Tariq pulled one hell of a “wax on, wax off” technique with his moms that luckily for him didn’t result in him being obliterated off the face of the earth.* That moment between mother and son encapsulated the overarching theme of the latest episode of Power: authority in relationships are malleable and subject to change.
The only reason Tariq wasn’t in a wheelchair or dead by the end of the episode is because his parents were dealing with the changing hierarchy in their own lives. Ghost realizes that the street games he’d play to evade his enemies won’t work with Milan, while James St. Patrick finds his deal with Karen slipping through his fingers. Tasha, once the woman left in the dark, is now able to put designer shoe on the other foot by telling a juicy lie to Angie.
Every one of these instances results in a changing dynamic on the show. When Milan gives Ghost and Tommy ultimatums, Tommy is resistant because, as he puts it, he doesn’t work for Ghost and he now runs sh*t. The story of them getting back on the same page continues but this episode represents a pregnant pause in that eventuality. Much like Tariq, Tommy believes he’s on equal footing with Ghost and its all because of his absence from their lives.
Funny enough, the cause of his absence, Angie Valdes, decides it’s time to rearrange their relationship as well. She’s feeling the squeeze from her superiors on whether she fed Ghost key information on Lobos. Rather than sit and play the victim during her interrogation, she flips the narrative by saying she is the one pulling his strings and has been from the start. She admits to cloning his phone way back when all in the name of getting the job done after her male compadres fumbled the ball countless times. It’s a nice follow-up on a conversation between her and the female interrogator on what a woman has to do to navigate the male shark-infested waters of the Department of Justice. In that moment, Ms. Valdes drinks whatever Tariq was sipping on and finds a big pair of cojones.
I’d be remiss to not mention the exchange between Angie and Tasha as it’s filled with so history and subtext for two characters who rarely spend time together on screen, but is all about flipping the power structure. Angie believes that she can intimidate Tasha with threats of arrests and prosecutions if she knows Ghost snuffed out Lobos. Rather than succumb to that type of sh*t as she’s no doubt used to it, Tasha takes the opportunity to twist the knife in Angie’s heart by saying that she and Ghost were in fact, at the hotel together. However, they were fulfilling their duties as husband and wife. We know she’s lying but there seemed to be a bit of truth in her words when she explains to Angie that there was never a question in her mind as to whether she’d take Ghost back because he never left.
All of this builds to the last scene where Angie –a woman scorned and in jeopardy of losing her job–goes to Ghost demanding he come clean about killing Lobos. Sure, he’d be in big trouble for it but at least she’d be able to keep her job and her life. He does what he does best–lies–then practically begs her not to leave. That’s the moment when everything flips.
She becomes the one dictating the terms of engagement to him, telling him what’s going to happen and how it’s going to happen or else. He says he’ll fix it–as he normally does–but I get the sense that he’s going to be riding shotgun on this go round.
This episode showcased just how fickle power truly is.
* For your viewing pleasure, here is an accurate reenactment of Tariq and Tasha
