SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Power Book IV: Force Season 3, Episode 3. It also contains discussion of torture.

Power Book IV: Force Season 3, Episode 3 is called “There’s Always a Price to Pay,” which is pretty much an accurate description of the plot. Almost everyone in the Starz drama gets in some kind of trouble. The sole exception is Tommy Egan, but that seems to be intentional, as the episode sets up how much is soon going to be stacked against him.

It’s an interesting way of approaching the story at what amounts to the one-third point(as there are only ten episodes in the final season). On one hand, audiences love seeing Tommy Egan in action, as they should; there’s a reason he got his own spinoff. Joseph Sikora is brilliant at chewing the scenery, particularly when Tommy and the Serbians find Ortega’s uncle Luis and proceed to throw him out a window. There’s always been a certain theatricality to Tommy, and Sikora makes these scenes memorable. He’s a larger-than-life character and the viewers want to see him not just succeed, but succeed in style.

But having Tommy succeed for the most part—unless one counts the United Kings pulling out of the coalition—runs the risk of making him seem infalliable. Power Book IV: Force tries to counteract that by lining up some more dominoes against Tommy and CBI, starting the process of connecting a few dots. The cartel is the major player here in a few ways. Ortega finds out that Claudia is working with Tommy and thus ends his deal with her; after Luis’ unfortunate death, Ortega and Miguel team up over their mutual hatred of Tommy. And it’s revealed at the end that AUSA Bill Tseng is in Ortega’s pocket, too, having undermined Stacy Marks’ case with the small act of making an intentional typo on a search warrant.(For anyone who was also watching Ballard this season, it’s disappointing to see actor Alain Uy’s character go over to the dark side, just because he makes a solid good guy.)

Other characters suffer in different ways, too. Stacy makes her first public appearance as a mayoral candidate, and immediately gets hit with questions about her imminent divorce that was revealed in the previous episode. The party rep makes clear that Stacy’s candidacy now depends on the outcome of the Ortega case, which Power fans know will only inspire Stacy to be even more ruthless. Diamond gets an unexpected visit from his ex-girlfriend Gianna, which just turns out to be a bittersweet aside, because he tells her that he’s not good for her. Isaac Keys plays a relatively brief moment so well; audiences see a chance at a different life for Diamond literally walking out the door when Gianna leaves.

“There’s Always a Price to Pay” is also a really good episode for Shane Harper as Vic Flynn. Vic is literally in bed with the party rep’s assistant not once, but twice to get information for Tommy, and he succeeds in learning about Stacy’s troubles. Vic suggests that Tommy become the biggest donor to Stacy’s mayoral campaign, which is actually a pretty shrewd move. But mostly, it’s interesting to see Vic in several different lights. He’s scheming with Tommy, yet he also gets some moments of psuedo-happiness in these hookups (which he frankly deserves), and when he finds Claudia’s girlfriend in his apartment his rage seems to be about a lot more than her. Vic is at his wit’s end, and nobody can blame him, since nobody seems to take him seriously. He’s a pawn in the eyes of just about everyone. Will that change before Season 3 ends, or will he be collateral damage?

Claudia gets into a fight with her rival in prison, but ends up being the victor when she turns the other woman’s crew against her. And then there’s Mireya, who visits her brother in one of Miguel’s sort of actually nice moments. He admits that he’s afraid of losing her. It feels like a genuine moment between the siblings—but then later Miguel is torturing a hitman, including cutting off particularly sensitive body parts. There is no way Mireya will get the balance between her brother and her boyfriend that she wants, and the viewer knows it. At the same time, she can’t be faulted for trying.

Power Book IV: Force Season 3, Episode 3 goes into detail about how much everyone has to lose, from family to product to actual parts of themselves. The only weakness in the episode is the continued antics of D-Mac, but those are coming to a head based on the hour’s cliffhanger ending. Otherwise, this story is just loading up to push Tommy over his own edge later on.

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.