Power Star Joseph Sikora Previews Final Season, Illuminates What Tommy and Harry Potter (?!) Have in Common

Power‘s Season 5 ended with a bang… which is what happens when you shoot your best friend’s girlfriend square in the chest. That bullet took down Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Valdes. And as the screen cut to black, we heard Ghost scream in horror as his lover seemed to pass away in his arms — but we didn’t get much from the vantage point of the shooter, Joseph Sikora’s scorned Tommy.

Those who read our post-finale interview with showrunner Courtney Kemp know that Angela will be back in what was recently announced as the series’ final season. But what will the AUSA’s survival mean for her would-be assassin and his escalating feud with Ghost? We got Sikora on the phone to talk Tommy’s mindset at the end of Season 5 — which is now available on Blu-ray and DVD — and how it sets the hotheaded drug dealer up for some “enlightenment opportunities” in the Starz series’ final run.

Related stories

Power to End After Super-Sized Season 6 — Find Out When It'll Premiere

Power Spinoffs Are in the Works — Which Characters Should They Follow?

TVLINE

| At the end of Season 5, Tommy shot Angela. When we talked with Courtney Kemp about it, she pointed out how this was not like Holly’s death, which he did in a moment of passion and then instantly felt terrible about. This was a calculated move against Ghost. So can you clear something up for me? He was aiming for Ghost when he hit Angela, right?
Yeah, absolutely.

TVLINE | In that moment, is he thinking, “Oh crap?” Or is he thinking, “OK, this is even better?”
Tommy’s never really been able to kill Ghost. He’s never really been able to take that shot. At the end of the day, his father really did break the rules. Even though Ghost manipulated him to make this murder happen, Tommy’s like this street referee. If you break the rules of the street, Tommy will make you pay for them. He’s made an allegiance toward that lifestyle, and he’s fully in, so in some ways Tommy was just like this is a tit for tat, Ghost has just got to go… I think that he probably had a sh–ty shot, but Angela almost killed — or she got herself shot, because we all know that she’s not dead. It’s very poetic, in a way, that she put herself in harm’s way… She literally put herself between Tommy and Ghost, and that got her a bullet to the chest.

What I tried to do in the reaction — it really wasn’t totally captured on camera — was the pressure, the revenge, but also the hesitation of killing Ghost. That thing that we know about Tommy is he can’t kill Ghost. It’s like the Harry Potter thing. I mean, Ghost is part of the horcrux of Tommy. Part of Tommy lives in Ghost, you know? [Laughs]

TVLINE | I feel like we’ve talked about this every single season, but I’m going to ask again: Do you think this is the event that’s going to change things once and for all between these two men? Is there any coming back from Tommy’s shooting Angela?
I think that it’s a culmination of things. Rather than these negative things being the thing that changes the relationship between Tommy and Ghost, it’s [an] awareness… that Tommy can do this life by himself.

… In very strong ways, his life is better without Ghost, so Tommy is actually trying to balance life without Ghost rather than the revenge. Even from Episode 1 [of Season 6], we’re going to see huge turns of both of these characters and enlightenment opportunities for both of them, which will kind of be Easter eggs for the rest of the season for these two guys.

TVLINE | You’ve shot all of Season 6?
Pretty much. We’re on Episode 14 of 15, and the table read for the 15th episode is next week, so we’re getting down to the final finals of it, yeah.

TVLINE

| The Tommy/Angela scenes were so much fun last season. Did you get a chance to work with Lela Loren in Season 6 as closely as you did last season?
I wouldn’t say necessarily that they work as closely, but I will say that that relationship between Tommy and Angela is every bit as important. And there’s glimpses of Tommy, who he was in the neighborhood to Angela and her family. There’s a little bit of backstory that we get in there.

TVLINE | [Series co-creator] 50 Cent directs an episode in the final season. What is he like as a director?
Yeah, Episode 3. He was fantastic. I feel like 50 did this to tackle something that maybe, he would never let on, but something that he was scared of. 50 Doesn’t necessarily know the technical jargon of directing, but he went to the Director’s Guild of America, took the directing classes. He’s been on set. And obviously, his body of work is far more immense than most people give him credit for… He is incredible at the storytelling, so he innately was able to talk to actors really well.

I’ve always had a good relationship with 50, and he’s always been accessible to me, to Omari [Hardwick], to Rotimi, to anybody who’s doing that street work on the show. Hey, if you have a question about thi,s talk to the man who lived the life! And he’s always been accessible. So him on set, he had really specific things in mind to tell me when I was with the gang, like when I was with my distributors, my primeras, when I was dealing with a woman, or like Lakeisha. He’s just like, “This woman wants everything you’ve got. She didn’t work for this. You’re going to give this to her? Okay, go ahead. Do it again.” [Laughs] He would give you these really great, specific directorial notes that were really effective. So I would be directed by 50 Cent again, for sure.

Sign up for TVLine's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.