The FEDs were closing in during Power Book II: Ghost Season 3 Episode 7, and things are getting real.
Now, we’ve been here, done this before. Every season the authorities look like they’re well on their way to putting Tariq or someone in his family away for life, and in a last-minute hail mary, they find a way to blow it all up.
But with so many moving pieces, from Tariq and Brayden to Davis and now Diana, I wonder if they’ve finally run out of luck.
Tariq always knew there was heat on him coming off Power Book II: Ghost Season 2, but once Noma stuck her claws into him and everyone else, he had no choice but to get back in the game.
Finding out Lauren was alive has certainly had his head spinning because it’s made him realize how out of control and out of his depth he really was.
The FEDs have been building their case slowly and methodically, and while it seemed to stall for a while, they’ve finally hit their stride, as each new body that dropped made the connections they needed to prove that much easier.
Finally linking all the various drug streams together really sealed the deal here, and they made the smart play by going after Diana, whom they have on camera and whose arrest will most likely cause the most chaos.
Right now, Jenny has Lauren and Saxe, and now she has Diana, the most far-removed from things, and whom the family will be fighting like hell to protect.
It’s hard to imagine Diana would ever go against her family, but we’ve also never seen her in this kind of situation. She wanted out, and she thought she was out, and now she’s the one out of everyone facing the heat?
What would you do in that situation?
Aside from having Diana now, Jenny and Blanca still have Lauren and Saxe in their back pockets as well.
Lauren is funny because she sat around for however long, just imagining the absolute worst of Tariq, and this tale Jenny weaved about Tariq being a monster wasn’t just born out of thin air.
Tariq is a monster. He’s a stone-cold killer who will do whatever he must to keep himself safe.
You have to love Tariq immediately placing the blame on others when Lauren called him out for his selfishness because that’s what he does. There is always a justification and an excuse, which goes back to when he was a teenager.
Was he raised in a horribly toxic environment and lied to repeatedly by those who were meant to protect him? Yes. We’ve gone over that in lengthy detail over the years. But has Tariq also had ample opportunities to make better decisions for himself? Of course, he has.
The person Tariq is right now, as an adult man who wakes up every morning choosing violence, is solely on Tariq. And the current situation he’s found himself in isn’t something he can blame on anyone else but himself.
Tariq and Lauren lowkey working together wasn’t a shock because Lauren still wants to see whatever good she can find in Tariq. It’s like she knows he’s terrible and understands he has done many horrific things, but he didn’t try to kill her.
There’s only so much Lauren will be able to do at this point, and the second it’s revealed she’s alive, that “partnership” between everyone and Cane will be blown the hell up.
Speaking of Cane, he found himself back at Monet’s side, begrudgingly, and the Tejada family was in all kinds of disarray.
Lorenzo’s death has left a void in the family, even if everyone has moved on like nothing’s happened.
Lorenzo was the de facto leader, and now Monet was ready to make a stand again to step right into the empty leadership role, even though it’s pretty clear that Dru and Cane have a much greater grasp on what’s going on.
Monet has been so far removed from everything she didn’t know about Lauren wearing a wire or what the deal was with Noma. But even though she was entirely out of the loop, she was ready to end the war with the Russians.
Monet has always seen the bigger picture and used the pieces around her in the best way for her. Cane has always been her muscle, and she’s used Tariq as her brains.
And they both stepped up to the plate here, with Tariq helping set the ceasefire in motion and Cane delivering that fatal blow to Kai and bringing the whole thing home.
Deading the Russian war was a win for everybody, and killing Kai was a win for Monet because she could also get rid of a new threat.
Gordo did the most when he spoke with Monet, mainly because he knew he had the upper hand. What was Monet going to do?
Well, nothing at that moment, but she did concoct a much larger plan that involved breaking her son’s heart.
Poor Dru can’t catch a break.
He thought he found his forever in Everett, who was never the one for him. And then Gordo waltzed in, and the two of them fit. At the very least, Dru could always be himself with Gordo, and it’s no wonder he fell hard for the idea of what they could be.
Dru: I don’t know. I feel like we could be something, me and him. Is that crazy?
Monet: No crazier than your father and me. We built a life together. You could too. But remember, just because you and Gordo are on the same page, doesn’t mean his family is.
Monet playing in his face and acting like she was happy for him was typical Monet, who might somehow be a bigger sociopath than James St. Patrick ever was.
Her idea to pair Kai and Gordo up depended on many different things breaking her way, and she’s lucky that Kai didn’t get the drop on her and she was able to find the time to plant that burner phone on him.
I wish Dru had taken a moment to consider all the facts, but no one in the Terjada family is known for their patience or ability to separate emotions from their decisions.
Dru felt so unbelievably blindsided and hurt, knowing that the man he was ready to truly allow himself to fall for was capable of such a deception. I can understand the pain he must have felt, but you’d think he would have wanted to gather a little information before he shot him dead.
Gordo’s death helps Monet, as he was seemingly the only one to know her secret, but now what does this do for that fragile truce between them and the Castillos?
Gordo was the only one keeping the peace between the two families, and his death will not only be suspicious to them, but it will splinter the business. And with Diana jammed up and Noma roaming around, they don’t need anything else to worry about.
Saxe better worry about his safety now that it’s known he’s working for the FEDs.
Davis has always kept Saxe at arm’s length while also allowing him to see entirely too much. There’s no way he’s ever trusted Saxe, but at the same time, he’s allowed him to get too close to his business.
Saxe doesn’t know much, but he does know enough to do damage.
It’s only a matter of time before Davis knows Saxe has been playing him, and the fallout from that should be rather delicious.
Davis better act quickly if Saxe is still Diana’s lawyer like he was after Lorenzo’s death. Diana is liable to get them all in bigger trouble than they’re already in if she confides in him, not realizing he’ll be taking it right back to Jenny.
There is so much going on right now, and we’ve only got a few more hours to get it all sorted.
I think we can all agree that before the season ends, the body count will increase, the betrayals will continue, and Tariq will find a way to survive it all.
He always finds a way.
Everything Else You Need To Know
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Tariq and Brayden being on the outs is more depressing than I thought. There’s something about those two beefing that feels unnatural.
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Tate standing in front of the docks and taking credit for the Russian drug bust is so on-brand for him. He’s had very little purpose this season, but I still enjoy him every time he does show up.
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Salim is the definition of toxic. The man writes a lackluster poem, begging for forgiveness, and when Diana is unimpressed, he immediately starts degrading her and blackmails her. But he should have known better than to come at a Tejada like that.
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Wow, do I not care about Weston Holdings being a Ponzi scheme, but I am interested in how Brayden can use this information to his benefit. At the very least, he’s got to find a way to get Tariq and the Tejada’s money out of there.
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Cane was swooping in on Effie and coming on thick. Effie seemed to be falling for it, mostly because she’s upset about Tariq, but those two together and against Tariq next season would be something else.
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Effie continuously calling people out for being weak is bold when I’ve seen Tariq kill more people than she has. I wonder if the best course of action one day was to kill Tariq if she could go through with it.
Theo turning his back on Davis because he didn’t get him out the right way. It felt like they wanted us to think this story was over, but I feel it’s just starting.
Tariq is about to go off the rails now that he knows a RICO case is looming, so the next few hours should be extra tense as the scrambling begins!
Hit me in the comments with all your thoughts about this hour and where you think things are headed next for everyone.
Make sure you watch Power Book II: Ghost online right now so you don’t miss any of the explosive action!
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.