When Power Book IV: Force closed its final chapter, the shock wasn’t that Michael Rainey Jr. appeared — it was how obvious the moment felt in hindsight. Tariq St. Patrick stepping into Tommy Egan’s Chicago war wasn’t a twist. It was a payoff.
The clues were everywhere if you were paying attention. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has never been subtle when he wants fans to notice something. Months before the finale, he shared an Instagram image of Tommy on the phone with Tariq — a quiet but unmistakable signal that the two worlds were about to collide. In the Power universe, nothing that deliberate is accidental.
The finale confirmed what many suspected. According to People, Tariq’s appearance wasn’t designed as a cameo, but as a connective hinge — a way to close Force while reopening the broader Power story in a new direction. Tommy doesn’t just survive Chicago; he reshapes it, and in doing so pulls Ghost’s son into the aftermath.
What makes the timing even more important is what’s coming next.
Starz has already locked in Power: Origins, a full 18-episode season that rewinds the clock to Ghost and Tommy’s early days in New York. That episode count matters. It signals confidence — not just in the story, but in the franchise’s ability to evolve instead of recycle itself.
Early descriptions of Origins suggest a looser, more energetic tone — less calculated empire-building, more reckless ambition. That shift reframes everything we think we know about Ghost and Tommy. They weren’t born legends. They were improvising, failing forward, and learning power the hard way.
Which is why Force’s final choices feel intentional rather than tidy.
Vic Flynn and Jenard Sampson are both left alive — not as loose ends, but as future pressure points. Chicago may no longer be Tommy’s primary battlefield, but unresolved enemies don’t disappear just because the camera cuts away. Leaving them breathing ensures that wherever Tommy and Tariq go next, the past can still catch up.
And that brings the story back where it began.
New York has always been the emotional core of Power. Tariq returning to orbit with Tommy doesn’t just echo the Ghost era — it complicates it. One represents survival through brute force. The other represents legacy warped by ambition. Together, they’re a volatile equation the franchise has been building toward for years.
Force didn’t end the Power universe.
It repositioned it — and Origins is about to remind us how dangerous the beginning really was.
