Power made its season premiere last night. When we left the titular anti-hero James “Ghost” St. Patrick at the end of Season 3, he had defeated the cannibal gangster Milan, but the victory was short lived. Moments later he was placed under arrest by his paramour and special agent Angela Valdez for the murder of FBI Agent Greg Knox. The irony is not lost here. Ghost has killed with impunity over three seasons and gets pinched for the one crime he actually did not commit. Adding injury to insult, unbeknownst to Ghost, his son Tariq is in peril from the likes of Kanan – who just doesn’t seem to go away.
The episode entitled “When I Get Out” picks up with Ghost in police processing right after his arrest. His phone rings while turning in his possessions and he sees its his wife Tasha, but can’t reply – Ghost hasn’t gotten that one phone call yet! Cut to Tommy, who notifies LaKeisha the coast his clear. Milan is dead and she is safe. LaKeisha’s alive!!! We swore Tommy offed her last season. Shortly after, Tommy gets word Tariq is missing and Ghost has been arrested, so Tommy’s got a short-lived victory as well. But he’s now on the Tariq and Ghost cases. The pity party ends with a look at Angela Valdez back at her crib, tying one on. Guess victory wasn’t so satisfying for her either. Well at least we have the trifecta now.
Cue to Ghost’s attorney Joseph Proctor (Jerry Ferrara making a brief appearance in Turtle garb), who’s got some own issues going in on in the domestic realm. Ghost contacts Proctor whose also on the case now and calms down the St. Patrick clan.
Your Missions Should You Choose to Accept Them
Back at Kanan’s lair, Dre renegotiates for Tariq’s freedom to the tune of a $45K weekly vig. How’s Dre going to raise $45K a week??? Good question. With some smooth talking by Kanan, Tariq is none the wiser of what could have been his fate. Kanan even gets Tariq to cover his tracks for him. Poor kid, hard to believe he’s Ghost’s offspring, but he plays it off to Tasha. Tommy’s not buying any of it though and calls bullshit on Dre.
Speaking of Ghost, he gets to see Proctor and it’s time to strategize. Not a whole lot of good news, tons of DNA evidence tying Ghost to the scene of the crime. Proctor’s immediate advice to Ghost is to play well with others, be an upstanding citizen behind bars so as not to jeopardize bail. For Tasha – get two million in bail money – clean bail money.
Tasha’s assignment is not going well. Seems Ghost liquidated many of their clean assets and there isn’t enough to meet bail. Couple this with the Fed’s raiding the place with a search warrant led by none other than Angela herself. Yet, Tasha does manage to get her verbal jabs in. Angela’s tactic blows up in her face. As far as Ghost’s assignment, thats not going so well either. The prison guards have it out for Ghost, turns out even alleged cop-killers are not popular in prison (but more on this later). This with other inmates sizing him up and the confined quarters – looks like it’s going to be a long haul for Ghost.
Don’t Quit Your Day Job
Tommy is taken off of Ghost and Tariq related matters to tend to his day job and has to reassure his troops that with Ghost in the clink it’s still business as usual. Julio gets a bump running distribution or as its known in crime parlance – distro. Which from Dre’s face he’s none too happy with.
New character alert, Tony, inside life criminal, is being leveraged by a sharp new Eastern District Assistant U.S. Attorney named John Mak (played by Sung Kang better known as Han from the Fast & Furious franchise). Not sure how this plays out, but safe bet Ghost will be intertwined into this storyline in some form or fashion.
Joe Proctor makes an outside the lines pitch to Angela Valdez for a deal, without much success, when Mak enters to call out Proctor with some great color commentary. The attorney water cooler get together eventually ends with Mak being assigned to the St. Patrick case.
Dean & Junior Mafia
Tasha meets with Ghost in prison to let him know she can’t raise the two million for bail, when Ghost has a lightbulb moment – Dean. After Tasha conclaves with Tommy they realize Dean is the security service (Milan’s security service) Ghost used for protection. With Milan gone they can request the money back and it’s a clean reimbursement. With some finagling by Tommy to his new superiors, the check is cut.
Julio and Dre meet up where Julio strong arms him into hiring his latest squeeze. Not off to good start between these two. This seems like the beginning of something that won’t end well. Dre snitches to Tommy who asks why he didn’t become distro. To wit Tommy asks about the circumstances surrounding Tariq’s release, when Dre gives a half-assed answer you know exactly why Julio got the bump over Dre.
Will They Get Out
At the bail hearing Proctor and Mak spar about Ghost’s release. Just when it looks like Proctor will save the day, Mak sways the judge by pointing out the severity of the offense – bail denied. Looks like Ghost won’t be getting out anytime soon. Cue to Dre meeting with Kanan and handing him the first of many payments on the vig. Looks like Dre also won’t be getting out any time soon.
Tasha returns to her home in shambles resulting from the FBI raid and Ghost is on the receiving end of a beat down from prison guards. Quite symbolic for how upside down the St. Patrick’s world has become. Clearly, the ground work for this season has been laid with “When I Get Out” – no one is getting out any time soon. Ghost from prison, Dre from under the thumb Kanan or Angela from the specter of the mess she helped orchestrate. The irony is that they only one who doesn’t want out is Tommy, who is right where he’s always wanted to be.
Episode Highlights
During the FBI raid Angela notes that Ghost was sleeping in the office, and not in Tasha’s bed, Mrs. St. Patrick shoots back, “I was worried he might transfer bed bugs from your place.”
LaKeisha lives (and we get more screen time for LaLa Anthony).
Charlie Murphy with a brief, but memorable posthumous cameo.