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Power S6E8: “Deal With The Devil”

Keisha looks panicked as she hugs Tommy

Okay, so before this week’s episode aired, 50 Cent and Joseph Sikora blew up my timelines and assured me that the next three episodes of Power are going to blow me away. And so far so good—I certainly was not ready for this week’s episode. It all happened so fast.

Last week, Dre expected to be back in the game after a big meeting with Jason, but as we know, Saxe forced him into an ankle monitor, and then he got kidnapped by 2-Bit and Spanky. He also promised he would bring in Tariq once he got more drugs, but I suspect that’s the last thing on his mind right now.

As we begin this week’s adventure, Dre finds where Saxe lives and catches him as he is leaving, demanding that he takes off the monitor. I don’t know what he expected, but of course, this doesn’t get him very far. He then has the daunting task of letting Ghost know why he didn’t show, and Ghost insists that he’s done with him while he’s got that monitor on. At this point, I’m thinking that Dre either has to make an agreement and turn somebody in, or he has to get rid of Saxe himself, somehow.

Keisha looks at Tommy as he smiles

Keisha and Tommy move into their new suburbs house with Cash, and Tommy seems to have found a sudden urge to play happy families this week. He takes a very fatherly stance in having a conversation with Cash about his school. They both explain to him that they will be taking him to school and picking him up after because around this area, he might not fit in as well as he did in the city. Keisha makes the point that it means a lot to Cash to have both of them to count on, they’re a real family now.

Honestly, even though Tommy is a psycho, in some sense of the word, he knows how to love. He is definitely loyal, and he pays close attention to Keisha’s words here. This conversation comes back to you towards the end of the episode and it makes what’s coming a lot more painful to watch.

As we follow Saxe around this week, he really makes his rounds, visiting people he’s not even supposed to be talking to since his suspension. He is desperately trying to prove that Tommy killed Proctor. He begins by approaching Tariq, in his school of all places. He’s not going to get anything from Tariq, because Tariq thinks he’s in deeper than he actually is with the game.

Next, he travels all the way out to Keisha’s new house to confront her. He’s really trying from all angles, and I get the feeling that Saxe has some sense of how unstable we know LaKeisha can be. Luckily, this time, she didn’t tell him anything.

Tariq seems to be finding his classes incredibly easy, and that just brings to light how smart he actually is, which is why it’s so depressing that he doesn’t care about his education.

As he finishes a class, he gets called to stay back by his teacher who is acting a little weird. He tells him that he knows he was kicked out of his last school for selling drugs, and he makes a point that Tariq could make a lot of money here. I thought it was quite hard to tell whether this guy was trying to tell Tariq not to sell drugs here, or if he actually wanted to be involved in moving weight through the school. Either way, the teacher appeared to be a bit of a mess, and I wouldn’t be sure that Tariq could trust him.

Keisha moves bags out of her car

Kate, as she famously does, makes an unwanted and unannounced appearance at Tommy and Keisha’s new house, and when Keisha tries to stand up to her, she reveals that Tommy killed Holly with his bare hands after he realised he couldn’t trust her. I was quite impressed with Keisha’s strength in this scene. She takes the information and even though she’s shocked, she gets Kate out of that house. That was good to finally see.

Tasha and Tariq have their first lesson on the drug business, and Tasha teaches him about handling money. However, after big mama walks in, she seems to think that Tasha is trying to drag Tariq into that life, which is completely the wrong way around. She tells Tasha, and this made me laugh, “the only thing that will save that boy is Jesus.”

Saxe makes his way over to Detective Blanca’s house, and to his surprise, is introduced to her wife. He informs her of Tommy and Keisha’s new house, which leads to Blanca revealing that Keisha is her witness in the Raymond Jones murder case, and that she pinned Kanan as the murderer. When they looked into Kanan’s death, it was declared that his son Eric collected his ashes. Only he doesn’t have a son named Eric, and the security camera shows Tariq collecting the ashes and presumably using a fake ID.

Blanca wants to track down Dre for information and well lucky for her, Saxe happens to have him in an ankle monitor. They decide to team up here, and it makes sense, two people I can’t stand getting together against the people I actually like. Why are we on the side of the bad guys?

It just so happens that Dre has some information he is willing to share with Blanca. But nothing in this life, or this show, comes without a price. Dre wants his ankle monitor removed, of course, and he also wants Saxe to face consequences for his actions. Secretly, Blanca wants the same thing, and she agrees. Dre comes clean and confesses he gave Ray Ray’s address to Tariq. Everything starts to add up to Blanca and you can see it in her eyes.

James and Ramona stare at each other

Back on the Councilman Tate campaign, Ghost is playing games too. He brings Derek along to his event, and Derek has a plan. We see him slip money to a tech guy while James and Tate talk in the back. All of a sudden Tate’s microphone “accidentally” turns on and the whole audience hears Tate talking down on his competition. They join in on some insults and a tasteful “that bitch is clueless!” It is really quite mortifying for Tate, and Ramona tells him there is no coming back from this situation.

Ramona is in full support of James, obviously, and she even has ideas of James running for governor one day. Much to Tate’s annoyance, she lets him know how vital James’ support actually is, and that his opponent is interested in James becoming her lieutenant governor. Surprisingly, everyone in this election is fighting for the support of James St. Patrick.

As Keisha and Cash are driving, they get pulled over by a cop car. Inside we find who else but Blanca and a member of child services, Blanca is putting the pressure on hard, the social worker takes Cash into the back of the police car and the only way Keisha can take her son home with her is by signing a cooperation agreement. Keisha cracks under pressure and signs the agreement, I think we all expected her to do so. But, in reality, Keisha doesn’t deserve to be treated this way. She isn’t the one in the business, and she has to look out for her son. This did bring back the discussion between Tommy and Kate when Kate warned him she would always choose Cash over him, but I think even Tommy has enough sense to understand why that would be her choice. He’s her son. Blanca tells LaKeisha she will arrange for her and Cash to go into witness protection as soon as possible.

Even though Keisha warned her son not to say anything, Cash puts both their asses on the line when he asks Tommy if he did the right thing when the police pulled them over. He even mentioned child services. Tommy immediately knew that Keisha had to give them something to get Cash back and he confronts her in a rather frightening way, smashing kitchen equipment and all. Keisha lets him know the only reason she didn’t tell him is because she knows that he killed Holly and she didn’t want to end up like her. Surprisingly, Tommy doesn’t flip out over this statement but he actually realises how much Keisha must love him and have his back because she stayed with him even though she knew. I see his eyes fill with hope, and with realisation that Keisha is the one. But all I see in Keisha’s eyes is the guilt as she realises just what she’s done to Tommy and to herself.

Keisha looks upset as she is interrogated

After Tariq breaks into his teacher’s class and looks through his desk, he realises that the reason he wants to be involved is because he is broke and he desperately needs money. He talks with Tasha and ultimately seems to decide that he can trust this guy. I still don’t think it’s a bright idea but you have to start building your empire somewhere—why nor start with your teacher?

Tariq handles the initiation pretty well and I was both surprised and impressed. He leaves the product in the teacher’s car and sends him an anonymous text reading “Leave the money in your trunk for more.”

He responds “How do I know who I’m working for?” To which he gets a “You don’t.”

As he drives away, he passes Tariq and calls out to him to ask if that was from him. Tariq acts like he has no idea what he is talking about, and he even had me fooled for a second. But as he walks away and smiles looking at his phone, it’s pretty clear. I’m not sure though what the teacher thinks is happening; maybe it was obvious to him. Who else could it be?

Tommy calls up Ghost looking for Saxe and it strikes me how casually they seem to be working together in this episode. Ghost tells him no, but that’s no surprise. Ghost has been saying no to Tommy’s ideas since the first season.

Ghost is approached by Blanca and she is almost becoming the female Saxe with all the people she’s stalking right now. She is definitely just as annoying. After he leaves completely unaware, she takes his glass for a DNA sample.

Keisha comforts her son Cash

Keisha is freaking out that the police are coming any minute now to take her into witness protection. She calls up Blanca telling her she lied and she doesn’t have anything on Tommy. But Blanca already has her on record and her signature, and if she doesn’t come in to the station with Cash she will lose all chance of immunity. Keisha tells her they will come in themselves and not to send anybody. That should have been a red flag to Blanca, but she seemed to believe her.

Somewhat unexpectedly to Saxe—and to myself—Ghost and Tommy break into Saxe’s apartment and attack him. They tie him to a chair and Tommy sticks a gun in his mouth. They clearly intend to kill him and I’m pretty excited about that fact, but Saxe announces his new information about Eric being Tariq. And Ghost realises that he owns Saxe right now and can find out anything he can about Tariq. After nearly suffocating Saxe to death with a bag over his head, Ghost sets him free for this reason. Damn it. I can’t even imagine the thoughts going through Saxe’s mind when the two people he’s hunting try to kill him and ultimately confirm everything he’s been trying to prove for so long, but he still has no evidence at all against them. It’s sad but hilarious.

Blanca gets a 50% match on the DNA from James’ glass and the blood found at the scene at the Raymond Jones murder, which clearly labels Tariq as the one who did it. Tariq could be in quite a lot of danger right about now, and I can assure you he’s not even thinking about the police himself.

Dre signs a formal complaint against Cooper Saxe, one that gets him officially fired by Warner. Even after Saxe blurts out that Ghost and Tommy tried to kill him, Warner sees him as the boy who cried wolf, and we’re all sick of it. Even though it brought me some joy to see him fired, I have a feeling he’s not done.

Ghost insists that Tasha talk to LaKeisha because he found out about Kanan’s ashes. He wonders if the police start investigating Raymond Jones, that Keisha’s alibi will still be tight now that the police rode up on her. Tasha’s suspicions about this become reality when Blanca tells her they have a new witness that informed them neither Kanan nor Tariq were at the penthouse the night of the murder like Tasha had previously informed them. That witness had to be Keisha, as all the signs add up. This is when I start to get worried.

The last, heartbreaking part of this week’s episode is one that switches between two people in that classic Power director style. We see Tasha heading to Keisha in her house, and they argue that Keisha wants to run away, Tasha finds the agreement she signed and won’t let her go anywhere because of it.

Cut to Tommy, taking Cash shopping, looking to buy an engagement ring for Keisha. He’s telling Cash how once he gives his mother this ring, they’re really going to be family. My heart is racing at this point as I predict the harsh reality that is approaching.

In a heated argument, Keisha makes a run for her bag to pull out her gun, and they get into an intense fight. In the midst of the madness, Tasha pulls the gun out of her hands and shoots her in the chest. Keisha falls to the floor but she’s alive and she’s pleading. Pleading Tasha to thing about her son and what this would mean for him. At this point, Tommy is purchasing the ring, and I’m pleading with Tasha too. She definitely is hesitant. This is her best friend who has always had her back since Episode 1. And how can she leave Tommy and Cash like this?

Right after we see Tommy buy the ring, Tasha shoots Keisha in the head. Blood pools around her, and I’m already sobbing at this point.

Tasha runs away, and Tommy and Cash arrive at their home. As they get out of the car Cash has a big bunch of flowers and is so excited to surprise his mom. This is so hard to watch, Tommy senses something is up as he looks at the house and he slowly approaches the windows to see Keisha’s body on the floor. He tells Cash he changed his mind and he wants to surprise her by himself so he should wait in the car. Cash looks so devastated by this alone, and I felt worse than ever for him, but Tommy handled that correctly. He is capable of being a family man.

Tommy looked so happy before he approached the house, he looked truly hopeful, and now his eyes are filled with dread.

Tommy enters the house, taking one last glance at Cash in the car before turning and approaching Keisha’s body.

Right now, watching this, I am sobbing uncontrollably. This hit me real hard. Tommy drops the ring, and falls to his knees, and this is where Power leaves us this week.

Joseph Sikora posts a goodbye to La La on Instagram

No amount of tweeting in this world could have had me ready to become the emotional mess I did at the end of that episode. The fact that Tommy was about to propose was a shock to me, and despite me not thinking Keisha could handle being in the business, I truly wanted Tommy to be in that relationship. It was true love for him, and I think I have been left just as heartbroken as he has.

Naturi bids farewell to Lakeisha on Instagram

50 Cent promised I would be blown away by these three episodes, and with what just happened I can’t even imagine what is on its way next time.

Written by Abbie Sears

Abbie is an author for 25YL from the United Kingdom. She has a passion for meditation and travel. She loves concerts, drumming, playing indie games and binge watching shows.

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