Just when it seemed like Dru and Gordo would make it, Monet set a complicated plan into motion that saw their short-lived romance coming to a deadly conclusion.
A relationship based on deception, Dru and Gordo’s union was probably never meant to last, but what a ride it was.
Fresh off the devastating events of Power Book II: Ghost Season 3 Episode 7, TV Fanatic chatted with series stars Lovell Adams-Gray and Erik Hernandez about their character’s ill-fated romance, what’s next for Dru, and why Gordo thought he could say no to Monet!
Dru has been rather unlucky in love so far, but with Gordo, he’d found someone that knew him.
“I think Dru was finally feeling safe and secure in something,” Adams-Gray explained when asked about the pair’s relationship. “He finally had something that was his own in this relationship and was looking at it through a perspective of love and potential, and they could do everything together.
“The family knows him and accepts him. We’re all doing dirt, so it’s nothing to hide. And the whole family can actually build and grow together. I know there are lies and stuff that we built upon. We technically killed their father. Not technically, but we did kill the Castillo’s pop, so there’s that.
“But I think if we could get past those things … that’s another thing too. This whole thing was kind of built on that foundation of lies. So, I think that seeing through those things, seeing through that, the potential of what it could be, I think Dru is kind of blinding himself to that.
“And also, it’s just being a little naive, just a bit, just a bit. Because eventually, he’s going to have to be like, ‘Well, yeah, we did. Your pop’s been snitching, so he had to get rid of him. So sorry, but let’s do this thing.'”
Gordo was all-in on Dru to the point where he was willing to push back against his family in the name of his love. And for Hernandez, the family aspect of Gordo was something he liked.
“I think through this whole process, I enjoyed seeing Gordo as a family man, somebody that really does care for his family, protects his family, has a strong bond with his family,” Hernandez remarked.
“And so I think going against what they have to say is not easy, but I think that Gordo, being a family man, did see the potential for a future family with Dru. I feel like the moment inside the Castillo restaurant where you really see Gordo betray his family a little bit for this person.
“I think that is him seeing, like I said, the potential of a future family here with this person, so clinging onto that and clinging onto somebody that does understand him just even a little bit more than his family does, especially being a gay person and being in this drug dealing, sheisty business.
“I think the family obviously understands that side, but I don’t believe Dru’s been in a relationship with somebody that understands him even further to this point and is really, really similar on all of these levels.
“So I think that it’s Gordo standing up for what he thinks is right and having that family with somebody that, it’s spoken about in the show, but they’re pretty much as close as family without being actually related. I feel like that’s just another weird kind of twisted way of putting family first if that makes sense.”
After Gordo killed Lorenzo in Power Book II: Ghost Season 3 Episode 5, he went along like it was business as usual, which didn’t sit right with Monet. And when Monet asked him to stay away from her son, Gordo pushed back.
But did Gordo actually think he would get away with everything after openly defying Monet Tejada?
“Yeah, I think he did,” Hernandez explained. “Unfortunately, I think he put the nail in the coffin during that conversation with Monet, and I think he underestimated her power and ability.
“And she’s obviously bold, and she’s going to get the last word if she wants it. I don’t think it was a suicide mission to have that conversation and expect that those are going to be some of his last few words.
“I do think he thought he was going to get away with it, mainly because they had a secret in common. I think he thought he had some leverage there. But like I said, he underestimated Monet’s ability to take somebody out.”
This begs the bigger question: what was Gordo’s fatal flaw? Was it ultimately that conversation with Monet?
“Yeah, in this scenario, I think, yeah,” Hernandez stated. “Because if that conversation wouldn’t have happened the way it did or if Gordo would’ve taken the advice and just stepped away from Dru, I think he certainly would’ve at least bought himself more time.
“Who knows. It’s Power. I would imagine it was going to happen at some point. But I think had he listened and obeyed to what she said, yeah, she wouldn’t have had the motive, I think, to take Gordo out the way that she did.”
Taking Gordo out comes about quickly, as Dru goes from happy to seeing red. And he made a decision in that moment without much hesitation.
“He sends a text because once he gets that number from Sean Nelson’s character, Kai, he decides, “I’m going to use it to find out who this guy is and text that number,” Adams-Gray explained when asked about Dru’s headspace in the moments before Gordo’s death.
“And when he gets that buzz back, he’s like, ‘No way. No, it’s absolutely, there’s no way.’ And I feel like there were a lot of times where Papi or Cane would say, ‘Dru’s really distracted. Dru’s not really in it for the family and isn’t able to do what needs to be done.’
“And so he took this time and opportunity to be like, ‘All right, well I got to do it, and I got to do it right now.’ No hesitation.
“This is the guy who did it. And he moves directly off of, not impulse, but if I think too long about this and get too much in my feelings, it’s not going to get done. And so it needs to just get done, and I can’t think about the consequences right now.”
But will there be consequences for Dru?
In the immediate aftermath, Adams-Gray explained, “There’s a lot of mixed-up emotions. We think that revenge is the best answer oftentimes. I need to get my lick back.
“And so he thinks he gets what he wants in killing Gordo. And now what? Now there’s still that void, and space needs to be filled in the family as leader of the family. Now he’s at odds with the commands of Cane.
“And is Cane still going to be the leader? And does Monet want him to step up, really, or is it her own motivations? There are so many confusing things that Dru has to wade through to get to truthfully what he wants at the center of himself.
“And around the end of the season, there’s going to be a lot of really strong decisions and emotions that come out of Dru that he has to handle and deal with. Grief, loss, heartbreak. And those just make for a cocktail of a tumultuous disaster.”
You can watch Power Book II: Ghost Fridays at 8/9c on Starz and follow our weekly reviews here at TV Fanatic.
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.