‘Power’ Recap: The Son Becomes The Father
The one where almost everyone got what they deserved.
This recap contains spoilers for episode 10, “You Can’t Fix This.”
Next season should be incredible.
That’s the first thought I had as the credits rolled on Power’s fourth season. “You Can’t Fix This” did so much right, it’s hard to know where to start. If there was a theme to this episode and maybe the season as a whole, it’s the relationship between parents and their children and how the kids can be impacted for better or for worse.
The most obvious example is Tariq, who Tasha tells us early in the episode lies just like his father. Raina’s murder hit everyone hard but possibly no one harder than Tariq because guilt is undefeated. I wanted to throw a brick at him for lying to his parents about the circumstances around his twin sister’s death but as the episode went on, it became clear he wanted to handle Ray-Ray himself. The kid is a walking, talking headache, but he deserves props for wanting to clean up his mistakes, even if it took him way too long to realize or even admit he’s a screw-up. It wasn’t the most thrilling television watching him get high and squad up, but my pulse did move a bit when he confronted Dre. Not because of some simmering tension between the two finally spilling over, but because the scene contained James’ sons - Tariq his blood and Dre his protegè.
It’s crazy seeing how both of them are on different trajectories and can be thought of as both sides of James St. Patrick. Tariq is Ghost, the dude willing to take someone out and not apologize for it if it means protecting his family, and Dre getting to be little James running nightclubs and doing drug deals. James didn’t want that life for Tariq, so it will be interesting next season to see how he deals with that.
Let’s talk about the scene where Tariq became a killer, shall we? It’s probably the most important scene in the episode because it brings everything together. Tariq avenged his sister only to have his mother, father, and godfather come in and do what they do best. It’s easy to see how the three of them became so close and why they work so well as a unit, with Tommy and James handling the grunt work and Tasha making sure every detail is taken care of in order for them to outwit the cops. But then again, there is that bullet hole she didn’t see.
Uh oh.
This is where Angie comes into the picture, as she’d done everything she could to get James or Tasha to rely on her for help and not handle this themselves. Except, she also gave Tasha an address which led her to Ray Ray’s. So when Angie notices a bullet, she already knows who’s gun it is and what happened in that apartment. The look on her face in that moment not only “damn” but it also expresses how she’s going to partially blame herself on this one and if someone finds out a murder suspect was in her office only hours before a murder took place and said murder suspect happens to have the last name “St. Patrick”, her new office may not be hers for much longer.
Speaking of Tasha, it’s about damn time the madness between her and Silver came to an end, but the show does something different than the usual overly dramatic breakup we normally get. The minute she comes to him for legal advice and accepts she’s going to take the blame for Ray Ray’s death, their relationship thing was over. We’ve seen Silver as James’ lawyer and as Tasha’s side piece, but now we’ll get to see him as her lawyer. It’s easy to envision a scenario where he tries to get her to snitch on Tariq because he just can’t bring himself to believe the woman he “loves” is capable of taking a life, but since we know Tasha would never snitch on her son, I hope the show doesn’t even insult our intelligence with that one.
Omari Hardwick does an incredible job portraying someone trying to keep it together when their entire world just fell a part. He’s on edge the entire episode, truly feeling the weight and looks like he could go off at any second for the slightest little thing. Everyone has been on point this season acting-wise but he’s been a home run hitter every single week. We get to see him and Tommy back together in full effect when they nail a man’s hands to a chair. Yes, they took a nail gun and stuck him like a cork board, which gave us the second funniest line of the episode*, “don’t move.” I’m a simple man and it made me laugh.
It’s obvious the creative team needed more real estate to tell the story on this one, because Tommy getting to know his dad’s family never happened and we’ll have to wait for next year to see how that plays out. While it’s cool to have something to look forward to, it’s a sloppy omission when so much of this season was about Tommy meeting his father and finding out who he is as an individual sans Holly and James. Just a few interactions with the Sicilians would’ve been the cherry on a cocaine sundae for him, but alas.
Also, some stuff at the FBI happened. Yeah, I know at least one development could have serious ramifications for James and Tommy, but it felt so small compared to the other developments, like Tommy, James, and Kanan being reunited because it feels so good.
It was clear weeks ago James and Kanan still cared about each other and maybe even missed working together. Now, we add Tommy in the mix along with a bunch of Sicilians, and that seems like the ingredients for the best kind of dynamite ever. And the reason they’ve all united, besides a desire to wipe Dre off the map, is because of family. Kanan cared for Tariq in a way he never cared for his own son, so the mere thought of Dre putting him in harm’s way or someone killing Raina was enough to get him back in James’ good graces.
Dre deserves every single thing coming to him next year and has officially become the most loathsome character on television. He killed a priest, betrayed everyone who wanted to help him, and the only reason he gave Tariq the info on Ray Ray’s whereabouts was because he figured Tariq wouldn’t make it out alive. Tariq knows way too much and is a loose end, so why not have someone else tie it up for you while you get to be blameless? It almost worked, but almost is never quite good enough in life or on Power.
On everything that is Holy, I pray Dre’s quest to become the biggest drug dealer in New York City is short-lived. James, Tommy, and Kanan, or as I’m calling them, “The Triangle Offense,” needs to gut him from the bottom to the top then use his intestines as a jump rope. Once again, his character flaws come back to bite him in the ass, much like every single person on the show.
Like I said, next season should be incredible. So let’s meet back here next summer.
*Side note: The funniest line this episode comes courtesy of Kanan: “Back in the day, he was a murdering son of a bitch.” The simplicity in which 50 says those lines and the matter-of-fact nature of the lines is comedic gold. Almost as funny as, “Whatever they say he did, he did that shit.” It may not be poetry, but Banks told him to switch the style up years ago and clearly he’s still listening.
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.
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