Diksha Sundriyal
Prime Video’s ‘The Power’ is set in a world that changes after a sudden flip of power dynamics in the world. Teenage girls around the globe develop the ability to control electricity from the tip of their fingers. This mysterious newfound ability gives them an incredible sense of power, completely changing how they’d been living. If it had been an isolated incident, it wouldn’t have caused a stir. But it soon spreads worldwide, and it becomes clear that things will never be the same again. The first three episodes give us a peek into how fast things will change. Here’s what the ending means for the rest of the season. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Power Episode 1,2,3 Recap
The events in ‘The Power’ follow the perspective of several characters in different parts of the world. Allie lives with her foster parents and has selective mutism. One day, she hears a voice in her head that tells her that she has the power to change her life and the rest of the world. Later that day, Allie kills her abusive foster father by electrocuting him. The voice tells her to run away, and she eventually ends up in a convent where she finds several other girls like her.
In Seattle, random fires and electricity blackouts have been causing trouble for the mayor, Margot Cleary-Lopez. At her daughter’s school, the rumors of girls exhibiting the power have started to circulate, and it hits close to home when Jos discovers that she has the power too. She confides in another girl, Kat, who went through the same thing about two weeks ago and has learned to control it by now. However, things take a turn when the authorities decide to take action against the girls with the power.
In Nigeria, Tunde Ojo is a journalist who comes to know about a secret ceremony where women awaken their powers. His friend Ndudi wants to cover the story, but Tunde blows her off. Later, he shows up at the place. Threatened by his presence, one girl electrocutes Ndudi. This is caught on tape, which Tunde uploads on the Internet. While some people dismiss the video as a hoax, the increasing frequency of incidents related to teenage girls setting things on fire creates a tense environment in the whole world.
The Power Episode 1,2,3 Ending: How Do Girls Get the Power?
The emergence of the power in the Prime Video series is so sudden that it changes the face of the world before anyone can make sense of what it is and where it came from. After studying the cases at hand, a pattern emerges, and it becomes clear that teenage girls are more prone to developing the power. The age bracket of 12 to 19 becomes the target. The girls can manifest electricity through their fingertips. Those who have learned to control it can give someone a minor static shock or electrocute them to death.
The random fires and blackouts across Seattle resulted from the girls discovering their powers and experimenting with them. While it is exciting for some, for others, it becomes a traumatic experience when a twelve-year-old girl brings down an airplane, leading to the loss of many lives. The girl didn’t do it intentionally. The 12-year-old didn’t even understand what was happening to her.
When Margot talks to her, the girl reveals that she had been very stressed because she was afraid of flying and the plane was facing turbulence. A flight attendant tried to help her by putting her seatbelt on, but the girl panicked and tried to push the woman away. She touched the attendant around her shoulders, and the latter felt a jolt of electricity, which hurt at first, but then made her feel powerful. It turns out the young girl passed on the power to the woman. This detail shows that the ability is not limited to teenage girls.
To understand what’s happening with their children and millions of girls around the world, Margot and Rob get a scan for Jos. However, within seconds of going inside the machine, Jos’s power starts to act up, and they get her out of there. While they cannot get a proper scan, they do get enough to pinpoint the origin of the power. The scan shows that the source of electricity is not the fingertips but a new organ along the collarbone.
The generation of electricity in the human body is not a new concept. The nerve cells use electric signals to send and receive information throughout the body. Rob tells Margot that the eyes, heart, and brain also generate electricity, but that’s not their primary function. They serve other purposes. However, the new organ seems to have no other purpose but to create electricity, which is why it creates such potent jolts of electricity which can easily kill a person.
The show also references the electric eel multiple times. In one scene, the voice inside Allie’s head tells her that not only can an electric eel produce electricity, but it can also use it to manipulate its prey. This points to the fact that power’s true potential hasn’t been unleashed yet. At the moment, it only seems to be doing physical harm, but it looks like Allie might find a way to use it to affect the electric impulses in another person’s body. This means that she could mind-control other people.
Having a logical explanation of how this might happen, Margot wonders about the reason behind it. Rob and Tash theorize that developing a new organ is a part of evolution. In a few people, it would have shown up as a mutation. But with hundreds and thousands of girls developing the organ simultaneously, it might have been dormant all this while and was triggered by something.
It is hard to pinpoint the trigger, but evolution usually works in favor of survival. Rob posits that it could have been an environmental trigger, like pollution or climate change. But if that’s the case, why didn’t the same thing happen to boys? Why is it limited to girls? The answer is still survival. The question is from what, and that’s where lies the core of ‘The Power.’
The TV show is based on the book of the same name by Naomi Alderman, and it focuses on gender politics when a reversal of power takes place. We live in a patriarchal society where men have the power to change the world and make decisions about women, their lives, and their bodies. Women are more victimized by violent crimes; they face the brunt of the social barriers that inhibit their growth. But what if that were to change?
With this unique power in the palm of their hands, we can already see the shift in the dynamics with women becoming more fearless. What happens when women are physically more powerful than men? How long will it take before the society becomes matriarchal? Will it change anything, or will the world remain the same with the scales tipped in favor of women? It is questions like these that the future episodes of ‘The Power’ will address.
Read More: Where is Prime’s The Power Filmed?
