Power Book II: Ghost Series Finale: Who Lived? Who Died? Who Came Out on Top? Plus — Grade It!

Kimberly Roots

4 October 2024 at 9:00 pm·7-min read

Maybe we’ve just been hanging out in the Powerverse for too long, but way more characters survived the series finale than we expected. Like, a lot more.

But was Tariq St. Patrick one of them? Read on for a recap of the final episode, “Ghost in the Machine,” to find out what became of Tasha and Ghost’s son (and then make sure to let us know what you thought of the hour).

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ROCK, MEET HARD PLACE | After Monet’s death, Noma is MIA and Tariq is stuck figuring out to do with Carter, whom he still has tied to a chair in an undisclosed location. The crooked cop doesn’t seem worried about his current situation. After all, if Tariq & Co. kill him, the video of them killing Zion will go public, and their lives are over. And if they continue to hold him hostage, the NYPD will be all over them eventually. “It’s just a matter of time,” he says. “Either way, you’re f–ked.”

But what Carter doesn’t know is that Effie and Brayden have taken his key and are in his house, rifling through his laptop in an attempt to erase the sole existing copy of the Zion footage. They realize they can’t destroy a file from his work computer via his home one, but they also realize that he’s been looking at Kamaal Tate’s murder file a lot lately. And when Davis comes through with some other files that link Carter’s service weapon to the gun that killed Det. Tate, Tariq and his friends have the advantage.

Tariq makes a deal with Carter: They’ll both sit on what they know about the other — as well as the evidence to prove it — and go their separate ways. Carter agrees. Do any of us think that this is going to hold for long? No, we do not. So, Dru goes to the precinct and uses a thumbdrive to run a program (courtesy of Effie) on Carter’s laptop that wipes it clean of everything, including the Zion footage. While he’s there, he also has a conversation with Nico — and that will become important to remember later.

NOMA SPINS OUT | Chinedu warns Noma that she has to leave the country, and quickly, because the Tejada kids surely will come for her for killing Monet. So she makes a plan to fly herself and Anya to Nigeria. Only problem: Anya says she’s not going. They argue, and Noma finally admits to her daughter that the drug business is hers, not Mecca’s. It gets ugly; at one point, Noma yells, “Your father died because he got in my way!” With nothing resolved, Noma leaves to get some fake papers for both of them, and she warns Anya to stay put while she’s gone.

Anya does. Unfortunately, the Tejadas find her, gun down her security detail and kidnap her, which Cane believes will ensure that Noma doesn’t leave the country.

MEETING OF THE MASTERMINDS | Via an arrangement with Cane, Dru and Diana, Tariq pretends to be rescuing Anya from their clutches. But he’s really trying to get her to give up her mother’s location so the Tejadas can swoop in and kill Noma. She eventually tells him about an emergency meet-up spot she and Noma have; he takes her there.

“Just because I chose the life I live doesn’t make me my father, you know?” Tariq tells her as she gets out. She counters that she’s not going to be like Noma, “but I don’t want to be like you, either.” Fair! Anyway, it’s moot: Before Noma and Anya can even reach each other on the stairs of the palatial safehouse, Diana — who’s lying in wait with her brothers — kills Anya by shooting her. Cane is incensed, because this wasn’t the plan, but Diana doesn’t care: “Now she knows how it feels,” she says.

GET WHAT YOU DESERVE | Despite their agreement, Carter wants Tariq dead. So Dru leads him to a location under the pretense that he’ll be able to kill Tariq there… except Tariq and Brayden are there, guns ready, with a new plan. (And Dru is in on the subterfuge.) They posit that Carter can pin all of his wrongdoings on Nico and get away with it, and they won’t say anything, but Carter also will be in their debt. And he eventually agrees. Too bad Nico is also there, hiding in the shadows, and hears how his boss sells him out at the very first opportunity.

“You were my brother… we had a code… and you broke it,” Nico says, his gun trained on Carter’s head. Then he arrests him for Kamaal’s murder, handcuffs him and takes him away. Cane is angry that the corrupt cop isn’t dead, but Dru points out that a long prison sentence will be very unpleasant for him.

QUEEN, PINNED | Then the last thing to do on the collective revenge checklist is to take out Noma, which the Tejadas do by luring her to the hangar where she keeps her private jet. She surprises them by bringing the police with her. Diana and Dru immediately put down their guns and give themselves up, allowing Cane time to sneak around and shoot Noma through the forehead while the cops are otherwise occupied. A shootout follows; Cane is hit twice, but escapes and winds up in a motel room, patched up thanks to Effie’s efforts. She also gives him the money she’d been saving for her academic program, allowing him to make a clean getaway. For all of her emotional turmoil and physical danger, he gives her a kiss on the forehead as he goes.

Next thing we know, Davis is talking with Blanca and Jenny, painting a scenario that benefits a whole bunch of our players. If the feds let the Tejadas off the hook, they’ll testify that Noma — not Monet — was the queenpin behind everything that went down. And when Jenny and Blanca withdraw their complaints with the bar, Davis’ license to practice law is reinstated.

WHERE DOES EVERYONE END UP? | Diana thinks that she and Dru will get the family business going again, but he’s got other ideas. He’s going to Paris to live in the art world, and he encourages her also to do something that she loves.

Tariq visits Tasha, explaining that their problems are solved, but he can’t live with her and Yaz — or have any family, really — while he’s in the game. “I can’t keep putting the people I love in danger,” he says, and she doesn’t love the idea, but she agrees with him. Then he creates a new org chart for his business: Effie runs product, Brayden is in charge of the underground clubs etc. But he and Brayden are no longer partners, an arrangement that Brayden doesn’t agree with but eventually accepts.

The hour’s final scene finds Tariq meeting with Chinedu, offering to move his product now that Noma is gone. ‘Riq explains that Nico is now on their payroll, so the police are handled, and Davis is overseeing the cleaning of their profits. “The machine is ready to go as soon as I say go,” Tariq says. “After that, I am basically…” Chinedu finishes for him: “A ghost.”

“Yeah,” Tariq says as the series draws to a close. “A ghost.”

BUT, in a post-credits scene, we see Tariq get a call from someone — we don’t know who — and Tariq remarks that he hasn’t heard from the person “in a minute.” Whoever’s on the other end of the line seems to need ‘Riq’s help, and he’s happy to give it. “C’mon, we’re family for life,” he says. “Give me the details, and I’ll be there.” (Do we think it’s Tommy? It’s probably Tommy.)

Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the finale? Grade it — and the final season as a whole — via the polls below, then fill the comments with your thoughts!

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