Power Book IV: Force Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Chicago Is Heating Up!

Tommy’s relationship has been on borrowed time for a minute now.

The minute Tommy started flirting with Mireya, he was playing with fire. And he’s only fallen deeper for Miguel’s little sister, ignoring her worries in favor of continuing their relationship, consequences be dammed.

But up until Power Book IV: Force Season 2 Episode 7 they’d been able to keep their relationship off the radar of anyone on the streets, but that luck finally ran out.

What exactly was Jenard doing?

Jenard will forever be a messy man who lives for drama. And I could appreciate them diving into the real effects of drug abuse and showing Jenard’s continued struggle with withdrawal and cravings, but I did not appreciate his random plan to kill Tommy.

Because that’s what he was going to do, right? Sitting outside Tommy’s place, psyching himself up, he appeared to let Raheem get into his head.

Was Raheem right to be frustrated with the apparent backslide they’d taken? Sure. But Treason wasn’t viable, and Jenard had put himself in a position when he broke away from Diamond where he either had to succeed or fail.

And he failed with Treason. Joining CBI was the only option, and trying to take out Tommy with nary a plan in place would have ended in disaster. I have no doubt about that.

So, he’s actually lucky he saw Mireya and Tommy together and abandoned his plan. It may have saved his life for the time being.

Anyone else would have run their mouths the second they left there, but Jenard answers to Shanti now, and he went to her with the new information before anyone else. Shockingly, she disagreed with his plan to spread the news through the streets.

Shanti is a menace, and the jury’s still out on whether she’s an intelligent menace or not. The fact that her people are noticing a shift in her due to her involvement with Jenard should worry her more than it does, but she didn’t seem too concerned when Raheem brought it up.

It’s okay to have bravado and believe you’re the smartest person in the room. That’s literally Tommy to a tee. But can you back it up? Can you truly outsmart everyone? We’re at a disadvantage because we don’t know enough about Shanti to know if she can do that.

Do I think she can? Absolutely, but that doesn’t change the fact we haven’t seen it.

We’ve got years and years of proof that Tommy can talk the talk and walk the walk, but we’re just now seeing how Shanti operates and figuring out what she’s all about.

She’s a savvy and smart person, and teaming up with Claudia proved that. She saw an opportunity for herself and took it without thinking twice, though why she ultimately ended up telling Jenard made me wonder if Raheem was right about her slipping.

Shanti doesn’t owe Claudia anything, but she had a hustle that Jenard didn’t need to be a part of. She could have continued making her money and left him to his own devices because he’s not owed something she’s working for and something he has already turned down.

While that may have been a poor decision, she wasn’t wrong to shut down Jenard’s plan to out Tommy and Mireya.

Tommy: Imma be a hundred with you, Shanti. I know you stuck with your boy Jenard, even if it meant him going back to corner boy status. But do not take that shit as a loss. For me, loyalty is a virtue. And I reward that shit. All day.
Shanti: I can respect that.

That news starts to spread, and it gets back to Tommy within a few hours, giving him plenty of time to formulate a plan and cover his tracks somehow. But considering how easy it was for Jenard to find out about the couple, someone else will, too.

And Jenard won’t be part of any of the fallout.

Hell, Miguel almost caught them earlier that day. And you could tell, at the very least, he was suspicious of Tommy and had every right to be. Tommy is literally trying to undermine his entire business, all while secretly dating his sister, and the man has no idea.

So many people in the Power Universe suffer from that same ailment that plagues Tommy and Shanti. They think they’re so damn smart and fail to get out of their own ways.

Abuela sat across from Miguel and told him straight up that Tommy was coming for him, and Miguel laughed it off in a condescending way, I might add, all while acting like he had some foolproof plan in place.

I don’t know what Miguel does on a daily basis, but it’s certainly not paying attention to the city of Chicago.

How Tommy and Diamond have gotten away with half the things they have without Miguel knowing is a feat in and of itself, and he truly hasn’t known. When Tommy and Diamond came clean about all the territories they now have, you could see the genuine shock on Miguel’s face.

Even then, he didn’t walk away from that skeptical about where he’d fit into things if they controlled the whole city.

The idea to get rid of the Serbs was not his, and while it was a good play for him, he should be astute enough to realize how all these moves help Tommy just as much if not more than they help him.

Miguel wants to be the only connect in the city—a worthy goal, of course. But CBI is literally about to run the whole city. Specifically, Tommy is about to have every gang in town under his thumb, so why would he be content to do all that work to still be behind Miguel?

It doesn’t make sense, but Miguel doesn’t see it. Maybe once he finds out DSD has also linked up with Tommy, he’ll understand that he is not two steps ahead of anybody and Tommy has already lapped him.

There’s a showdown brewing between Tommy and Miguel, and it will hit a fever pitch once Miguel gets hip to what Tommy’s doing.

I haven’t been impressed with Miguel at all this season. Besides freezing that man’s hand off during Power Book IV: Force Season 2 Episode 3, he hasn’t exactly been the scariest of “villains,” but that has much to do with him being so far out of the loop.

Once the lightbulb finally goes off, I expect things to get very bad for Tommy and company.

The theme of this hour truly was people underestimating one another and overvaluing themselves. Because on the flipside of all this, Tommy was acting like he’d already won something when he was getting sloppy with the Mireya romance and literally driving all over town with a snitch.

There is nothing Tommy Egan hates more than a snitch. Tony Teresi knows that better than anyone.

He’s a paranoid mess half the time because he’s been screwed over so much in the past. He can never entirely trust anyone as much as I’m sure he’d like to.

While he never seemed fully uncertain about Vic, the fact that he clocked the FEDs following the two of them together had to raise his hackles. And then seeing that recognizable car AGAIN after parting with Vic? Of course, he would circle back and see what’s up.

Vic’s an interesting case this year, and during a season where all the actors have brought it, let’s not sleep on Shane Harper doing an excellent job with Vic this season.

From his tortured turn earlier in the season to killing Walter and now his carefully controlled terror at being made, Vic has been on an emotional journey for the ages. And Harper has done great work helping show Vic’s continued journey.

Vic made an emotional and strategic decision when he decided to work with the FEDs. Walter was dead. Claudia betrayed him. And he was on the hook for murder. And most important of all, he felt like he owed it to Gloria to get out.

But now that he’s wholly entrenched in his rat coat, he hasn’t exactly fully committed to it. It’s almost like he feels conflicted because in another life, perhaps under different circumstances, he and Tommy would have been a good team.

They’re a good team now, even if it’s a partnership built on lies.

The minute they gave Vargas a little backstory, I just knew it was over for him, and it’s a shame because he was only there because Stacy was so desperate for a win.

Stacy’s ambitious, and she’s put a lot on the line for this task force, but she should have never let Vargas get so close to Tommy, in the sense that the persistent tail that she knew Tommy already picked up on, should have been scaled back considerably.

Much of Vargas’s blood is on her hands.

Vic had a decision to make when Tommy confronted him: to save himself or get got, and like he’s been doing all season, he chose himself. He didn’t want to pull that trigger, but what choice did he have?

Now, he’s really in it because where does he go from here?

Will he try to pin the murder on Tommy? Will he admit what he’s done and try to blame it on Stacy? What does he do?

The story can splinter off from here in many different ways, and none look particularly good for Tommy.

I love seeing Tommy happy in business and even happier in love, but man, it’s tough knowing just how quickly things could change for him, and he has no idea.

Everything Else You Need To Know

• 
  Diamond’s subplot with Leon and Gianna feels completely separate from everything, making me wonder if this is just the set-up to some kind of tragedy. Leon adores him, but Leon also doesn’t know him that well and what he does when he’s not cutting hair and boxing in the gym.

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  Speaking of Diamond, his impassioned speech at the fundraiser was nice, but it was almost funny how untrue it was as it related to him. But hopefully, it gets Reeves off his back.

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  Has anyone found Kate? How is JP? I wish we could check in with that story more.

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  RIP Vargas! You deserved so much better.

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  So, the Serbs will fight back, but how? They seem to be all about shooting first and then figuring out what to do during the fallout, but where do they even start this time?

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  Mireya was so hilarious trying to act like she wanted to break things off with Tommy, and then one smile from him reeled her right back in.

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  I keep forgetting Stacy and the FEDs know about Tommy and Mireya, too. But using that information doesn’t really help them unless they want Tommy dead.

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  Claudia and Elise getting robbed with a million people around, and then said robber continuing to party in the same club? I had to laugh.

The body count this season continues to rise, and with only three episodes left, I think it’s fair to say we’ll see more death and craziness before this ride ends.

And I really don’t want to get off this ride yet!

There are many questions that need discussion, so please hop into the comment section and let me know what you think after this one.

As always, you can watch Power Book IV: Force online anytime via TV Fanatic!

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Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on X.