‘Power Book II: Ghost’ Season 2 Episode 9 ‘A Fair Fight’
Culture Editor Bianca Gregg brings you ‘Power Book II: Ghost’ recaps each Sunday as the episodes air. Focusing on Tariq St. Patrick who is now in college, the show features familiar faces, and new formidable characters.
Tariq is haunted by his consciousness in the first scene of episode nine. He is visited by everyone he himself has either killed or played a role in their demise. Everyone from Kanan to Proctor and Lakeisha visit Tariq. As Cari wraps up blaming Tariq for her suicide, Tariq receives a phone call from his father. Lauren attempts to enter the classroom but Tariq stops her. Lauren suggests he answer the phone for his father. Tariq wakes up to his phone ringing and a sleeping Effie.
Jenny decides to call Tate in as witness on the stand. Rashad’s brother comes to see him and explains why he is being called on the stand. Jenny wants to frame Cari’s sucide as being on Tariq’s hands. Kamal receives a call from an alledge witness to Jabari’s murder. Kamal tells Rashad the witness saw two men at the crime scene. Rashad suggests to Kamal that he not bring this new evidence to Jenny as she is so deep into her case against Tariq. Tariq goes to see Rashad and he demands solid proof for the Sweeney situation otherwise his testimony at the trial will not be good for Tariq.
Mecca stops by his penthouse and gives Cane the unfortunate news that he is now his second in command. He tells Cane he now must live at the penthouse. He takes Cane’s fingerprint as a way to track Cane’s moves. Mecca orders Cane to tell Lorenzo that there is no product. Lorenzo is angered by the news and he still thinks GTG and Lil Guap are the ones who caused the problem but Dru admits Monet robbed the plug with his aide. Lorenzo orders Dru to get the drugs back. He and Diana devise a plan to get the drugs back from Stansfield. Dru steals the key-card from Everett and Diana pours her heart out to Tariq and is able to get his QR code from his phone. The siblings are able to get the drugs back from the school and bring the weight back to their father. Lorenzo and Dru head out to give product to their crew. Lorenzo is clearly proud of his son.
Monet is with Dante and still trying to get in touch with Zeke. Zeke sends Dante a text message for a meet up without Monet. Dante meets with Zeke and tries to get him to speak with his mother. Zeke is still concerned about his real age being put out publicly. Dante offers to get Zeke a private coach so he can focus on bettering his game but he must first talk to his mother. When Zeke has his sit down with Monet, she explains to Zeke that at sixteen years old, her mother convinced her that Dante would not be a good father to her baby. Since Dante was already in the wind at that point, Monet decided to give Zeke up. Once everyone realized Zeke’s potential with basketball, Monet took him in so he could pursue the sport in New York. Monet admits she was just happy to be in his life. Zeke asks Monet if she had anything to do with Cari’s death. Monet lies and tells Zeke she stayed with Dante the entire time and he backs up her lie. Zeke tells his parents once he is drafted he is done with them altogether.
Tariq meets with Rashad in the courthouse bathroom. He gives Rashad the blackface photograph. In exchange, Rashad takes the stand and reveals that his brother had been talking to a witness that alleges there were two men at the scene of Jabari’s murder. The news prompts Davis to request a dismissal of the case for hiding evidence. Instead the judge gives Jenny 48 hours to produce credible information otherwise he will dismiss the case.
Brayden is implicated in the recording of himself and Cane. Jenny confronts him at the Westin home. Trace decides to spill the tea on every last thing he knows. Brayden still tries to deny involvement but Jenny shows proof that he indeed knew Officer Ramirez by way of photographs from Ramirez dash cam. Jenny wants either Trace or Brayden to testify against Tariq. Brayden heads to his dorm to speak with Tariq. He finds out that Tate testified on his behalf and realizes Tariq gave him the blackface photo. The betrayal stops Brayden for disclosing his run in with Jenny.
Zeke makes his announcement that he is leaving Stansfield to work with a private coach. He tells the press his desires to leave New York and all of the negative influences around him, placing blame on his family. At the conference, a story breaks about Zeke lying about his real age. As questions begin to pour in from the press, Zeke’s agent ends the conference but not before whispering to Zeke that if it’s true he can forget about playing for Sacramento. Dante, Zeke and Monet are at a basketball court trying to figure out their next move. A black SUV pulls around the court and begins shooting at the trio. Monet asks Dante if anyone has been following him but he denies being followed and blames the shooting on Lorenzo.
Tariq meets up with Lauren and she admits to everything that happened when she was taken in by the police. She tells Tariq that Brayden was the original suspect and Tariq asks why they would go after him. She tells Tariq she had both Brayden and Cane on a wire. Tariq offers to help Lauren run considering she is in danger now. Tariq and Effie have a heart to heart over ramen noodles. He discusses how Lauren only wanted straight A’s and a good boyfriend. He compares her to his mother in the way of having to be on the run for protecting him and his poor choices. Effie asks why she would be on the run and Tariq tells her about the wiretap. Effie decides to secretly meet up with Cane and tell him what she discovered about Lauren. Cane knows he must get rid of Lauren and enlists Brayden to get the job done. When Brayden acts hesitant about eliminating the problem, Cane threatens Brayden.
Rashad has a sit down with the head of the DNC. He reveals the Blackface photo to him, looks like Rashad will have his way after all.
Jenny surprises Brayden and tells him if he gives her enough to arrest Cane now, Trace will be safe after he testifies. Brayden meets with Effie to vent about the position he is in. Effie puts things together and realizes the task is to kill Lauren. She tells Brayden he made the choice to be in the game and it is too late to get out now. She tells Brayden he is going to have to man up and do it.
Monet presents an offer to Dante. She wants him to kill Lorenzo. Dante suggests they flee New York altogether as a family since Zeke’s NBA dreams are unlikely to happen. Mecca arrives at his penthouse and tells Cane he will be leaving the country for a while. Cane has to go home but not before Mecca comes back into the room demanding Cane give him his bag back that was stolen from him. Mecca admits he knows Cane was the one who stole his drugs but he needs the bag returned now. Cane denies stealing the bag so Mecca uses his tracking device to see that the bag is at Stansfield. Mecca tells Cane he is stuck at the penthouse until he returns. Cane calls his mother to tell her what has happened fearing Mecca will kill him. Monet begins to question why Mecca would let Cane live and asks for a picture of him. Cane sends a warning message to Tariq about Mecca and the bag, prompting Tariq to look through the bag. He finds passports made for all of the Tejedas as well as a file from the District Attorney’s Office.
Tariq gives Davis a call and Davis warns him about Dante. He tells Tariq Dante is one of the most well known and dangerous informants on record. Dante is waiting on Tariq in his dorm room and requests his bag back. Dante admits he knows all about his family and what he did to Ghost. Tariq let’s Dante know he is aware of him being an informant and requests two million dollars from him to not tell anyone what he knows. Dante is willing to pay once he gets the bag back. Before leaving, Dante admits he was the one that snitched on Lobos but thanks to Ghost, Lobos never made it to find out who the real informant was.
Tariq calls Brayden and requests he get Lauren out of town. Lauren comes out to the car and thanks Brayden for coming to get her. Brayden drives Lauren into the middle of nowhere. He gets out of the car and grabs his gun from the trunk. At gun point, he commands Lauren to get out of the car and she does. Lauren pleads with Brayden for her life. Ultimately he decides to give her a bag of money instead of killing her. He tells her to head to the bus stop and leave but Effie rides up to pick up where Brayden left off. Effie walks Lauren to her car as Lauren continues to plead for her life. Effie hits Lauren with her gun, knocking her out. She puts Lauren into the car and pulls off.
Mecca storms into his penthouse berating Cane and he realizes Monet is standing there waiting on him. Monet starts to put the pieces together however she still wants Mecca to kill Lorenzo. Cane agrees to Lorenzo being killed and the entire family fleeing with Mecca.
Effie creeps back into Tariq’s room. We still do not know for sure what happened to Lauren. Effie gets into the bed with Tariq. He rolls over and puts his arm around her.
Takeaways:
As painful as Yaz being adopted may be for Tariq, I am glad her chapter appears to be closing in a positive way.
Mecca being the Goat of Snitching is something I did not see coming since at least episode two.
Cane really thought his days were numbered! He called his mom so fast to give his final goodbyes.
Brayden is finally realizing this thing is deeper than selling some weed to a classmate. He is cracking under the pressure the way most of us thought he would.
