Point 2x06 "Power"

[Dale]

"Power"

"Power"

Starring
Michelle Rodriguez as Alex Weiss
Jeremy Davies as Derek Shan
Christoph Waltz as C.O.
Ken Leung as Wells
John Leguizamo as Scott Cereghino
Michelle Monaghan as Sophie
Adrian Lester as Harding
Thandie Newton as Tanner

[Dale]

2x06– “Power”

The introduction to “Power” saw the release of Jared Johnson from prison. I enjoyed his phone call with C.O, who continues to be the most intriguing character on the show. He managed to remain so cheery and polite whilst being unsettling and threatening at the same time. I anticipate his meeting Johnson which should prove to be enlightening and I especially liked Johnson telling his driver to head to a gun shop.

I didn’t particularly liked Johnson’s back and forth with C.J. First and foremost, why call the character C.J? We had Johnson and Johnston last Season and you’re practically setting up for the same type of confusion and problems with this. Also, it was just to light. The phone conversation had this great air of tension to it and this was practical jokes and fun time hour and took all the tension away. The only salvageable line from the scene in my opinion was the implication that C.O had superiors which lead directly into the board meeting. C.O who has been fairly sinister in his own way being intimidated by this people is a nice touch and makes them seem like a threat. Also setting a date for a follow up event after the failed bank heist kind of gives the season a goal which it has lacked so far (outside of Tanner’s inside man deal which seems all but forgotten about unfortunately).

I think the episode focuses a little too much on Jared and C.O. It’s clearly an episode to give us some more insight into the “bad guys” of “Point” but at the same time, I can’t help but feel that some of these scenes between Jared Johnson and C.O would be all the more tense and seem all the more dramatic had they been broken up a little instead of being piled on one after the other. Also C.O seems to say the name Jared every other sentence which is rather distracting. I have noticed he likes to say people’s names a lot but it was in overdrive here.

It takes almost two thirds of the episode to see Tanner, Alex, Derek, and the rest of the team. I feel like these scenes with the group trying to save Tanner’s life would have worked better had they been split up, much like the Johnson and C.O stories. Had they been intercutting back and forth with each other the episode as a whole would have played much better in my opinion. Revealing that Clare is a licensed doctor should have been done much sooner, and due to a total lack of follow up on her character since the introduction, it seems almost contrived. But I finally got that conflict between the group I’ve been after which I was happy to see.

I enjoyed Harding’s conversation with Sophie. As said, there’s been practically no follow up on the newer characters introduced this season however for the first few episodes Harding was able to come into his own. Sophie was able to reveal a little bit more about the Johnson Company and whilst it’s not exactly anything earth shattering and fairly predictable, it worked for what it was. Also, I really enjoyed Sophie asking Harding why he was still there and helping them fight. His answer was simple, to the point and tells us a lot about his character progression from Season 1 to now.

I think Johnson got to Alex’s brother a little too quick and the ending shoot out came off a tad rushed and anti-climatic, even though one of the main character’s of the show just saw her brother killed right in front of her eyes. I would have ended the episode with Jared arriving at Luke’s house and Alex receiving a phone call, just as Tanner was on the verge of dying.

Overall, this episode suffered from the way it was structured. Focusing almost entirely on Johnson and C.O for the first two thirds didn’t allow for the drama between them develop, because we were already being bombarded with new information. We needed to cut back and forth between the power struggle going on between them and the heroes trying to save Tanner’s life in my opinion. Whilst the ending was solid, I felt we go to the point a little too quickly and because we never knew Alex had a brother up until this point, his death does just seem like a plot point to give her the revenge mantra the other members of Derek’s team have. Maybe she would have benefitted from one of those flashback episodes we’ve just seen with Derek and Tanner.

Score: 7/10