Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for episode 2 of Power Book II: Ghost, season 4.
If there’s one thing that’s for certain in the Power universe, it’s that loyalty is not guaranteed. Lately, Power Book II: Ghost viewers have seen a living example of that in Effie Morales, played by Alix Lapri. At times, it doesn’t seem like she’s even loyal to herself, and that’s the theme in To Thine Ownself. The episode sees her trying to get a leg up on everyone around her while maintaining life as a student.
Effie was first introduced in season 6 of the original Power series as a tough, but duplicitous high school student who sells drugs. She lies, she hustles and, because she’s brainy too, she gets good grades. Ever since she, Tariq and Brayden moved on from the halls of Choate to university life at Stansfield, Effie’s become softer — but hungrier to win. In Power Book II, not much has changed for her character and in the second episode of season 4, Effie uses her smarts to convince her boss Noma she can connect her with the Russians to expand the business.
To do that, she tells Vadim she can use her hacking skills to help his daughter get into prestigious schools in exchange for a meeting with Noma. It works. But is she driven by ambition, survival or another factor?
“I think it’s a little bit of survival, and a little bit of ambition,” Lapri explains to CNET about Effie. “I think she’s just the smartest one to be able to do these kinds of things. She is an amazing emotional predictor, so I think she knows exactly the emotional response she can get out of someone and what they need. Definitely, I think she could see herself moving up and into the places she needs to get to in order to exit the game and survive, because of course, no one wants to make Noma mad.”
Noma is very mad here.
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Throughout this episode, viewers also see Effie struggle with her feelings for Tariq and Cane, and how that affects what she does and how she does it. Her loyalties are kind of all over the place, and it could spell trouble for her down the road. Lapri hinted that her character is caught up in complicated feelings of love and that it could possibly cause more problems.
“Her romantic feelings are all over the place, and as far as Tariq goes, I think it’s a chink in her armor… It’s a problem that is out there for her; it’s her weak spot a little bit.” Lapri added that fans will see how that plays out this season because even though the pair aren’t together, Effie “does not want to see him die.”
Outside of the street life, Effie is a hardworking, sharp student. In this episode, she set up an interview at school to for a special engineering program, but throws it away in favor of helping Cane at the last minute. After Monet ruins the meeting between Noma and Vadim, Effie steps up to help. She didn’t put herself first this time, but why? Lapri tells us it has do with her connection to Cane and the streets.
“I think that’s why she’s so stuck — she’s dangling right now between two sides of life. She does want to have this normal life, but she’s currently in the streets; she can’t just leave her people hanging,” said Lapri. “She’s pulling her weight as much as she can in both aspects, it’s just such a shame that her schooling was the one that had to suffer.”
Lapri shared that these types of choice can get Effie hurt in multiple ways, especially when she leans toward having a heart for others versus looking out for her own self. While she doesn’t judge Effie while she’s steeped in the role, as a viewer, Lapri does sometimes find herself questioning her character’s judgement.
“Girl, what are you doing?” she joked. “I feel like she’s had many opportunities to at least sort a few things out, but I feel like she never chooses to go that route. She always just finds herself a little bit deeper. Hopefully, some of that changes this season.”
Stream new episodes of the final season of Power Book II: Ghost on Starz each Friday, and be sure to check out our chat with Michael Rainey Jr., who plays Tariq.
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