‘Power’ Recap: Trust Is A Funny Thing

Our main players don’t know who to trust as the season turns up a notch

Marcus Benjamin
Still Crew

--

Remember last week when it seemed like everything hit the fan? Well that was last week so let’s just get the major plot point out the way, shall we?

Angela knows.

That’s the moonwalk we should all be doing because it’s about damn time. Of course, it only took Proctor being taken off the case and getting drunker than Weezy with a red solo cup in his hand, but she finally saw enough smoke to look for a fire. The look on her face when she saw that her sweet Jamie didn’t plant that gun was heartbreaking, pleasing, and gut-wrenching all at once. So many emotions, so little time.

She’s got a hell of a task in front of her now and no one with a working brain cell should envy her. Imagine going to your coworkers knowing one of them, if not all of them, are in on pulling something crooked. Would you come forward? Luckily we don’t have to make those decisions, but it takes the season in a different direction going forward and watching how she navigates this situation will — hopefully — be tantalizing television.

As for the rest of the episode, LaKeshia and Tommy continued down this warped rabbit hole and she seemingly has no idea she’s sleeping with a madman. Dre and Julio are in a battle of wits cancel each other out, Tariq continues his trip to the lean-influenced version of Oz, and Tasha is doing her best to hold it all together. Angie’s revelation needed to be at the top of this thing so bear with me as I break the rest of this down as I see fit.

*cracks knuckles*

Tommy is a psychopath. Scratch that, he may be the real life Michael Myers. If you had any question as to whether or not this cat is unhinged, hopefully this episode answered it for you. Killing a Department of Homeland Security agent is one thing, but doing it with a freaking saber is something else entirely. That’s the type of scene to make your eyes cut in every direction when you enter your house because you never know when a cat like him may be lurking. Craziness aside, it was a smart play by the man to ensure Proctor is on his side by making him an accessory to murder.

Except the episode possibly undercut that by removing Proctor from Jame’s legal team. While putting James and Silver together is a dramatic goldmine, Proctor is in the wind right now and possibly serves no purpose. So why does it matter that Tommy is holding him over a barrel? Hopefully Sway or the writers have the answers because right now, I’ve got nothing.

For some reason, the show keeps interrupting all the actual dope material for a day in the life of Tariq, which is like watching paint dry at this point and brings everything to a narrative hault. He’s being corrupted, we get it, but they keep emphasizing that point rather than moving the story forward. If anything, Raina’s story may be more interesting and all this “drama” with Tariq just makes her more sympathetic. Poor girl gets yelled at for finding a poorly hid envelope filled with money.

Hey Tariq, just a word of advice: Next time you want to hide money, put it under the mattress, not jutting out the side of your bedframe.

Signed,

Everyone

I’m going to squelch every base male impulse I have and not talk about LaKeshia and Tommy’s sex scene. What I will say is it will be tragic when this little affair ends and once again, the countdown till Keshia’s death is in full effect and there’s a good chance Tommy won’t care one way or the other. Ya know, being a legitimate crazy person and all that jazz.

Then there’s Tasha. Like her daughter, she’s just trying to figure out the world around her as everything changes and props to the show for not even pretending for a second she would flip on James. Angela trying to play her was a low moment for her character and Tasha would’ve been in her right to slap fire out of her, but the “tension” wasn’t really that at all.

That said, Angela didn’t tell a single lie as she played the role of devil on Tasha’s shoulder. James is a liar, he did play them both at times, he did turn down a deal that would benefit her and the kids, and he didn’t tell her about it. But even through their crap, she knows the man better than that. If he turned the deal down it was for good reason and rather than wonder what to do about it, she approached him. Power doesn’t always succeed in making all of its characters strong or smart, but Tasha has been able to be both this season. Next to James, she’s had the strongest scenes and best development, which one would think is leading to the two of them reconciling and singing how it feels so good to be reunited.

Nah. If anything, the ending showed that no matter what happens, no matter who switches sides, it all comes back to James and Angela. Proctor must’ve been speaking for the audience when he told Ms. Valdes that no matter what the consequences, “that stupid motherfucker” will always pick her over everything else, including his own life. With the scales seemingly tipping more in his favor with the DNA being tossed out, the gun being tossed out, and Angie finally hip to the truth — or at least part of it — things are looking up for everyone’s favorite jumpsuit wearing legitimate businessman.

For now.

Marcus Benjamin is a danger to the public, an alum of American University, St. John’s University, a screenwriter, and has an intense relationship with words. Witness his tomfoolery on Twitter,@AbstractPo3tic.

Please recommend the article if you enjoyed it by clicking on that heart. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, username WeAreStillCrew.

--

--