SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers from Power Book IV: Force Season 3, Episode 1. It also contains a mention of suicide.

The Power Book IV: Force Season 3 premiere doesn’t ease audiences back into its world, even though the Starz show has gone a very long time between seasons. “Do or Die” expects the viewer to get back on the moving train, which is both its biggest strength and its biggest weakness. But no one can say that the series is resting on its laurels.

It’s been nearly two years since the Power Book IV: Force Season 2 finale, but there is no similar time jump on-screen. Anyone who hasn’t rewatched that finale will initially feel a bit lost, because information comes fast about who is where and who’s got problems with who. That choice to pick up almost exactly where Season 2 left off gives the show a sense of urgency, but it means the audience doesn’t have any time to reorient themselves.

Having said that, there are plenty of memorable moments across the hour, and they start early. It’s not Tommy Egan who gets the first jaw-dropping scene; it’s his girlfriend Mireya Garcia, still portrayed with a ton of ferocity by Carmela Zumbado (also recognizable from her scene-stealing role as Anna Avalos on Chicago PD). Mireya begins Season 3 in a heated argument with her brother Miguel about Tommy—threatening to kill Miguel and then herself. It’s a chilling start to the season to see her with a gun under her chin. And in true Power fashion, that’s just the first act of potential violence.

The plot kicks off when Mirkovic is killed in prison by the Marquez cartel, starting a battle between Tommy and Miguel’s crews for his portion of the Chicago drug trade. Everything jumps off of that, as both sides are rushing to get to the finish line first while the authorities (such as they are) get stuck reacting to the death of an important target. But no one is a unified front in this episode; everyone is out for themselves, which then makes everything worse. It’s unintentionally amusing that both Miguel and Shanti want Tommy dead, but neither of them want to be the ones to do it; instead, each plots to use another one of Tommy’s many enemies to do their dirty work. And Tommy actually saves Shanti’s life when the Marquez cartel comes after both of them.

All of this plotting and backstabbing provides the action that Power fans are used to, but at a certain point in the premiere, that becomes less interesting than what’s happening on a character level. Isaac Keys has a great episode, as the Power Book IV: Force premiere includes Diamond Sampson finding out about Tommy’s relationship with Mireya. He understandably wants to know why he was kept in the dark. This is not a huge shouting match between them, although Diamond is angry; it’s a tense discussion, and Tommy agrees to be more honest. Much like Tommy and Ghost in the original Power, Tommy and Diamond work because they respect each other, and it’s good to be reminded of that respect (as well as the fact that Tommy gets to be wrong).

The Flynn siblings each make an impression in different ways. When Stacy Marks comes to see Claudia, Lilli Simmons makes Claudia still menacing even though she can’t move out of an infirmary bed. And then there’s Shane Harper playing Vic with a restless desperation. He is so clearly in over his head, but the scene in which he says his goodbyes is surprisingly poignant—not long before he’s the cause of the premiere cliffhanger. All of the many main characters in Power Book IV: Force are battle-hardened, and they all think they’re tough, but these glimpses behind the veneer are the best part of “Do or Die.”

The top example of this is when Tommy confronts Miguel about his treatment of Mireya. For as fearsome as Tommy Egan is, Joseph Sikora has one of his most powerful scenes when Tommy has to be held back by multiple henchmen. Whether it’s the physical fight in him or the audible pain in his voice, Sikora takes a scene that could have just been another argument between Tommy and his rival, and makes it speak more about Tommy than Miguel. The palpable emotion he conveys is a sign of how much Tommy feels about Mireya, and how human he can be. Of course Mireya is unharmed, but that moment is a reminder that there are stakes for Tommy beyond power and money. And that’s the crux of “Do or Die.” There’s a lot of scheming going on as Gary Lennon puts all the chess pieces back on the board. But the biggest risk is caring about someone.

Power Book IV: Force airs Fridays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on Starz. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Starz.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.