‘Power Book IV: Force’ Recap – ‘Take Me Home’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Five of ‘Power Book IV: Force’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
​
The old saying, ‘one door closes and another one opens’, is one that is still around in our modern world for one reason and one reason alone. In that, it holds true time and again. Because just when it seems as though we are going to be kept far away from what we want and need by way of a missed opportunity or a failure, another path forward presents itself to us and reinvigorates us to continue toward our goals, and for proof… well then look no further than this week’s episode of Power Book IV: Force on STARZ. For when we catch up with Tommy Egan in ‘Take Me Home’, he’s in quite the distraught place and rightfully so.
​
After all, the Serbian Mob is out for blood and ready to escalate for what he’s done to Tatiana, and his plans for creating an empire in Chicago are simply not going well. For his coke is nothing but trouble because of the Serbs and he simply cannot get a foothold on the market here, despite his best efforts to play the field in a fair and consistent manner, the kind that would make him a solid and respected leader. But just when it appeared as though Tommy was going to need to lay low for a bit and try and regroup and figure out a better way forward… the universe surprised him with a new and powerful opportunity… by way of one Claudia Flynn.

For she once again ran him off the road one fine night and offered him quite the stunning partnership. Yes, you read that right, the savvy daughter of a kingpin, who seemingly wanted to build her own empire without anyone’s help… finally came to realize that she would need a network of dealers and an intelligent leader to move Dahlia all around town, and the best way to make that happen, was to make nice with Tommy, and have him sample the product. Which he did and well, it was definitely a hit with him. Since it gave him the cleanest and strongest high that he’d ever experienced and well… the chance to move this throughout town, gave him fresh perspective on his situation and a plan forward.

In that, being just and fair was only worthwhile for those that stood beside him, and anyone else… needed to be dealt with via swift and brutal force. Which motivated Tommy to assemble a coalition of the willing for a powerful offensive. One that would teach the Serbs a valuable lesson in messing with Tommy and put their territory and pipeline under Tommy’s control. And while Tommy let Diamond and Vic assemble their crew for this fight, he went off to lay the foundation for distributing Dahlia. Which involved getting his hands on all the product for Claudia and that part of his plan went off without a hitch, since Mia’s driver was more than happy to take a fat pay raise from a man that could bankroll his kids’ college education, just by selling a single weekend’s worth of product.

---

So, with all the Dahlia in hand and safe, all that remained was blindsiding the Serbs with swift and blinding violence, and for a time… assembling a crew for that proved to be troublesome. Simply because Jenard was struggling with the reality that everything he worked to build for CBI while Diamond was in prison, was quickly coming under the command of Tommy Egan, and that didn’t feel right to him, nor did his being muscled out of leadership. But despite his worries and concerns, the chance for CBI to take the highest cut, motivated Jenard to abandon his plan to break up the crew and instead fight alongside Tommy for a chance at real power in the city and that brought about… one epic ending to the plan.
​
For Team Tommy struck hard against the Serbs and quickly blew their pipeline to shreds and decimated their forces, with minimal losses as well, since only Elijah and Simon lost their lives during this epic assault and with the pipeline in their hands, everyone went back to their respective corners of the world to await the next steps in their quest to own the city. Except for Tommy that is, for his return home led to another showdown with the Serbs, who got their hands on Liliana and were eager to use her to bring Tommy down and well… who knows how that meeting would have gone had it not been for the strange drive-by shooter that sprayed bullets at both Tommy and the Serbs. A surprise that initially made it appear as though everyone just got caught in the crossfire of some random whack job eager to hurt people.

But the fact that a bullet hit Liliana and the reveal that Jenard basically pulled the trigger, made it clear that this new opportunity for Tommy might not go as smoothly as he might have hoped. Since Jenard did this out of fury over Elijah’s death, which motivated him to change his mind about relinquishing power. Making him a dangerous force in the days to come, and the red flags regarding this transition didn’t end there. Since this episode also included a powerful struggle within the Flynn family, one that saw dear old dad and Claudia try to buy Gloria out in the hopes of giving Vic a smooth transition to leadership of the family. One that stayed true with racist traditions and that of course... will distract Vic and lead to issues with execution of the new empire, and to top it all off, Claudia will be in hot water soon as well. Since she killed Mai during a fight over the future of Dahlia and well, since this was obviously her first murder… she won’t have a clue what comes next.

As to what that is exactly for all of these surprises, time will tell. But in the meantime, we can all offer up a round of applause for one amazing episode. Because this one simply had it all. For there was depth, courtesy of that philosophical theme and of course… there was plenty of action and adventure for us to enjoy. Since Tommy’s plan to strike first against the Serbs was about as epic as it gets and all the little twists and turns on the side, and that betrayal for that matter as well… once again made this a classic Chicago mobster story, one that is heating up quickly. Because now personal agendas are coming into play and that’s never a good thing when power and money… and the chance to rule an entire city, are involved. Until next time.

---