5 power-ups in Power Book II: Ghost S3

There’s never a dull minute in the Power universe. To go over the minutes from our last meeting in the Power Book II: Ghost Season 2 finale: Tariq’s (Michael Rainey Jr) murder trial was dismissed thanks to Brayden (Gianni Paolo), Tariq regained custody of his little sister Yasmine (Paris Morgan) and sent her to live in protective custody with his mom, Tasha (Naturi Naughton). Lorenzo’s (Berto Colon) daughter Diana (LaToya Tonodeo) exposed her stepmom Monet’s (Mary J Blige) affair with Mecca (Daniel Sunjata) at a Tejada family dinner, along with the fact that Zeke (Daniel Bellomy) is Mecca and Monet’s son, not Monet’s nephew. Lorenzo accidentally killed Zeke, Monet deliberately killed Mecca, and Effie (Alix Lapri) supposedly killed Lauren (Paige Hurd) for recording one of Cane (Woody McClain), Brayden, and Tariq’s drugs deals.  

And what did you do with your last 60 minutes? 

Now there’s a new season of Power. Like any dealer worth their game, we performed a quality check, and we can confirm that this is premium quality, uncut entertainment. Don’t believe us? Here are five hits from Power Book II: Ghost Season 3. 

Binge Power Book II: Ghost S3 now. 

Watch the trailer for Power Book II: Ghost S3

1. Plate spinning 

While the main story of the Power Book II: Ghost series centres on showing how Tariq St Patrick slowly finds out that not even patricide will help him to escape his father Ghost’s (Omari Hardwick) shadow, that’s never the only thing happening. At any given moment there are at least six different schemes and plots on the go, many of them stretching back multiple seasons and across Power’s original show and three spinoff series. We don’t just focus on what Tariq wants, we see what everyone around him wants, and how he navigates and trips through that web of conflicting desires, histories and betrayals – some known to him, and some hidden – and how he uses the web to pull some strings. Like the mean streets, Power never forgets a grudge. And by episode 5 this season, lies will be exposed left and right with terrible (but entertaining) consequences.  

2. The queenpins 

In Power Book II: Ghost, women are the major players in the underworld. As Season 3 begins, a “new” player enters steps on the board – Mecca’s boss and ex-fiancée Noma (Caroline Chikezie). She’s there to make Tariq, Cane, Effie and Brayden sell the drugs that Mecca still had on his hands before he died. Speaking of hands, Noma, a Nigerian orphan adopted by British gangsters, is the kind of lady to give a machete manicure to someone she spots wearing her stolen ring (and just wait till you find out who was responsible for that ring going to auction). When Noma wants what’s hers, she will ask nicely once. No refusals will be considered. But her unpredictable extreme violence could unseat her from her throne after she lashes out at one of her most trusted allies.  

3. Mission Impossible: Italy 

This season we get a spy-style jaunt in episode 6 when Tariq, Brayden, Keke (Moriah Brown) and Effie have to fly out to Italy to close a business deal for Brayden’s family firm, Weston Holdings, on behalf of billionaire RSJ (Gbenga Akinnagbe). But while Tariq is romancing Effie with dinner Italian style, Noma interrupts to demand that they steal back a listening device that Mecca planted in an apartment belonging to her ex and babydaddy, Francheska Lombardi (Anthony Alessandro). In true spy action film style, they have the perfect cover, because Francheska is throwing a posh party. Their mission (they have no choice about whether to accept it) is to scam an invitation, get in, get the goods, and get out without anyone getting caught and questioned. Will there be a perilous mess-up? You bet your trust fund, baby! 

4. Tommy’s return  

In Power Book II: Ghost Season 1, Tasha framed Ghost’s street brother and right-hand-man Tommy Egan (Joseph Sikora) for Ghost’s murder to cover up Tariq’s crime, making Tommy an FBI target. But after Tariq helped Tommy to fake his own death, Tommy walked away, promising Tariq that he’d never see him again. Soooo, what’s he doing in Tariq’s neck of the woods in Season 3, episode 9?  

When defence attorney and FBI-snitch lawyer Cooper Saxe (Shane Johnson, who’s been part of the Power universe since Power Season 1) sends out incriminating letters to a whole bunch of people who Tariq and Tasha have double crossed over the years, he rings Tommy’s bell by revealing that Tasha killed Tommy’s fiancée LaKeisha (La La Anthony) back in Power Season 6. Grab your popcorn, because Tommy is coming to settle the score.  

PS: According to Joseph, these events take place chronologically close to the end of the first season of Tommy’s Power spinoff series, Force.  

5. Ghost & Tommy, part II 

Power Book II: Ghost has slowly been building up a mirror of Tommy and Ghost’s old brotherhood in the dynamic between Tariq and his former boarding school roommate, Brayden Weston. While Ghost and Tommy came up on the streets together, Tariq and Brayden were born into wealth and privilege, and it’s fascinating to see how this has shaded their approach to the underworld, and to the idea of loyalty.  

Whether you’re a street rat or a prince, though, when you have a target on your back, you learn to stick close to the handful of people who really know you. Last season Brayden pushed his uncle Lucas (David Walton) – a mentor to both himself and Tariq – over a balcony for stealing from Tariq’s trust fund and trying to frame the Weston family. And in the season finale, he gave up his future at Stansfield University to get Tariq off the hook in court. This season, when Tariq is facing certain death, Brayden will cross the last boundary he seems to have to save his friend-turned-brother. That kind of loyalty can’t be bought, especially in the piranha pool of the super-rich.  

Power really knows how to crank up the tension and twist a plot. No wonder we’re welcoming back our favourite streaming addiction. Binge Power Book II: Ghost S3 now.