Hi, my name is Whitney Evans. I am a diehard Power Universe lover and defender. And I’ve been living in denial.
Not about the series ending, but about what’s been slowly building all season and finally looks poised to boil over in the final hours.
I’ve known this day could come, but I’ve been ignoring it as much as possible, and we’ve finally reached a point where it can no longer be ignored. Tommy Egan is dangerously close to getting outsmarted, and he’ll have no one to blame but himself.
Tommy has always been a fearless, cocky hothead with an incredibly high street IG, and we’ve seen that even more during Power Book IV: Force since he’s all alone.
Him, Ghost, and Kanan grew up on the streets and perfected the art of drug dealing, and to reach the heights they all reached at different points, there’s a certain amount of bravado and grandstanding one must possess.
How many times did we see Ghost act like a complete ass because he knew he was more intelligent than everyone around him, and ultimately, he was going to get his way, even if he had to get there in a roundabout way.
Tommy has always been the same exact way, and you don’t come into a brand new city and take over the way Tommy has without believing in yourself and having the gumption to make sure everyone knows just who the hell you are.
From the jump, Tommy’s been putting his stamp on Chicago, and in doing so, he’s made plenty of enemies, but he’s also found allies as well, namely Diamond.
The two have had a bumpy road at times, but they have the same bottom line, and that common goal has gotten them to a place where they’re so close to getting everything they ever wanted.
But there’s a significant fracture there now, and I’m not sure Tommy sees it yet.
In fact, I know Tommy doesn’t see it yet.
Tommy and Diamond were never going to be Ghost and Tommy because they don’t have that history. Their personalities work well together, and their strengths balance out the others’ weaknesses. Still, there has never been that innate level of understanding that Ghost and Tommy had, especially in the early days.
While they’re partners, Tommy is definitely more of the leader of the pair, and Diamond has seemed content to sit back at times because he sees the bigger picture. He recognizes they’re stronger together than as adversaries.
But he’s spent the last few hours letting the number one Tommy Egan anti get in his head, and I’m afraid Jenard may have turned him into a believer.
I don’t dislike Jenard, but he’s a frustrating character to root for, and he’s been nothing but jealous of Tommy since he met him. He has steadily refused to see how Tommy could benefit him. Still, I did lowkey understand why he was mad at Diamond for letting Tommy have his way with the guns, even if it was to the coalition’s benefit.
Diamond and Jenard were the ones who made that score, and Jenard having no say in the spoils of his labor made perfect sense.
I’d be pissed off too, because Diamond DOES prioritize Tommy over everyone else when it comes to business. But is he wrong?
One could argue Tommy doesn’t show him the same courtesy. However, you could also argue that Diamond doesn’t have that inherent need to loudly be at the top of the food chain and instead prefers to keep the peace and reap the rewards.
Always stay gracious, best revenge is your paper, or whatever Beyonce said that one time.
But the Tommy propaganda has finally infiltrated Diamond, and it took him about three seconds to go for Jenard’s idea to get into the fentanyl business behind Tommy’s back, AND beat up poor Big Smurf for no reason.
Diamond is playing directly into Jenard’s hands, slowly creating a rift between the partners. Though Tommy deserves some of the blame as well, because he continues to keep Diamond at arm’s length, and if given the chance to assert himself as head alpha, he doesn’t know how not to take it.
They’ve been setting the stage for Jenard to relapse, and I hope that doesn’t happen, but his working so closely with the fentanyl has bad news written all over it. As does the powers that be eventually finding out it was D-Mac and Marshall who ripped them off earlier this season.
That deal will likely blow up in their faces somehow, and even if Tommy comes in to save the day, hasn’t the damage been done?
Diamond taking that meeting alone and even puppeteering the coalition to vote in his favor feels like something Tommy will be unlikely to forgive.
Kind of like how Shanti is unlikely to forgive Jenard now that she knows the truth about Che.
In another life, Tommy and Shanti were business partners, running Chicago with a formidable one-two punch, but sadly, that was never meant to be.
One of my favorite scenes of the hour may have been Jenard walking in on the two smoking and looking hella annoyed and jealous. Tommy truly gets under his skin in a way perhaps no one else ever could.
And Shanti’s currently playing everything right. She’s putting distance between herself and Jenard because she knows he’s not fully committed to her, and she’s making sure she has other options.
Jenard needs to admit he’s not going to drop Diamond. Especially not when he’s getting the Diamond he’s been wanting to come back since he left jail.
Shanti’s silent treatment was cold, and you know she was calculating her next move, and if she is as smart as I believe her to be, she’ll stop her Tommy vendetta and accept that she has a better chance of working with him and being valued over ever trying to get between the Sampson brothers.
There may have been a time when Jenard would have chosen Shanti, and while I do think there’s a form of love between the pair, it’s not enough for them to fully commit to one another and their partnership.
They were bonded by attraction and ambition, but that initial spark is flaming out quickly, and Jenard’s meeting with Che, the very thing she’s been working toward, may have extinguished that flame for good.
And I love that, as we get closer and closer to the end, everyone’s relationships are hitting this crescendo, whether in a positive or negative direction, because it means there’s going to be some kind of fallout.
Every single dynamic on this show is currently in motion, and all the characters are active participants in their storylines, not just sitting around.
Like Tommy and Mireya, for instance, they’re in a positive place right now, happy about the pregnancy, but it feels like it’s all smoke and mirrors because the same problems they’ve always had are still there, lurking under the surface.
Mireya is still caught between her brother and her boyfriend, and I don’t care that Miguel essentially sacrificed himself for Tommy in the final minutes of the hour, because I fully expect him to talk his way out of death and continue to plot Tommy’s demise.
It’s hard to see a world in which the two men come to a fundamental understanding, no matter how hard Mireya pushes them to put her above their vendetta. They’ve each built factions that can’t coexist peacefully, and thus, they can’t both be successful in the way they want with the other around.
If I had a crystal ball about where this story will likely go, I don’t see how this series could end with both men alive. It’s hard to see the story end with these two ever coexisting respectfully in Chicago.
And I would also say the same for Vic and Tommy.
Tommy, in all his bitchy glory, reminded both Vic and me that after only a couple of hours in Chicago, he already had Vic’s girl, and I know that’s something Vic took personally.
It’s feeling more and more likely that Tommy’s decision to keep Vic alive will backfire, and even if I think Vic is like the least deserving person to beat Tommy in any way, I’d have to accept it because Tommy’s doing WAY too much when it comes to him.
Belittling that grown man every three seconds is not a wise business decision, and he lets his Vic disdain blind him from the fact that he’s still a Flynn and that name does mean something in Chicago.
Would I put my money on Vic outsmarting Tommy? No. But Tommy has a blind spot for Vic and what he’s capable of, just as he’s starting to have one for Stacy, Jenard, Shanti, Miguel, and now Diamond.
In many ways, it has always been Tommy Egan against the world, but damn. This may be the first time I’ve ever not liked his chances.
Everything Else You Need To Know
- Sorry, but what is this D-Mac and Genesis story about? Usually, when we see her, she can’t be bothered with D-Mac, but now they’re in love? I am not buying what they’re selling whatsoever.
- Stacy and Tseng playing one another is lowkey funny because you can tell they’re both a little bit confused.
- Speaking of Stacy, her decline needs to be studied. She went from trying to weed out corruption in the police department, causing a rift in her own marriage, to helping frame a man for murder. And isn’t that the price of power?
- I’m still waiting for Kate to emerge. I will not be happy if we don’t see a conversation between mother and son.
- I don’t want anything to happen to Mireya or her and Tommy’s baby, but they need to have some serious conversations about what their future actually looks like. Are they going to bring that baby into the loft? I have so many questions.
This hour was fun from start to finish, and even more than that, it was balanced and did a lot for EVERYONE’S stories.
With four hours left, they’re setting everything up nicely, and I don’t know what’s going to happen, but after this hour, I’ve never been more excited to see what tricks they’ve got up their sleeves.
As always, leave all your comments below so we can discuss! I know you’ve got thoughts, so let them out!
You can watch Power Book IV: Force on Fridays at 9/8c in the U.S. and Canada on the STARZ linear platform, and new episodes will be available to stream weekly on Fridays on the STARZ app, all STARZ streaming and on-demand platforms.
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