‘Power Book II: Ghost’ Recap – ‘A Fair Fight?’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 209 of ‘Power Book II: Ghost’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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When we are young, we taught to push back and stand up for ourselves when someone is unjustly trying to control us, and we are taught that lesson for several key reasons. One of which, is to ensure that we become strong and confident adults that stand out and stand tall, but we are also taught that lesson… to keep balance and order in the world. Because the people that tend to try and control us, are small in nature and thirsty for power and standing up to them and saying ‘no’ tends to put them in their place and keeps them from abusing others in that manner. But while that lesson definitely helps us grow and keeps things right in the world, there is a flip side to it that our parents neglect to cover.
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In that, sometimes the people that want to control, are confident in their abilities and don’t like being told that they should take a step back. Which leads to incredible conflict between us and this nemesis of sorts when we tell them to keep their distance, and that requires us to think differently in keeping the peace and our independence and this particular twist to everyday life is critical to our discussion today, because push back for pushing back is precisely what Tariq encountered during last night’s episode of Power Book II: Ghost. Because after being emboldened by the success of his plan during last week’s episode, Tariq decided it was time to push back further against those who were against him and that definitely garnered him some good results early on in ‘A Fair Fight?’

Because Councilman Tate got what he wanted from Tariq, and in doing so… did everything he could on the stand to discredit Jenny Sullivan further. But once she was faced with the very real prospect of losing this case… well… Jenny decided to surprise Tariq with a little pushback of her own. For she called in all the evidence needed to get someone else on the stand, such as Lauren and Brayden and his brother and that brought about chaos and ripples throughout Tariq’s world. Because all the secrets surrounding the death of Ramirez and Reynolds were coming to light and in doing so, danger began to surround Lauren. For Cane would have a problem with her speaking the truth if he got wind of this, and that motivated Tariq to tell her to run until he could figure out how to smooth this over.

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But while that alone was enough to keep Tariq busy, there was more double push back for him to deal with. Because while he was working with Brayden to keep Lauren safe, Mecca made a startling discovery. In that, his go bag was gone and since everything was falling apart in Monet and Mecca’s world (more on that in a moment), Mecca wasn’t keen on playing games and used a tracking device to figure out that Tariq had his bag. Which led to a showdown between these two at last. One where Tariq negotiated a shaky peace between the two of them, courtesy of information. Since it turns out that Dante Spears has ratted, on a great deal of people to enjoy his freedom and revealing that truth would cause more harm than good and the potential for that kind of leak, motivated Mecca to stand down and as an added bonus, Tariq is two million richer for standing his ground when someone else tried to push him around in this tale. 
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However, there was mention of the fact that things were messy in Mecca and Monet’s world and that came courtesy of several surprises. One of which, was the fact that Zeke’s basketball career is basically toast at this point since his age was leaked to the press. Plus, Lorenzo pushed back on the plan in this tale and got all the drugs he needed to function and potentially is pushing to kill Mecca in response for loving Monet all those years ago. Not to mention… Cane is still working his own agenda. Because Tariq was right to worry about his response to sour news regarding his freedom, and thanks to Effie… Cane was made aware of the problem now surrounding him, and well, something awful may have happened to Lauren since Effie kidnapped her out of Brayden’s hands in the middle of the night… per Cane’s orders.

If anything, this was just an epic episode when all is said and done. Because not only did it offer up a fine reminder that sometimes the push back, we give, will meet with equal resistance, and that our attempts to find common ground in that moment will be messy or failure ridden… but it also set the stage for an epic season finale. One that might pit best friends against one another since Tariq violated Brayden’s trust regarding the photo, and this finale will definitely see worlds collide. Because everyone is pulling in different directions with different agendas and that always brings about explosions when hard truths and ugly acts are revealed and everything presented here is going to make the wait for next week’s season two finale, a difficult one. Because at this point… we are dying to know what comes next and how this explosive story is going to end and of course… we simply must know what will become of Tariq St. Patrick since he remains on the cusp of becoming his father. Until next time.   

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