March 20, 2022
If there's one thing Tommy's going to have, it's a plan.
The dahlia rollout starts flawlessly, with that high doing the trick right away and getting people hooked. But a drug like that can only take you so far when only a tiny percentage of people can afford to buy it.
Power Book IV: Force Season 1 Episode 7 is all about Tommy's plan to take dahlia to brand new heights, but it's not without a few hiccups along the way.
Being in business with Tommy means bending to his will because he's incredibly stubborn, and Claudia finds that out in real-time. But even with his stubbornness, he's a master at maximizing potential. And he's never content.
It's why he knows immediately that they're going to need to push dahlia in a different direction.
Tommy: Imagine dahlia running the fucking market.
Liliana: You're trying to knock it down to make it affordable. It's smart.
The rollout barely started before Tommy declared they needed to create another option, and it makes all the sense in the world. Keeping it as an exclusively high-end drug would almost ensure an initial boom and then a sharp decline because while the demand would be there, the clients would not.
Claudia seems wholly preoccupied with only operating in a space where she feels comfortable (read: upper-class people, perhaps those of a particular hue.) But Lauren actually makes a lot of good points when she shares her reluctance to switch the chemical formula.
For one, you have to hope you can achieve the same high. And one of the best parts of dahlia was its inability to be cut. Now you're setting yourself up to possibly be copied or even worse.
So there are dangers in place, but once Tommy gets an idea stuck in his head, it's tough to shake it.
And look, Tommy knows he's sitting right on the cusp of something big. He's trying to make his mark in Chicago, and things haven't been easy for him so far, but he's got this drug that could literally take the city by storm. He'd be a fool not to do everything in his power to maximize its potential.
So, we spend much of the hour in Chemistry 101 class with Lauren and Liliana, and it's not all that illuminating. But this storyline is needed, if only because it starts to create a little chasm within the Tommy and Claudia partnership.
Liliana: I told you you couldn't fucking trust her.
Tommy: Yeah. We still need her for now.
It's been relatively smooth sailing for them, but I like introducing a little friction and seeing how these two manage to co-exist, especially as dahlia presumably gets bigger and bigger. Will Claudia be able to hide the fact she's behind it from all those in her life who've repeatedly made her feel less than?
Having that girl give Vic the dahlia was purely for Claudia to be like, 'haha bro, you missed out!' There was nothing else for her to gain, and it's that kind of agenda that's not going to fly with Tommy.
Tommy is solely about business here, mainly because he has no ties. He doesn't have a Ghost. There's no Holly or LaKeisha to distract him. Hell, even Kate got him all out of sorts at times.
He has a clear mind and one goal in mind, and if you're not helping with that goal, you're not going to be of any use to him.
And it's this kind of thinking that makes his decision to keep JP away from the business so crucial because Tommy isn't lying when he says that getting close to him is no good, which is truly a shame.
All Tommy has wanted his whole damn life is to love, be loved in return, and feel wanted. And with JP, they're establishing a bond that's growing daily, and mixing business into the equation will complicate everything, and it's dangerous.
And to be honest, I'm not sure if Tommy would survive losing someone else, especially if it could have been prevented by the two of them having distance in regard to business.
Keeping him at arm's length is smart, but something tells me JP will not be content to stay in his lane.
Can someone hug D-Mack? Talk about a lost soul. You can tell he's a good person underneath a rugged exterior, but he's also got a lifetime of bottled-up emotions.
Warning Tommy was a nice moment, and you wonder how long until he figures out that Tommy is his uncle and what that does for their dynamic. Especially now that D-Mack is seemingly on the outs with CBI because of Marshall.
Marshall is annoying. Something about him is smarmy, and maybe it's because he's a kid, but D-Mack is better off without him in the long run, though it leaves him adrift right now. Perhaps so adrift that he finally confronts his father?
Let's talk about CBI for a minute. Because while I thought we were turning a corner and getting Diamond and Jenard on the same path, we're suddenly right back to square one, with the brothers adopting two different philosophies.
Jenard is a forward-thinker and someone who wants to keep up with the times. And it's actually curious he hates Tommy so much because the two of them and their approaches to business line up more than Tommy and Diamond's.
Where Jenard doesn't want to get left behind, Diamond is okay to stay in the same place because it's something he knows and something he can control. When you get involved with something you don't know, there's a higher likelihood that something could go wrong.
But if you stand still for too long, no matter how far ahead you are, someone will eventually catch up to you and pass you.
Seeing as how neither brother is willing to bend to the other's will, it leaves us now in a place where they're not entirely truthful with the other. And Jenard working with the new crew in Indiana, has disaster written all over it.
You just know something will happen that Jenard didn't plan for, and it's going to get back to Diamond, and we'll see more significant fractures than we see now.
Who else just knew Adrienne was not be trusted? There was something off about her, and hearing she's a reporter tracks. She's in the part of her assignment where she gains Diamond's trust and gets him to let down his guard, but Diamond isn't stupid, though he may be a little too trusting.
We've seen him have a softer side, and it's not hard to imagine he lets his guard down so low he doesn't realize Adrienne is playing him.
My one request for this storyline is that they stray from the typical formula and do something different. We've been there, done that a million times with the undercover reporter falls for their subject story.
Switch it up! Diamond deserves better than predictability.
Everything Else You Need To Know
- Do we think Lauren's date wanted to see her again after that weird threeway date with Liliana?
- Gloria left Vic for an indeterminate amount of time, and he is NOT taking it well. Whether or not Gloria and Vic end up living happily ever after, Vic has shown a lot of growth this season in at least trying to put Gloria first in the ways he knows possible, but if it's not enough for Gloria, it's not enough.
- Walter has lung cancer, and no one knows about it. Are we leading toward Walter sacrificing himself for his children?
- Tommy has always shot first and asked questions later, but he killed those guards without flinching.
- Everyone looking into dahlia will be so funny as they try to figure out where it's coming from. Tommy plays dumb well, but not THAT well.
Not the most exciting of hours but a natural progression for things at this stage of the game. Dahlia is here, the Serbs are resting (for now), CBI is (probably) set to implode any minute, Diamond's getting set up, and we're watching Tommy build his empire.
Maybe it was more exciting than I'm giving it credit for!
Let me know in the comments where you see the story moving forward, and watch Power Book IV: Force online right now so you don't miss a second of the action!
source https://www.tvfanatic.com/2022/03/power-book-iv-force-season-1-episode-7-review-outrunning-a-ghost/
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