Monet Tejada in 'The Gift of the Magi’ Power Book II: Ghost S1E5
Updated: May 15
Monet Tejada in 'The Gift of the Magi’ Power Book II: Ghost Season 1 Episode 5
Show: Power Book II: Ghost | Season 1, Episode 5 | Network: Starz | Aired: October 4, 2020
The Gift of the Magi. A title that is all about sacrifice and what you give up for the people you love. Sound like anyone we know? Monet Tejada has been giving things up for this family her entire life. This episode makes you feel the weight of that.
The Episode
By Episode 5, the show has fully hit its stride and the Monet storylines are getting richer and more complex with every episode. The Tejada operation is under pressure from multiple directions and Monet is doing what she always does: holding it together through sheer force of will and intelligence.
The O. Henry reference in the title is deliberate. The original Gift of the Magi story is about two people who sacrifice what they love most for each other, only to discover the sacrifices cancel each other out. In the world of this show, that irony lands harder because the things Monet sacrifices are rarely recognized or appreciated by the people she sacrifices them for.
What Monet Was Wearing
Earrings: EmpressHoops and Frosted Bam Beauties - Sister Love
Gucci Belt
Monet as Mother
This episode gives us some of the most interesting Monet-as-mother material of the early season. Her love for her children is real and fierce. But so is her control over them. She cannot seem to separate the two, and the show is starting to show us the consequences of that.
Mary plays the maternal scenes with such warmth underneath all the hardness. You never doubt that Monet loves her children. You just start to wonder if they feel it. And that tension is heartbreaking in the most compelling way.
A Standout Episode
The Gift of the Magi is one of those mid-season episodes that does not have a single huge dramatic moment but instead builds everything quietly and makes the story richer. Mary is extraordinary in these quieter episodes because she fills every scene with subtext. Nothing Monet says is ever just what she says. There is always more underneath. And Mary never lets you forget it.
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