ow does a guy who doesn’t watch TV, never alone subscription, get hooked on a US drama series called 'Power'? No answer for you here, but plenty of speculation after the end of its fourth season.
Before I stick my head on the line, just the obvious spoiler warning. There are plot twists across the season, especially at the end of this one. I should also explain that I started watching at the start of series 4. I didn’t want to make the same mistake as with Breaking Bad and get bored during the middle of the season #netflixnovice so please stick with ‘Power’. It just gets better and better and then come back for a read of this blog.
Here are my 4 plot theories at the end of season 4.
I’m going to say it. Tasha is not my favourite character. I do, however, respect that she is the glue, the driving force and maybe the only brain in the whole operation. ‘Power’ wouldn’t make sense without her as you’d have to suspend a lot more belief. Despite being cheated on from Season 1 Episode 1 (or maybe 2) she still has Ghosts back. In one short conversation with Terry Silver, Ghosts lawyer/her lover/ now her lawyer she deprives herself of a new life and sets herself up to be the fall girl, and a big part of season 5. I reckon she knows the murder of Ray Ray at the hands of her son, would be amateurish as it’s his first and hopefully from her perspective only kill. The police have already found a bullet ready to be matched in season 5.
When protecting Ghost, we can question whether it’s love, loyalty or the need to remain in the lifestyle she has become accustomed too. In the case of Tariq, he’s her blood and her future so expect momma bear to protect her cub. Jail will not be in Tasha’s long-term future, as I predict she will be safe from prosecution and defence respectively through a combination of Angela’s guilt over her affair with Ghost, and protected by Terry’s love for her.
So, what about Tariq? What a season this character had! Raina was the innocent one of the Ghost twins. She never looked beyond what her parents told her. Tariq was the one who questioned and as a result got caught up in (excuse the pun) Power games this season. Does the shooting of Ray Ray make up for his potential role in Raina’s death? His suspicions were true, and now he has seen the process of a clean kill. Are we to believe that he’ll head off to school in season 5 like a reformed student. I don’t think so.
Tariq has so much to learn. He is his father's and mother's son, but I don’t think that either Tariq or Ghost appreciate this yet. I predict that Tariq will later learn that his friend/cousin Shawn was killed by his own father Kanan. Will Tariq seek revenge for that? What happens if he feels Ghost made Kanan that way, and sees his father as the ultimate route cause of all the pain. Surely the plot can’t twist so far as to a child killing his father… after all Ghost is a main character! Hold that thought for a minute.
The big winner at the end of the series was Dirty Dre. Through Ghost and Kanan we, the viewer may have been sucked in by someone who appeared to be hapless and accident prone. He was playing them and us off at the same time, taking out key players of the drug network (and some of our favourite characters in the process). Why, oh why, do we never listen to Tommy? He had Dre nailed from day one. Dre is now the big mover and shaker of the drug operation in New York. There is no way his time at the top will be short lived. Does it matter that he doesn’t know that Ghost, Tommy and now Kanan are together? In my opinion, no… and here’s why…
From series one, Power has been about Kanan getting revenge on Ghost for the years he went to jail for. Do we really think a combined hatred of Dre will be the call for Ghost, Tommy and Kanan to become some American, modern day version of the Three Musketeers? In season 5 also, Kanan has put Tariq’s life at risk, been a link in the chain that caused Raina’s death and been battered, burnt and left for dead by Ghost in season 4. If Ghost, or even worse Tommy finds out about the Kanan link then this partnership is over. Tommy seemed to have a very close ‘Uncle’ relationship with Tariq. Can we assume he had the same with Raina, and is it now a problem that we didn’t see this on screen?
I must ask, how much more can we take of Ghost and Tommy’s relationship swinging from bromance to conflict. It was believable when Ghost was with Angela and Tommy was with Holly, surely there can be no more distrust between these two can there. Remember that Ghost didn’t save Holly when he could have, and Holly was pregnant with Tommy’s child. In short, these three are useless together and therefore it can’t last, which brings me onto my final prediction…
I learnt a new phrase in the pub with my Newport City Radio co-volunteers a few weeks ago… plot armour. This apparently is the long-term convention in TV of having no intention of killing off main characters in a series (like Jim Gordon in Gotham). In modern TV, this no longer applies (look at Game of Thrones!). Tasha, Ghost and Tommy have been protected by plot armour from the start, but for no real reason, so I’m going to make the boldest claim of all… one of the musketeers must go. Kanan already has, Tommy (I guess as a fans' favourite) can’t, so it must be Ghost!
Mr James St Patrick’s time has come and this will be his final story in Power. His relationship with Angela is over, maybe even with Tasha, the nightclub storyline has run its course and he’s no longer feared in the New York drug scene, weakened by his arrest this series and his affair with an agent of the law. With Tasha potentially side tracked, who has the intelligence to keep him out of trouble? Please don’t say Tommy!
So, there they are, my 4 predictions at the end of Power season 4.
Tasha will be safe, Tariq will begin to inherit the mantle of Ghost, Dre will be king for a lot longer than we may think and Ghost will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Let me know what you think, ideally before the start of season 5, otherwise that’s cheating!
