Power Book II returned with its third season this month, and despite already making some new enemies, Tariq (played by Michael Rainey Jr) needs to watch his back when it comes to a certain detective from the original Power series. Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Rainey Jr admitted he is “worried about one person”.
One person who knows all too well about the downs of working within the drug industry is Power Book II lead character, Tariq St Patrick.
After being involved in the drug trade for most of his life, thanks to his on-screen father Ghost (Omari Hardwick), Michael Rainey Jr’s character Tariq has gained a fair few enemies in his time.
The new season has already put Tariq in the firing line for some new bad guys, but Rainey Jr claims he’s only worried about one “resilient” person.
Ahead of the Power Book II season three premiere, Rainey Jr told Express.co.uk how he needs to keep his eye on Power’s original cast member Blanca Rodriguez (Monique Gabriela Curnen).
When asked if fans can expect to see the return of any familiar faces this season, Rainey Jr opened up about how Detective Rodriguez is making her presence known in season three.
He teased: “One person I’m worried about is Blanca Rodriguez. She’s you know, she has something out for the St Patrick family, she wants to even lock up Yasmine [Amaya Carr].
“She don’t care. She’s coming for everybody. Yeah, definitely Blanca Rodriguez because we got to be careful with her,” he added, hinting the detective could cause some stress for his character in the upcoming episodes.
The actor then recalled how the character caused trouble for his family in the original show Power.
“You know, even from the original. We saw how resilient she is, she just wants to take this family down. I don’t know what her problem is,” he joked.
Rainey Jr teased that Blanca’s determination to take the St Patrick family down will be a recurring theme in the current season of the spin-off.
He teased: “We saw it from the original, so it’s going to be in this season, you’ll see it play a lot, especially Tariq.”
The actor hinted at how Blanca could be hot on Tariq’s heels, adding: “You know, he left that surveillance video, he left the building without the surveillance video, so she’s going to have a field day with that.”
When it comes to other familiar Power characters making a return in this season of the spin-off, fans can look forward to seeing Councilman Rashard Tate (Larenz Tate) also making a comeback.
He may not be Tariq’s biggest worry but Rashard doesn’t make things a lot easier for him.
As fans will know from previous episodes featuring Councilman Tate, he will do whatever he can to cause some more chaos in his quest to get what he wants, and it doesn’t matter who he ends up working with.
Tate told Express.co.uk he will indeed be spending more on-screen time with his original cast member Tariq.
He teased: “Let’s just say my character Rashard will be spending quite a bit of time with Tariq, Michael Rainey Jr.
“I think that it’s one of those things that, you know, I don’t want to give up too much, because we’re not allowed to.
“But Michael and I share a lot of the screen together. So you’ll see a little bit of Tate and Tariq together.”
Power Book II: Ghost season three continues Fridays on STARZ in the US and Lionsgate+ in the UK.