This week's episode of Power slowed things down a bit from last week. Entitled "Why Is Tommy Still Alive?," the fourth episode of season 6 spends more time exploring the choices each character has made. Ghost spends the entire episode wrestling with himself due to a nagging Angela hallucination. It was only a matter of time before Angela Valdez made a return appearance to the show, right? Angela's spirit taunts Ghost and presents him with an interesting question. "Why is Tommy still alive?," she asks, menacingly and almost sneeringly in the process. Those five words resonate with Ghost for the entire episode, and indeed, so does the red-dress-wearing ghost of Angela.
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Ghost's answer to this question: head out to immediately attempt another kill on his former best friend. Using Councilman Tate to his advantage, Ghost shuts down a city block around Tommy's compound during peak drug dealing hours. That forces Tommy out of hiding, and he almost escapes in an ambulance before Ghost T-bones the vehicle. A shootout ensues, but Tommy escapes, just as Councilman Tate's payroll police break things up. Last week, Ghost was offering to team up with Tommy to kill Jason, but now we see that was a farce. Ghost appears to be just as determined as ever to kill Tommy. The one thing that may be able to bring these two back together, if only for a moment, will be Tariq.
Tariq is in over his head. After running out of pills, he decides to rob Tommy's compound. He then sells the pills to the Italians, but it isn't long before Tommy finds out. Vincent spill the info, and Tommy is up at Choate grabbing his pills back from Tariq, while 'Riq once again plays innocent-- it's a role his family and close friends accept easily from him, thus shutting down further inquiry. Now the young St. Patrick is out of product, and is pressured by Vincent to deliver more than was agreed upon originally, getting a small taste of what happens when things go wrong in this game.
Tommy, taksing Tariq at face value, is clearly very concerned when he learns that Ghost's son is selling drugs. This information will likely be passed onto Tasha, who will, in turn, inform Ghost of their son's behavior. It's possible that this will force Tasha, Tommy, and Ghost into a moment of ceasefire, which will allow them to focus on bigger problems at hand. Vincent, who explains his plan for the viewers at home, now has Tariq in his pocket, which means sooner or later Ghost will come knocking at his door. Will the next war play out with the Italians?
Ghost's most immediate threat, other than Vincent, is witness Maria Suarez. Dre manipulates both Saxe and Ghost in an effort to get his daughter back. He discerns the address of Saurez then leaks it to Ghost, while keeping Saxe in the loop. Ghost doesn't act as Dre expected though-- he instead offers Saurez a large sum of money and professes that he's changed his way, opting not to kill her. This leaves Saxe with more questions than answers. In desperation to get any info on Ghost, Saxe tries to acquire information from Lindsay, but Proctor's ex has little to give. After being questioned, Lindsay heads home to learn that she has failed the Bar Exam. Her plans to take custody of their daughter, Elisa Marie, is slipping through her fingers, and at the same time, Proctor regales her with a false story about a new lover. This sends Lindsay over the edge, and she relapses. In the presence of Proctor, and the wire Saxe hid in Elisa Marie's unicorn doll, Lindsay overdoses and dies while her ex lets it happen. Now, Proctor is on tape goading his ex as she dies. Yikes. Saxe will undoubtedly try to use this recording to leverage Proctor into betraying Ghost.
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Meanwhile, Tommy and Lakiesha play house with the former's mother, Kate. The topic of Holly is briefly touched on before being shut down, and later in the episode, we see Tommy creepily suggest that Lakiesha is all he has. This love story is heading for a horrible breakup once Lakiesha gets dragged further into the seedy underbelly of Tommy's life. The show keeps hinting that Lakiesha isn't fully ready to be a drug dealer's wife-- often pointing back to the fact that she has a young son whom she cares for above all else-- and Tommy's temper and disdain for any amount of disloyalty means he will not accept anything less than pure obedience from his woman. Lakiesha doesn't realize her life is in danger, and it's possible Kate's only purpose in this week's episode was to nonchalantly bring Holly up. Why? To remind us how vile Tommy can be.
Tasha has her own love story unfolding at the same time. She almost gives into sleeping with the father of one of the kids at her new daycare, but stops herself. Later, Ghost peeps game and realizes that Tasha has a new love interest. Tasha tries to push her new beau away, but he promises that he can handle whatever Ghost has to throw at him. Another naive Ghost hater joins the narrative, and it leaves us wondering if there's something more to this man that we've yet to unfold (what's his angle, exactly, to put it bluntly).
"Why Is Tommy Still Alive?" concludes with the two lovers that started this whole mess, Ghost and Angela. The latter's spirit reappears to play with Ghost's head. He pleads with her that he's changing, and the fact that he didn't kill Maria Saurez is proof. "You will," responds Angela unimpressed. She then leaves Ghost to torture himself with his own guilt, setting up an emotional breakdown for the protagonist next week.
