Power season 4 spoilers: Omari Hardwick on Ghost’s life-or-death struggle

On this past episode of Power season 4, Ghost found out just how dire his situation behind bars really is, and it’s so much worse than he could have possibly imagined. He went from facing a serious sentence to the death penalty as a result of John’s pushing for it. As we’ve learned over the past two days, this is a federal case, and because of that, the death-penalty laws in New York do not apply.

So how is Ghost going to feel about the idea of death? It’s going to weigh on him; he is a man not accustomed to displaying all that much in the way of emotions, but this is a very different situation than he’s been up against before. He’s going to feel this, and struggle with what could happen to him if the case turns south. We do believe that he loves his finale; the larger issue with Ghost has always been that he’s shown a greater love to what he does in terms of his business, and that is one of the reasons why he’s ended up in this place.

Now, let’s turn this over to Omari Hardwick for some further insight. Speaking to TV Guide on the subject of where Ghost’s feelings lie, the actor had the following to pass along:

“He’s afraid. He’s got everything to lose. For him, the challenge is how does he save face in the fact of court? How do you hold your own face? And so, he’s trying to figure that out.” This season, he’ll struggle with the crippling fear of dying if he loses his case while also putting up a brave face during court appearances … His challenge is living that duplicitous juggle he’s been doing for four seasons.”

One of the largest things to remember there is that the longer he’s in prison, the more difficult it will be to try and compartmentalize when Ghost comes out, and when we have an opportunity to see James St. Patrick instead. A great comparison comes courtesy of another great show in HBO’s The Night Of, where over time being locked up in prison changed him. Compared to Rikers Island so far Ghost’s condition doesn’t seem all that bad, but we’ve got a feeling that his struggle is only going to get so much worse from here.

Remember that guy Ghost hurt on Sunday’s new episode? If this is like any other show / movie set in prison that we’ve seen, there’s a reasonably good chance that this guy will come back for Ghost with some friends. He just needs to prepare himself for that now, and understand that if it happens, he’ll need to be acutely aware of his surroundings. This may be a situation like with Charlie Murphy’s prison guard in the premiere, where there is nothing to do other than take it.

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