Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for episode 4 of Power Book II: Ghost, season 4.
As we approach the mid-season finale of Power Book II: Ghost, anyone can — and will — get dropped at any time. In the last episode, the Tejada family dinner turned into a brawl, leaving Diana and Dru to flee without a to-go plate. On the run, being tailed by their brother Cane looking to shoot them dead, the pair also have to worry about Tariq coming for them. All the plotting the siblings did in season 3 finally came back to bite them, and it played out in this week’s episode, The Reckoning.
Stars LaToya Tonodeo and Lovell Adams-Gray chatted with CNET about their roles as Diana and Dru, this episode’s big moments and how they really feel about Mary J. Blige’s Monet Tejada.
Going back to season 3, Dru and Diana set Tariq up to take the fall for the hit on their mother, Monet. They convinced him that she schemed to kill his mother, Tasha (which didn’t happen), and got him on board with their plan. They were counting on Tariq to kill Monet at home, and then Cane would run outside to kill Tariq. Two birds, one stone. Things went sideways when Tasha showed up and did a drive-by on Monet and (unknowingly) Diana, too. Episode 3 saw Tariq and Monet learn the truth behind Diana and Dru’s hit job plot, and the newest episode has Cane, Monet and Tariq wanting revenge.
“I want to know where Dru is tonight. Anyone sees him or loses him, that’s a f*cking target on their back too. You got it?” Cane says. But no one knows that baby sister Diana is pregnant.
Mary J. Blige as Monet Tejada, Woody McClain as Cane and Michael Rainey Jr. as Tariq in Power Book II: Ghost episode 4, The Reckoning.
Diana’s pregnant and Dru isn’t ready to die
There were more than a few close calls, and both Dru and Diana came face to face with a gun, almost meeting their papi in the afterlife. By the end of the episode, their lives are spared, and Monet and Tariq learn about Diana’s pregnancy. What does that mean for Diana now? Tonodeo hints that viewers should expect a twist or two as the baby story moves forward, but she offers a piece of advice for Diana.
“Keep your family close, lean on your family, and don’t trust anyone else. That’s it. And keep your eye and your head on a swivel,” she said.
Diana was visibly scared when Tariq was about to shoot her, and Dru pleaded — and fought — for his life when Cane came close to killing him. Whenever we see Cane, however, he’s always ready to die. It’s a noticeable difference when it comes to the three Tejada kids, and both Adams-Gray and Tonodeo shared their takes on what’s behind that.
“I think for Dru, he has a lot that he hasn’t accomplished yet, a lot that he hasn’t done and a lot of avenues that he hasn’t explored,” Adams-Gray explained. “It’d be like a vengeful spirit — ‘I’m coming back! I’m coming back in some way to finish this thing.'”
“For Diana, she never wanted that life,” Tonodeo shared. “She was forced into that life, so death, by the hands of her mother, or Tariq or just by the hand of that drug life is just not something she ever wanted. She never wanted to be a part of it.” The actor added that Diana’s sensitive about it and doesn’t want this criminal world to be her reality.
With Dru and Cane on the outs at the end of episode 4, things may go in a new direction for him. What’s next?
“I could say that Dru is searching for a semblance of his identity, individuality. Who is he in the family? Without the drug game, without trying to vie for power, what does that leave him with? I think we’re gonna see Dru asking himself those questions and trying to find himself.
Dru (Lovell Adams-Gray) faces his brother Cane (Woody McClain) in a life-death confrontation in Power Book II: Ghost.
Is Monet the worst mother? Not so fast
Though Monet is the cold and emotionally distant drug-dealing mom at the center of Power Book II, Power fans are familiar with dysfunctional parenting skills in the entire franchise. We’ve seen Raq in Power Book III: Raising Kanan, Kate Egan in the original series and Book IV: Force and, Tariq’s parents Ghost and Tasha St. Patrick. All said, Adams-Gray and Tonodeo don’t think Monet is all that bad, and they both see her through an empathetic lens. They shared what they really think of Blige’s character as they watch the show.
“I feel like she’s just a mother who didn’t grow up under the best circumstances, and she’s hard on her children. I don’t believe that, at least for Diana and Drew, I don’t believe that they fully understand that she’s just being hard on us because she wants us to be better,” Tonodeo said.
“Yes, she’s forcing us into this drug life or whatever, but that’s for the sake of survival, for money and all the things that we need. But I don’t really see — this might sound crazy — I don’t see a problem with Monet. She’s just a tough mother who’s hard on her kids, especially Diana. Could she give a little bit of vulnerability and make Diana feel loved sometimes? Yes. But she just wants the best for them.”
Adams-Gray offered a similar perspective and reflected on his own upbringing.
“I don’t think Monet is that bad as a mom,” he said. “You’ve got to think about it — think about the environment that you’re raised in, right? We can’t use the modern-day lens with the modern-day mental health lens [for Monet]; we understand things differently now than we did back in the day. So, back in the day, you did everything you could to get what you got.”
Pointing to his Jamaican background, the actor explained how parents would save up money to seek a better life in a different country, which sometimes led to children being temporarily separated from their parents. At times, the parents would send the children first and come later, or vice versa. “That’s just how it was done. You’ve got to do it, otherwise we’re stuck here. So it’s like, looking back on that, you can’t blame what you had to do with this modern comfortability now.”
Monet takes aim at her kids in season 4, episode 4 of Power Book II: Ghost.
Adams-Gray also shared how it’s become easy to accept Monet as she is. “It helps me when I look at Monet — I look at her like my mom, like my real-life mom, and go, ‘Okay, my mom is telling me all this crazy stuff.’ But at the end of the day, I love her, she loves me. So now, where do I go from there?”
It’s also not lost on the Power star that Dru can’t bring himself to watch his mother suffer. “If you look at it, Dru was never in the specific vicinity to kill Monet. He couldn’t do it face to face. It had to be something that was passive. It had to be this person is gonna set this thing up to do that. Or it had to be, I’m gonna do the pills, and I’m not gonna be able to see it; it’s just gonna happen. I can’t do it face-to-face because there is still that love for my mom.”
Find out what’s next for the Tejadas and Tariq when the mid-season finale for Power Book II: Ghost airs on July 5 on Starz. And be sure to catch up on our interviews with Michael Rainey Jr. and Alix Lapri about the series.
