It never ceases to amaze how fast things move in the Power universe.
Filler episodes? Power doesn’t know them. People are constantly making moves, storylines are continually pushed forward, and we hang out for the ride.
Power Book II: Ghost Season 2 Episode 2 could have very easily been a slower-paced, let’s-reconvene-after-the-events-of-Power Book II: Ghost Season 2 Episode 1 kind of hour. But no. It was nothing of the sort.
It never feels right to start diving into Ghost and not talk about Tariq first because he’s the star of the show. But this week kind of felt like the Cane show. Even if the screentime doesn’t exactly match up with that.
He’s involved in so many things right now. And he’s just lying his butt off every which way.
For starters, this arrangement with Mecca is all over the place. Nothing with Cane is ever on the up and up, but here he’s heading into things being more truthful with this virtual stranger than his own family.
Now he and his family aren’t on the greatest of terms, so while it’s understandable that he feels like he has to resort to desperate measures to get them back, the whole switching of the drugs things feels like a huge risk that could have backfired tremendously.
Mecca: You stole from your own family?
Cane: Fuck no. I created an opportunity for them, they didn’t even know they needed. I helped them.
The end goal is to force Monet into realizing she needs a new connect and then have Mecca swoop in to be that new connect. Now you’re in with him, you’ve got your family back, and you saved the day for everybody.
Smart plan, but Cane did a whole lot of lying to make it a reality.
Diana started the series kind of just blending in and being a potential love interest for Tariq, who also just kind of did whatever Monet told her to do, and that was it. But you can see how much she’s learning and growing as the series presses on.
She’s onto Cane because she recognizes what he had to gain by switching out the drugs. He’s just a little too smug and proud of himself coming back to the dinner table, and I can’t wait to see what she does with this knowledge.
And Diana being under Effie’s tutelage? Sign me up for that spin-off.
Effie can’t be trusted, at least not in the traditional sense. She has done one too many things against Tariq to be considered a loyal person, but she knows the game, and she knows it well. She knows things that Monet just simply doesn’t, especially as it relates to the game in this day and age and with this generation.
If Diana can’t go to school yet or do the other things she’d like to, she’s at least reaching out and doing something for herself.
Speaking of Effie, though, the fight she and Brayden were in was funnier than it should have been. Poor Brayden. His first instinct often seems to be a peacemaker, but it just doesn’t always work like that.
Cane’s master plan works for now, but there will be a fallout. And there’s one major thing he seems to be utterly clueless about, and that’s the pre-existing relationship between Monet and Mecca.
Or Dante, as she knows him.
We can pick up on the fact that Mecca and Monet knew each other as kids and that it’s been a long time since they’ve seen one another, but outside of that, it’s hard to hone in on the total scope of their history.
Knowing Cane was Monet’s son means the man probably has a way bigger agenda than we’re aware of to this point. Their conversation was stilted and very much a reunion between two people who’ve lived a lot of life in the time they were apart.
This screams past lovers, forced apart by circumstances outside of their control and now back together again to see if they can rekindle that old spark. Mecca, at the very least, sure looked like he wanted to try.
But Lorenzo is still a thing in Monet’s world, and he always will be. Though, as evidenced by her former relationship with Ramirez, their marriage isn’t exactly in the greatest place.
Is Mecca looking to hurt Monet? He wasn’t upfront with her at all during their meeting, and time will tell if he’s more truthful with her, but right now, I’ve got a bad feeling about where things are going to go here.
You can feel how messy things are about to get where this story is concerned. And that’s to say nothing of when Tariq eventually gets involved because, as we know, he tends to make a messy situation even worse.
Tariq, as usual, is involved in every story, but the most intriguing thing going on with him by far was his fight to stay with Tasha, essentially. That burner phone was his last current link to her, and he struggled with letting that go.
For as much as he’s become the image of the one man he swears he’s never wanted to be, his heart has always belonged to Tasha. And now she’s gone, gone, and it seems to be hitting him that it all falls to him.
It fell to him when Tasha was in jail, but she was still present, just in a different way. He was still in contact with her, utilized her wisdom and advice, and felt like part of a team.
Now, he’s alone. And he’s got to protect Yas, which means getting back into bed with Saxe and Davis, as well as Tate.
Listen, Tate is a snake, but he’s a cunning and charming snake. And I wasn’t sure how they would fit him back into the story and make sense, but they found a way alright.
Helping Tate with the Sweeney situation is going to ultimately test his relationship with Brayden, the one person above all else who has his back. And as selfish as Tariq is, he must recognize that he needs at least one loyal person in his corner for things not to collapse on him completely.
The investigation into Jabari’s death is going to continue to linger over everything, and it seems like Davis and Saxe are about to get themselves involved in another one of Tariq’s murders.
And as I predicted, the spotlight has shifted, at least slightly, over to Zeke. And those ramifications are going to be bad because that’s going to affect Monet’s contingency plan.
What’s the connection between Carrie and Davis? Do we think they are just former associates or something more? She seemed pretty disgusted with his overall presence, so one has to believe it’s more than just ex-associates.
It was this kind of hour, one where you couldn’t help but think of a million questions and start to think ahead to what’s to come. The season is off to an excellent start, and this was another fantastic entry into the series.
Everything Else You Need To Know
- Kanan popping up felt like a fever dream! I immediately flashed back to those days when Kanan and Tariq were running the show, and those were some dark, dark days.
- Tariq’s ability to switch everything on and off at the drop of a dime has always been impressive. Psychotic, but impressive. He does it so well here with Whitman, turning into a student who knows nothing about nothing just like that.
- Whitman is a menace, though. Carrie must have really hurt him because he can’t stand her.
- Mecca is like a very wealthy person. And he’s charming and seemingly intelligent. He’s also not in prison, which is a plus. I don’t trust a thing about him, but I have eyes and acknowledge it will be hard for Monet to resist those charms.
- I’m going to keep asking them to give Lauren something to do until the week they give Lauren something to do.
There are currently a lot of unknowns and no telling where we go next, but it’s going to be fun either way!
What did you think about this installment?
Are you surprised by Cane’s actions?
What is Mecca after?
Why is Tate the way that he is?
Drop your comments down below, and remember to watch Power Book II: Ghost online anytime via TV Fanatic!
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.