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Alright, Power fans. We’re at the end of our road, at least for Season 3.  And so are many of the characters. This season, three major players were killed off and one’s still missing in action. Here’s what went down on the season finale “In My Best Interests.”

This season has seen power change hands multiple times – from Lobos (Enrique Murciano) to Milan (Callan Mulvey) from Kanan (Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson) to Jukebox (Anika Noni Rose) and from Ghost (Omari Hardwick) to Tommy (Joseph Sikora). It’s also been an interesting power dynamic shift between Ghost’s AUSA girlfriend Angela (Lela Loren) and scorned wife Tasha. (Naturi Naughton.)

Some of the power changes have been good. Tommy’s evolution from often disregarded sidekick to the character most fully in power at the end of Season 3 has been a great leap for a character that always seems secondary to Ghost’s ambitions. Tasha’s growth as both an actress and a character has given her the best arc on the show. Ghost, who once seemed to have an answer to every problem, became vulnerable this season to both his own emotions and his rapidly changing spot on the drug dealing chart.

Where once Lobos seemed like the most ruthless of criminals, he always had something of a genteel side as well. Milan was just ruthless. The good news is, he didn’t make it to Season 4, as Tommy and his new ally Andre (Rotimi) dispatched him and his men at Truth with the help of Andre’s old crew. Ghost got to be in on the kill and probably felt like finally, he was in the clear, with both Lobos and Milan and even Ruiz (Luis Antonio Ramos) dead.

However, Ghost didn’t figure on Angela betraying him in the end, as she arrests him for the murder of Greg Knox. (Andy Bean). Yes, Greg, who was on the Power chopping block for sure, figured out that Sandoval (David Fumero) was the leak just seconds too late to save his life. The problem with his death is that it means that the last sympathetic character on Power is gone. Maybe Tasha is still one of the good ones, but Angela, Ghost, Tommy, Kanan, and Tariq (Michael Rainey, Jr.) have all made dumb choices based on the most selfish of reasons and some of those choices have ended up getting people killed. And where the hell is LaKeisha? Did we just leave her storyline hanging without resolution?

Tariq’s dumb ass meanwhile, has ended up becoming the pawn in the shift of power from Kanan to Jukebox. Ever since she’s come around, Kanan has been shut down, first from his injuries after Ghost tried to burn him alive, and then by her criminal #goals, which seem clearer and less emotional than Kanan’s. For once, someone has Kanan off-guard and while he’s literally chasing ghosts, she’s all about that paper and power and using her police role to help her amass more of both. At the show’s end, she’s the one holding young St. Patrick for hostage, while a horrified Tasha tries to reach Ghost. Too late, he’s going to jail after he’s betrayed by the one woman it seems like he truly loved.

More so than the past two seasons, this season felt as though it was truncated when a few more episodes would have helped things play out in a more satisfying manner. We also don’t always get the best sense of time with this show. A lot would make more sense if we knew for sure whether seasons take place over the span of months or weeks. If, let’s say, this season played out over a matter of weeks, some of the things that aren’t as believable make more sense.

Huge plotholes like neither Holly’s ‘disappearance’ and LaKeisha’s not showing up for work at her own salon or answering calls not being a priority for Tasha, make the show less credible, not to mention the relatively quick introduction and then killing of Dean/Milan, the ridiculous way Knox was killed by Sandoval, when c’mon, Greg should have known better than to turn his back on a man he just realized was a Lobos associate; no one ever knowing what Tariq is up to despite all his acting out; and that no one ever told Ghost that Kanan was still alive? Not through the entire season? So much for an ear to the streets. And then there was Ghost having repeated sensitive conversations in a club supposedly thoroughly bugged by Milan’s people and Angela not being reassigned to another case once it was known she was dating a suspected drug distributor, yeah, Power writers, let’s do better.

Andre and Julio (J.R. Ramirez) were damn near wasted this season and both deserve a larger piece of the acting action. I wonder, too, with Tariq’s kidnapping, what happens if Michael Rainey, Jr. who is a teenager, has a growth spurt during the hiatus. (Although Power is shown in the summer, it’s shot in the winter, one of the reasons why the show always seems so dark.)

What would I like to see next season?

Tasha has to take charge more and not rely on the men in her life to handle the family business because they stay f—ing it up. Angela needs to figure out if she wants her career as an AUSA more than she wants what she once believed is her soulmate. It would be great to see Tariq wise up at some point and become as cunning as his father, if only because it would be interesting for Kanan to be betrayed by another ‘son’ or son figure again. He seemed, in the last episodes, to be legitimately drawn to the kid. Maybe, as some sons desperately seek fathers, Kanan is seeking a son.

I’m seeking a 13-episode upgrade for seasons 4 and 5. That way, the storytelling can be paced a little better. I’m also looking for someone to stand up on character, not just operate solely on greed and selfishness. Ghost reminds me a lot of Jax Teller in FX’s Sons Of Anarchy. Like Jax, he’s ruthless and willing to do what it takes to handle his business up to and including the wet work. The difference is, in Teller’s case, the motorcycle gang was family and the money and power he gained was incidental to preserving the family.

In Ghost’s case, it’s all about his dreams, his love and his ambitions, while the important things – love, loyalty, family and the legitimate business he’s working so hard to maintain, crumble around him because he can’t see the forest for the trees. Maybe some backstory at this point, would establish more sympathy for all these folks. Power has to figure out how to regain the thing that made the show unique –  which was each character’s vulnerability to love while in the midst of trying to gain or retain power.

What is your prediction/hope for Season 4? What did you think of the season finale?

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‘Power’ Season 3 Finale Recap ‘It’s All Over’  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com