Dru And Diana’s Reckoning, As Told By ‘Power: Ghost’ Leads, Lovell Adams-Gray And LaToya Tonodeo

And just like this, we’ve reached the mid-season finale for the final season of Power Book II: Ghost. Tensions are still high and over the past five episodes, the drama has reached a new peak. 

Two characters at the center of this season’s most intense storylines are Dru (Lovell Adams-Gray) and Diana (LaToya Tonodeo). If you haven’t caught up yet, let’s just say some secrets and lies have caught up with the sibling duo and things are more rocky than ever in the Tejada household. 

For now, a ceasefire is in place and lives are being spared, but for how long? While we revel in the events of recent episodes, VIBE caught up with Tonodeo and Adams-Gray to get answers to burning questions and we may have even unlocked a turning point from the second half of this explosive season. 

Find out their thoughts on what’s been happening, if normalcy is possible, and how they’d like things to progress moving forward. 

VIBE: We want to love Dru and Diana so badly because we have empathy for them, but they often make decisions that result in the question: “Why did you do that?” They were forced into a life that they never wanted and have made countless sacrifices, but do you think there’s a chance for them to have a normal life? And if so, what does normalcy look like?

LaToya Tonodeo: I don’t believe there’s a chance for them to have a normal life. As we’ve seen in the flashbacks, they grew up in this. They were literally mixing and measuring. There is no normal life for the Tejadas at all.

Lovell Adams-Gray: I [disagree]. I think there could be a semblance of a normal life with the intervention of Jesus and maybe some therapy. Like a true relationship with him, understanding like, “Okay, this is the path I need to go down now.” And some therapy to understand what they went through. They can name it, see it outside of their perspective, and understand what it is.

So, you have cousin Janet, who came in to help Monét recover, and she’s obviously a God-fearing woman. She talks about it all the time. Maybe she’s that presence bringing this family together. Maybe she’s that angel sent from God.

Tonodeo: Yeah! That’s true.

What is it about Cane compared to Dru and Diana that makes his relationship with Monét different? Yes, he’s angry and grieving in his own way, but he still rides for her, no questions asked. Meanwhile, Dru and Diana are the opposite. 

Tonodeo: For me, I feel like Cane has always been her soldier. The guy that’s gonna go out and do exactly [what she wants]…If she needs something done, she knows she can count on Cane to do it. I feel like with Diana and Dru, we’re not necessarily built the same because we’re the babies and we always believed that Dru was the favorite. Cane is her rock, her soldier, besides Lorenzo who was in jail. She knows she can lean on him and he’ll get the job done exactly how she wants it to be. If she asks Diana, Diana’s gonna throw in her little sauce and do something a little different, and Dru may or may not.

Adams-Gray: Yeah, I agree.

In one of the flashback episodes, you see Dru and Monét go on this run and I think that might be the first time Dru killed somebody. There was this very sweet boy, very caring and she took that sweetness and started to mold him to this sort of monster figure in the vein of Cane and Lorenzo. Do you think that Dru’s heart will eventually close itself off to like that type of closeness or is it just a defense mechanism?

Adams-Gray: I think people who close themselves off want that connection or are craving that connection. But it’s like you reject yourself before you are rejected. So it’s that fear of letting someone in again who’s already hurt you. So I believe that Dru can keep his heart open. If he can keep his heart open, there can be some reconciliation, but it’s going to take a lot of work.

I feel like, on both ends, it’s gonna take a lot of work for Dru and Diana to forgive her. Currently, we’re sparing everybody’s lives. No one’s gonna die today, but is that really a step towards forgiveness or is it temporary?

Tonodeo: It’s definitely a blanket because unfortunately no one’s really diving into the root of the issue. So it’s like, “Okay, we just gotta get along for now,” but we’re never really talking about why we are where we are. We’re just putting our band-aid over it. 

For Diana specifically, why do you think that she ran to Salim in her time of need? Is she used to finding solace in men because of her father and the complicated relationship that she had with her mom?

Tonodeo: Wow, first of all, thank you, that’s amazing. I never thought of it that way, but I do like what you’re saying. I feel like in this sense, Diana, honestly, she didn’t have no one else to run to. She knew she couldn’t run to Effie. And outside of Effie, Brushaundria, Dru, Cane, Monét, and her father, who is now gone, she doesn’t really have anyone besides Salim that she feels she can trust. And with everything that’s going on with the pregnancy, she also wants to be able to apologize for what she did because she feels guilty.

With that big secret happening over the season, how do you think it’s going to affect everybody moving forward? Dru, right now, is her biggest protector. That’s her biggest confidant. But the secret’s coming out. How do you think moving forward is going to affect everybody down the line?

Adams-Gray: Moving forward, there’s going to be a lot of energy towards trying to get something back that was taken, right? There’s innocence that was taken. There is love, trust, you know, being able to have this family unit that was taken and disrupted. I believe that going forward, it’s going to be people’s different perspectives on how to get that back and what they believe is the right way to get that back.

Tonodeo: And I would hope that a pregnancy — without giving up anything— I would hope that it could kinda bring the family together because a baby [supposed to] bring a family together. That’s the point, sometimes.

Most of the time, yes. It’s supposed to. With the Tejadas and Janet being here, do you think that it’s going to be the same thing that happened with Monet when it came to Zeke? Diana may go with Janet and move to Atlanta, and start over, as opposed to staying in New York. Is that a possibility?

Tonodeo: Yo no se.

Not me guessing the season! With where we are currently in the season, what would you say are Dru and Dianna’s end goals when all will be said and done?

Adams-Gray: Their end goal is to gather some independence. They’ve gone out as their own unit and made some decisions. I feel like now they could probably make some decisions with each other that can actually build for the family, build for themselves, get a small starting loan of a million dollars.

Tonodeo: You and this million dollars!

Adams-Gray: I’m speaking it out there, baby!

Tonodeo: You must want that in real life because I know I do.

Adams-Gray: You know, start a business, go legit, rebuild Truth. You never know.

Not rebuild Truth!

Tonodeo: That’s crazy. I 100 % second what Lovell said. It’s really gaining true independence because we’ve been under our mother’s thumb for so long. So just to see what that could be like and how we would navigate through finding that true independence.

Now that the truth is out, and there’s still the lingering thought of like, if something happens to me or you, where do we go from here? What do you think the answer to that is?

Adams-Gray: I think the answer is probably leaning on family as much as possible. 

Tonodeo: Yeah.

I feel like it always comes back to that blood-related loyalty. 

Adams-Gray and Tonodeo: (nod in agreement)

Power Book II: Ghost returns on September 6 for part two of its final season.