POWER BOOK 4 FORCE SEASON 3 EPISODE 4 ||TOMMY BALANCES NUMEROUS NARRATIVES WHAT TO EXPECT?

Since Power Book IV: Force Season 3 began, audiences have been waiting for the bomb to drop. There’s been plenty of action in the first three episodes, yet fans of the Starz series know how much business has been left unfinished. Season 3, Episode 4, “Time to See the King,” gets to that in violent and spectacular fashion. On the violent side, Tommy Egan has a way to solve two of his problems that is particularly ruthless. Faced with another gang trying to pull out of the coalition—and now having to cover for D-Mac after learning that Diamond has welcomed him back into CBI—Tommy decides to play one issue off the other. He decides to frame the Sons of Destruction’s leader Rashan for the murder that D-Mac committed, and pulling that off is one of the more disturbing scenes in Power Book IV: Force history. It’s hard to watch (as it should be), but it also establishes that Tommy is on a different level in the final season (as he should be). People die all the time in the Power universe. Rashan’s death happens a week after another painful mutilation scene. But what makes this work is that it’s not just violence for the sake of violence, as it might be on a lesser show. Showrunner Gary Lennon and his team know they don’t have to prove their characters are tough; they’ve got two seasons of credibility, and even more for Tommy. When they shock the viewer it’s to make a point. And especially in the final season, the stakes have to be raised in order to create that sense of finality—that understanding of why the series is ending here and now.