Warning: This post contains big, BIG spoilers about Power‘s winter premiere.
The title of Power‘s midseason premiere is “Still Dre,” and that is factually accurate… until the last few minutes of the episode.
Yep, one of the Starz drama’s slipperiest, most ruthless characters meets his end in Episode 11, which shows us the events leading up to his arrest in the fall finale and then takes us through to his grisly (though highly satisfying) death in prison.
Before we get to a quick recap and a chat with showrunner/series creator Courtney Kemp, let’s deal with the episode’s other big bombshell: A news report that Dre sees tells us that Ghost did, indeed, die after being shot at Truth — though Dre wasn’t the gunman.
Here are a few other things you need to know about the hour:
* After a gunfight with Jason’s men, Dre tells his girlfriend Tina that they’re going to relocate to Las Vegas with Heaven. But first Dre steals from his mother (who apparently always thought he was wicked), shakes down Ghost, goes to jail (remember how Ghost set him up?), gets out by lying and saying he saw Ghost kill Terry Silver and that he’ll testify to the fact, gets hired by Tate to kill Ghost but doesn’t have to because someone else shoots the kingpin first, then winds up in jail once more. Working on a hit put out by Ghost, whom they don’t realize is dead, 2-Bit and Spanky fill Dre’s solitary cell with gasoline-soaked towels, then set the room on fire, killing him.
* Meanwhile, Spanky — whose real name, we learn, is Spottswood Richards — cuts a deal with Rodriguez, giving up Tommy for Poncho’s death in order to get himself out of jail. When 2-Bit realizes what his friend has done, he calls Tommy to give him a heads-up.
Read on for Kemp’s thoughts on the beginning of Power‘s end.
TVLINE | First thing: So Ghost is dead? Like, dead-dead, actually dead?
I mean… I don’t know… I would say…
TVLINE | During the episode, the good reporters at New York 1 seem to think so.
Yeah. All I’m going to say is that it looks as though… I’ll just say this: It might be self-explanatory. How about I say it like that?
TVLINE | Well, we see in the news report that he’s been murdered.
Do you see that? I mean, do you see a news report? [Laughs] I’m the worst, aren’t I?
TVLINE | I mean, yes.
I’m totally the worst, I’m so sorry.
TVLINE | But in the best possible way. Did you ever think about keeping the audience in the dark about anything having to do with Ghost’s fate until closer to the series finale?
Well, no, because [all of the last few episodes take place on] the same day, so it would take a lot of disingenuousness to pull that off. You know from dealing with me for six years now, I’m not really that guy. I don’t lie. I just omit. You know what I’m saying? So because I don’t lie, I just omit, it’s just… it is what it is.
TVLINE | Why did you choose Dre to be the focus of the first installment after the break?
A couple of reasons. First of all, because I knew that the story was going to be drawn out over five weeks, I wanted to give the audience something they desired very early. I wanted to give a nice big treat at the front, and the big treat of course is his death. Congratulations, everyone. He’s dead. [Laughs] I just thought that would be really great for them.
TVLINE | The hour is also quite the showcase for Rotimi in that we get so many facets of Dre. Talk to me about including his mom and his back story in his last chapter.
I’m always curious about why people do what they do. And I have to be honest: I think it’s very interesting [that] your parents do really dictate a lot of who you become. So I thought it was an interesting move to make to show what he was like and what happened to make him the way that he is.
We’ve done that with Tommy. I was very invested in Tommy having that experience where you met his mom and then you met his dad. Ghost is basically an orphan,n so we didn’t do that with him. With Tasha, we met her mother, Estelle. I just think family stuff is really interesting, so I wanted to show that. And I wanted to show how desperate he was, and what’s the best way to show them that? And why did he have nowhere to go? That’s why he had nowhere.
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