All the Shocking Deaths in “Power Book II: Ghost” Season 3

One of the first major characters killed in season three is Bash, the man who helped Tariq fund his Course Correct drug scheme (which eventually caught the attention of law enforcement). The investor comes after Tariq in the first episode, “Your Perception, Your Reality,” after Brayden confessed to creating the college tutoring cover-up in court. Knowing Tariq was the real mastermind behind the app, and unaware of its true purpose, Bash blackmails Tariq for almost jeopardizing his reputation. Later on, during a meeting in his hotel room, Bash gets mouthy and threatens Tariq again until the latter takes a steak knife and stabs him in the stomach. Bash bleeds out on the floor until Tariq’s partners, Cane and Brayden, show up to help him dump the body.

Next to die is Whitman, as his overzealous mission to take down Monet – whom he suspects killed his ex Carrie Milgram, as well as Monet’s ex/child’s father, Mecca – ultimately gets him caught up. In episode four, “The Land of Opportunity,” he tries to trick Monet’s daughter, Diana, into letting him break into their family’s house to get the evidence he needs to arrest Monet. But Diana flips the script on him when, after he breaks in, Monet is waiting for him with a gun in hand. Planning to use self-defense as an alibi, Monet shoots and kills the detective right in her home. The feds suspect foul play from Monet but never find any proof.

Lorenzo’s death in episode five, “No More Second Chances,” doesn’t come as a surprise; it was his karma for accidentally killing Monet’s son, Zeke. In season two’s finale, Lorenzo mistook Zeke for his father, Mecca, who the former believed was going to steal Monet and his family away from him. He hides his dirty deed from Monet for half of season three before he finally confesses, though she already found out. Despite Lorenzo’s confession, Monet still has him killed – and in the most roundabout way possible to keep her hands clean.

She enlists Gordo, the son of Lorenzo’s brother, Frank, to carry out her hit to allow him to exact revenge on the person he thought killed his father. (Monet actually ordered Cane to kill Frank in season one.) Gordo slits Lorenzo’s throat in the street in front of a mural the latter had made in Zeke’s honor and then texts Monet that the job is done.

Viewers are first introduced to Kai in season three’s premiere episode when he tries to arrange a deal to become Cane and the Tejadas’ new supplier. Though they never come to an agreement, Kai appears a few more times throughout season three, mainly to push up on Monet once the drug lord learns Lorenzo is dead. Monet later uses this to her advantage when she needs someone on whom to pin Lorenzo’s murder.

In episode seven, “Deal or No Deal,” she calls Kai to her club to offer him a fake partnership, claiming Lorenzo pushed her out of the family drug business. But then gunshots ring off, and while he’s distracted, Monet tries to attack Kai. Unable to overpower him, Cane swoops in and shoots Kai dead. When Cane’s not looking, Monet plants a phone on Kai’s body to implicate him in Lorenzo’s death.

Gordo has a good run while romancing Monet’s son, Dru, but his decision to team up with her to kill Lorenzo eventually comes back to bite. Following news of Kai’s death in episode seven, Dru thinks his father has been avenged, only to find out via a text from Gordo’s phone that he’d been interacting with Kai (Monet) about Lorenzo’s murder. Unable to stomach the betrayal, Dru grabs his gun, walks into Gordo’s bathroom, and shoots him while he’s taking a shower. Later in the season, Dru eventually learns that Monet was the one who enlisted Gordo to kill his dad.

Theo‘s death in episode eight, “Sacrifice,” is probably one of the most shocking and random moments of the season. Since season two, viewers have known Theo to be attorney Davis MacLean‘s brother, who went to prison for him by taking the wrap for a crime Davis committed years earlier. He was also sick and dying, so when he finally gets paroled (illegally) in season three, he goes to visit Davis at his office, where he learns that Cooper Saxe – Davis’s law partner – was a snitch working with the feds. In an effort to protect his brother, Theo kidnaps Saxe and forces him to drive to a pier, where he threatens him at gunpoint. Despite pleas from Davis, who shows up to the scene with his client Tariq, Theo shoots Saxe in the back and kills him. Informing his brother that he has nothing else to live for, Theo then turns the gun on himself and pulls the trigger.

After six seasons of “Power” and nearly three full seasons of “Power Book II,” Saxe’s long-awaited date with death finally arrives in episode eight. For the duration of his time in the Power Universe, Saxe had been known to be a crooked officer of the law who’d do any and everything to take down Tariq and his family. In season three, after being discovered as the mole snitching on Tariq, the Tejadas, and Davis, the latter’s brother, Theo, decides to kill Saxe for his betrayal. At the end of the episode, Theo lures Saxe down to a pier with a gun pointed at his back and, despite protests from Davis and Tariq, shoots and kills him. Then, in another unexpected turn of events, Theo turns the gun around and shoots himself in the head. Speaking to POPSUGAR, Johnson called his character’s death “gut-wrenching,” though he added, “I know that Cooper Saxe wasn’t going to survive forever.”

After the Castillo family, kin to the Tejadas, catch wind of what Dru did to Gordo, Monet calls for an emergency plan to clean house and kill them all to protect herself and her kids from a street war with them. Following their mom’s orders, Dru and Cane trap the Castillos in their own bar, aka home base, and smoke the place out with poisonous gas. They all die almost instantly, but the family’s matriarch, Evelyn, utters her final words to Dru. She informs him that Monet is the one who called for the hit on his father.

Lucas is the final major death of season three, meeting his tragic end in the penultimate episode, “A Last Gift.” After his nephew Brayden finds out he’s been running a Ponzi scheme through their family’s esteemed investment firm, Lucas disappears before cops can arrest him. He then tries to make a deal with the feds to get immunity, offering up the case they’ve been chasing all season: Tariq, who’s been running a drug ring with Brayden at the firm right under Lucas’s nose. However, before Lucas can give the feds any hard evidence, Brayden pays his uncle a visit to try and beg him to clear their family’s name from the Ponzi scheme. Of course, out of arrogance, he doesn’t, so in a blackout moment, Brayden pushes his uncle off the balcony of his condo, killing him. Lucas’ death is investigated as a suicide, but perhaps it’ll be a loose thread to revisit in season four.

The question of Tariq’s fate has been a topic of discussion ever since Starz first announced his spinoff series. Many believe he’ll eventually suffer the same end as his father for trying to lead a double life as a legit businessman and drug lord. As he states many times throughout the show, Tariq loathes the idea of turning into his father and has done everything possible not to repeat his same mistakes, only to end up in similar predicaments.

So does that mean he’ll eventually answer for his crimes and misdeeds with his own life, too? Right now, it’s unclear, but we know Tariq lives to see season four, which is already on the way. However, creator Kemp may have dropped a tiny hint about what could eventually happen to Tariq if he continues down the path he’s on. “There were a lot of people that would have preferred that Ghost get a happy ending and rode off triumphant into the sunset,” she told EW, reflecting on Ghost’s death. “I just felt uncomfortable with having had a character do so many horrible things and being so unrepentant and not having him get punished for it.”

For now, we’ll just have to wait to see if Tariq gets the same punishment.