Ghost and Tommy Reunite in ‘Power’ Episode 5

Ghost and Tommy reunite after a series of wild events during Sunday night’s episode

After a couple of sedate, expository episodes that catalogued the return of Kanan, exhibit a frantic Holly, and had Ghost flirt with the inevitable, Sunday night’s episode saw Ghost and Tommy reunite in a charged, increasingly unhinging atmosphere.

Kanan’s return wasn’t a matter of when, but how. So when he woke up, “fried and burnt like a pork rind,” (albeit with perfect hair, which is baffling) in the home of his beautiful, powerful cousin Jukebox, there was a bit of calm in knowing that he wouldn’t be hurting anyone for a while. With getting back in action and Ghost on his mind, he built his strength back by engaging in shenanigans with his cousin’s girl, Candie, and robbing a jewelry store. After Jukebox advises he go about his new goals with trepidation, he returned to his stomping grounds in episode five holding Dre’s daughter in a scene where if you weren’t holding your breath, you’re probably without a sense of empathy.

This was an episode in which everyone’s actions had immediate consequences. Angela, hopefully, finally, realized that if she really wants Ghost out of the drug world for good, she’ll have to file away her integrity as a federal prosecutor a moment at a time. This fragment came in the form of Ruiz, dug up by Knox, who was set to give up the chain of command of the New York drug cartel—an opportunity for Knox to have Ghost’s identity revealed. Angela found an opportunity to speak to Ruiz beforehand, asking him to think about why he, of all the drug lords, was still alive; in sacrificing her integrity, she appealed to his, telling him that he’s still a “Soldado” and that he should respect a man who saved his life.

But all this would’ve been for naught, as the chaos that has been Tommy and Holly’s relationship this season reached its boiling point. After losing her dog and discovering that she was pregnant, Holly set off on a worry-laden descent that, moment by moment, got worse. And when her emotionally inflected urges for Tommy to kill Ghost wouldn’t work, a bullet in his arm sent her sprinting for the Jamaicans, who she tapped to take Ghost out once and for all.

Ghost was already having an odd day. What was to be time dedicated to Tariq aimed to stabilize the rift between them both, became an evening during which Ghost, in two separate waves, saw the end of his life. The first wave put him on edge, for learning about Ruiz’s return not only threatens his frayed relationship with Angela, but puts his entire family at risk. And as Ghost stared at the unknowing Tariq as four men pointed guns at the kingpin, just moments after riffing about their favorite rappers—the rift stabilized, the bond between father and son healing—he was reminded, for the second time in one day, at a higher degree, the dangers of not tying up loose ends, of the risks of Lobos still being alive, of being Ghost.

Parallel with this reminder was Tommy realizing how much he loves Ghost. When Holly told Tommy that she ordered a hit on Ghost, the weight he’d been struggling to hold up since the beginning of the season had crashed down on him with the news that his best friend was probably dead. Tommy got more violent each passing moment, as Ghost felt he was spending his final moments with his son. Time was paused until Ghost’s new security detail took out the hit men, and in a bout of rage intensified by Holly’s reassuring claims that she did what had to be done, Tommy strangled her, learning that life was gone as she dropped to the floor, unresponsive to his hopes she was kidding.

As finite as these events were, consequences still linger in the background: does Dre sound the alarm on Kanan now that he’s back? What will Knox’s next move be now that Angela thwarted his strongest attempt to nab Ghost? And with Holly’s death an impetus for Ghost and Tommy to reunite, how do they move forward with their plan to take out Lobos?

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