Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Last week, I made some predictions about how I thought this series would end. This week, I think I’m wrong about everything I thought.
For instance, Det. Carter being New York City’s version of Det. Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) from the movie “Training Day” was not on my bingo card. I was sure that Carter wanted to nail Tariq and Monet. I was sure that his obsessive nature was about putting criminals in jail not padding his own pockets because he’s a student of economics and realizes that he cannot stop drug dealing from happening. I thought he was going to send Tariq to prison; now I’m about as unsure about how their dalliance will end as I am about anything related to this show.
Speaking of Tariq, he and Diana are having conversations about their future child. Diana, smartly, wants to keep her child as far away from the drug game as possible. So, what does Tariq decide to do since he wants to be a parent and involved in their child’s life? He decides that leaving the game isn’t the solution — heaven’s no. The solution is to become the kingpin. He reasons that his father’s problem, and ultimate downfall, was that he had one foot in and one foot out of the game, and all of his enemies, ghosts and demons caught up with him eventually. Tariq has decided to fully immerse himself in the game, but I guess he’ll do that without any enemies or people trying to kill him as he rises to the top, thus making it possible to keep his family safe? Now, I’m no drug dealer, but that logic seems really flimsy, especially coming from the guy who takes canonical studies at the legendary Stansfield University!
As a point of note though, he is sliding into his kingpin role by thinking in terms of leverage, revenge and who must be stepped on to get to the top. You know that same top that is going to insulate him, his child, Diana and the rest of his family from … revenge.
Le sigh. Let’s move on.
I don’t know why Dru’s character annoys me so much at this point but he really does. That is odd since he’s the one who continuously tells Monet about herself and is forcing her to be accountable. Every time Monet tries to talk about family, Dru tells her how bogus she is, and it’s forcing her to admit things about how bad of a mother she’s been. She still wants this drug game life, but she seems to really want to keep her family together. Cute. By the way, I laughed so hard when she stepped out of the shadows with an automatic machine gun and started shooting as she, Dru and their two hired goons tried to rob some other drug dealers. That was right before Det. Carter showed up and told them they could sell drugs as long as he and his team got a 35% cut … and don’t kill any civilians. That’s the only rule according to Det. Carter: Do not kill any civilians; any and all drug dealers are fair game. Maybe that’s how we get our conclusion.
Cane and Noma have a weird relationship. Cane is out here showing Noma how important he is to her and even gets into a full-out fistfight with rival drug dealer Zion for her to show her that as long as they roll together, Noma is good anywhere in New York City. Except, then she goes to smash Davis, like, that night. She’s playing a dangerous game with Davis and Cane.
Brayden’s girlfriend is a terrible human. Full stop. Let me tell you why. She and Brayden have a whole conversation about her having sickle cell anemia and how she refuses to let anybody tell her what to do with her body or control it. I get that; that is smart. THEN, she drugs Tariq (though her explanation of HOW she did it makes zero sense logistically) because “He needs an outlet”??? What a complete hypocrite. Also, crime much??? I don’t like her, and I don’t get her and Brayden. But I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that what Brayden said to Tariq about his selfishness is completely on point. Tariq really doesn’t seem to care about Brayden at all short of how it can help him. Brayden’s life really did crumble and Tariq isn’t concerned about that at all, it seems.
Now is a good time to point out that there are five episodes left in this series. Five. The plots are starting to ramp up in a big and interesting way. Tariq is JUST now discovering that he wants to be at the top of the mountain. Monet has free reign to deal drugs. Noma’s daughter is about to get caught up in the game messing with Tariq, and Noma is playing it fast and loose with Cane and Davis. Zion is about to come back at Noma and Cane. We really have no idea what Det. Carter is up to but now that we know he’s rogue, the possibilities are endless. Tasha is still out in witness protection somewhere in Pennsylvania driving Tariq’s drive for domination. And we have five episodes left?
Thankfully, the writers, producers and everybody involved love us, so we have to wait a few months to figure out how it all ends, leaving people like myself who spend way more time thinking about this stuff than we should to ponder and argue about it until September, when the show returns.
All I know is that some principal characters better be dead when it’s all said and done or I will never forgive them ending the second-best series out of the bunch … just because.
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).