Season 3 Episode 5 of Power Book IV: Force delivers one of the most explosive hours of the season, an episode loaded with street warfare, betrayals unfolding from every direction, political manipulation, and a finish that sends shockwaves through Chicago’s underworld. Every storyline collides here, from Tommy navigating enemies on all fronts to CBI testing its loyalty, the Yardies’ blood feud, Claudia spiraling into desperation, and Vic edging closer to the breaking point.
Episode 5 opens in the heart of CBI territory, where the soldiers are simply cooling on the block, until the past returns with bullets. The Yardies roll up, led by the same young man Tommy Egan Tommy Egan wounded back in his first Chicago shootout. This time, the kid doesn’t limp away, he comes back blazing. The Yardies light up the street, and the tragic casualty is Willie, a CBI veteran confined to a wheelchair. His murder instantly shifts the mood. What was once a business alliance suddenly feels like a personal war.
When the crew reports back to Diamond Diamond, the motive becomes clear: this was retaliation for Tommy’s past hit on the Yardies. While his soldiers want blood immediately, Diamond attempts the level-headed route, proposing a negotiation with the Yardies’ leader, Zamos. Jannard Jannard pushes the opposite sentiment: strike now. Yet Diamond asserts his authority boldly; there’s no vote, no debate, no convincing necessary. He runs CBI, and his decision stands.
Meanwhile, across town, Claudia Flynn Claudia Flynn is spiraling. Fresh out of jail but practically wrapped in surveillance, she and Elise argue about running from Chicago. Claudia insists she can’t disappear—not with federal eyes glued to her every breath. Elise, frustrated and fed up, pulls away. It’s the beginning of the emotional unraveling Claudia ignores until it's too late.
Tommy, on the other hand, is still fueled by rage over Liliana’s death. He’s been out all night calculating his revenge against Claudia. When he finally returns home, he confides in Mireya, who senses something is off. His next move? Calling Claudia directly and pretending to offer a truce, and a partnership, against the Marquez cartel. Claudia, thinking she has the perfect opportunity, runs straight to Stacy Marks Stacy Marks to arrange a setup.
But Tommy is always watching. Literally. He scopes the entire meeting spot from a rooftop with binoculars. The moment Claudia arrives with backup, he realizes she’s trying to hand him to the feds. The trap backfires instantly, and she never even realizes it.
As Claudia frantically tries to rally allies, Vic wants no part of her chaos. When she finds him and pleads that Tommy will end him once he’s done using him, Vic sends her packing. Her final warning; “Remember this moment when Tommy has a gun to your head” lingers like a curse.
That same day, Vic is forced to come clean to his girlfriend Ry after she crosses paths with Claudia. He confesses his identity, admits he didn’t intend to fall for her, and begs her to stay. She does, but it plants the seed that Vic is becoming dangerously entangled again.
With Claudia’s betrayal burning in the back of his mind, Tommy summons Vic to the loft to test his loyalty. Vic admits to speaking with Claudia but keeps her proposition to himself. Instead, he gives Tommy intel about Stacy’s political fiasco, a public embarrassment engineered by Jetson Lawrence, who wants cash in exchange for CPD support.
Tommy sees opportunity. They need leverage over Stacy, and Vic remembers her weak spot: Alicia, the art student who snitched on him. Tommy meets Alicia, but instead of silencing her ruthlessly, he pulls a classic Ghost-style maneuver, he pays her. $25,000 for a fabricated video claiming Stacy coerced her into naming Vic and bribed her for her testimony.
The recording becomes the key to flipping Stacy. When Tommy and Vic confront her, Stacy tries to play hardball, but the tape forces her hand. She takes a deal: $500,000 more from Tommy, bringing his total contributions to $1.5 million, and in return, she wipes Vic’s slate clean and pulls protection from Elise. Tommy also hands her a burner phone to keep contact. He doesn’t trust her, but he now controls her.
Diamond’s meeting with the Yardies becomes the episode’s turning point. He offers Zamos an almost irresistible deal, ten bricks at an unbeatable price, hoping to fold them into the Coalition. Zamos samples the product and is blown away. It looks like peace might be possible until Diamond demands the shooter who killed Willie.
The Yardies are slaughtered on the spot. CBI walks away with their guns, their product, and their territory all pinned on the Marquez cartel. It’s a masterstroke of brutality, strategy, and territory expansion.
Later, when Diamond presents the victory to Chay, he introduces Jannard as his brother and equal something Tommy absolutely wouldn’t have approved of. Jannard recognizes this moment as his long-awaited doorway into power.
After Tommy’s political chess move, Stacy uses Claudia as her personal missile. She gives Claudia the intel she needs to slip past her federal shadows and storm Tommy’s loft. As Claudia heads out, she asks Stacy what Tommy took from her. Stacy’s reply—“Something I can’t get back”—lands cold and bitter. It mirrors Claudia’s own past words about Liliana, showing just how deeply their vendettas echo each other.
Simultaneously, Vic meets with members of the Northern Irish faction, men who agree Claudia is right about Tommy poisoning the Flynn legacy. Crews from New York and Milwaukee are ready to ride with him against Tommy. For the first time, Vic is seriously considering war.
He tries calling Claudia to accept her earlier offer but she’s already in motion.
When Claudia breaks into Tommy’s loft, she thinks she’s one step ahead
A gunfight erupts. Claudia thinks she lands the kill shot but when she approaches, Tommy rises, turns the tables, and delivers a cold, devastating farewell. He calls her the strongest of the Flynns, a backhanded compliment made meaningless by what comes next. He pulls the trigger, killing her in the name of Liliana.
Vic Flynn is now the last of his bloodline.
And the war Claudia warned him about is officially inevitable.
Tommy calls Diamond for help disposing of Claudia, but gets no answer. Shanti steps in instead, helping him clean up while revealing the news that CBI massacred the Yardies, something Tommy wasn’t aware of. She warns him: the brothers are moving differently. Everyone is playing their own game now.
When Mireya later walks into Tommy’s loft and sees the bullet holes and blood, her face collapses in terror. Hours earlier, she was shopping for baby clothes after discovering she’s pregnant and she still hasn’t told Tommy. The Barcelona onesie she bought becomes a haunting callback to the trip they never took.
Her silence now feels ominous and dangerous.
Episode 5 ends with every alliance fractured, every motive burning, and every character standing on the edge of a war they can no longer avoid.
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