Was this the best episode of the series so far?

Yes, yes, it was.

Power Book II: Ghost Season 1 Episode 8 was everything you want in a soapy drama. There was miscommunication, intrigue, sex, and danger. Every single character was put under the microscope, and it looks like with only two episodes to go, the power dynamics are shifting.

2-Bit’s return completely threw Tariq for a loop, and as much as he wanted to stay clear of Effie, who was back trying to get in his good graces, he had no choice but to latch onto her and make some quick cash to get Francis off his back.

Tasha: Hm. Well, after I found out your father was cheating on me, on all of us, I couldn't trust him either.
Tariq: Facts
Tasha: So, when things went left, and we still had to work together, I did the next best thing; I got him to trust me.
Tariq: And that worked?
Tasha: Like a charm.

• Permalink: Like a charm.

The conversation between Tasha and Tariq was a reminder of how much the St. Patrick’s, in particular, have had to manipulate to get the upper hand in their various relationships. Tariq didn’t trust Effie, for a good reason, and the only way to ensure that she wouldn’t betray him this time was to get her thinking that she could trust him.

That he ended up falling into bed with Effie may or may not have been part of his plan.

Effie’s presence was merely a way to get Tariq money and also put a wedge in his friendship (and partnership) with Brayden, which was tainted ever since the whole Riley issue in Power Book II: Ghost Season 1 Episode 7.

Tariq is the master of half-truths, and he has half-truthed Brayden to death. And while his story about needing money for Tasha’s lawyer works on someone like Effie, who isn’t around much, it doesn’t hold the same weight with Brayden.

For all his faults, Tariq has tried to protect Brayden. And he keeps him at arm’s length to protect him, but at this point, Brayden is in deep. Maybe he doesn’t need to detail that he killed his father, but Brayden is well aware of what the Tejada’s are capable of, and the danger Tariq and he are in.

Tariq doesn’t have a long list of people he can count on outside Tasha, and messing things up with Brayden isn’t going to help him moving forward.

Although he’s been in numerous shady situations and had a gun pulled on him several times, having an actual hit placed on him shook Tariq to his core. And it shook him enough to come clean to someone finally.

The decision to kill Tariq was another one of Cane’s hot-headed moves that were not thought out and backfired in the worst possible way. It set off a chain reaction of chaos with Cane on the outside looking in now and Tariq in a pretty vulnerable state.

Well, that'll be the last thing Cane does for this family.

Monet

• Permalink: Well, that'll be the last thing Cane does for this family.

It also set the stage for Dru’s ascension to the head of the family, which is something Lorenzo saw a long time ago.

Monet has been much less inclined to believe that Dru was ready to be the “boss,” and she wasn’t wrong to think that because it’s not what Dru wanted. He never wanted to be a Tejada soldier, not to the degree Cane did.

Cane relished the role of being the next in line to the throne and the family leader, while Dru always shrunk in the background and did what people told him to do, but never wanted to conform and become the thing his family wanted him to be.

But Dru is smart, and he’s tactical. He played the situation with GTG to his advantage, possibly without even knowing it, and now he’s got Monet on his side, although that may not be for the best.

Seeing how Dru navigates this new calling will be interesting, mainly because he has shown that he will go against Monet’s wishes.

You could almost feel bad for Cane’s downfall if you didn’t see it coming from a mile away. He underestimated his family and how important the business is for their survival. Monet and Lorenzo seem to put the business ahead of everything else.

It’s very reminiscent of Ghost in some ways, though Ghost would always lead you to believe that his family was more important than anything else when it was Ghost himself that was most important.

Monet is much less self-absorbed, so it would seem, but she is laser-focused on making sure her family is secure in both name and power. And if that means cutting ties with her oldest son and leaving him out on the streets to survive, then so be it.

Tariq has to be wary of Monet despite her attitude that she would be okay with Tariq protecting himself from Cane. Tariq knows that Tasha would never be okay with anyone hurting Tariq, and it has to be hard for him to grasp that Monet wouldn’t retaliate if he hurt Cane.

So, what does Tariq do now?

He has to figure out what makes the most sense for him and Tasha. Continuing to work with Monet and making money may be a short-term fix, but is continuing their arrangement beneficial for his future?

And of course, unbeknownst to him, he has a professional stalker in Jabari, who’s fallen so far off the deep end it’s almost comical.

He’s a real Disney cartoon villain, stalking around back alleys with his little notebook writing down clues. His obsession with Tariq stems from his obsession with Carrie, and it’s taking him down a path that’s looking increasingly hard for him to escape.

He’s already plagiarized, and now he’s stalking. The sky is truly the limit here. But does he understand just how much danger he’s potentially putting himself in?

Everything Else You Need To Know

• Zeke almost getting his knee blown off feels like Zeke's big moment to figure out what he wants to do with his life and not what others want from him.

• Monet gave Carrie the evil eye when they briefly met, and I would love to see more interactions between the two.

• No Saxe or Davis this week, and although the trial has been engaging thus far, it didn’t even feel like they were missing.

• 2-Bit is doing the most. He needs to take off in the wind and start over, instead of stalking around Ivy League campuses trying to shakedown Tariq and drowning people.

We are nearing the end of Power Book II: Ghost Season 1, and tension is at an all-time high! Please let me know what you’re hoping to see and how you feel about the season to this point.

What’s Cane’s next move?

Can Tariq trust Monet?

Is Dru ready to be the head of the family?

Drop a comment below, and please watch Power Book II: Ghost online on TV Fanatic so you can join the conversation!

Whitney Evans is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lover of all things TV. Follow her on X.