Power Recap: Season 3 Ep. 9: “I Call The Shots” - Page 2

It’s a secret society. All we ask is trust…

It seems simple enough — Tommy wants to be involved in all facets of Ghost’s plans.

Since we’ve started watching Power, he’s proven his loyalty throughout the years they’ve been a team. Tommy chose Holly, Lobos and even his own life in the hopes that Ghost and his family would be protected. However, the reciprocity of this trust is rarely evident on Ghost’s behalf. There’s only so many times that you can ask a man for his word, see that bond shattered into a million pieces, and turn the other cheek. By the end of this penultimate episode 9 Tommy has lost every magnanimous bone in his body, and if Ghost wants to rectify this situation, he won’t be the man in charge.

The hubris of James St. Patrick has developed into a poetic tragic flaw. As intelligent and calculated as we know Ghost, he continues to make idiotic decisions concerning his family, despite the mountain of evidence in favor of an alternative. He will keep his loved ones in the dark, and not pull them closer, because his twisted sense of survival exalts him as the only person who can execute a complicated strategy. With his club business, this is never the case.

Ghost analyzes the situation carefully and has plans A-Z on deck. Every roadblock presented to him( i.e., Paying Milan instead of Karen Bassett, losing the hotel deal to Andy and Albi, having to sell drugs in Truth, dealing with Kantos who’s working with the enemy), he’s hurdled and found a creative way to solve his problems. Planting drugs in his competition’s establishment while making one last move on Bassett and pacifying Kantos in the same breath through his clandestine messaging to stay away lest he suffer the same fate as his new employers was genius. In matters of his legit empire, Ghost has no true rival.

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Photo: Starz

This same intellect is non existent in his “other” life. He loves Tasha and Tommy, but won’t trust them fully when the chips are down, which is why he doesn’t inform them of his plan to eliminate Milan via Ruiz. Even though he KNOWS Milan has been three steps ahead of him since supplanting him with Tommy as the number one, infiltrating his club as personal security and flooding his properties with drug deals. None of this matters to Ghost, because he cannot envision a world where his plans don’t succeed or need adjustment. He also doesn’t realize that his clandestine actions have dire consequences for Angela, Tommy, Tasha, and his family. And for the first time, his loved ones refuse to look past his hubris and start addressing their own self interests.

Angela has transitioned to the open arms of Greg to fully heal from her breakup with Ghost. Her only concern is total exoneration for the Lobos murder. While she attempts to uncover the mystery of the burner cellphone, Greg continues his vigilante crusade to take Ghost, Angela and anyone else down to cure his feelings of rejection. Not only does Greg discover the location where the burner was purchased, he sees Sandoval leaving Hugo’s old apartment. 2 + 2 is slowly adding up to four, so will this finally remove Angela from his cross hairs?

Tariq hates his father unconditionally for the way he treated Tasha and the family during his affair with Angela, and Kanan is right there to be the “friend” Tariq needs. While Kanan plays the Palpatine to Tariq’s Anakin Skywalker encouraging him to teal and do whatever necessary to gain respect, Dre is just trying to ensure the kid survives. Kanan has Dre between a rock and a hard place, because if Ghost discovers that Kana is alive, around his son and Dre knew, it won’t end well. So how does Dre keep Tariq safe while staying alive?

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Even rekindling the sexual chemistry with Tasha won’t save Ghost from her wrath. He tells Tasha of his plan to get Milan out of the picture, and he never thought once to console her, Tasha’s family was threatened repeatedly. Milan visited her and indirectly destroyed her friendship with Keisha. This is a dangerous man and any moves should’ve been discussed. Ghost was Ghosting however, and decided to tell her while the plan was in motion. Not to mention that Ghost was lukewarm on a possible marriage reclamation. Tasha recognized at this point that Ghost would move only as Ghost wants to move and in that moment she decided to protect herself and tell Tommy everything. At this point Tommy and Tasha only have each other to trust and need to work together in spite of Ghost’s “well wishes”

Tommy, fed up with all of the secrecy and lack of trust, decides to finally handle every situation his way. Knowing that Ruiz was involved in the plan to take out Milan, he makes his move. Ruiz is killed by Tommy’s own hand, and has Dre’s assistance in disposing of the body. With their newfound respect in lieu of their previous relationship due to Dre’s confession that he tipped off Ghost to the Korean hit attempt on Tommy, who knows where that relationship will go. Tommy makes it clear that Ruiz died because of Ghost’s shady practices and gives Ghost one more out to be committed or else. Ghost finally draws the line in the sand, stating that he wants out of the game and will never stop. Tommy now realizes what he must do. He lets Ghost knows that its him that calls the shots from this point forward involving Milan go through him. The only problem is the next plan involving Milan is to kill Ghost!

Underestimating his enemies, and placing his ambitions for a “honest life” ahead of his family has finally put Ghost in an winless situation. Everyone wants him dead and he has few trusting allies left. Ghost must die was the tagline of Season 3. By the end of next week’s finale, we may be asking ourselves “Who shot James St. Patrick?”

CHECK OUT THE #POWERAFTERHOURS PODCAST FOR MORE INSIGHT INTO THE EPISODE