The Power (Season 1), Episodes 1, 2 & 3 Recap & Ending Explained: Based on Naomi Alderman’s 2016 novel by the same name, ‘The Power’ is a new science-fiction series streaming on Prime Video. Starring Toni Collette, Auli’I Cravalho, John Leguizamo, Ria Zmitrowicz, Halle Bush, and Zrinka Cvitešić in the central roles, the series just had its three-episode premiere. It simultaneously follows several characters who suddenly develop the power to electrocute people at will.
The first episode introduces them and builds a foundation for their stories. Then gradually delves into how the world reacts to this strange phenomenon. Moreover, the series introspects on the nature of power, be it through social, financial, or cultural capital.
Spoilers ahead.
The Power (Season 1) Episode 1 Recap:
Episode 1: A Better Future is in Your Hands
Alison / Allie (Halle Bush) is a young black girl who finds a home at a middle-aged suburban white couple’s house. She is mute by choice, and these foster parents – Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery, do not take her condition seriously. While they speak with Allie’s speech therapist, you sense a secret lurking beneath her silence. Later at church, a preacher guides people to get rid of their sinful thoughts and to choose a better path. Alison finds it BS. That is when she hears a voice in her head. It tells her to speak up about the things she disagrees with.
At home, before the meal, Mr. Montgomery (Chris Mulkey) shows signs of his creepy flirtatiousness toward Allie. But she shrugs them off. Later during lunch, she finally speaks up and says that she does not want meat. Montgomerys consider it as her lack of discipline and find it inexcusable. But in a liberal way, they try to show that everything is fine. Then, he takes her back to her room to ‘teach her a lesson.’ Mrs. Montgomery (Elise Robertson) increases the radio volume so the neighbors don’t hear about this sexual abuse.
In Allie’s room, he takes off his belt and starts beating her and forcing himself on her. By then, Allie starts to realize her power. So, she burns his face by electrocuting him with bolts coming out of her palms. Subsequently, she escapes their house and starts walking away. After leaving Montgomerys’ house, the voice in Allie’s head guides her to another place, telling her that she will soon understand her higher calling. Allie walks for miles and miles, and she finally reaches a place to learn about electric eels that give her a sense of belonging. She understands that such beings are stronger when they are together.
Meanwhile, in London, we meet Roxy Monke (Ria Zmitrowicz), who lives with her single mother. Her father – Bernie (Eddie Marsan), abandoned them when she was fairly young. He is a terrifying gangster who uses his legitimate businesses as a front. During his son’s (and Roxy’s step-brother’s) wedding ceremony, Roxy decides to ask him to start running one of his businesses. He does not allow it but offers her a job outside of London. She is irritated by his preference for his sons over her.
Later, at the time of his speech, he does not even mention having a daughter (aka her), as always. She gets mad and leaves the ceremony. She hooks up with a girl and then expresses her anger toward Bernie. In the heat of the moment, an electric bolt comes out of her palms and destroys something nearby. That’s when she first senses that she has this power. Back at home, she speaks with her mother, Christina (Sinead Matthews), about the job offer and her anger toward Bernie.
Suddenly, two men with guns walk in from the backdoor and put both women on the ground. While Roxy and Christina try to save each other, the men do not let it happen. They attack Christina, which makes Roxy so mad that she ends up electrocuting another man who tries to attack her. While she makes them both unconscious, her mother, unfortunately, gets killed in the fight. Roxy goes back to the wedding party to meet her siblings and her father. Bernie sees her in a terrible state and tries to console her.
The third story is of Jos Cleary-Lopez (Auli’l Cravalho), a teenager who gets a kick out of calling out the mayor of Seattle, aka her mother, Margot’s (Toni Collette) hypocrisy online. She hates how Margot uses her children for her social appeal while being mostly absent from their lives. While typing out her anger on her laptop, she suddenly senses an electric jolt out of her palm.
Later at school, she walks past the security entrance and gets stopped even if she has nothing of metal. Her classmate, Cat (Anissa Matlock), notices the electric jolts. Later, she meets Jos in the loo and tells her to join her afterward to see what she is capable of with this power. Cat reveals that she has been feeling this power for over two weeks. They get a chance to talk about their curiosities and concerns. By speaking with Cat, Jos starts to understand how they can control this power and change things around them.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria, Tunde Ojo (Toheeb Jimoh) bails on his plan with Ndudi (Heather Ageypong) because it is his first week in his new job. However, he is an aspiring video journalist who has a big social media following. Ndudi wants him to tag along to cover a story that will ‘break the internet.’ But he at least agrees to take a ride with her. She reveals that it is about a juju meeting where women can awaken their powers together. He does not entertain it and rather decides to spend time with another friend – Adunola (Little Simz). However, while having sex with her, he suddenly feels an electric bolt on his body when she touches his body.
Tunde decides to go to the place Ndudi asked him to come earlier to shoot them covertly. He drives there and sneaks in without informing her. He tries shooting the interiors on his camera and notices the women dancing around while the light flickers around them. Suddenly, Ndudi notices him and joins him to say that he shouldn’t hijack her story.
By then, the party guests notice Tunde and think that he is spying on them. They consider her a threat, and one of them attacks him with an electricity bolt coming out of her palms. Unfortunately, Ndudi walks in between and ends up hurting herself. However, Tunde’s camera keeps recording, and he gets the footage of this strange scenario on record.
The Power (Season 1) Episode 2 Recap:
Episode 2: The World is on Fu*king Fire
Ndudi lies in a hospital bed due to the tragic electricity burn. When Tunde goes to meet her, her sister says that their father is furious at him. By that time, people start calling her a witch and considered that she had some magic ‘juju’ powers. While Tunde says that he is determined to find out what happened to her, he uploads a video of the incident online. He tells his concerned mother that he was only following a story and isn’t sure what happened to Ndudi.
Jos is still unsure how to use her powers or control them properly. So, she accidentally sets the microwave oven on fire. Later, at school, she purposefully turns on the fire alert with an electric bolt to get their test canceled. She bails out on Yuki and instead keeps spending more and more time with Cat. Later, when her father, Dr. Rob (John Leguizamo) drives her back home, she tries to turn up the volume on the car stereo and ends up damaging its system. While Rob gets concerned about her, she walks out of his car.
Meanwhile, Margot starts hearing about several instances of things being set on fire. She also sees a video uploaded by Tunde about a similar instance in Africa. She considers it a matter of emergency since teenage girls all over the globe seem to be suffering from this issue. However, Daniel Dandon (Josh Charles), the governor of Washington State, keeps undermining her and disregards her theory. She returns home to meet Rob, who, unlike Daniel, is appreciative of her efforts. He mentions a similar instance that he observed during the day and considers her concern warranted. Later, she gets called upon a scene of a plane crash that was caused by a similar use of the Power.
Allie is still on the road and is trying to survive on her own. By then, she is considered a suspect on run for Mr. Montagomery’s murder. She hears about it and decides to be discreet. On her way, she stops by a shop to pawn a necklace in her possession. Since the shop owner tries to get it for cheap, she fakes low blood sugar to get some food and some extra money. Later, she stumbles upon a white family’s car and decides to help with her power even if the voice in her head says that she should not. Even when the engine starts, she ends up getting beaten by the father of that family. The voice keeps telling her to be stronger and not to be a meek figure.
Meanwhile, Roxy is heartbroken by her mother’s death. She recalls the killers saying that they expected only her mother to be present at home. Enraged, she goes to meet Bernie and asks what he is doing to take care of the situation. Bernie wants the police to investigate it and does not like it when Roxy insinuates that he is not doing enough to find the killers. Soon after, she finds out that there are other girls with similar powers. While watching Ndudi’s video clip, she tells Bernie that she also has this power. Due to her boiling rage, she is eager to exercise it against those who wronged her.
Besides them, we meet another character, Tatiana Moskalev (Zrinka Cvitešić) – a former star gymnast and now the wife of the President of Carpathia, Victor Moskalev. Due to the rising cases of fire caused by teenage girls in his constituency, he issues strict action against them. While Tatiana thinks it to be just silly pranks by those girls, he firmly believes that they need to be reprimanded. Right after, her mother comes to meet her.
Tatiana has pent-up anger against her mother, who criticized her forthright nature as a kid and rather expected her to be a sweet, grateful girl. The mother’s insults were borderline abusive, which kept them distant for years. Now after her husband’s death who left her with nothing, she wants Tatiana to provide her with shelter. However, Tatiana refuses to help her and feels so much pleasure in rejecting her request. On the other hand, she wants to mend her relationship with her sister, but she gets rejected in every attempt to do so.
The Power (Season 1) Episode 3 Recap:
Episode 3: A New Organ
Margot reaches the scene of the plane crash and decides to investigate the case. However, Daniel assumes command of the situation, preventing her from participating in the subsequent investigation. Considering all the electricity-induced fire incidents by teenage girls, she wonders whether the crash is also caused by one as well. She reaches the hospital and tries speaking with the angry father, whose daughter – Makayla, is being held captive by the authorities. Since Daniel is not allowing her access, Rob helps to meet Makayla with the help of his ex-wife, Tash, who works there.
Meanwhile, Jos is denied a bus ride. The driver reveals that girls are not allowed. If that is not enough, the Governor’s office directs the school authorities to find the students who have the Power. Jos and Cat refuse to reveal their identities, but Yuki singles them out owing to her own anger toward Cat for stealing her close friend.
While speaking with Makayla, Margot understands that her experience with electric bolts was similar to Jos’. She also speaks with a woman from the plane crew and learns that Power can be transferred from one woman to the other. Soon after, she and Rob go to Jos’ school to see that all the girls, including Jos, are kept inside glass container-like spaces due to the recent outrage over the Power. They get her out and see her exercise her power. She notes that she cannot control it as others can. However, she gets at Margot and believes that her recent closeness has to do only with the popularity of this phenomenon.
Tunde returns to Nigeria and receives a call from the CNN network, which wants to employ him because of his viral video. So, he gets confused about whether to stay focused on his current job or pursue this opportunity. However, Ndudi is enraged for being used as a prop by him for his popularity and for stealing her story. Tunde expects her help in figuring out how he should proceed. She rather finds it utterly selfish. While walking back home, he notices another woman exercising this power. On a whim, he decides to move along with the CNN opportunity and considers it his destiny.
Meanwhile, after the incident with the white family, Allie lies unconscious on the side of a road. Someone finds her and gives her a ride to a convent. Over there, she learns from sister Maria Ignacia (Daniela Vega) that their church helps girls like her who have no one else. After some time, Allie meets other girls in the dormitory and discovers that they, too, possess the same power as she does, which is why they have been given shelter.
Sister Maria introduces Allie to Sister Veronica (Emily Kuroda), who helped many people in need in the past, including at the time of the AIDS crisis, among others. Maria accepts that their convent is unorthodox and later opens up about her traumatic experiences as a trans kid, where Sister Veronica helped her find a home.
The Power (Season 1), Episode 3 Ending Explained:
Jos continues to struggle with controlling her power. Margot thinks that they should take her to a therapist to check on her condition. While she argues about it with Rob, she ends up electrocuting her brother Matty’s eyes over a trivial argument. They take Matty to the hospital to get it checked. Meanwhile, Jos’s condition worries them even more. Rob decides to get it checked through an MRI scan. Unfortunately, she ends up reacting to the rays circling around her.
Nat checks the X-ray scan to come to the conclusion that these rays did not come from her hand but from a new organ near her spinal cord. Generating electricity is all that it seems to do. Margot believes that these girls grew this organ out of necessity. She informs Daniel about it, hoping for him to take action right then, which they have delayed for too long already.
Daniel was aware of it before Margot and still refused to take action due to possible damage to his chances in the upcoming senate election. She finds it irresponsible how he is catering to his superiors instead of caring for the girls’ safety. So, while countless male leaders all around the globe refuse the seriousness of this matter, she holds a press conference to stress immediate attention to it. As a result of the traction she receives, everyone follows her word – but only after she dares to make a comment.
