Power Book IV: Force Premiere Recap: Everybody Wants A Chicago Slice — Plus, Grade It!

Cancelling Christmas is an all-year-'round job, so when Power Book IV: Force returns for its Season 2 premiere, Tommy Egan knows he's got some hard work ahead of him. Let's just say that shootout at the end of Season 1 didn't make life any easier for the Big Apple transplant, and now even more factions are vying to rule Chicago's drug trade. Read on for the highlights of "Tommy's Back."

R.I.P., LILIANA | Tommy is at home, drinking and thinking about Liliana when he hears her voice, asking what he's doing. "I'm doing what we talked about," he says, tears running down his cheeks, as she makes him vow to make them suffer. "I will," he says, resolute. "I promise." So he spends most of the episode trying to figure out who in Flynn's organization killed her. Diamond thinks he should chill, cautioning him not to avenge her right away, because Diamond can't offer him much backup while he's still on parole.

BROTHERS DIVIDED | Diamond and Jenard, who's calling his operation Treason, hold separate meetings with their people and talk about how the other side is the enemy. Diamond's guys don't love Tommy until a) Diamond tells them that Tommy and he are their new bosses, and b) Tommy gives them better drugs at a lower price to move. 

Jenard woos one of Diamond's street team away by promising more money. Then he stops by the Insane Princes, his connect, who are not pleased to know that he's a little short on the cash he owes them. The big, scary drug boss named Garcia gives him until Friday to get him the money or else very bad, very painful things are going to happen. His next stop: Claudia, whom he offers a 50/50 partnership, but she turns him down. Not long after, Diamond and Tommy visit the Insane Princes, asking for double their usual amount of product. The boss is highly suspicious of Tommy and makes him wait in the back while he and Diamond talk business. While Tommy's cooling his heels, he meets Maria, Garcia's sister who wants nothing to do with Tommy's flirting. Diamond later warns him to stay away from her, but Tommy says he's just about making money and taking down the Flynns, and that's it. Later, we learn that Garcia is diabetic, which probably will be important information somewhere down the line.

FLYNN FAMILY DRAMA | How's our favorite dysfunctional Irish crime gang doing, you wonder? Walter Flynn tells his Irish backer that he's planning to take out Tommy himself. "There'll be no more retaliations against my family." But the guy wants a lot of money to keep the peace — and for his family to forget about the men they sent to support Flynn who didn't make it home alive — and he wants it by the end of the month.

Vic, who's deeply mourning Gloria, isn't returning his father's calls. He vows to make him pay. When Walter tracks down his children and visits them at their hideout, assuring them that there'll be no retribution for their part in the gunfight against Tommy and Diamond — remember, Claudia shot Liliana — and that he's "working on something," though he won't say what. After Walter leaves, Claudia suggests that they let their father think they're with him... but actually band together against him. He says for it to work, they have to split everything 50/50 and make all decisions together, "no surprises, no secrets, no bulls–t." She says they have a deal.

That lasts for about five minutes. When Tommy learns that Claudia has Dalia running again and about to hit the streets, he engineers it so that the designer drug's recipe gets released on the internet, killing her demand. She immediately thinks that the chemist she's forcing to make the drug is behind the leak and runs down to the workshop to shoot her in the head. When Vic hears about it, he dissolves their arrangement, telling her it's just like being in business with his dad. Meanwhile, Darnell educates Tommy about how much more product he could move if he used social media effectively... then volunteers to help if he'll cut him in. Though Egan initially is resistant, he eventually agrees, provided that Darnell perform his duties from the house.

I JUST MET A GIRL NAMED MARIA | Tommy and Garcia's sister cross paths again later; we learn she's a nurse who doesn't drive and who wants as little as possible to do with her brother's "blood money." He offers to teach her to drive, but she counters that his line of work probably will get him killed sooner rather than later, and she'd rather not bother getting to know him. "If you were smart, you wouldn't be doing any kind of work for my brother," she says. "Are you saying you're concerned about me?" he flirts back. She responds that she merely tries to keep her distance from anything having to do with her brother's form of employment.

Tommy gets a call and rushes to the emergency room at Tillman Hospital: Darnell's gunshot wound is infected, and JP and Kate can't seem to get anyone working in the overcrowded ER to help them out. Tommy runs up to the desk, demanding that someone see his nephew, and... oh would you look at that? Maria is an ER nurse who happens to be working that night. She immediately checks Darnell out, ascertains that he's in a bad way with a high fever, and helps get him into a bed. After some meds and some rest, she is happy to let Tommy know that Darnell is going to be fine. Tommy is less excited to see her kiss another hospital staffer after she leaves the teen's room.

OFF TO A BAD START | The Serbs aren't happy to learn that Tommy and Diamond's crew are holding territory that Jenard promised them. So they beat him up and demand that he fix things. Man, Jenard is NOT having a good first week of crime-bossing, is he? At least he gets it on with the badass boxing-gym owner he smolders with earlier in the episode.

At the end of the hour, Tommy walks up to Chewy — the CBI cornerman who defected to Jenard's Treason crew — and shoots him dead in the street, even though Diamond warned his new partner earlier that to do so would kick off a war they don't have the resources to fight. Oops.

CAN'T RUN FOREVER | The Feds make a positive ID on Tommy, even though New York law enforcement reports him as dead. Given his criminal history, soon they're forming a new task force. "This guy's affiliated with the Flynns, the Serbs, CBI and Garcia. If we take him down, maybe we can take him all down," the Federal boss lady says.

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the premiere? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments with your thoughts!