Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
One of my favorite movie franchises is “Fast & Furious” — not because it’s a world full of tremendous acting and amazing storytelling but because it started out as a movie about the real world and morphed into a movie series that sent Ludacris and Tyrese into outer space in a car and that wasn’t even the craziest thing that happened throughout the films.
That is how I feel about the “Power” franchise (nobody has been to space…yet) and why I love “Ghost” so much. It wasn’t more than a few years ago when everybody who watched “Power” (the original series that has, so far, launched three spin-offs) wanted Tariq St. Patrick dead. He was an annoying, privileged rich-kid-turned-criminal whose father seemed to hate him (even in death) with one goal: graduate from Stansfield University as quickly as possible so he could get his trust fund and get his family back together. In the time since that first season, we have been gifted with the worst mother of all time in Monet Tejada (more on this later), arguably the flyest, most expensive wardrobe on television, an English 101 class called canonical studies that somehow equates to a year’s worth of college and the most nonsensical top NBA draft prospect of all time. “Ghost” checks every single box when it comes to WTF? and/or the “Ain’t No Way” Olympics. Oh, that family he was trying to get back together? Non-factor.
I love it. The writers of this show are some of the most creative minds ever. Why do I say this? I’m glad you ask.
This new (and unfortunately, final) season is off to a wonderful start.
We pick right back up where the last season left off: Brayden shows up at the warehouse where Tariq is about to be killed by Cane and Noma. Cane believes that Tariq tried to kill Monet, which is only partly true. If you’ll remember, Diana and Dru wanted Tariq to do that, but his mother showed up and let off the blicky. Anyway, point is, Tariq and Brayden get away and we pick up with them trying to figure out what to do. Here’s where it gets fun.
Tariq and Brayden SOMEHOW have Army guns stashed and turn into special ops shooters from “Call of Duty.” Listen, I’m not saying that Tariq and Brayden don’t go to a shooting range on occasion, but we never see it, and they always seem to be running from somewhere trying to get this paper. Yet, they have true-to-life army guns and start shooting people up at an airport. I love it. This makes no sense but I’m 100% here for it.
Let’s talk Monet right quick. I’m glad she’s not dead yet. Monet is in surgery after being shot, and in a dream sequence while we wait for her to live or die, she’s visited by Mecca and Lorenzo (her ex-husband and kids’ father) who point out just how horrible a mother she is. I’ve written about this already, but it was really nice to hear them say it. She killed Mecca herself and then had Lorenzo killed. She is the reason her son, Zeke, died. Point is, Monet is terrible but I need her to live a little longer. Don’t get it twisted; she needs to die at some point … just not yet.
Dru and Diana need to die as well. For one, they tried to have their mother killed because she had their father killed, which I totally get. But do your own dirty work, guys. Secondly, Diana then totally backs off the kill-Monet plan because Monet tried to save her WHILE she tried to have Monet killed. Diana is a horrible decision-maker; she needs to go. It’s just time for Dru. I don’t have any real reason for him to go but I just look forward to it. I cannot tell you how excited I was when I thought Tariq was going to kill him in the first episode.
This brings us to the point of the first episode: EVERYBODY is trying to get to Tariq and Brayden. Noma. Cane. Diana. Dru. This should be a fun season, folks.
Oh, oh!!! I forgot that Davis is still around, too. That was fun. Oh, and the ghost of Angela Valdez still haunts this St. Patrick family as Angela’s nephew just started working at the DEA and catches a hot one already thanks to Tariq (well it’s really his own fault, but if we acknowledge that then there’s no reason for this new character played by Michael Ealy to show up).
For a first episode of a final season, I think I’m fully ready to buckle back up into this season, and I’m really lamenting that this is the final one. But since this is life, let me go ahead and lay out a prediction: Cane is the only one left standing.
If Tariq and Brayden are still alive, we can’t end the show so at least one of them has to die. And I just WANT everybody else to die, for closure.
For me.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).