We talked about this in last week’s recap. Ghost, Kanan, and Tommy are aligned right now. But Kanan is playing chess while the other two seem to be playing checkers. Remember back in season one when Kanan baited his cellmate into a chess move after the cellmate said he’s been practicing and Kanan wouldn’t beat him? Kanan sees the entire board and nothing done on Power is superfluous or by accident. He took Ghost’s plan to separate Tommy from the Italians and advanced it one step further. He knows Tommy is vulnerable when it comes to family and uses the shaky relationship with Ghost (his original family) to push him further down a particular path. In essence, baiting him to make a move. Kanan tries to get Tommy to force expansion and cause friction between Dre and the Tainos. Tommy refuses, but Kanan plants the seed that they don’t need Ghost to do it.
The highlight of the episode begins when Kanan has a fortuitous meeting with the drug addict and street prophet “Laces”, played brilliantly by Kendrick Lamar. When Laces hits the screen, looking cracked out and crazy and hits Kanan with the repetition of “My nigga, my nigga, my nigga, my nigga” he draws the entire audience in. Lamar was phenomenal and he and Kanan embark on a killing spree as they take out various members of the Tainos. Laces serves as the decoy and Kanan comes from seemingly nowhere and violently shoots and murders the target. What is so fascinating is the acting between Lamar and 50 Cent in these scenes. Laces seamlessly flows in and out from fluent Spanish to “thug poetry” or even philosophy. It is truly brilliant work.
K-Dot’s “Laces” brought an interesting dynamic and gave Kanan some range of emotions we haven’t seen from him thus far. The best scene between the two is right before it appears as though Kanan is going to kill Laces. No loose ends and all that. Kanan pauses and has a moment of clarity, sadness? He is a sociopath, after all, feelings aren’t really his bag. Laces asks, “Who are you?” Kanan responds, “Nobody.” It looked, for a moment as though Kanan was really contemplating his place in the world, and what it all meant. We talk often about consequences. Where would this lead him? What’s next if he kills Laces? While it’s true that Kanan is playing chess, that’s a lonely game. It’s you versus your opponent and the object is annihilation. If Kanan goes on, who does he have with him? Instead of killing Laces, he gives him the gun he commits all the murders with and tells him to sell it. Of course, he can’t totally escape himself. He meets up with Tariq later and gives him a ride back to Choate?