"Power Book II: Ghost"'s Explosive Season 3 Finale Leads to a Full-Out War — Here's a Recap

To everyone's surprise, Tommy (Joseph Sikora) popped up in the penultimate episode of "Power Book II" to make good on the promise he made to Tariq's mother, Tasha, way back in season six of "Power," when he threatened to get revenge for her killing his fianceé, LaKeisha. Thanks to a tip from an inside source (more on that ahead), Tommy managed to track Tasha down in witness protection and pulled a gun on her, but Tariq arrived just in time to halt the near-deadly situation. Things get heated (Tasha knocks Tariq out to stop him from shooting his "Uncle Tommy"), but in an unexpected turn of events, Tommy and Tasha agree to call a truce. The two walk away calling each other family.

Later on, Tommy has another heated run-in with Tariq when he tries to talk him out of starting a war with his now-enemy Monet, who's partially the reason why Tommy found out where Tasha was hiding. Tommy also warns Tariq about his double life of trying to go legit and still deal drugs, as the same flawed path led to his father Ghost's demise.

Despite their differences, the two seem to leave on better terms, with Sikora telling POPSUGAR, "There's a lot of love in there." "I think that Tommy, despite himself, loves Tariq," he adds. "Tommy could have done things differently in the graveyard with Monet and Tariq in season one. Even though he's putting on that tough veneer, he left because he thought Tariq was in good hands with Monet. So Tommy is always kind of looking out for Tariq, even if he has to be hard on him. He has the tough love that sometimes Tariq needs to hear, but he's always looking out."

As we've seen throughout season three, Brayden struggles to embrace the street life after his court confession in season two cost him his college education at Stansfield University and good standing with his respected family, the Westons. Though he helped Tariq conjure up another drug scheme, it nearly tears the two's friendship apart when things hit the fan with the feds. Not to mention, keeping Lauren's "murder" a secret from Tariq also put on a strain on their bond.

After getting kidnapped overseas and beaten up by Tariq, receiving countless death threats from Cane, letting Monet rob his family, oh, and killing his Uncle Lucas, Brayden throws in the towel and tells Tariq he wants to quit the drug game — for good. This comes after Tariq hatches a crazy plan to threaten their connect, Noma, so they no longer have to move her product. "We ruin people's lives, Riq. I'm not made for it," Brayden tells him.

It seemed as though that was it for Brayden — until he swoops in at the end of the finale like Superman to save Tariq from getting killed, as the latter's plan for Noma, of course, goes awry.

At this point, we know trouble follows Tariq everywhere he goes. No matter how many times he survives unscathed, there's always a new problem waiting just around the corner, and the finale is full of them.

First, he wakes up in the hospital after getting knocked out while trying to save Tasha from taking a bullet from Tommy. After he comes to, he pieces together how Tommy tracked his mom down. In his mind, Saxe, before he got murdered, told Monet where Tasha was being hidden and Monet then tipped off Tommy. Tariq then goes on the hunt for Tommy and sets out to kill Monet for trying to harm his family.

He heads to Tommy's mom's house but comes up short, until he later tracks Tommy down and pulls a gun on him in the street. Tommy calms Tariq down enough to tell him what happened after he got knocked out, informing him that Tasha did it because she didn't want anyone to get seriously hurt. Like his mom, Tariq and Tommy settle their differences, too, before the former asks his uncle to support him in his plan to get rid of Monet. Tommy warns him of the consequences before reminding Tariq that technically, in New York, he's already dead anyway (he faked his death in season one) so he's of no help.

Meanwhile, Tariq still has to figure out a way to prevent Lauren from testifying in court against his ex Effie, who tried to kill her in season two, as the latter is being baited by the feds to snitch on Tariq's drug activities. He finally convinces Lauren to recant after getting Cane to threaten her parents; this gets Effie out of jail, too.

Tariq's last order of business involves eliminating Monet and threatening to harm Noma's daughter (who's being hidden in an unknown location) so he can get from under their thumbs. But without Brayden's help, he's forced to team up with Diana instead, who's also been trying to find a way to get away from her mom. Together, the two conjure up a plan to kill Monet in a drive-by shooting, with Tariq being the trigger man. But their plan goes haywire when someone else beats him to the punch: his mom.

Turns out, Tasha had her own plans for revenge after Monet put her in danger, leaving Diana no choice but to pin the shooting on Tariq. That was always her plan from the beginning, though, as she secretly teamed up with Dru and found a way to get rid of both Monet and Tariq in one fell swoop.

While Monet's in the hospital, Tariq catches up with his mother, who tells him that his hands are clean of Monet's attempted murder because she took the shot at her. But Tariq has his own confession: he tells his mom that he lost his trust fund in a Ponzi scheme at Brayden's family's investment firm. As viewers may recall, his promise to his mom in season two's finale was to get enough money and power so he could reunite with her and his little sister, escaping the street life once and for all. But with both things even more out of reach, Tariq makes one last desperate attempt to get his freedom.

He meets with Noma at her warehouse to offer her a proposition: take Monet's spot working alongside her being her New York distributor. But the Tejadas already let Noma know that Tariq tried to kill Monet, so they all turn on him. Just before he gets killed by Cane, Brayden comes in guns blazing and helps Tariq escape. Noma's henchman, Obi, had given him a tip about what was going down. Tariq and Brayden then ride off knowing they've just started a full-out street war, and there's no telling how it'll end.

In the penultimate episode of season three, Effie gets arrested for attempted murder for what she did to Lauren. At the start of the finale, Effie finds herself sitting in jail waiting to get indicted, which is part of the feds' plan to eventually get her to flip on Tariq and his now-dissolved crew.

When Monet catches wind of Effie's arrest, she sends someone to her cell to kill her before the feds get to her. Effie manages to survive the attempt but then gets an unexpected visitor: Lauren, who comes looking for answers about why she almost got killed. Effie informs Lauren that because the feds were pressuring her to snitch on Tariq and their crew, she knew she had to take her out before that happened.

Effie asks her to recant in court, though Lauren leaves her in suspense by walking out. But it seems Lauren was somehow convinced, because she completely takes back her original statement to the feds. She then turns the tables on ADA Jenny Sullivan — who's largely to blame for her circumstances — telling jurors Jenny pressured her into saying what the feds needed for their case.

As a result, and with some help from her ex Tariq, Effie doesn't get charged and she's freed from jail. But Tariq's gesture doesn't get them back on good terms. After he previously found out Effie lied about Lauren's death disappearance, he iced her of their drug business and cut ties with her. But Effie gets the last laugh in the end when she secretly joins Noma and the Tejadas to get back in the game.

After taking out her husband, Lorenzo, and the Castillos, Monet finds herself without many allies. So she takes matters into her own hands — by convincing Noma to let her be her partner and distributor. Despite her kids knowing that she's responsible for their father's death, Monet still forces them to move weight for her. But fed up with their mother's antics, the Tejada siblings (sans Cane) hatch a plan to eliminate Monet altogether, and they recruit Tariq, indirectly, to make it happen.

As seen in a flashback more than halfway through the finale, Diana and Dru decide to send Tariq after their mom by triggering him with a threat. Realizing she still has a letter from attorney Cooper Saxe (who got killed in episode eight) addressed to Monet, Diana drops it off at Tommy's mom's house "as a gift from Monet," which presumably had Tasha's witness protection address on it.

From there, the plan was simple — Tariq would find out what "Monet" did, track her down, and kill her for threatening his family. But things get hazy when Diana realizes someone else shot at Monet instead of Tariq. Still, hell-bent on making their plan work, Diana and Dru let their brother, Cane, believe his nemesis, Tariq, tried to kill his mom, and Cane immediately goes after him.

The trio then corner Tariq at Noma's warehouse, where he realizes he's left with no allies. Cane comes close to shooting Tariq, but Brayden intercepts, leaving us with a cliffhanger ending that'll surely see the Tejadas seeking more revenge in season four.