Power season 5 episode 5 review: Ghost, a god, and a reckoning
Let’s kick things off here, though, by having a discussion on the much-hyped guest star for the hour: Kendrick Lamar. That’s something that we discuss further in the video below for this episode (subscribe for more TV discussions!), but let’s also just say for now that this was so much better than an appearance than we expected. Kendrick is a legitimately good actor! Sometimes you don’t know when you get a musician of his caliber on TV. A good example of that is Ed Sheeran’s completely unnecessary cameo on Game of Thrones, which really did not offer up that much.
Kendrick was fantastic as Laces, a guy who did some of Kanan’s bidding in the episode. He was a drug addict who also had some serious crazy eyes going on; he’s probably one of the more psychotic people we’ve seen on the show to date, and he helped to further along the story as Ghost, Kanan, and Tommy do their part to start to circle Dre.
Tonight, Ghost was able to push Dre ever-so-slightly away from the project in Queens, which is great from the vantage point of being able to push himself closer to it. He had some control there, but then lost it when getting into an altercation with Tate in front of donors.
This was Ghost realizing that he hit rock bottom. He got drunk, fought Tate, and then later almost got in a fight with Tariq in the midst of his birthday celebrations. That was when Ghost realized that he needed some help and he turned to God to find it. He wants to change … but will he? That’s something that can be heard to take seriously with Ghost just because we’ve all been duped before with it. He’s also going to Angela, who can be a positive influence sometimes … but not all the time.
As for what else happened over the course of this episode, Tasha tried to distance herself further from Ghost, but also realized that she’s going to need Terry Silver’s help protecting her from prosecution. Tariq wants to turn himself in for what happened to Ray Ray, but she’s not about that. Tommy is also facing some prosecution of his own now, thanks to Teresi going to John Mok and making it clear that he is laundering money through Ghost’s club Truth. Tommy is set to be devastated in so many different ways when it comes to his allegiances.
CarterMatt Verdict
Power season 5 episode 5 did feature a great performance from Kendrick Lamar, but beyond that it also did serve up plenty of reminders that this show can be great when it focuses on the concept of redemption. The idea of Jamie turning his life around is great; however, the idea of him being able to do it is not something we envision happening.
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