After last night’s episode, It’s Done, there are only two more episodes remaining in the season. The standard television practice has been to do something big in the penultimate episode and then use the finale to deal with the aftermath. Power has done both in its four seasons thus far. It seems to me that the show is at a tipping point in some ways. There needs to be a major turn for the story to maintain its juice. Even bigger than the previous three seasons. Last night’s episode gave us the payoff for the murder of Greg Knox. What else might have been foreshadowed?
The “A story” this week was the payoff we’ve been waiting for. Mike Sandoval finally got what was coming. We predicted death as the logical outcome for Mike as he was boxed in a corner with very limited options. See, the thing about covering your tracks, is that it usually involves you doing more of the thing you’re trying to cover up. Lying is the one we’re all most familiar with and the series has shown us countless examples of that. The other is murder. If someone knows something that is damaging to you, permanent silence is the only way to keep that secret from getting out.
Sandoval was already feeling claustrophobic last episode when he went to Donovan’s house to kill him. When he wasn’t there his panic level heightened, that coupled with his solo conversation with Mak had him bugging. When he saw Saxe this week he knew something was up, and Angela and the team played it brilliantly. They organized a sting operation and used Sandoval’s panic against him.
The scene was great. Who thought Sandoval was actually going to kill Angela? It would’ve been an interesting play by Courtney Kemp and the writers. But, as we all know Angela has a larger role to play later. Angela puts the pieces of the puzzle together and when she lays it out all out for Sandoval, he knows it’s over. Say what you will about Angela, but she’s like a dog looking for a bone (get ya’ll minds out the gutter). She wouldn’t rest until she solved Greg’s murder and make Sandoval pay.
Angela also knows how to play the game for herself, as we all know. Slick move, disabling the wire so there would be no evidence to incriminate her for her part in the prosecutorial misconduct. How convenient was it that her gun was available? She played that perfectly. Telling Sandoval that shooting her in the back will not look like self-defense was the opening she needed to turn quickly and fire the gun. Nice shot too. Got Sandoval’s shooting arm without killing him.
Was anybody else curious about the procedure following the Sandoval shooting? Would Mak tell Angela where they would hold Sandoval and their plans to question him? To that end, we knew Angela would use that information to her advantage. She tells Silver that Sandoval was the mole and where he will be detained. Why? Because she knew Ghost would find a way to have Sandoval killed. Not only does permanently silencing Sandoval save Ghost and Tommy, it also saves Angela. She knows this.
Having Teresi set up the hit against Sandoval is potentially a good move (it was their only choice) as it may take the Feds a while to connect the dots. That is of course, unless things with Teresi, Tommy, Kate, and Connie don’t all blow up.
The emotional subtext behind Tommy, Teresi, Connie, and Kate is so weird. Connie already suspects there is a connection between her husband and Tommy. Kate apparently knows the devastation that will occur if she tells Connie about her affair with Tony. This little love triangle has the feelings of some tawdry Atlantic City incident from the early 80s. An Italian guy messing around on his Italian wife, with an Irish girl; check out the history of the Italian and Irish in this country.