Power Recap: Ride or Die
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The person who gets offed in this week’s Power didn’t choose the thug life. The thug life chose…. oh, wait a minute.
Yeah, on second thought, LaKeisha Grant 100 percent chose the maelstrom of violence and crime in which she finds herself in Sunday’s episode. And before the end of the hour, Tommy Egan’s ride-or-die has ridden and died: RIP, LaKeisha. You kept your word, and your silence, ’til the very end.
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Read on for the highlights of “Deal With the Devil”
SAXE’S SALVAGE OPERATION | Dre confronts Saxe about taking off his tracking ankle bracelet, but it goes about as well as you’d think it would. And Ghost is no help, either: When Dre mentions that the tracker is the reason he didn’t show at the meeting with Jason, his former mentor tells him that a) no, he’s not going to kill Saxe just to get him off of Dre’s back, and b) to stay the heck away.
Saxe then visits Tameika in her new office, and damn, it seems like working in the private sector agrees with her. She doesn’t mince words: Though she’s willing to help him continue to investigate Joe Proctor’s murder, “If you don’t prove that Tommy Egan killed Proctor, it won’t be a question of jail or no jail. It will be where, and how long.”
WELCOME TO THE ‘BURBS | “The suburbs is the opposite of chaos,” Tommy tells LaKeisha when she mentions how quiet it is at their new Long Island home. (Side note: Wait, they’re already moving in and Cash is enrolled in school? That seems fast.)
After Saxe stops by and rattles Keisha up a bit about going to jail for what she might know about Angela and Proctor’s deaths, Kate shows up at the country house and informs Keisha she’s moving in. As Keisha’s frustration mounts, Kate picks that exact moment to tell her exactly what became of Tommy’s former girlfriend, Holly. “She broke my son’s trust, and after she did that, she was dead to Tommy,” Kate (kinda proudly) announces. “Literally. He killed her with his bare hands.” As we know, this is news to LaKeisha, but she doesn’t really let it show. “Good,” she shoots back before tossing Kate out the door. “She didn’t deserve him anyway.”
Saxe also swings by Blanca’s home, meets her wife and gives her the serial number for Dre’s ankle monitor in exchange for her help in figuring out exactly what’s going on. As it turns out, she’s realized that there’s something hinky going on with the story that Kanan killed Ray Ray — and when she tracks down Dre, he informs her that Kanan was in Washington, D.C. the night the dirty cop went down… but he gave Tariq Ray Ray’s address right around that time.
THE NEW EMPIRE BEGINS | Mr. Radnor, one of Tariq’s teachers at Callister has a friend who teaches at Choate, so he knows that the teen got kicked out for dealing drugs. He also thinks that Tariq could make a lot of money selling at his new school, which — pretty hilariously — throws ‘Riq off his game.
After school, Tariq gets his first lesson in moving product; after, he tells Tasha that Mr. Radnor might make a good primera. She tells him to investigate. They’re interrupted by Tasha’s mom, who sees the piles of cash on the desk and immediately knows her daughter is up to something shady. She warns Tasha that she’s going to lose Tariq. “I’ve already lost him, OK? I’m trying to get him back,” Tasha says. “I’m trying to save my son.” Grandma is unconvinced.
The next day, Tariq breaks into his teacher’s office and learns that he’s drowning in debt, thanks to his parents, who were essentially the Madoffs of Power. “We have what he needs, and he has way more to lose than us,” Tariq reasons with his mom. Before the end of the episode, ‘Riq has placed drugs in his teacher’s car and informed him — via anonymous text — what to do with them.
HOT MIC! | Proving that she’s got the worst instincts ever, Ramona gets the idea that Ghost should run for office someday. (And lady, when even Tariq is like, “Wouldn’t he have to go through background checks and such?,” you know it’s a terrible idea.) Speaking of Ghost, he and Derek show up just before Tate is supposed to debate his opponent (hi, Center Stage‘s Donna Murphy!). After Derek slips the event’s audio guy some cash, Tate’s lapel microphone gets turned on just as he’s using some unsavory language to disparage both the woman he’s running against and New York politics in general.
“There is no coming back from that,” Ramona angrily tells him the next day, adding that Ghost’s support is crucial. (Side note/admission: I still do not understand why this is so.) Anyway, Tate relents and asks Ramona to get Ghost in for a photo op and a smoothing of feathers. During a private meeting at Truth, Ramona confides in James that Walsh — Tate’s opponent — now wants him to be her lieutenant governor. (Side note: OH GOOD GOD.)
THE HARD SELL | Armed with the knowledge that LaKeisha was lying when she was a material witness in Ray Ray’s murder investigation, Blanca pulls Tommy’s lady over when she’s driving home. Blanca and a social worker put Cash in a police car and threaten that he’ll go into the foster-care system and Keisha will be arrested… unless she signs a cooperation agreement right then and there. “You’re loyal to Tommy, but is he loyal to you?,” Blanca needles LaKeisha, who is already on some pretty shaky emotional ground. She adds: “Tommy is going down. The only question is: Which side of the bars will you be on?” Once the papers are signed and Cash is back with his mom, Blanca says she’ll get to work on making sure Keisha and Cash have witness protection.
Keisha makes Cash swear he won’t tell anyone what happened… so of course, he immediately tells Tommy when they have a minute alone. And when Tommy asks Keisha about it, she says it was “nothing.” He slams down a box of stemware, calling her out on the lie. Child Protective Services doesn’t make traffic stops, he notes, which means she must’ve given the cops something of worth in order to get Cash back. As he angrily advances on her, she maintains that she didn’t say anything — and that she didn’t tell him because she knows he killed Holly, and she didn’t want him to think she wasn’t untrustworthy like the redhead was.
That seems to flip something in Tommy, who promises her that he’s changed since the time he brutally murdered the woman he claimed to love. He adds that their house is paid off, and the fact that her name is on the deed means that she’s protected no matter what happens to him.
So Keisha freaks and calls Sgt. Rodriguez, saying that she doesn’t want to cooperate anymore. Blanca tells her that’s a no-go, so Keisha promises to bring herself and Cash to the Feds after his basketball practice. Blanca reminds her that her immunity will go poof! if she doesn’t.
‘WE OWN HIM’ | Remember how Ghost didn’t want to move on Saxe because he’s law enforcement? All it takes is a call from Tommy, as well as Blanca’s casual mention that Saxe has been suspended, for St. Patrick to change his mind and put on his murderin’ pants.
The pair roll up on Saxe at his apartment, while he’s having a little special alone time with himself, if you know what I mean. They tie him to a chair as Tommy freely admits to having killed Angela. But Ghost starts to wonder what else the Feds know, and he realizes that with everyone else dead, Saxe is their only inside man. So they spare his life and swear him not to say a word about their little hangout, then make him promise to give them everything the Feds have on Tariq.
Meanwhile, thanks to a glass of Ghost’s she lifted from Truth, Blanca knows that Tariq was at Ray Ray’s the night of his murder — and that LaKeisha was not telling the truth when she said Tariq was at the penthouse that evening. And with that breakthrough, the Feds remove Dre’s ankle bracelet.
Saxe tells Warner literally everything that happened when Tommy and Ghost came to his apartment, including Tommy’s admission of guilt in Angela’s killing, but Warner doesn’t really care: He fires him.
BYE-BYE, QCP | After his interlude with Saxe, Ghost arrives late for the press op with Tate. No one is there but the candidate, who drunkenly informs Ghost that all of the Queens Child Project’s permits have been revoked: It’s over. “You f—k me, I return the favor,” Tate says.
NO WAY! | Tasha shows up at Tommy and Keisha’s just before Keisha is about to run; Keisha says it’s the only way she can keep her word, not snitch and not go to jail. Tasha says they’re going to have to wait until Tommy gets home, but Keisha is NOT ABOUT THAT. So they tussle, and the gun from Keisha’s bag comes into play, and eventually Tasha shoots Keisha in the chest. As Keisha bleeds on the floor, she begs her former best friend not to finish the job. But Tasha does: She shoots Keisha in the head, killing her, then grabs the signed cooperation agreement and runs out the door.
Tommy and Cash come home, giddy: They’ve bought an engagement ring and flowers for Keisha, and Tommy can’t wait to pop the question. But when he sees the carnage from the front stoop, he sends Cash to wait in the car. Then a stricken Tommy enters the house and falls to his knees by Keisha’s body and the growing, bloody puddle next to it.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
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