Power Book II: Ghost Midseason Premiere Recap: Carter Crosses a Line

Remember Det. Carter’s “We only do bad things to criminals” credo? Well, it dies a quick death — much like a certain co-worker of his — in Power Book II: Ghost ‘s midseason premiere.

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As the viability of Carter’s task force gets threatened, the group’s members lash out… which results in some potentially bad news for Diana and Tariq, too. Read on for the highlights of “The Devil’s Playground.”

A NEW DETENTE | Noma and Cane meet with Tariq and Brayden. Tariq has got his adversaries in a tough spot: Anya doesn’t know about her mom’s criminal activities, and Tariq also has the drive of Agent Young’s evidence against her. “So if we should get hurt, or anything was to happen to us, I’ve arranged for the information to be sent to Anya and the police,” Tariq says. Basically, his new terms are for Noma to leave them alone, and she’s kind of stuck with agreeing.

Meanwhile, Carter and his crew bust into Monet’s house while she’s there with Dru and Diana. Monet has been ignoring the dirty cop’s calls, and he’s there for his cut — but he wonders whose stash she was stealing from when he caught her. She claims not to know; he threatens her with jail or death, then holds a gun to Diana’s head to force Monet to answer. When she can’t, Carter’s team arrests Dru and throws him in jail, ordering him to finish off a guy who survived Carter’s team’s attack and who can, therefore, identify them.

CHANGE OF PLANS | While Noma and Cane are giving Wiley Adams his last payoff for the government contract, Zion and his guys swing by and shoot up the restaurant, killing Adams and nearly offing Cane and Noma. When Carter hears about it, he warns Zion to stop spilling innocent blood and offer him a safehouse… then secretly plots with Felicia to kill Zion so his misdeeds won’t trace back to theirs.

But on her way to deal with Zion, Felicia gets called into the precinct to talk to the Internal Affairs Bureau about some complaints about her use of excessive force. So she snorts some cocaine, goes back to Monet’s, and tasks Diana with murdering Zion so Felicia isn’t late for her dressing-down. Diana balks, but Felicia threatens to kill Dru in jail if she doesn’t comply, so Diana is stuck.

When the mom-to-be swings by Tariq’s campus job to talk to him, Effie sees them together and realizes that Diana has a lil’ St. Patrick on board. After the two ladies exchange best wishes (JK, they trade eff yous), Tariq goes straight to Davis about Diana’s latest task. After putting their heads together, they realize that Noma wants Zion dead, too — so if they take him out, which will help Diana, they’ll also have an in with Noma. Noma is skeptical, but says if they can get it done that night, they’re good.

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DIANA’S DOWN! | The hit almost goes very badly. Zion nearly chokes Tariq to death; only Brayden’s hopping in at the last minute to save his friend stops the man from killing ‘Riq. Right before Tariq eventually shoots Zion dead, he mentions Carter’s crew. Davis gets word of the successful hit to Cane, who shares it with Noma and then lies that Zion was the one behind the theft of her product. Meanwhile, thanks to a security camera in Carter’s safehouse where Zion was hiding out, Felicia knows that Tariq and Brayden carried out the job she wanted Diana to do. So she tracks Diana down and beats her up, kicking her several times in the stomach before taking off. When Tariq later finds her, lying unconscious among some trash bags, he yells for help.

Elsewhere, Monet lies to Carter that the drugs she stole belonged to a Russian, but he’s skeptical, and he’s very noncommittal about when Dru will be released. Meanwhile, Dru starts a fight in the prison cafeteria so he can get beat up enough to be brought to the infirmary. He kills the guy Carter told him to — suffocates him with his bare hands! — then rushes back to his gurney before anyone can see him. And, as a bonus, he overhears one of the other prisoners plotting to tell the Feds all about Carter’s corrupt operation and makes sure that he uses it as leverage: If Dru can kill the guy and stop Carter’s game from getting blown up, he wants in… and for Carter to leave Monet and Dru alone.

R.I.P., DET. TATE | Kamaal meets with Carter at the end of the episode to tell him what he saw Nico do during a raid on a Russian dealer earlier in the hour: “Your task force is compromised. You’ve got a dirty cop on your squad.” Carter tries to play it off, but he eventually confesses and tries to bring Kamaal into the corrupt fold. But the disgusted look on Kamaal’s face lets Carter know the pitch isn’t going to work, so he pulls out his gun and kills him, just like that. “You should’ve listened to me,” Carter says regretfully before leaving the scene.

Now it’s your turn. What did you think about the show’s final midseason premiere? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments!

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