[alert type=”blue”]SPOILER ALERT: We will be talking about the latest episode of Power in depth, so beware of spoilers if you haven’t watched it yet. [/alert]
Episode 2 (It’s Never Over) starts with a restless Jamie, tossing and turning in bed next to the love of his life Angela. He wakes her, but doesn’t respond when she calls out to him. We then jump to the next scene in which Jamie is in his office speaking with his Lawyer, Joe Proctor. He asks about finding a way to get to Lobos, but Proctor suggests that he’d be better off asking Angela of his whereabouts. Jamie lets on that he doesn’t want to cause a rift between him and Angela by using her work connections, but Proctor professes that it may come down to Jamie either saving his life, or saving his relationship.
Cooper Saxe is then seen approaching Mike Sandoval, and lets him know that he wants to solve the attempt on Lobos’ life by finding the killer. Later we see Jamie calling his hitman in jail and ordering him to find out if Lobos is still in the same prison building.
Jamie visits Tasha to ask if she can hand Tommy a check that he owes him for his share of the businesses that they owned together. Tasha questions why he needs her to do it, and Jamie opens up about the soured friendship.
Sandoval is seen speaking with Lobos’ assistant who threatens Sandoval to make sure that his colleague Saxe doesn’t get the chance to find the man who attempted to assassinate Lobos. They don’t want to give Ghost any opportunity to testify against Lobos, so they’re determined to eliminate all loose ends.
Jamie is then seen meeting with some big spenders in his club, and he invites them to another party that he hopes to have at another location to ensure that they’ll keep spending money with club Truth. Then, Andre questions Jamie about the blood stained card he found in Jamie’s draw, he recognized the card as a mark of death. He urges Jamie to keep him in the loop so that he can protect him, but Jamie brushes him off. Shortly after, Jamie is meeting with a popular DJ who he hopes to perform at Truth and he hands off the contract signing to Andre.
Tasha meets with Tommy to give him his check and the two end up going back and forth about breaking each others trust. Tasha calls out Tommy for not telling her about Angela, and Tommy retaliates by calling her out for not telling him that they set Kanan up to go to prison.
Andre is later seen meeting with old friends from the hood, and they try to persuade him to pull a robbery on the club. Andre shuts it down, stating that there’s too much security for it to be pulled off.
Tommy shows the check he got from Tasha to Holly and she tries to take it from him. He puts it out of her reach, but we then see her snatch it from him sneakily as she seduces him. Later she tries to deposit the check into Tommy’s account, but forgets that she needs Tommy’s signature to do so. She confesses her intention to Tommy and he’s briefly annoyed by her, but she makes him understand that they need help with laundering the drug money. She asks who helped him and Ghost handle the finances before and he tells her Tasha did it all, he even goes on to explain that she went to school for accounting. Holly suggests that they use Tasha to help them with their finances.
Later, as Jamie is setting up for the DJ his assistant tells him that the DJ got a better offer from the club across the street. Jamie is mad at Andre for not signing the contract sooner and they both walk across the street to see the owners of this new club. It’s the high-rollers from earlier who were flaunting cash in Truth so that they could scope out their competition. Andre suggests making a move on them, but Jamie says that it’s best not to respond so they can make a move against them later.
Things get tense as we see Tasha knock on Angela’s door. When Angela answers she walks in uninvited, her purpose is to intimidate Angela by explaining all the things she’ll need to keep in mind when the kids come to stay with them later. After a full day of work, Angela returns home to find the house full of Jamie and his kids, they’re earlier than expected. Jamie introduces them all before dinner.
Saxe tells Sandoval that he’s found the prisoner who tried to kill Lobos and shows him the proof on his Laptop. He sets off to go speak to the prisoner face to face. We then see Lobos’ main man meeting with Tommy, and Tommy is obviously still mad about his dead dog. Lobos’ hitman puts further pressure on Tommy to kill Ghost, and reassures him that the rest of the shipment will come as soon as they handle their cash flow problem. The meeting is then interrupted by a phone call from Sandoval to Lobos’ hitman.
Tommy summons Jamie to meet him at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Jamie leaves Angela with the kids to make the meeting with Tommy. Jamie is then stood waiting for Tommy, little does he know that Tommy is already there trying to take him out at a distance. Tommy aims his gun at Ghost but can’t bring himself to pull the trigger. He abandons his attempt on Jamie’s life and goes on a drug spree, sniffing multiple lines of cocaine.
Jamie’s son Tariq excuses himself from Angela’s watch to go to the bathroom. But he also decides to snoop around Angela and his father’s room, in which he finds Angela’s firearm for work. He takes it and puts back Angela’s bag exactly where he found it. After, we see Saxe going to visit the prisoner, only to find that he’s already been murdered thanks to Sandoval’s tip off to Lobos’ assistant.
Holly comes home to find Tommy in a mess. Out of depression he confesses that Lobos had their dog killed, and that it was to put pressure on him to kill Ghost. Holly encourages him to get the job done so they can be free. The episode ends with Tasha knocking at their door because Holly has asked for her help.
Gary’s thoughts:
In this episode, Jamie is trying his hardest to carry on the belief that he’s in control, but slowly everything begins to work against him. Sooner or later he’ll need to crack and reclaim the role of Ghost, as all his enemies are working against him.
We’ve seen Andre be conflicted on a number of occasions, resisting Jamie’s push to conform to a legitimate lifestyle. He goes to visit his old friends from the hood who put bad ideas into his mind, and then he loses a DJ contract for the club right under his nose. I believe at some point that Andre will have to decide where his loyalties are, especially when his big homie Kanan makes his return.
Aside from Lobos and Tommy trying to kill Jamie, he also has to now worry about his new club rivals threatening his business. I believe we’ve seen the beginning of a heated rivalry, and I think we’ll find out that either Kantos or Stern are helping Jamie’s competition.
With Tariq stealing Angela’s firearm, it literally gives Tasha ammunition to rain on Jamie’s parade. Whenever Tariq is discovered, you can bet that Tasha will make both Jamie and Angela feel stupid for letting something like this happen on their watch.
Things are slowly heating up in the melting pot that is Jamie’s life. I believe as the weeks go on he’ll be force to make some rash decisions, and maybe even some sacrifices.
Richard’s thoughts:
“It’s Never Over” signified the return of Ghost as ongoing issues with Lobos and fierce competition on the nightclub scene are beginning to heat up. Jaime came face-to-face with two ruthless club owners who not only stole his DJ for the night but will also serve as a certifiable threat to his business for the rest of the season. While it’s too early to tell if Kantos or Stern are behind the emergence of this new duo, my guess is that we will get answers on this and more over the next several weeks. As for the drug game, Jamie telling Proctor about his current situation indicates that the lawyer may get even more involved in his personal affairs. I’m not sure if this is a good thing, but it certainly will be interesting to see how everything plays out in the end.
Lucy Walters portrayal of Holly in this episode was also noteworthy as we were reminded that this is a sneaky character who only looks out for herself. While she claims to remain honest to Tommy and work with Tasha, I fully believe that if all goes bad then she will sacrifice others to save herself. Tommy confessing the truth about her dog’s death and his mission to kill Ghost confirms this theory and it will be interesting to see how these characters and their relationships with each other evolve over time.
Last but certainly not least, the decision to have Angela meet Jamie’s kids this early into their new life as a couple definitely wasn’t as successful as they had hoped. Tariq stealing Angela’s gun was an over-the-top approach to the narrative and that may not necessarily bode well for the character moving forward. I definitely look forward to seeing how this situation is handled and if it causes relationship problems between Angela and Jamie.
