The finale of ‘Power Book IV: Force’ Season 3 aired yesterday, and I have to say I feel completely short-changed. For a series that spent three years meticulously building Tommy Egan’s empire in Chicago, this conclusion felt less like a finale and more like a rushed prologue for the next product in the pipeline.
The ending was undeniably weird. Instead of a definitive end to the Chicago chapter, it felt like the writers were frantically clearing the deck to service ‘Power: Legacy’, which was announced back in the middle of last year. The arrival of Tariq St. Patrick on a rooftop to recruit Tommy back to New York did not feel earned; it felt like a mandatory corporate mandate to bridge the gap between series.
The writing throughout the episode was jarringly paced. I spent seasons investing in the CBI and the complex power dynamics of Chicago, only for major threads to be snipped with little ceremony. Mireya leaving a letter rather than having a final face-to-face scene stripped the emotional weight from that relationship, and the fact that Jenard and Vic are still in play makes the exit feel incomplete. It seems the writers were so focused on getting Tommy to that rooftop with Tariq that they forgot to properly close the door on the city he was supposedly conquering.
Ultimately, the time in the finale was not spent well. Rather than giving the Chicago cast their due or providing Tommy with a standalone resolution, the episode sacrificed its own integrity to set up the franchise’s future. It is hard to look at this as anything other than a missed opportunity to give ‘Force’ the send-off it deserved.
