Power season 4 episode 6 review: Did Kanan, Jukebox kill Tariq?
In the closing minutes of “New Man” was the culmination of the long-simmering storyline between Kanan, Tariq, and Ghost, and it ended in a very different sort of way than we expected it would: Kanan killing Jukebox rather than allowing her to kill either Tariq or Ghost. We wondered if this was a guy who could be redeemed, and we do still wonder that. We don’t think that he is a model citizen by any means, but he showed that there is an essence of love that he has for other people. Maybe he started off the mission with Tariq thinking that he would be able to just murder the kid in cold blood, but he learned that this was not going to be anywhere near as easy as he thought. He saw a younger version of himself there.
Is there a part of Kanan’s decision that stems from regret over what he did to his own son? We don’t think that he’d ever admit to it (he even claimed in the episode that he’d kill him again), but on some level, we do think so. He wants to leave something behind as a legacy beyond just robbing and murdering people. We don’t think it was ever his plan to kill Jukebox, but it happened in the moment, he reaped his rewards, and then he walked away.
This isn’t over for Ghost and Kanan, but the scenes at the end of the episode proved that despite all of their history and darkness, there is still some affection there and Kanan is not a cyborg bent on reigning down hell and destruction. There is still something more that he is seeking from life.
The story of Tommy
Tommy learned in this episode that there were consequences of taking out Milan, just as Julio learned (in probably the worst way possible) that there are some problems that stem from him being untethered when Ghost was out of the game. What’s been going on with Dre, Julio, and Tommy, in general, has been a little too under the radar this season. Alas, Julio’s now in a spot where he can now be highlighted at all. RIP.
In this episode, Tommy also nearly felt the wrath of super-smooth mob boss Jason and his men during his trip out of town; when he was able to get away, he found himself in a position where he, almost like Ghost when he got out of prison and tried to smooth things over with Tasha, had a new lease on life. He took that to mean getting vengeance for Holly, as he went and tracked down her uncle who sexually abused her as a child. He beat him to death with a baseball bat at a house he was about to show, which probably is going to lower the property value on that place a good deal.
Kudos to the Power team for finally paying off what happened to Holly. In terms of a character study, maybe it makes some sense that Tommy wouldn’t try to process what happened at first since he’s gone through so much. However, when that tiger is let out of the cage, he starts to act on it in a rather big way. He couldn’t ignore his pain or his own guilt anymore.
Overall Take
This episode was fairly straightforward in that there were two key narratives, and each one of them had a fair share of powerful moments and a whole lot of death. This was by far the most violent episode of the season, and it showed further the central tragedy of James St. Patrick: Whether it be with Simon at the start of the episode forcing him to do business or with Kanan later, he can never be Jamie. He’s always forced to keep Ghost close at hand. It’s the ghost that just won’t leave. Grade: A-.
What are your thoughts on this episode?
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