“When This Is Over”
The title of Season 5, Episode 10 perfectly describes how I am going to be when POWER officially ends. It’s been five years of intense drama and adrenaline-pumping storylines but nothing in the prior seasons of Power prepared me for the events of the just-concluded fifth season.
**HUGE SPOILERS BELOW. SO IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE COMPLETE SEASON 5 OF POWER, THEN YOU SHOULD WATCH IT BEFORE READING FURTHER**
To summarize the season, Tariq ‘manned’ up, took the blame for his sister’s death, killed Raymond Jones and saved his father, mother, and Uncle Tommy from going to jail by framing the one person they had to work with (but hated doing so), Kanan. Kanan died, Dre survived the season by the skin of his teeth, Tommy killed his father and shot (and presumably killed) Angela, who may have saved Ghost seeing as the bullet may have been for him, Ghost kidnapped Tasha’s boyfriend and every shred of trust that the family had has all but crumbled to dust.
Believe me, there is no possible way to summarize all 10 episodes but the above will have to do. Season 5 of power was the perfect representation of the amount of work you have to put in to gain something and how easy it is to lose in the blink of an eye.
It was a season of gain followed by a total loss. Ghost gained his rep back, had found a way to be free of the drug game, had gotten Tommy’s brotherhood back, and had started breaking ground on winning Angela back, but he lost everything at the end. Tasha lost her daughter, her friendship with Kesha, and presumably her boyfriend/lawyer. Angela lost her power as AUSA, and all the work she had done to protect Saint-Patrick’s family all came to nought. Tommy gained and lost his father and definitely Ghost (from what transpired in the final episode). Tariq gained revenge for Reina’s death and is well on the way to becoming a real man, which is quite terrifying because asides from him learning to move ‘weight’, the fact that he served up the one person he actually cared about the most in season 5, Kanan, leaves the mystery of Tariq’s character development open for all forms of exploration, which I absolutely love.
Dre has lost the power he worked so hard to gain, has probably lost contact with his family, but he has his life and the possibility of making a comeback in the next season. And even though Kanan’s death shook everybody and was somewhat anticlimactic, there is no shred of doubt in my mind that the series will be even more intense with the happenings of episode 10.
Above all, the one person I believe proved the downfall of everybody and is to blame for everything is Ghost. His lack of ability to trust and his lone-ranger vibe/tendency to derail for his own survival by lying and deceiving the people he supposedly cares about the most to achieve his own victory is what drove everybody away from him and spurred both Tasha and Tommy to go off the rails along the line. Since Ghost doesn’t trust them enough to keep them in the loop and tell them the truth to get things done right, they, in turn, don’t trust him because of his constant lies and questionable actions to get the necessary results.
Although Ghost usually gets results and his methods are usually cleaner, he still has to walk all over the people he cares about to do so. All the District Attorney’s office had to do was fuel the fire James St-Patrick had already lit. And speaking of the DA’s office, they have lost the RICO case against Ghost, Tommy, Tasha, and Angela because they needed everyone of them to testify and Angela’s current condition has presumably put a wrench in their plans.
Season 5 of POWER is no doubt the best season yet and has definitely moved POWER to be among the top-tier crime/drug series in an industry filled with series like NARCOS, BETTER CALL SAUL, FARGO, and more.
What do you think of the just-concluded season 5 of POWER? And what do you also think will happen in season 6? let me know in the comment section below.