‘Power Book II: Ghost’: No More Second Chances In Season 3, Episode 5

(WARNING: Spoilers for this week’s Power Book II: Ghost episode will be found below.)

Everything is falling into place for the gang of young drug dealing on Power Book II: Ghost. Tariq, Brayden, Effie, and the Tejadas’ collective effort to move Noma’s drugs started off with a few issues, but thanks to some threats from her associate and some quick thinking, they were able to get the ball rolling and get some cash coming in. This is Power though, where nothing goes smoothly for too long. By the end of episode four, Cane and Lorenzo had successfully escaped an ambush of gunshots thanks to some backup help from Dru and Gordo. Outside of that, we see Tariq make some big moves at Weston Holdings which makes him more valueable to the company and business names like Ron Samuel Jenkins, aka RSJ. Effie struggles with the decision to tell Tariq the truth or keep up her lie, Diana can’t seem to break free from a family that doesn’t want her, and Cane finally ends his power trip with Lorenzo.

In the fifth episode of Power Book II: Ghost season three, titled “No More Second Chances,” the main cast takes a break from the New York life for a sweet trip to Italy for a Weston Holdings business trip. During that trip, RSJ plans to lock in a deal with an Italian tech company and he’s bringing Tariq, Brayden, and Kiki to help him get it done. What was supposed to be a break from the NY drug and street life, quickly turned into a 2-in-1 business trip as Noma and her associate surprise Tariq and Effie, who tagged along, during their romantic dinner. Noma asks them to retrieve a listening device that was planted by Mecca in the mansion of Francesco Lombardi, an oil giant in Italy. They accept the task and enlist Brayden to complete the mission. Unfortunately, things take a big turn when he’s caught and kidnapped under the suspicion that he’s working for one of Lombardi’s enemies. Brayden is eventually rescued and Lombardi is also killed after they lure him into Noma’s trap (and her gun’s line of fire).

This week’s episode was a fairly eventful one because we also see Dru and Gordo save their families after learning that one of the people they shot at in episode four was an undercover informant. Lorenzo also finally comes clean to Monet about killing Zeke, and though he hoped she’d somewhat understand, Monet kicked him out of the house and had him killed. Oh, and Kiki seems to be catching on to what Brayden and Tariq are doing behind closed doors at Weston Holdings.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways that we have after season three’s fifth episode, “No More Second Chances”:

We knew this moment would come. After five episodes, Tariq finally learns that Lauren is still alive after she surprises him during a late-night visit to Stansfield. It’s the snowball effect of Saxe following Jenny Sullivan to the house, where she kept Lauren, and him learning that Lauren was indeed alive. Lauren confronts Tariq about allegedly having her killed, but Tariq denies knowing Effie’s attempt to kill her, and despite her initial doubts, Lauren eventually believes her. Tariq then returns to his bed, all to keep a fake smile on his face as Effie lays next to him. Tariq swore that he wouldn’t tell anyone of Lauren’s newly-discovered whereabouts, but one thing we can know for sure is that his trust in his inner circle is gone. Brayden was supposed to help Lauren escape, but something happened along the way that allowed Effie to get her hands on Lauren. Brayden didn’t tell him the truth and Effie didn’t either, instead, they watched him grieve the “loss” of someone he loved. The thing is, his lost trust in the group couldn’t come at a worse time. Noma plans to increase the amount of product they’re supposed to move while Lauren’s confirmation that the feds are building a case against him and others means trouble could arrive sooner than later. It’s a terrible time for Tariq to lose trust in his crew.

Lorenzo finally came clean to Monet and confessed that he was the one who killed Zeke. He tried to explain it was an accident, and though Monet seems to believe him, her anger doesn’t make that clear. Furthermore, she’s upset that Lorenzo said nothing while he watched her grieve about Zeke and search for his killer. Monet later told Gordo’s family that his father Frank was killed by Lorenzo, and in return, Gordo took it upon himself to kill Lorenzo. Though Lorenzo accidentally killed Zeke, Effie intentionally sought to kill Lauren, and though she failed to do so, the intention is what matters here. Now that Tariq knows Effie tried to kill Lauren, it’s expected that Effie will face some type of consequence(s) from him. Though Tariq probably won’t kill her, his retaliation may be devastating in a different way. We know Effie needs to be in the operation with Tariq, Brayden, and the rest of them to make enough money to push her through Stansfield and grad school. If Tariq cuts her out of that circle, it’ll get harder for her to reach that goal. It’s not death, but it’ll be a deadly enough blow to Effie and her goals. It’s not death for her life, but it’s death for her future which is next in line as one of the worst things for her to deal with.

Monet’s decision to have Lorenzo killed will tear the Tejadas apart, there’s no question about it when you look at the relationship the kids had with Lorenzo. Diana was his baby girl who trusted her father to support her dreams of making it through college and creating a name for herself. Dru was his right hand and next in line to take over the family business. Dru also looked up to his father and learned his ways from him. Lastly, Cane wanted to be his father so much that he despised him for a long time for not letting him show that he could be like his dad. After letting their differences live for so long, Cane finally put them aside for a more peaceful relationship with his father, unfortunately, it didn’t get to last that long. With Lorenzo’s absence, the kids will find it hard to stick together and move forward, especially if they find out that Monet was connected to it. What makes things worse is that Cane knew for a while that Lorenzo killed Zeke, so if that information gets out, whatever trust is left within the family will go away. Yes, those are some big ifs, so we’ll dial it back to what we know. The Tejadas already had to say goodbye to Zeke and now they have to do the same with Lorenzo. Two losses in the family are a lot within a short period of time, so it’s safe to say that they’ll never be the same after this episode.

Tariq, Effie, Brayden, and the Tejadas have plenty of people targeting them this season on Power Book II: Ghost. There was Detective Whitman, who was deadset on proving Monet killed Carrie Milgram, as well as any other crimes he could think of, but he was shot and killed “in self-defense” by Monet after he broke into her house. However, he was working with Jenny Sullivan and Sergent Blanca Rodriguez on a RICO case with Monet and Tariq as the alleged kingpins. That case against them seems to improve by the second. Lauren was somewhat of a help to Sullivan as her confidential informant, but Lauren may not provide any more help to them going forward. With all that in mind, there may be a new wild card in play against Tariq, Effie, Brayden, and the Tejadas: Kiki. Yup, that’s right. Prior to their flight to Italy, Kiki discovers Brayden’s phone and learns that he is the one behind the CrashCoin currency. The surprised look on her face lets us know that she put some pieces of the puzzle together. We’ve known Kiki to be one who is in favor of what is morally correct. She loved when Brayden got his co-worker fired for mistreating her and she hated when Brayden’s uncle employed Tariq for a meeting with RSJ just to have a Black person present. So we can assume she won’t be a fan of CrashCoin’s true purpose if/when she finds that out, but what we can’t assume is that she will look out for Tariq and Brayden to keep them out of trouble.

New episodes of ‘Power Book II: Ghost’ are available on the STARZ app on Fridays at 12:00 am EST and on the STARZ TV channel at 8:00 pm EST.