Power seasons 1 and 2 recap with Sunshine

When Game of Thrones was popping last summer, Power was also the talk of the town during its fourth season run. Since its premiere in 2014, the 50 Cent produced drama series has increased in ratings as more people become drawn to the crime underworld of the big, rich town. Power returns this Sunday with its 5th season. Because it’s been a while since we’ve seen Ghost, Tommy, Angie and the rest, my wonderful girlfriend and I here to bring you up to speed on all that’s happened. 

Season 1  

Power follows James “Ghost” St. Patrick, a drug dealer who aspires to leave the drug game and fully invest in his career as a New York nightclub owner. Unfortunately, this is a desire that nobody in his life shares with him. The closest to him being his wife Tasha, who is the mother of his three kids and has been down since Day 1, and his best friend and drug dealing partner, Tommy. 

Throughout the series nobody appears more determined to keep Ghost as a drug dealer than his own wife Tasha. She sees Ghost as the biggest drug dealer in N.Y. and nothing else, and she intends to keep it that way. Honestly, if she wasn’t this way, maybe I’d be more supportive of their marriage. From their very first interaction we can see that Ghost is not that into Tasha.

Tasha: “Tell me I’m beautiful”

Ghost: “You know you are”

And that was that. For the rest of the night, Ghost proceeded to ignore Tasha as she did everything she could to get his attention. Even in their intimate moments he has his mind on other things. With all that said there is little reason to be invested in their relationship or believe it’s rooted in anything beyond the grit and glamor of the drug game.

One night Ghost sees his high school sweetheart, Angela Valdes, and he falls in love with her all over again. To Ghost, Angie represents the life he wants to live. Because unlike Tasha, she sees a lot of potential in him *rolls eyes* *throw up emoji*. It’s sad seeing Ghost trick himself into believing he can live a life he can’t have. And this is made even more impossible in the fact that Angie is a U.S. attorney. So throughout the whole show they play a Cat and Mouse game while carrying on a liaison that gets them both out of focus. They both have their heads so far up each other’s asses that they can’t see anything in front of them.   

Meanwhile while all of this is blossoming, Tommy begins a relationship Tommy with Holly, a bottle service girl at Ghost’s nightclub Truth. She stops working there once they’re together and personally, I don’t like this because at any moment things could go wrong and she’s not going to have any money. Luckily, Tommy is head over heels for Holly, so she’s secured.

On the business side of things, somebody robs Ghost’s people during a supply shipment and Ghost tries to figure out who it is. To further add to his worries, a pink sneaker donning assassin is making hits on some of the turf leaders, and everyone is suspicious as to who she is and who she works for. 

Ghost seeks guidance from Kanan, his former mentor who is days away from finishing his jail sentence. It turns out that the assassin is working for Kanan, who plans to have Ghost killed by the time he’s out of jail so that he can take back his spot as the top drug dealer.   

In the season finale the assassin fails to kill Ghost in his nightclub, but instead shoots Holly who reveals that she knows about Ghost’s double life. 

Season 2

Kanan is back on the street and he’s bent on revenge. Because Ghost wasn’t killed, he decides his best course of action is to sabotage Ghost’s operation from the inside. Kanan quickly becomes my favorite character, not only because he’s badass, he’s the most consistent character. There’s no love interest that causes him to lose focus (although he unsuccessfully tries to get with Tasha). He sticks to the plan and will eliminate anybody who threatens or gets in the way. 

One of my favorite Kanan moments is when he cuts off a guy’s tongue, literally duct tapes it to his hand, stuffs him in the trunk of a car, and has Dre—Kanan’s newest mentee—kill him as part of a lesson in keeping his men in line. Let me paint the picture again: this guy was running his mouth, so Kanan cut his tongue off and made him hold it to teach him a lesson in holding his tongue. He turned an expression into a literal demise. What a boss. 

Anyways, Kanan’s son, Shawn, is Ghost’s driver and secretly a mole for Kanan, however Shawn doesn’t know this. It could be because he’s too busy creeping with Tasha to realize anything. That’s right, Tasha is having an affair as well. Towards the end of season 1 Shawn tells her about Ghost and Angie and she sees them for herself. She confronts Ghost and tells him to shut it down, and he said he did, but in actuality he did not.

In fact, he and Angela go on a vacation to Miami. It’s really a business trip for Ghost, but he invites Angie and they live it up as if they are a couple. They even go as far as referring to Angie as Mrs. St. Patrick, which pretty much does it for me. He has a whole wife and children, told that same wife that this affair was over and now is on vacay with his side piece? Yepp, he’s trash. Throw him away.

During that vacay Ghost confronts the assassin but is unable to really talk to her because Dre kills her before Ghost can reach her. In her dying words she leads Ghost to suspect that Kanan was behind the hits and he’s out to get him. 

Angela finds out Ghost and Jamie are the same person...does she do anything with this? Not really! She just tries her best to not believe it. At the same time, her department gets wind of Ghost and try to bring him and Lobos, Ghost’s supplier, down. The most zealous one in Angie’s department is Greg Knox, Angie’s jealous  ex-boyfriend who discovers that she’s with Ghost and vies to bring them both to justice. 

Meanwhile Tommy is conflicted because as Holly tries to get involved in the business, she makes Tommy choose between her and Ghost. Ghost sees that Holly is a threat and tries to pay her to leave without a trace. Tommy finds out about this when Holly returns and he unfriends Ghost for a while. 

Things are lowly unraveling for the worst in Ghost’s personal life but he is convinced that he has things under control. Tasha wants answers (why Angie?) This is a GREAT question. Not really great, but very interesting. You want to know why your husband/boyfriend/ lover/ spouse/partner chose this person. What about this person is SOOO great that you would throw away everything we’ve built with no regrets and no turning back? For me this would be an emotional scene. Like how could you? Why would you?

She initially wants a divorce, but her mom slaps some sense in her. She has no money, no job and no place to go. Shawn tells her that they can leave with the kids and start a new life together, but those plans are soon foiled. Shawn, in his infinite naivety confronts Ghosts with the intent to kill him as part of Kanan’s plan. 

Instead he nearly gets himself killed and Ghost spares his life. Shawn then confronts Kanan after learning that he was being used this whole time. Kanan, not being as compassionate as Ghost, kills his own son and he and Ghost duke it out. Ghost emerges as the victor and leaves Kanan to die in a burning building, however, it is revealed that he managed to escape.