Just when you think this show can't get any better, they give you an hour like that.

Power Book II: Ghost Season 3 Episode 5 was just non-stop information, crazy revelations, and carnage, as usual. And it was the perfect midway installment to kick off the season's final stretch.

Things are very, very real now for everyone. And this may just be the beginning of the blood spilled before this season is over.

If you have yet to see this episode, do yourself a favor and watch and come back because we're jumping into the biggest spoiler of all.

Lorenzo Tejada is no longer among the living. Baby, you had it coming, but this fallout is about to be on a whole other level.

Lorenzo was dead the minute he killed Zeke, even if I tried to talk myself out of it. Monet loves her children and her family, but I'm not sure Zeke was even in the same tier as everyone else.

She loved him fiercely and did so much to protect him from exactly what happened to him. She lied to him, but she did it so that he could be better than them.

But none of it mattered in the end, and her baby boy, the one she tried to keep sheltered and away from the "life," ended up dead anyway. And Monet will never be the same.

Killing International Guap didn't suddenly take that pain and grief away, and once she smelled blood in the water where Lorenzo was concerned, she seemed to make up her mind pretty early on that he needed to go.

Everything she did throughout this hour was calculated, with the sole goal of Lorenzo dying.

I wondered if Lorenzo coming clean to Monet could save his life, but that was wishful thinking on my part. The second Monet realized that Lorenzo lied, it was over for him. And his admission of guilt came way too late.

Lorenzo's apology and confession felt like a way for him to get ahead of Monet finding out the truth. Even though his first inclination was correct, in that she would never forgive him, it felt like his telling her the truth did come from a place of him wondering if he could have been wrong.

If maybe Monet would be upset and confused but ultimately understand that it was an accident.

But the second Lorenzo decided to share some of that responsibility for Zeke's death and put it back on Monet, it was a wrap for him. Even if what he said wasn't necessarily wrong, Monet would never accept that she had a hand in what happened to him. She's not mentally or emotionally able to think things through that clearly.

At least not now.

Considering Lorenzo is the father of her kids, you'd think that would account for something. But in the end, that hurt that's grown a place inside her chest won out, and she couldn't live in a world where the man who took Zeke away from her also existed.

I'm not sure whether she was unable to pull the trigger herself or she just thought getting the Castillos involved was a better option.

But she pushed the lie about Lorenzo ordering the hit on Frank to two members of that family, and her rage may have clouded her judgment because there is no way that doesn't come back on her eventually.

And what happens when Cane, Dru, and Diana find out she got their father killed? Does Monet think they will forgive her for that? Does she even care?

The Tejada family is dysfunction at its finest, but when you see the moments when they're joking around the table, reminiscing about old times, you remember that even through all the crap, they're still a family.

And they were a family that Lorenzo fought for repeatedly. His kids aren't going to let his death go. They will be looking for someone to blame, and if that comes back on Monet, good luck to her.

She barely has them as it is, and if she loses that, what's left for her?

Speaking of the Tejada children, Gordo killing Lorenzo puts the kibosh on his budding romance with Dru. Dru probably won't find out for a while, but nothing stays a secret for too long, so when he discovers what happened, I fully expect Dru to take matters into his own hands.

And it's a shame because Dru and Gordo have chemistry, and they get each other. Everett never aspired to be a part of the Tejada life, and Dru wasn't ready and still isn't prepared to get out of it. I'm not sure he even wants out anymore.

At least with Gordo, they can have a relationship and do couple of things before heading out to kill people.

Relationships are all about balance, after all.

Of all the siblings, though to be affected by Lorenzo's death, it will probably hit Diana the hardest. She was more than just the baby girl of the family where he was concerned, and he treated her with respect and kindness in a way that not many others within her family did.

Their father/daughter relationship wasn't perfect, but Diana always felt safe with him, and having that ripped away after she finally got him back will be devastating for her. And I wonder where she turns to because Salim isn't going to understand, and her brothers will most likely be off trying to enact revenge.

No one on this show really has friends, but now would be a good time for Diana to find one.

Perhaps she and Tariq can bond over their deceased fathers. He will also be on the hunt for a friend now that he knows what Brayden and Effie did.

Lauren's aliveness was going to come out eventually, but it came out in the most dramatic way possible because Saxe couldn't help himself from being a messy man who lives for drama.

Whether it was a mix of jealousy or a hissy fit, Saxe couldn't fathom that Jenny wasn't completely upfront with him about everything.

And one level, I understood that because he's putting his neck out there for her, and he wants to feel like he knows what's going on, but on the other hand, he's worked long enough to know that there are certain things she can't tell him and that should be okay.

But it wasn't okay for Saxe, and following Jenny to her family home and stumbling upon Lauren brought things into focus and changed the whole trajectory of the case Jenny had been trying to build.

Lauren was miserable in witness protection, as I assume most people are, but hearing from Saxe that Jenny was lying to her finally set her off enough to leave and return to the city.

Was it a smart move? Time will tell, but Lauren needed to feel like she had some control over her life again. All these decisions were being made for her, and she had no agency.

By taking back her agency, she's probably put herself in danger, but more important to her, when she met with Tariq, she was trying to get some form of truth for herself.

It has to be hard for her to parse through what's real and what's not, especially after so much time with only Jenny as her beacon of truth. And Jenny wasn't lying to her, not really, but she was putting her spin on things to get Lauren in the right mindset to help her build her case.

And that right mindset was making sure she was entirely against Tariq.

Tariq and Lauren's relationship was a disaster, but Tariq cared for her. He didn't want her dead and wouldn't have condoned how Brayden and Effie went about things.

But Lauren didn't know that, and her questioning Tariq was valid because she needed to see whether the guy she fell hard for was really that awful. And she walked away from that ambush in the park, clearly at least believing that she wasn't the only one being lied to.

Tariq returned from Italy, where he had to save his best friend from Italian criminals and then watch them get murdered, only to find out his girlfriend and his best friend tried to kill his old girlfriend and had been lying to him for months.

That's a tough pill to swallow.

Good luck. Because if you fail, there are, as always, consequences.

Noma [to Tariq & Effie]

• Permalink: Good luck. Because if you fail, there are, as always, consequences.

Circling back to that Italy trip real quick, Noma is such a menace, and I can see why she was so obsessed with Mecca. She and Obi pop up to burst bubbles and get what they want.

Brayden received the brunt of the pain this time, but she's so arrogant, just like Mecca was, that she doesn't even think these kids would have it in them to find a way to cross her. That kind of arrogance is wild and maddening, but she'll find out soon enough when they come for her daughter, and she's left scrambling.

But back to the betrayal heard around the world. What Tariq does now will be very telling because his entire adult life has been about building a family for himself.

With Tasha and Yas gone, and who knows where his grandmother has been, Tariq has been laser-focused on Effie, and Brayden to an extent, feeling like they are the only two people in the world to have his back.

But when they decided to lie to him, they took away that trust that Tariq had so freely given them, and it's hard to see them ever regaining it. At least not in the short term.

He fell in love with Effie, and she with him, and he was making plans for them, genuinely buying into the idea of their future together. But knowing that she could so callously get rid of someone he cared about and not even tell him will hit him differently.

He's wanted the opposite of all the adult relationships he's seen. He's wanted someone to hold him down and be his partner in every way. When he talked about binging a show and making dinner with Effie, he meant that.

Tariq's perfect life was completely unended the minute he was exposed to the realities of his parents, their crumbling marriage, his father's narcissism, and the façade they broadcast to the world. Since then, his goal has been to be everything Ghost wasn't while simultaneously becoming just like him in certain ways.

But that's a discussion for another day.

Tariq thought Effie was his person, and he wanted to get his trust, go to California and live a mundane existence with her for the rest of time. But now? Now, he has to figure out if there is anyone in his life he can believe.

The thing is, it's not like Tariq can just rid himself of Brayden or Effie right now. They all need each other to stay alive. Noma isn't going away yet, and to get her to go away, they'll all have to work together.

So, how he goes about things next will be very intriguing. Will he even tell them that Lauren is alive? Will he pretend everything is fine until he has the perfect moment to unleash all his pain and fury on the two people he loved?

There are about fifty different ways this story could go, and I can't wait to see which path they choose.

Everything Else You Need To Know

• Now that Lauren is back, what does she do? I assume she will head home and scare the crap out of her parents, but then what? Numerous people want her dead, so without the protection of the police, she's in deep trouble. And once the rush of freedom wears off, hopefully, she'll realize that.

• RSJ bringing up Ghost makes me wonder if they had some relationship in the past and if that will come back to hurt Tariq somehow. You can't trust people on this show who seem genuine!

• Kiki must actually care about Brayden, the way she was worried about his whereabouts. But she seems like someone who won't take kindly to his extracurricular business dealings.

• RIP Lorenzo. Your return from prison left much to be desired, but you did love your family when all was said and done. And they will mourn you. They will avenge you. And that big chain will find its place around the neck of the next head of the Tejada family.

• The day Davis finds out what Saxe has been doing will be glorious. Saxe has escaped death and punishment so many times I lost count. But something about this situation makes me believe he won't be able to escape Davis's wrath.

This episode was a lot in the best possible way. And we still have five more hours to go!

Let me know in the comments how you feel about Lorenzo's death and Monet's role in it. And what you think comes next for the Tejada children!

And make sure you watch Power Book II: Ghost online 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.