The stakes in the first five minutes of episode four are high! And while there’s no room to fuck up, somehow folks still drop the ball.
Let’s start with Professor Milgram. It is quite easy to feel sorry for the former prosecutor in episode three. Her former lover is trying to pin the murder of her other former lover on Milgram’s new lover, who also happens to be a student at the university where she now teaches. Messy! But Carrie isn’t new to throwing others in the mud to protect herself. Maybe it’s the gun Monet put to her head or the threats Monet spewed at her that have her shook. Or maybe it’s Zeke’s lying to Detective Whitman about his whereabouts the night of Professor Reynolds’s murder that has her equally shook. Whatever her reasons, sis is playing the game of “Who killed the professor?” quite well, regardless of how unlikable it makes her. Even after Councilman Tate lets her know he has her all figured out, she plays it cool and encourages him to come to Zeke’s defense for political gain. Upon meeting Tate’s brother, Kamal, a new detective on Whitman’s case, Carrie offers assistance by manipulating and setting up Lauren, one of Stansfield’s top-performing students. The professor’s personal relationship with both Lauren and her parents makes her privy to what motivates Lauren — a bright future with a successful career. She uses this information against Lauren to get her to snitch on the Stansfield campus drug dealer (a.k.a. Tariq, Lauren’s sort-of boyfriend).
Lauren is under the impression that if she doesn’t help the detective and her professor, she will be in legal trouble. The timing for Lauren and Tariq to take their relationship more seriously couldn’t be worse. With Lauren under police surveillance, Tariq and Brayden’s business has the potential to be exposed. Making matters worse is that Lauren lies to him about where she got the watch, instead of telling Tariq what is happening. In her defense, somehow she is smart enough to remove the watch and hide it in the bathroom. Hopefully, it won’t get to the point where Lauren will have to choose between Tariq or her future.
As usual, Tariq has a lot on his plate. After obtaining surveillance footage of his grandmother in a liquor store being aggressive with Yaz, he pursues a legal fight for custody over his sister. This, of course, pisses his grandmother off, and she gives him a piece of her mind. Not only is Tariq trying to figure out how to become a guardian to his sister, but he’s also busy trying to keep Zeke out of jail. He leans on Maclean for assistance. When visiting the infamous lawyer, Tariq offers up a major tip about Zeke’s case that only someone who either committed the murder or is on the police force would know. According to Tariq, the police have a murder weapon, and it belongs to an NYPD cop! This news excites Maclean. Before heading out, Tariq reminds him that Monet will pay anything to keep Zeke out of trouble, which excites him even more. Because he is driven by money, Maclean could care less how Tariq is privy to this information. His partner, Cooper Saxe, asks all the important federal-prosecutor-type questions, and he is not convinced that Tariq isn’t involved.
Maclean runs with this information and charges the Tejadas $1 million — a hefty price tag even for a drug queenpin like Monet. When she retrieves the money from her stash at the bar, she realizes she was robbed and assumes it was the window contractors. So she does what any heartless front-runner of a drug organization would do: kill. But it was actually Diana who “robbed” her mother. Diana paid Maclean to help her with her father’s case. Strapped for money, Monet visits Lorenzo and asks for his signature to put the house up to save Zeke, but he tells her no. Zeke is technically just Monet’s nephew; Lorenzo doesn’t feel the same urgency to protect him as he does Monet. Guess who swoops in and saves the day: none other than Mecca, a.k.a. Dontae. He sends Maclean a million dollars and drops the bomb that he, not Lorenzo, is Kane’s real father! WTH! You know, there’s something about the way writers in the Power universe recycle story lines, yet the shocks still land in equal measures of eye roll and Oh shit, I can’t believe he said that. Mecca is Cane’s father?? It’s all beginning to make sense now. How he magically rolls up on Cane and forms a relationship with him to gain his trust. How he looks out for Cane and offers advice that encourages Cane to look out for himself. I’ve got one question: How in the hell will Cane feel about this?? Or even Monet’s other kids?
For now, Dru is busy trying to protect Zeke and repair his fractured relationship with his ex-boyfriend Everett. He relies on Everett to rally the basketball team to protest for Zeke. The two lovebirds have exciting makeup sex but bump heads soon after when Everett admits to sharing Dru’s name with Professor Reynolds and Milgram during the on-campus murder investigation. Rightfully so, Dru is pissed. Later in the episode, he gives Everett a chance to ask him anything about him or his family but doesn’t offer many answers. Instead, he compares protecting his family’s privacy to Everett protecting his image as a heterosexual, hypermasculine college athlete. For now, it seems the two are equally in love despite their hesitations to trust each other.
Despite successfully raising money for Zeke and keeping his family secrets, Dru still drops the ball. After getting into an argument with Everett, he assaults a high-profile sports reporter questioning Zeke in front of Monet’s house. The Tejadas’ connections to Maclean give them access to bargain with the station — for the reporter to remain silent and not press charges, Zeke has to agree to an interview with the one and only Jemele Hill. Tariq and Maclean meticulously prepare Zeke for the live interview, but he dramatically drops the ball when he receives questions he did not prepare for, such as “Do you know Officer Ramirez?” He curses out Jemele and the station producers on live television and walks off the set. The encounter is not a good look for Zeke, and it leaves both Councilman Tate and attorney Maclean feeling doubtful about saving the young star athlete.
During Zeke’s interview, Monet notices Cane’s unusual behavior and realizes he’s hiding something. Cane quickly spills the beans about his and Tariq’s involvement in the murder of Jabari Reynolds. Of course, Cane excitedly puts most of the blame on Tariq. Tariq’s trust in Cane may be his downfall. He’s not the only one, though. Brayden also mistakenly trusts Cane, and this decision will more than likely backfire on him, too. Right now, though, he’s living out his thug-life dreams by assisting Cane with a string of robberies. Cane and Brayden use Brayden’s whiteness to their advantage, and so far, it works well. Brayden doesn’t know it yet, but Cane is using him to do his dirty work and get back at Tariq. The young, rich Weston assists the gangsta Tejada (wait, what is Cane’s last name now?) with digging up Ramirez’s body. Monet believes if the police find Ramirez’s body, they will know that Zeke could not have hired Ramirez to kill Jabari since he was already dead. Hanging out with Brayden gives Cane unsupervised access to the room Brayden and Tariq share, allowing Cane to plant Ramiriz’s badge in Tariq’s drawer. The question remains, Who will go down for Professor Reynolds’s murder? Will Tariq take the fall for the murders, or will his rich best friend with political resources take the fall for him?
