Team of Rivals — Plus, Meet Effie’s [Spoiler]!

On this week’s Power Book II: Ghost, we learn that Cane and Noma are getting married. What is that registry going to look like?!

Noma’s tap-dance to secure a government contract without getting caught by the feds is second only to Carter’s fancy footwork as he tries to convince Nico that Felicia died in a car crash (and not in a heinous beat-dow in her own kitchen). How long, do you think, before this all blows up in his face?

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Oh, and a Sopranos alum shows up as Effie’s mom. Read on for the highlights of “Higher Calling.”

CONGRATS ARE IN ORDER? | Carter tells his team that Felicia died in a car crash, but Nico doesn’t believe him. “What the f—k really happened?” he whispers once he has Carter cornered at the precinct. But Carter doubles down on the story. Still, Nico’s not convinced.

Tariq and Monet meet up to figure out what the heck they’re going to do. The plan they come up with (even though they don’t like it): “Weaponize” Noma so that she has a motive to take out Carter. So they meet with Noma and Cane; Noma wants to know what, specifically, Carter has on her. But all of that gets buried when Noma casually lets Monet know that “We’re going to be family, love. Cane’s my business partner… and fiancé.” (I love how Tariq can barely contain his laughter.) After Monet storms out and Tariq closely follows, Noma tasks Cane with figuring out exactly what Carter knows about her operation and how he found out about it in the first place.

Pretty soon, Jackson and Effie are summoned to Noma’s — and they both are shocked to hear the big news. “Our nuptials need to appear rock-solid, so any dalliance between you two is now over,” Noma informs Effie. Adding insult to injury, Noma instructs Effie to create a social media profile for Cane so he looks legit. Effie acts like she doesn’t care. (Spoiler: She DOES.)

TIME FOR A NEW PLAN | Since Noma won’t help Tariq & Co. take down Carter, they pivot: New plan is to give Carter all of their leverage on Noma. And for that, they need Davis’ help — and after some initial hesitance, he declares his allegiance is with them. He lets them know that Aircraft Global, a front business, washes her drug money. But she’s under too much scrutiny in Europe, so she needs an American citizen to own the front so she can get the government contracts she wants. And a prenup will protect her assets. Davis tells them about Sterling Reynolds, who works in the Commerce Department. “Float that name by Carter, he’ll have all the leverage he needs,” he says.

Tariq and Monet meet with Carter and Dru to give him the intel on Reynolds. But he doesn’t care, telling them that nothing has changed about their situation. On the way out, Monet makes sure to remind Dru that her blood runs through his veins: “You are a Tejada, no matter what.” And when Dru shows up to run Carter’s undercover fight club the next day, he finds out that someone bought the building… and a note left for Dru lets him know it was Cane and Noma. So Dru breaks into his brother’s apartment, correctly guesses the password for his computer and logs into his iMessages to see that there’s a gun shipment arriving that evening.

Carter’s task force, led by Nico, interrupts Noma’s gun shipment. And as Cane spins out upon hearing the news, he gets a text from Dru: “Sorry about your guns. :(” (Side note: Surprised/delighted by Dru’s use of the frowny emoticon here.) Meanwhile, Davis interrupts Noma’s dinner with Sterling with a note the lawyer passes her under the table: “Carter has eyes and ears on you. Dinner’s over.” They bail soon after, to the extreme frustration of the crooked detective, who’s watching in a surveillance van outside. In the car on the way home, Noma realizes “I have to neutralize the motherf—ker.” So Noma and Cane meet up with Nico, who demands “seven figures up front” in order to turn on Carter like they want.

Nico immediately reports the offer to Carter, who tells him to pretend to agree to the deal with the caveat that the first payment must be made in person. And then it’s Carter who’s there when Noma goes to make the payment. They realize that they share a common enemy — Tariq and Monet — and Noma offers a proposition: Why not work together against them? He says nothing but looks very intrigued.

EFFIE’S VERY BAD WEEK | Effie’s mother (played by The Sopranos’ Drea de Matteo) ambushes her on the Stansfield campus, calls her “Josie” and announces that her husband has left her “for some young bimbo that works at the car company.” She says she’s broke and is wondering if Effie can float her some money. “The man that molested me left you,” Effie says flatly. “Sounds like a f—king you problem.” Her mom continues to gush about how proud she is of Effie, but it doesn’t land. “If you were on fire,” Effie says, “I wouldn’t piss on you to put you out.” She says some more in the same gist, which causes her mom to drop the nice act. “There she is: cold-hearted Josefina,” she says, “you’re a real bitch. How is anyone ever gonna love you?”

Effie delivers the fake social media history to Cane for approval, but all he wants to talk about is how she has the wrong idea about him and Noma. She laments that she’s always had to take care of herself, to which he replies: “I’ve got you.”

BRAYDEN, WHAT DID YOU DO?! | Brayden moves out of Tariq’s place, saying he’s going to move in with Elle, because he loves her. Tariq mocks him, saying he barely knows her. They argue a bit more about what Brayden’s doing with their various business enterprises. “I’m moving fast and smart, and s—t’s working,” Brayden says. But when he arrives at Elle’s room, he finds her unresponsive after doing some cocaine.

At the hospital, a doctor tells Brayden that the cocaine Elle took was laced with fentanyl, which sent her into cardiac arrest. So Brayden opens her phone and texts the guy who supplied her, pretending to be Elle and setting up another meet.

Just before Tariq and Brayden meet with Elle’s dealer, Steve, Tariq realizes that his friend is high. And when they get into the guy’s apartment, Brayden quickly pulls out his gun and forces Steve to do line after line of coke… then shoots him in the head! Tariq isn’t so much mad about the murder as the messy way it was done, and they hastily wipe the premises of their fingerprints before taking off via the fire escape.

The next morning, Elle is awake and doing much better… though she’s horrified when Brayden brags that he made sure that Steve wouldn’t sell her — or anyone else — tainted drugs anymore. She yells that all life is precious, and then she kicks Brayden out of her hospital room… and her life?

Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!

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