‘Power’ season 3, episode 4 review: Holly’s dark hope; Jamie and Angela’s fracture
Through “Power” season 3 so far, survival seems to be the key. The difference is how many different characters choose to go about it.
For Holly, she was the one to make the biggest, boldest move of the week in doing what she could in order to protect both her and her unborn child. She’s made an appointment to discuss her “options,” but prior to that she opted to meet up with a Jamaican hitman in order to do something Tommy would not: Remove James St. Patrick once and for all. This came after Tommy blew an opportunity last week, and he was seemingly attacked once more by Lobos’ men.
This is a slightly different Holly than we’ve seen before, and she’s fascinating. This is a woman who is acting out of self-preservation, but there is even more urgency than before thanks to her pregnancy. She realizes that she cannot just leave matters to Tommy anymore, and wants to do what she can to secure her future. Is she thinking in the sense of a trail? That’s the concern now, given that she has to trust this hitman to carry out the deed and not spread the word about the hire.
Elsewhere, Kanan is finding another way to survive after his near-death experience: Getting back out there and tasting a life of crime alongside Jukebox, who helped to nurse him back to health. Like a baby bird, Kanan is now seemingly ready to fly away, which in turn may just lead to him causing more harm given the sort of man he is and the sort of things that he is capable of. The whole “romantic” spin on the Kanan story (if you can call it that) was probably the weakest part of the hour, mostly because beyond the first scene where the “hand test” took place there wasn’t much of a need for it.
For Angela, her survival was more dependent on her continuing to keep her job, and also resolve points of tension with Ghost. The issue there is that her working to expunge Tariq’s record, coupled with her impromptu visit to Tasha, did not give her necessarily the reaction she so expected from Jamie going into it. Meanwhile, she’s also realizes the walls closing in on her independence (Jamie’s paying the rent now), and it is looking ever more possible like her colleagues are going to connect him to Ghost and his history.
Perhaps the most beautiful part of this episode were the interesting parallels between Tasha and Angela as we saw the former trying to figure out who she is and how to express herself without Ghost around. She is doing things for her, but she struggles with it due to a lack of identity. These moments made the character incredibly relatable, especially since there are still other isolated moments (such as her bringing the piece into the salon) where you are reminded of the emotional scars left behind by Ghost. These little moments of thought by the writers, coupled with the performances, help to continue to set the bar for “Power” season 3 incredibly high. Grade: A-.
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