June is finally here! Aside from beach weather and summer break, June also means the return of one of the best summer shows airing right now: 50 Cent's Power on Starz. This series is easily one of the only highlights of hiatus-season and, if you haven’t already discovered the nearly flawless, action packed first season of the series, catch up with our Power Season 1 recap.
Power's first season centers around James St. Patrick (better known as Ghost), a very successful businessman that's running a popular nightclub in New York, raising his kids with his wife Tasha, and just so happens to also be top dog in the drug world. He’s already living a double life as a drug dealer with a legitimate business front and it only gets more complicated when he reconnects with his first love, a beautiful lawyer named Angela. Complicated enough for you? We’re just getting started.
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“Not Exactly How We Planned”
Power’s first episode introduces us to the main players. Ghost is our hunky leader who, in a refreshing take on the anti-hero, is struggling to leave his life of crime behind and go clean. Tasha, his wife, has been with him from the start and desperately doesn’t want him to leave the drug world behind. Ghost’s best friend and business partner Tommy is every bit as committed to keeping Ghost in the drug world as Tasha. During his club opening, there is an attack on one of his drug runners, threatening his empire — and later, Ghost runs into the first love of his life, Angela, and they strike up a friendship, even though there are clearly sparks between them.
"Whoever He Is"
In the second episode, the attacks on Ghost’s drug couriers continue until one of the attackers is caught and killed. We start to see Ghost and Tommy’s ruthless side here as they chop the deceased attacker’s body up and mail it to the other gangs in their drug circle. Ghost tries to talk to Tommy and Tasha about taking the club to the next level and going legit, but they both shut him down. Hard. Feeling trapped by his family, Ghost keeps going after Angela, who is mighty busy on her own working as a US attorney that’s trying to track down the major drug players in NY.
"This Is Real"
Club drama like you wouldn’t believe — a model OD’s on bad coke in the bathroom and everyone tries to go all private eye to catch the guy because, apparently, this is enough to sink a nightclub. Tasha finds out that Ghost has been sinking their (drug) money into getting his club off the ground. This is also the first time we hear about The Girl In Pink Sneakers (coolest gang name ever) who has been attacking members of their crew.
"Who Are You?"
Ghost and Tommy call a meeting of all the gang leaders to try and suss out who has been attacking them for the last few weeks. It’s all very hush-hush, except Angela finds out about it (still not knowing who she is really chasing) and sets up a huge surveillance task force - this would be great for her career, if Tommy wasn’t so street-smart. He changes the location just in time, so they just miss one another. We finally get some emotional honesty from Ghost as he tells Angela about his wife and kids and she admits she has a boyfriend. They part as friends until they see each other later and get it on in the club — the affair is very much on!
"I Gotta Go"
Things start falling apart for Ghost, who is going all in on his affair with Angela. Tasha, needing a little control in her life, rigs a school audition for her daughter and keeps flirting up a storm with the chauffeur who has zero chill. Tommy maybe meets his match in waitress Holly, who is a handful. Tommy and Ghost decide to take out Ruiz, who they think is behind the attacks, but The Girl In Pink Sneakers gets to him first.
"Who You With?"
Ruiz survives almost getting taken out by The Girl In Pink Sneakers and he and Tommy make peace (leaving the question of who is behind the attacks wide open). The Ghost and Tommy rift continues with them fighting over Holly, Angela, and the club — these besties are on the outs. Angela gets a little closer to figuring it all out as she hears a bugged Ruiz say the name of his supplier: Ghost. Good thing she calls Ghost by his first name, Jamie.
"Loyalty"
Angela’s sister finds out about the affair and gives her some real-talk, but Angela and Ghost are already all in and starting to plan a life together. There’s even enough hope to have her turning down a job opportunity in Detroit, so now her sister and boss are both disappointed in her — ouch. Tasha finally sweet talks the love struck chauffeur into confirming what she already knew: Ghost is cheating on her with Angela. Outside of the romantic drama, Tommy finds out that Rolla is behind the attacks and they have to kill him to survive. Ghost — very reluctantly — ends up killing Rolla and we learn that Kanan (50 Cent, killing it in this role) has been manipulating Ghost this whole time and was actually behind it all. Big trouble.
"Best Laid Plans"
Everyone is making exit plans — Ghost and Angela are planning to run away together and Tasha is opening up her own bank account to squirrel away money. Everything is mostly great, until Tommy kills Angela’s mole and inadvertently discovers she’s an FBI agent investigating them (#oops). Over at Truth, The Girl In Pink Sneakers attempts to kill Ghost, but ends up shooting Holly instead. It’s very bad business for a club and Ghost is going to need a lot of money to keep it up and running, and he is game, committing to becoming “the biggest drug dealer in New York.”
