It’s all about Tommy in Power Book IV: Force

New York is old news. Chicago, look out! Tough guy Tommy Egan (Joseph Sikora) – the former red right hand of drug kingpin and wannabe club owner James “Ghost” St Patrick (Omari Hardwick) in the series Power – is striking out on his own. But while Power’s fan-favourite bad boy has grand plans, he won’t fly solo in his quest to build his own crime empire in Chicago. Lone wolves don’t last long on the street. You need a pack.

Watch the trailer for Power Book IV: Force Season 1

Making friends, influencing people

Loyalty is one of the key ways that Tommy defines himself as a man, along with following the criminal code of honour. Power detailed the breakdown of the brotherhood between childhood friends Ghost and Tommy the way you’d dig into a bitter divorce in which there’s still love, but loyalty has been shattered. Now in Chicago, Tommy needs to build that blood-deep loyalty again, on his own terms.

While he’s the same old Tommy – short-tempered, swaggering, smart-mouthed, violent and impulsive – in Power: Force Tommy has a chance to become king of the streets himself. He has a lifetime of hard-won experience, street smarts that amount to genius, and he’s free to build his network without having to deal with a city full of enemies he’s made along the way.

Tommy hasn’t grown up with Chicago’s North Side vs South Side divide between race and class, which puts him in a unique position to make allies as he pleases, and with that in his pocket he can draw on resources that aren’t available to either side, starting with family.

Brothers and found/stolen family

Tommy has the option to build a blood family with his own older half-brother, JP Gibbs (Anthony Fleming III), a struggling club owner who was abandoned as a baby by Tommy’s mom, Kate Egan (Patricia Kalember). Tommy starts building the relationship with two things JP doesn’t see a lot of: financial aid and honesty. And with JP starving to understand who his mother is, Tommy’s just the man to give him the full, unvarnished picture. But exploring a relationship with JP inevitably brings Tommy back into the orbit of Kate and her knack for absolute chaos and destruction.

Tommy’s other option for brotherhood comes in the form of soft-spoken crime boss David "Diamond" Sampson (Isaac Keys), who’s just out of prison. Diamond soon owes Tommy a life debt after Tommy saves his brother Jenard (Kris D Lofton) and wins the respect of his gang, CBI (Chicago Brothers Incorporated). As an ally, Diamond could bring a new perspective to Tommy’s game. Former CBI boss Diamond has spent his 15 years behind bars not just cutting hair, but swotting up on history, literature and philosophy.

He has that big-picture focus of what motivates people and how you can turn history that Tommy lacks. Jenard has been running CBI in his absence, but he’s not in Tommy or Diamond’s fighting class. And when Jenard doesn’t want to hand the reins back to his big brother, Tommy could turn their sibling rivalry to his advantage.

Tommy’s actions in the first episode also introduce him to the city’s other most powerful drug family, the Flynns. Tommy saves Vic Flynn (Shane Harper), the son of Flynn family head Walter Flynn (Tommy Flanagan), and connects with Walter’s beautiful daughter, Claudia (Lili Simmons), who’s pulling at the leash thanks to Walter shutting her out of the Flynn underworld business for “you’re just a girl” reasons. Sharp-eyed Walter might want a player like Tommy off his turf, but Tommy looks set to make himself at home and steal Walter’s assets, one by one, starting with Claudia.

The same way that Tommy has no use for racism, he’s also no stranger to respecting women’s abilities to lead crime families. And that could come in handy because there’s an old associate from New York for Tommy to flip a coin on, too. Liliana (Audrey Esparza), Ghost and Tommy’s courier before the assassin “Pink Sneakers” slashed up her face, is looking to start over in Chicago. Could she become the “brother” Tommy is really looking for?

Tommy is a ride-or-die by nature, and in Power: Force he gets to choose who rides with him in his classic blue Mustang muscle car ... and who gets to call shotgun.

The Powerhouse

Power creator-producer Courtney A Kemp has been working hand-in-hand with her co-producers, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Mark Canton, to create the Power universe of interlinking stories and characters across four series now:

Power

Over the course of six seasons, crime drama series Power tells the story of James “Ghost” St Patrick’s (Omari Hardwick) efforts to leave behind his violent criminal empire network of drug dealers and street enforcers, and go straight as a nightclub kingpin instead. But between the trail of blood he’s left behind him, his strained marriage with wife Tasha (Naturi Naughton) and son and heir Tariq (Michael Rainey Jr), the reemergence of his ex-love turned FBI agent Angie (Lela Loren), his old mentor-turned-frenemy Kanan Stark (50 Cent) muscling in on his territory, and reckless Tommy (Ghosts’s most loyal brother from the streets) slowly seeing less of a place for himself in Ghost’s new life, it’s as messy as a three-day music festival mud field.

Watch Power seasons 1-6 on Showmax now

Power Book II: Ghost

Tariq and Tasha’s story continues as Ghost follows Tariq’s efforts to escape his father’s legacy, while using his street know-how to pay for his and Tasha’s legal fees, and for Tariq’s ongoing university education. In the series Tasha frames Tommy for a key murder that Tariq committed, making him an FBI target, but Tariq helps Tommy to fake his own death. After seeing his godson Tariq being a chip off the old block by demonstrating the same kind of forethought that Ghost did, Tommy gives him respect and walks away, promising Tariq that he’ll never see him again – and keeping his own final promise to Ghost.

Power Book III: Raising Kanan

This prequel series reveals how the young Kanan (Mekai Curtis) got into the drug game during the 1990s and his family tries within the business. To date the series hasn’t brought in Kanan’s dealings with Ghost and Tommy.

Watch Power Book III: Raising Kanan season 1 on Showmax now