‘Power’ picks up where it left off

Season Four, Episode One | When I Get Out | June 25

A surefire sign that summer is here is the heat — outside and on the small screen courtesy of Starz’s hit series Power.

And in the premiere of the new season, showrunner Courtney A. Kemp and her band of wickedly brilliant writers and producers give us so much of that delicious drama we’ve come to salivate for.

Season three ended with James St. Patrick — we all know him better as former drug kingpin Ghost (Omari Hardwick) — getting busted for the murder of FBI agent Greg Knox, which is like the one crime that he actually didn’t commit, and his wife, Tasha (Naturi Naughton), desperately trying to reach him because someone has kidnapped their son Tariq (Michael Rainey Jr.) and Tommy Egan (Joseph Sikora) getting ready to launch his drug business by moving weight through Ghost’s fancy new nightclub.

The series picks right back up at the arrest, and we see how all of those things are being handled, almost in real time.

But it’s the bombshell revealed to viewers in the first five minutes of the show that set social media on fire: LaKeisha Grant is alive!

That’s right, the character that La La Anthony brings to life and the character that we all thought was killed off sometime last season is alive and well and has been protected this entire time by Tommy. It’s one of the earlier twisty treats to come this season, and it’s a good one at that. It’s clear that Anthony will have a chance to fully round out the woman we think of as Tasha’s jealous BFF. And might there be a romantic something or other going on between her and Tommy?

Despite everything Ghost has put Tasha through, she continues to be ride-or-die. She’s both foolish and brilliant at the same time, although it’s heartbreaking to watch her scramble to get bail money for her estranged husband and keep her children safe — Tariq, who was kidnapped by Kanan (50 Cent) who everyone presumes is dead, is released and instructed to tell his mom that the ransom text message was all a prank from a school friend.

Meanwhile, Ghost is catching hell in jail by none other than a new prison guard character portrayed by the recently departed Charlie Murphy, and it’s a treat to watch him play a baddie in one of his final roles.

As we wait to find out Ghost’s fate, and how the lives of everyone around him might play out, one thing is certain: Power has absolutely hit its stride. And we’re all in for quite the (real) power trip.

Power airs Sundays on Starz at 9 p.m. ET/PT and at 12:01 a.m. on the Starz app and Starz On Demand.