"Power" Recap: "Still Dre" Eliminates Two Suspects In Brutal Mid-Season Premiere
SPOILERS FOR LAST NIGHT’S “POWER.”
After a brief break, Power is back to wrap up the sixth and final season of the series. Creator Courtney Kemp has promised the fans some plot twists that will shake the universe up, and we begin with a Dre-centric episode. Still Dre follows the widely despised character on the day that Ghost is shot. Two big revelations arise, the first being the fate of Ghost. Before Kemp gives fans that nugget of information though, we get to see if Dre was actually involved in the shooting at Truth.
The episode begins with a Gospel hymn and carries a heaven-and-hell theme throughout. Dre gets done promising to his daughter and baby’s momma that no one will ever hurt them again when he sees Ghost on television. Mr. St. Patrick has been announced as a running mate to become lieutenant governor, something that shakes Dre to his core. He goes to visit Saxe, another suspect in the shooting. Dre puts pressure on Saxe before leaving to attend to business as usual. The square-jawed thug is ambushed by vengeful Serbians and barely escapes with his life. Remember, the Serbs believe Dre killed Jason, although it was really Ghost. This prompts Dre to take his lover’s advice to get out of town. But first thing is first, he needs money.
Dre goes to his mother for help, and she appears to be the only person he’s really scared of. He cries and sells his sob story, but the devout elderly Christian maternal figure shrugs him off. There remains deep trauma between the two of them, something that pushed Dre to stay away from his own mother for years. After she denies Dre any money, he goes on an extortion tour. Dre threatens Tasha, who then grabs Tariq, who then leads Dre to Ghost. Here viewers get to see the same office scene where Ghost berates Dre and the aftermath, which is Dre falling into Ghost’s trap and getting locked up.
Once in jail, Dre runs into his old pals 2 Bit and Spanky. The two henchmen are tipped off by Ghost that Dre is in their prison, and he offers them lifelong compensation for their families if they murder Dre. 2 Bit is more than down– he hates a snitch– but Spanky is a little more calculated. Loyalty isn’t a concern for Spanky, who snitches on Tommy in order to gain freedom. Meanwhile, Dre escapes the prison by doing some snitching of his own, which keeps him alive for a moment longer. Slowly but surely, 2 Bit realizes that Spanky is up to no good.
After getting released from jail, Dre immediately goes to rob his mother. This leads to another deep moment between the two characters, and we really get to see Dre break down here. Dre’s mother finds him rummaging through her closet, and she approaches him with a gun in her hand. Before she can pull the trigger though, Dre snatches the pistol from her and flips the script. He blames his evil ways on his mother, who called him a demon child since he was six. His lack of motherly love turned him into a monster, or so he claims. Before dropping the pistol and leaving the home, Dre tells his mother than she will never know Heaven, his daughter. The ongoing Shakespearean theme of family and the consequences of father and child (Tariq and Ghost, Proctor and Elisa Marie, Kanan and Shawn, Tommy and Kate) are highlighted here.
After leaving his mother’s home, Dre heads to Tate’s office. The corrupt politician agreed to bless Dre with a new identity via IDs and a license plate in exchange for information on the St. Patricks. Dre used snitching to get ahead once again, but gets greedy when granted with another proposition. Tate offers Dre $100,000 to kill Ghost, which effectively takes him off the suspect board. Although we did see Tate with a gun in episode 10, it appears he may have been heading elsewhere. There is no point in hiring a killer and then going to kill Ghost himself. Dre takes the money from Tate and talks things over with his lover. She suggests that the two of them skip town with the money, and forget about Tate’s proposition. Dre can’t help himself though, and he heads to Ghost’s club to finish the job. He finds himself at Truth in time to hear Ghost…