dip out. I wonder what Tommy’s going to do when he finds out he’s been robbed by Ghost and Kanan killed one of his boys.
On the way to Jukebox’s hideout spot, they discuss what led them to where they are now. They were best friends, and now they’re each other’s worst enemy, but you can tell they still have a soft spot for one another. When they finally pull up, Ghost pleads with Kanan to leave Tariq out of this. Kanan, who has grown fond of Tariq over the past few months, gives Ghost a loaded gun. Ghost acts like he’s going to shoot Kanan (which, he could at this point) but he decides to team up with him to help save Tariq because they don’t know if Jukebox is in there by herself or with a group of people.
When they get in the house, Ghost’s hands appear to be tied as he pleads for his son’s life. As Ghost is reaching for his gun, Jukebox goes off on Kanan about being setup and puts a gun to the back of the boy’s head, threatening to kill him if Kanan doesn’t admit the truth about who he really is and why he’s been hanging out with him. Kanan tells Tariq everything: His name isn’t Slim, he was just using him to get back at Ghost, and he’s the one who killed Shawn. “I killed my own son, and I would do it again if I had to. He was soft, not like you,” he says.
Jukebox laughs and is momentarily distracted by Ghost trying to reach for his son. When she points her gun in his direction, Kanan uses that open opportunity to fill her chest with bullets, shooting her dead. DING DONG! THE BITCH IS DEAD! And that’s it for Jukebox—possibly one of the worst villains (even worse than Kanan!) in TV history.
When Ghost unties Tariq, he runs into his father’s arms and they both embrace each other. It’s safe to say Tariq is over the problems he had with his father and their relationship should now be stronger than ever, considering, you know, he saved his life and all. Kanan could kill them both right there, but instead, he just takes the money and leaves. “See you around lil nigga,” he says to Tariq, who clearly looks more hurt than scared at this point.
Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of Kanan.
