SPOILER'S AHEAD.
This week's Power episode, entitled He Always Wins, followed Angela Valdez's sister Paz in the days prior to Ghost's shooting. Paz is one of the least likely suspects to be the shooter, especially considering there are so many other suspects with records of brutal violence. Thus, it's perhaps unsurprising that she's been eliminated from the suspect pool this quickly. The episode begins with Paz having a nightmare. She is in a hospital where she finds Jamie covered in blood, taunting her about Angela's death. Out of all the characters that have died on Power, Angie's death has been the most monumental. 13 episodes after her death, we're still dealing with the emotional strife and fallout of the murder.
Tired of her nightmares, Paz decides to take matters into her own hands. She visits Saxe, only to find Warner. Warner tells her that Saxe has been fired, which prompts Paz to head to his home. At this point, Saxe has been in contact with almost every suspect in Ghost's shooting just before it happened. After learning from Saxe that Angela was about to be prosecuted before she died, Paz decides to come clean to Warner. She snitches about the incriminating cell phone she buried with Angela's body, and so Warner exhumes the corpse and finds the phone. Unfortunately for Paz, the SIM card is damaged... another dead end.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for STARZ
While Paz is attempting to enact her revenge, we get a closer peek at her family life, which is part of what makes these individualized episodes for each character so interesting. Her father is suffering from dementia and her son Junior is taking care of him. Papi doesn't know that Angela is dead, and keeps mistaking Paz for his other daughter. One night, Junior admits to Papi that Angela has passed, which causes him to have an anxiety attack that places him in the hospital. The drama at home won't stop Paz from getting her revenge though. The distressed and grieving mother visits Tasha, who she pleads to for help. Tasha warns Paz that Ghost always wins, and that she cannot help bring him down and endanger the kids. Her spiel seems practiced or fake... Tasha is up to something. She's always been that best at spinning people, and she appears to be doing just that to Paz. Tasha stirs the pot by telling Paz about Jamie's new lover, and then allows her to leave bitter and enraged.
Still determined, Paz heads back to Warner and asks to wear a wire while questioning Jamie. For whatever idiotic reason, Warner agrees but Paz doesn't get anything substantial out of Jamie. Instead, Jamie admits that Angela was helping to keep his family out of jail, which implicates her and eradicates the pension and benefits she would have left behind. This hinders her family further, Junior won't be able to go to school and Papi's won't be able to enter a nursing home; both were dependent on Angela's pension. At the end of her rope, Paz heads to Tommy's apartment and begs him to kill Jamie. It's hard not to chuckle when Paz asks Tommy to kill the man who killed her sister, and he non-chalantly rebuffs her request. We know he killed Angela, and Paz's cries for help are just an annoyance to Tommy who kicks her out. Exasperated and angry, Paz goes home and cries herself to sleep.
Junior takes it upon himself to try and kill Jamie after he hears his mother crying. Luckily, Paz stops him in time and orders her son to go home before taking his gun. In this moment, something flips in Paz's head and she heads to Truth night club to kill Jamie. At this point, the audience sees the familiar shot of Paz cocking her gun before heading to Truth. When faced with the man she believes killed her sister, Paz ultimately cannot pull the trigger; a series of memories flash through her mind and tug at her heart strings. She heads home disappointed and goes to bed, which ultimately takes her off the suspect list. The next morning, Paz awakens to learn Jamie was shot and killed the night prior. This is the second time the show confirmed his death, perhaps for those of us who refuse to believe it is true. Courtney Kemp took some time this episode to highlight the Democratic Party's loyalty to Jamie, and the power they wield (such as firing Warner). We'll get a look at Ghost (or his body) at some point I believe, but the most interesting parts of the episode come at the end.
Paz is called in by lawyers to sort out Jamie's will. He updated his will to give Paz a sizeable chunk of money if he were to die, changing it to her name where it was once Angela. Paz refuses the money but then runs into Tasha. Paz asks Tasha straight up if she killed Ghost, but Tasha doesn't answer. She only advises Paz to take the money. After a few refusals, Tasha drops a bombshell on Paz; she tells her that it was Tommy who killed Angela. This sets a mine off in Paz's head, and she rushes to Tommy's apartment only to find it completely vacated. The two biggest takeaways from this episode come in these last few minutes. Tasha obviously has some type of knowledge when it comes to who shot Ghost. Her refusal to simply say, "No, I didn't kill him" is beyond suspicious. Next, Tommy's disappearance is strange, but Tasha telling Paz he killed Angela is even stranger. Tasha must have known that Tommy was already gone, or she would not have revealed that information. She knew that he couldn't get in trouble at that point because he was out of town. It's looking like Tasha and Tommy have an important piece to the storyline that will finally give us the answers we are looking for. Now that Paz has been taken off the board, Tommy, Tasha, Tariq, and Saxe are the only remaining suspects. My bet is on Tommy.
Who do you think shot Ghost? Let us know in the comments.
"Power" Recap: "Still Dre" Eliminates Two Suspects In Brutal Season Premiere
The death toll rises.
SPOILERS FOR LAST NIGHT'S "POWER."
After a brief break, Power is back to wrap up the sixth and final season of the series. Creator Courtney Kemp has promised the fans some plot twists that will shake the universe up, and we begin with a Dre-centric episode. Still Dre follows the widely despised character on the day that Ghost is shot. Two big revelations arise, the first being the fate of Ghost. Before Kemp gives fans that nugget of information though, we get to see if Dre was actually involved in the shooting at Truth.
The episode begins with a Gospel hymn and carries a heaven-and-hell theme throughout. Dre gets done promising to his daughter and baby's momma that no one will ever hurt them again when he sees Ghost on television. Mr. St. Patrick has been announced as a running mate to become lieutenant governor, something that shakes Dre to his core. He goes to visit Saxe, another suspect in the shooting. Dre puts pressure on Saxe before leaving to attend to business as usual. The square-jawed thug is ambushed by vengeful Serbians and barely escapes with his life. Remember, the Serbs believe Dre killed Jason, although it was really Ghost. This prompts Dre to take his lover's advice to get out of town. But first thing is first, he needs money.
Dre goes to his mother for help, and she appears to be the only person he's really scared of. He cries and sells his sob story, but the devout elderly Christian maternal figure shrugs him off. There remains deep trauma between the two of them, something that pushed Dre to stay away from his own mother for years. After she denies Dre any money, he goes on an extortion tour. Dre threatens Tasha, who then grabs Tariq, who then leads Dre to Ghost. Here viewers get to see the same office scene where Ghost berates Dre and the aftermath, which is Dre falling into Ghost's trap and getting locked up.
Once in jail, Dre runs into his old pals 2 Bit and Spanky. The two henchmen are tipped off by Ghost that Dre is in their prison, and he offers them lifelong compensation for their families if they murder Dre. 2 Bit is more than down-- he hates a snitch-- but Spanky is a little more calculated. Loyalty isn't a concern for Spanky, who snitches on Tommy in order to gain freedom. Meanwhile, Dre escapes the prison by doing some snitching of his own, which keeps him alive for a moment longer. Slowly but surely, 2 Bit realizes that Spanky is up to no good.
After getting released from jail, Dre immediately goes to rob his mother. This leads to another deep moment between the two characters, and we really get to see Dre break down here. Dre's mother finds him rummaging through her closet, and she approaches him with a gun in her hand. Before she can pull the trigger though, Dre snatches the pistol from her and flips the script. He blames his evil ways on his mother, who called him a demon child since he was six. His lack of motherly love turned him into a monster, or so he claims. Before dropping the pistol and leaving the home, Dre tells his mother than she will never know Heaven, his daughter. The ongoing Shakespearean theme of family and the consequences of father and child (Tariq and Ghost, Proctor and Elisa Marie, Kanan and Shawn, Tommy and Kate) are highlighted here.
After leaving his mother's home, Dre heads to Tate's office. The corrupt politician agreed to bless Dre with a new identity IDs and a license plate in exchange for information on the St. Patricks. Dre used snitching to get ahead once again, but gets greedy when granted with another proposition. Tate offers Dre $100,000 to kill Ghost, which effectively takes him off the suspect board. Although we did see Tate with a gun in episode 10, it appears he may have been heading elsewhere. There is no point in hiring a killer and then going to kill Ghost himself. Dre takes the money from Tate and talks things over with his lover. She suggests that the two of them skip town with the money, and forget about Tate's proposition. Dre can't help himself though, and he heads to Ghost's club to finish the job. He finds himself at Truth in time to hear Ghost get shot once. He then runs to leave, knocks out Rodriguez in the act, and heads to a gas station for some much-needed stress snacking. On his way to the gas station, Dre spots Tommy near Truth. The haunting moment will surely be explored later, and it seems like Tommy may have something to do with the shot heard at Truth. Surely, Tommy's episode will be near the end, if not the last.
Dre enters the gas station, and this is where viewers get their first bombshell of the episode: the nightly news announces Ghost as dead. There is no body, which makes me suspicious of the death, but as of right now the news is our only source of information. Dre seems pleased with the news, until cops show up and the gas station and arrest him on the spot. The arrest places Dre right back in prison, where 2 Bit and Spanky make quick work of him. They burn him to death while he's in solitary confinement, a painful and fitting death for one of Power's most hated characters. Within the few final scenes, 2 Bit learns that Spanky snitched on Tommy and informs Mr. Egan of the betrayal. Meanwhile, fans get the nod that Paz will be the focus of next week's episode. With both Dre and Tate off the suspect table now, only Paz, Saxe, Tasha, Tariq, and Tommy remain. Expect Courtney Kemp to pull something tricky here: my guess is that Ghost steps in front of a gun and takes a bullet that was meant for someone else. Since there are more suspects than episodes, viewers should also expect two or more of them to be taken off the table next week. Who shot Ghost? Only time will tell.
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