Allow Joseph Sikora To Finally Reflect On ‘Power Book IV: Force’ Season Two
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Warning: This article contains spoilers from Power Book IV: Force.
There are three things that Joseph Sikora loves: playing Tommy Egan within the Power franchise, his character’s growth, and his wife. These are some of our findings while the actor is off on a tangent.
“I’d give everything up just for love,” he notes. “I have a wonderful wife; I’m so blessed and lucky. She always reminds me she doesn’t care about money. She just cares about our health, our happiness. So, I do realize what Tommy Egan is missing.”
Just as the SAG-AFTRA strike ended and the season two finale of Power Book IV: Force aired on STARZ this past Friday (Nov. 10), Sikora, delightfully spirited, makes a Zoom call feel like a conversation with an old friend. Admittedly, not being able to promote the second season of Force the way he wanted to “really pained” him. When it was finally time, he recapped the season’s 10 episodes in 10 minutes in a way that should be studied.
This season of Force had so many jaw-dropping twists like Tommy’s business partner, Diamond Sampson (Isaac Keys) offing his parole officer following the tragic loss of his mentee. There was also Tommy conducting business at the distro’s grandmother’s funeral. And of course, Tommy’s secret relationship being exposed.
Not only did we discuss how his character has evolved since season one, but Sikora also revealed his thoughts on Tommy and Diamond being compared to the late James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick). He also shared his favorite moments from Force season two.
VIBE: First of all, what have the past 118 days been like for you?
Joseph Sikora: I was so f**king mad not to be able to promote the show. I’m so proud of it. I had the luxury of watching the season earlier on, [but] it really pained me not to be able to promote the show. [Showrunner and executive producer] Gary Lennon is really the true voice of the Tommy character that people have grown to love so much, and I love playing him.
Gary really gets into the depth of the psyche of the character, but I always say that Gary had this arduous task of shrinking a world, and expanding another world at the same time, and he accomplished that. I love—I should just let you ask the questions.
No, I get it because it was such a good season and really got us through the past few months. Tommy has had to sacrifice a lot—his family, his love life, and more for the life that he chose. And so, what do you think sacrificing means to him, and do you feel that it’s worth it?
To me, it’s not worth it at all. I’d give everything up just for love. I have a wonderful wife; I’m so blessed and lucky. She always reminds me she doesn’t care about money. She just cares about our health, our happiness. So, I do realize what Tommy Egan is missing. You could put it in the nutshell of that scene with JP [Anthony Fleming] at the hospital, when the sliding door shuts, and basically he says it’s us or them. And Tommy is like, how can I not choose [them]? This is my whole life. This is what I’ve been working towards my whole life. When that door shuts, there’s a finality to it, but also I love that it’s glass. You can see the other side [which] makes it even more painful. He’s all alone. I think that that’s kind of Tommy’s fate. His lot in life. He’s alone in so many ways in the finale episode. He’s alone when Kate almost dies, and he’s over her dying, overdosing body. He’s alone when he’s at the hospital and the door shuts and it’s D-Mac and JP and Kate [on the other side], and then he’s all alone again when Mireya is taken from him at the end of the episode. [He has] all of these wins, these consistent wins, in this really tough city. I think Gary Lennon has done a magnificent job of representing Chicago in its reality and its harshness and toughness. A lot of the reciprocal violence that happens from the innocence from it. Despite the odds, Tommy wins, just to lose.
That’s true. Coming from season one to season two, what do you love most about Tommy’s growth?
Oh man, I love that Gary had this percolation of Ghost coming out of Tommy that was probably a dormant part of his personality [and] was kind of shown when Tommy was able to think two and three steps ahead of the game. When Tommy was able to keep his cards close to his chest, in classic Tommy style, not Ghost style. Not to be duplicitous, but just like, ‘I’m not going to tell you this.’ And I think that this wonderful dynamicism between Diamond and Tommy, because it’s not the Ghost and Tommy relationship. Isaac Keys was given so much more to do this season, and I think he really took possession of that. Instead of how Ghost back in Power, where Tommy would be like ‘I just want to kill somebody’ Tommy. Now, when Diamond says to him, ‘think Tommy,’ Tommy just looks back at him, and it’s just like, oh, I’m thinking.
That dynamic is really so important. I’m glad you brought that up, because there are a lot of Diamond/Ghost comparisons. Do you feel that Diamond is the new Ghost, or can that character never be replaced?
I think the character can never be replaced. Let’s give Omari Hardwick some love and let’s give him his flowers. I think that that was a one-off. Isaac Keys is doing a great job of cultivating the Diamond character. Gary Lennon, specifically, has done a wonderful job showing all of these different 360 degree aspects of this character. We saw the character love, lose, and be committed to family. A lot of these things fit within the Tommy profile, but what fits the most in the Tommy profile, and one of Tommy’s weaknesses, I think, is Jenard, stellarly played by Kris Lofton. I think Jenard reminds Tommy a lot of himself.
I definitely would agree with that. I feel like that dynamic—especially how Jenard was this season, dealing with his own substance abuse, his relationship in the game and working with Tommy—was so layered compared to the first one.
So layered.
What was one of your most shocking or favorite moments from this season?
When Lucy Walters came back as Holly Weaver as a ghost, and she was pregnant. When I was told that, I was like, ‘wow, how cool.’ I think another hugely shocking moment, to me, was when Kate was overdosing. That came from an actual story in Gary Lennon’s life, and to hear the pain, and just to go through all of that? And then [our director] Deon Taylor was not letting me off the hook that easy. He’s like, ‘More. I got to see more. I need more. I need to know that whole history with your mother. I need to see love and loss. I need to see the conflict there. I need to see all of that.’ It was just so much that it kind of earned this stillness, and this just total loss. It was almost like he was existing in a different dimension or something. It was a very powerful scene to me.
Definitely.
Whatever Patricia Kalember does is amazing. I’ve loved the Tommy-Kate dynamic and wow much of that was seen this season.
Since Power into Force, it’s been so up and down between Tommy and his mom. And so, now this moment where he almost loses her, it kind of puts everything into a different perspective for him, right?
Absolutely. Because I think that as much as she disgusts him, he was just totally frozen. I mean, it’s rare for Tommy to be totally overwhelmed. And I think we saw Tommy totally overwhelmed.
And I feel like that didn’t happen with Lakeisha or Holly. It was different with his mom.
It was different, but I also loved the disgust that he had for her. It was funny, because in his moment of weakness, which that truly was, he was disgusted at her weakness. So it’s a weird conflict, and I think it played out, allowing those moments to be uncomfortably long where we’re just looking at Tommy’s face.
What a finale. You confirmed on Instagram that season three is coming, what would you like to see from Tommy in this next chapter?
We have Tommy from the OG Power show. And now we have Gary Lennon getting more into the psyche of the character, and we’re up here in Tommy’s head. I think that we can go for a full psychoanalysis, deep dive, [allowing] the audience into the very inner workings of Tommy’s mind. As long as Gary is writing it, I’m very excited to participate. And I also can’t wait to see what little twists and turns [we get] from the Power universe. I think that there’ll be a little more crossover this time. I wonder how much of that is going to happen from Raising Kanan and also Ghost.
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