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'Power' Season Finale Director Gets Real About That Explosive Ending and Rooting For a 'Love & Hip Hop' Star to Win Big in Hollywood

We need that season 5 tea too!

Holy sh*t was the only thing that ran across my mind after Power’s season four finale on Sunday. It brought so many things together, yet left so many questions unanswered. We needed season five like yesterday. Here’s a quick season four recap in case you’ve been living under a rock.

*****Spoiler Alert: Stop here and go get your life if you haven't caught up yet.*****

The first half of the season saw Ghost (Omari Hardwick) in jail, accused of murdering FBI agent, Greg Knox. We know he didn’t do it, but the prosecution wants to pin the murder on him anyway with the help of crooked FBI agent Mike Sandoval, Knox’s real killer. Angela (Lela Loren) eventually testifies on behalf of Ghost after seeing security footage that proved he couldn’t have killed Greg. Ghost gets released and starts plotting with Tommy (Joseph Sikora) and Proctor on killing Sandoval since he would probably spill the beans on everything he knew. Tommy meets his biological father and taps into his family’s mafia connection, who kills Sandoval on their behalf. Welcome to the family Tommy.

Tasha (Naturi Naughton) has a small fling with Ghost’s lawyer. Tariq’s (Michael Rainey Jr.) lies catch up to him and eventually gets his sister, Raina (Donshea Hopkins) killed. Fast forward to the powerful [pun intended] season finale that sees Tariq avenging his sister’s death (which he witnessed and did nothing to stop. I won’t go there, but that child worked my nerves all season). Ghost, Tommy, and Kanan (50 Cent) unite to go after Dre (Rotimi) once they find out he’s been lying to all of them. Being the obsessed fan girl that I am, I had a chance to chat with the director of Power’s season four finale, Rob Hardy, and he gets real about his favorite scene to shoot, what to expect in season five, and the Love & Hip Hop star he thinks will definitely make a splash in Hollywood as an actor.

What was your preparation like when you got tasked for the finale and read the initial script?

You know it was actually tough because we talked about it last season. I got the offer to come do the finale. I was excited to do that, and then I came and I read it. They gave it to me when I first got there and I was like ‘Wait a second, wait a second. Raina’s dead. What?’ because I knew that she had gotten shot, and I kind of felt sensitive about that, but I just assumed we’d start off in the hospital. She’s recovering, whatever Page 1. I was in my feelings because as a dad, I was like well now wait a second. So I spent the whole time reading the script feeling like okay hopefully on the next page Ray-Ray dies. On the next page Ray-Ray dies and that’s basically the energy that I had coming in to read. So I called her [Courtney A. Kemp, Power's showrunner] as soon as I finished reading it and just said ‘hey you know I just feel some kinda way about the script’ and I just felt, after I read it, I just felt the weight of exactly what it meant to the show and to the characters and to this family. So it was an experience but it was fun.

What was your favorite scene to shoot?

Wow, well you know what, I’ll say this, my favorite scene in it was Ghost and Tasha in the car after Tariq gets out and it was the raw dog emotion of parents dealing with the loss of a kid. They’re completely honest, you know what I’m saying. When family’s there, when kids are there, when Tommy’s there, Tommy’s still family, but when it’s just the two of them, it becomes a different thing. Everybody can be vulnerable, everybody can be transparent, and everybody can be free to grieve the loss of that child.

Now we gotta talk about this ending when Kanan was revealed to be in the back seat of Tommy’s car with Ghost and Tommy. Please walk us through that ending scene because it really felt like the ending of a movie.

It’s obvious Dre is now in a great place. He’s transitioning so he’s got this new found partnership with the Jimenez so that would be the EL Chapo or Pablo Escobar of our world. So now he’s got that going and they’re going to kill him because he tried to kill Kanan and he killed Julio. He indirectly is responsible for Raina’s death and got Tariq all those things or sent Tariq to his pending death with Ray-Ray so you know they’re going to settle the score. Kanan calls on the way says ‘hey I’m in town I need to get my revenge as well on Raina’s behalf and also because he sends the two El Toros to come kill me’, then we get there and we see in grandiose fashion, here is Dre as he’s becoming the new force to be reckoned with.

Compared to the other shows that you’ve worked on like black-ish and How to Get Away with Murder, how is this cast and your preparation for Power different?

Well every show is different in and of itself and requires you to use a different muscle. Power is interesting because everything is so thorough and so well thought out and it’s not just about that singular episode. It’s about the long game and what that means and it’s also a very authentic show. So if it says on the page, you’re basically shooting in the dope spot or in the projects, well that’s where you go. It’s not some nice area that they bring in some set dressing or it’s not on some stage somewhere. It’s really happening in those places. so it makes it a different thing because you’re in the environment. You know you’re in that New York City grime or that New York City opulence and I like that. The subtext always plays heavily in that show, so yes we’re having a conversation, but underneath it all, here’s what we’re really saying here’s what we’re really fighting about. So it’s all about the subtext of power. Who has it, who doesn’t, who’s trying to get it, who’s wielding it and it’s just the overall power of the game and how that just always shifts like a pendulum and everybody’s trying to leverage it to stay alive.

Is there anything you can fill us in or allude to for season five coming up?

Only thing that I can tell you is I think that Dre’s got a lot to look out for. That much I can tell you, that much I know AND that Raina is really dead. She’s not going to come back, it’s not a flashback. She’s actually really dead.

Is there anyone that you could see having an big acting career from VH1’s Love & Hip Hop franchise?

She’s not really on Love & Hip Hop anymore, I have become a Cardi B fan. I think the reason why is because there is a real level of authenticity with her. She’s just who she kind of is. I saw her do her role on Being Mary Jane and I thought that she was good, because she was being herself. And she had the ability to tone it down at places so that way it could just come across as authentic for the character so I think that she’s definitely somebody that is poppin' and I think that if she handles it the right way, I think that she can be here for a while, I really do.

Watch the cast of Power play a dangerous game of "F, Marry, Kill."