My notes:
-How I felt watching this episode:
-I'm going to miss Proctor, man. It's amazing how trigger-happy this show is, but they've still kept Tariq, Saxe, and Dre alive for this long. He went out in a blaze of glory, and despite how ridiculously cartoonish his death scene was, at least he was given a grand sendoff. I feel like he signed his death certificate snitching on Tommy, but I guess he had a plan that he wasn't able to see through. I was
when he just told Elisa Marie straight up that she wasn't going to see him at Uncle Benny's place. That girl's going to need to get put in a clinic.
-I like how at this point, people are starting to catch up to Saxe and his bullshyt because they realize nothing he does or says makes sense. Either he gets fired, thrown in jail, or killed by episode 10. His time is slowly ticking. Also, I don't know if it's just me, but he's a lot more irritating than he was last season. They've gotten rid of everybody in that office. He needs Mak back to help him out.
-Tariq continues to be the worst character that this show has ever had. It's amazing how in every episode he appears in, he doesn't even have to do much to make you want to punch him in the face. I think he's in extreme denial and it hasn't dawned on him yet that he doesn't belong in the drug game. Yet he continues to be flagrant towards his father, calling him "Ghost" with added emphasis like it's some kind of slur, while not understanding that he's nowhere as skilled as his father is. What does he mean, Kanan accepted him for who he is?
You wouldn't know shyt about that life if it wasn't for him. The only good thing he did in this episode is keep Elisa Marie from getting put on a T-shirt, but he also let Proctor get put on one, so his good deed cancels out. He sounded so insincere when talking to her too. Like when he was talking about ice cream. How do you sound that disingenuous all the time? Why won't Ghost give him the beatdown he deserved two years ago? Why won't Tommy release the clip on this bozo? Why......why........why do the writers love this kid so much, I'm done. I'm done, man, I can't. fukk Tariq.
-I haven't been a Tasha fan in a while, and that scene with her, Ghost, and Tariq is a perfect example of why her scenes with Ghost are so terrible. Every time they interact, Ghost will just randomly say some disrespectful shyt and it makes him look like the worst person in the world. The writers deliberately dumb him down and amplify his a$$hole behavior just to make Tasha look better. And the worst part is that this scene is almost exactly the same scene that was in the season five premiere: Tariq does/says something stupid or flagrant, Ghost gets upset and tries to do us a favor by knocking the candy out of him, Tasha stops it, and Ghost just blames Tasha for everything wrong with Tariq. Stop putting these two characters together if all they're going to do is argue with and shyt on each other!
-Speaking of Tasha, all of her storylines this season are awful. All of them. At least Silver was somewhat entertaining because of his voice and how much he put her on a pedestal. She's over here getting upset that Tariq was pushing pills, but in order to get some random corner boy who has no real power off her back, she starts pushing pills. What happened to blaming Ghost for ruining your life, Tasha? You want to be a part of the game too? Why not call Tommy and have him handle Zigg? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, Tasha.
-It's amazing how much this show wants to be like Empire. "King's Gambit" is a title straight out of their playbook. I know they explained why they named the episode that, but it definitely sounds like an episode of Empire where someone is making a move on the company and the Lyon family has to strike back with a huge concert or some shyt.
-I don't know how I feel about Tommy anymore. It's like the writers want us to sympathize with him even though he's this remorseless, cold-blooded killer at heart. He hates Ghost for "swindling" him into killing Teresi, but this coke fiend has not only killed Angela while Ghost looks on with the
face, but he ran up in Ghost's penthouse with an assault rifle, caused millions of dollars worth of property damage, and brutally shot Ghost's lawyer to death while his blood and guts ooze on the floor of the room of Ghost's dead daughter. Why am I supposed to care about what Ghost did anymore?
And to add to that, Tommy was
at the thought of killing Teresi for being a rat, but the minute he hears about Proctor being a rat, he's ready to let it rain in a gated community and construct this elaborate plan to make it happen.
-Ghost and Tommy are teaming up one more time.
These writers hoped they could keep them beefing, but brothers are brothers. I just wish they were getting back together for a greater cause than saving Tariq. There was a scene in the trailer where Tariq accuses Ghost of being selfish and says that he lost him a long time ago. It hasn't aired yet, so it looks like Ghost and Tommy are going to get the money, save Tariq, resolve their differences, and a week later, Tariq will go back to being the same disgusting piece of shyt he's always been, with no personal accountability whatsoever. Happy happy joy joy.