In many ways, the second episode of Power’s fifth season is a quality filler track on what appears to be a great album. In the episode. “Damage Control”, there are a lot of necessary plot developments. Tasha gets the necessary information about Tariq to Angela, Tariq heads off to Choate, Dre continues to work for the Jimenez cartel and the three musketeers continue to scout out a way to get Dre and his boss out of the picture. In the background, Mak plots to keep Proctor from practicing law, Tasha seeks out a support group and Dre may have created an enemy within his organization. There is a lot going on, but we’re still a long way away from getting the fireworks that the fifth season finale will surely have. However, there are two telling developments in this week’s episode that not only make a statement about the show’s direction but society as a whole.
First, Ghost may be equipped to eliminate the likes of the Jimenez Cartel with the help of Tommy and Kanan. However, he’s playing directly into the hands of a monster that he can’t control in Councilmen Tate. During “Damage Control”, Tate coerces both Tasha and Ghost into participating in an emotional press conference about Raina. Beyond that, Tate has tricked Ghost into thinking this community center is about his deceased daughter when in reality it’s about him earning clout on his way to running for governor. If Tate manages to pull all of this off and become governor, he’ll have everyone under his wing from Angela to Ghost. It’s not like Ghost can kill off a governor the way he kills of a cartel leader. It’s too messy. With Ghost an emotional wreck who refuses to deal with his emotions as they relate to his daughter, Tate has his heart, his emotions and who knows what connections he has to the streets.
Second and most importantly, Ghost has lost all control. He lost some control when tried to get out of the game and he cheated on Tasha, but he was always able to keep some sort of control. Tasha has no use for him because if Raina can die, she knows she could be gone too. Tommy has little need for him because Ghost was always his closest resemblance to family, but now that he has a family he’s moved away from being so close to Ghost. Tariq is Tariq and of all people, Angela has stopped answering his calls. To top it all of, Ghost killing Jeff the mechanic shows that he has lost control of himself. Ghost is in the place of disarray not solely because of the death of his daughter, but more so because he hasn’t learned had to properly cope with his daughter’s death. Frankly, he hasn’t even had time to deal with his daughter’s murder. He thinks he can memorialize his daughter’s death with this community center. He knows he can’t truly talk about his feelings at the grief support group and he can’t talk about it with his family because everyone someone feels like this is his fault. In many ways, the progression of Ghost as a man is a microcosm of being a black man in America. On one hand, you can say he’s deteriorating as a character because he, like many Black men in America, doesn’t know how to properly process trauma. On another hand, you can say he’s deteriorating as a character because he, like many Black men in America, doesn’t have time to process the trauma he’s dealing with because he needs to move on to survive. The one thing that is certain is that Ghost is deteriorating as a character and if he doesn’t get it together he may not make it out alive.
