The Power – The World Is on Fu*king Fire

By starrymag | April 6, 2023

By: Dawn Inchaurrequi-Miller

 

 

Margot (Toni Collette) wakes her husband Rob Lopez (John Leguizamo) on their anniversary with kisses and promises for how the evening will be spent. Their affectionate conversation is interrupted by the sound of the fire alarm shrieking throughout the house. Jos (Auli’i Cravalho) looks down at her hands in shock as the microwave continuous to burn. Rob rushes to put out the fire as she stands open mouthed. They tell her it’s ok, but they quickly assume she had accidentally put a spoon in the microwave. She tells them she didn’t as she is too scared to tell them the truth, that her hands keep electrocuting things. When her dad speaks to her in Spanish, Margot asks for him to speak English so she can understand. This leads Rob to joke that after twenty years of marriage, she still can’t speak a word of it. Jos then begins to vent anger at her mum for being nothing more than a politician and when she answers her ringing phone, it doesn’t look like she’s incorrect. The person on the other end is Helen (Edwina Findley), who urgently tells her the world is on fire.

 

Power outages and fires are the topic of the emergency meeting Margot is having with her worried staff. There are rumors of young girls setting them, including an Asian man claiming a girl set an apartment block on fire with just her hands. She sends someone to check if that was a mistranslation and the rest of them scatter to find out more about the other fires. Margot tries to call Jos, who instantly hangs up on her. Jos is walking with her friend Yuki (Ashley De Guzman) through the school halls. Yuki asks if she has heard about the girls with the electricity and speculates that it’s down to using vibrators. Jos awkwardly dismisses this and heads off to ask a mutual friend if she has seen Cat. Quinn (Tiffany Alycia Tong) hasn’t seen her so the conversation moves to a history test that neither wants to do. Jos runs her hand across the fire alarm and intentionally sets it off with a spark, while in the background Yuki sees her do it.

 

Dr. Rob Lopez goes into an office to see a girl with mysterious markings on her. He talks to her a little to set her at ease before asking to see the marks, revealing almost vein-like pink lines running up her arm. He then goes through her medical notes with her mother, surprised that she is so heavily medicated for such a young age. It says in the notes that she has intermittent explosive disorder and the mother tells him she doesn’t talk, she screams. The conversation brings her to tears but although it’s difficult Rob apologizes and says he has to check that there has been no abuse suffered. He says she has a Lichtenberg figure on her arm which he goes on to explain can only be due to a large electric shock. The mother shakes her head insisting she would have told her, but becomes more upset at the thought that maybe she wouldn’t.

 

Speaking in Romanian, the president of Carpathia Viktor Moskalev (Alexandru Bindea) gives a stern speech regarding the young girls which he calls terrorists. He calls out the harrowing words capital punishment for the cameras and the people stood gripping to his gate. His wife Tatiana Moskalev (Zrinka Cvitesic) notices a poor girl with burn scars down her face holding on to the bars, reminding her of her own tough childhood, living dirt poor but training to be a gymnast.

 

Tunde (Toheeb Jimoh) is at the hospital hoping to see Ndudi (Heather Agyepong) but he is discouraged from doing so. The family has insisted she have no visitors, but he manages to finally get inside to see her. She tells him her father wants to perform a deliverance and makes him take a look at the scarring across her face. Before he leaves he promises he will find out what happened to her.

 

Allie (Halle Bush) wakes up in the grass and continues to walk, eventually managing to get onto a bus. Her mind drifts to her foster dad, remembering how she had killed him, but the voice abruptly tells her he deserved it. Alley begins to pray, but as she says, “Oh father…” the voice asks what has the father ever done for her. When she disembarks the bus, she makes her way into a diner, passing three creepy men that follow her with their eyes. The voice continuous to talk to her throughout this scene and as she eats scraps from the table, her eyes land on the tips left for whatever waitress was working that table. The voice tells her to take what she needs and she slowly reaches out and takes the tip money. Her attention is drawn to the TV behind her where the news is showing an upset Mrs. Montgomery (Elise Robertson) talking of her wonderful God fearing husband has been murdered. A public notice is then put out regarding Allie as the key suspect and warns people not to get too close to her.

 

Laying clutching the duvet Roxy (Ria Zmitrowicz) sits up from the bed. She puts on her bloodied shoes, gets ready and goes out on her bike, heading to her fathers jewellery shop where a new security guard stops her. Running in screaming for her dad, she is directed upstairs by her brother who pretends not to know her as he deals with a customer. Her dad Bernie Monke (Eddie Marsan) is angry at how she is acting in the middle of his business, but Roxy wants answers about her mom’s death. He gives her the runaround, changing his answers to what is being done. She asks if someone went after her because of one of his businesses as she heard them say “the girl isn’t meant to be here,” but he claims he is working with the police in the investigation and it seems to be a robbery gone wrong. She remembers their faces and she wants them dead, he changes his story to say he can’t do a lot because the police are everywhere and angrily tells her to stay out of it and makes her leave.

 

Allie goes into a pawn shop to sell a ruby to the woman that owns the shop, Wendy (Robyn Scott). When she only offers her $100 the voice tells her to manipulate the way that the electric eel makes its prey come straight to it. She pretends she is unwell from giving blood and the lady gets her to sit, giving her water and a plate of cookies. Wendy, the owner, then walks back around and taking another look at the ruby, decides instead to offer $150. Allie says thank you and leaves the shop bickering with the voice for making her look crazy.

 

Uploading the footage, Tunde watches the video from the gathering on his computer. His mother Ashoka Ono (Iretiola Doyle) comes in and asks what trouble his friend has found herself in. She tells him people think she’s a witch, but Tunde tells her it’s not true. She asks why he was messing with juju but he tells her he was following a story. She asks him not to talk about this with his sister and risk giving her any ideas. She thinks she has gotten through to him but the moment she leaves, he uploads the video to Youzer, the series equivalent to YouTube.

 

On the other side of the world Helen shows Margot the video Tunde amde and they discuss whether or not they believe it could be real or if it’s fabricated. He only has 12 followers at this point so him being some kind of tech whiz seems unlikely. Helen tells Margot that there are a ton of comments underneath written by other girls claiming to have the same thing happening to them. Margot tells her still hasn’t heard from Governor Danden, but Helen says he is apparently currently holding a private event for his re-election campaign at his house. She realises this means she will have to travel all the way to his private home. Helen makes her change her shoes to cheaper ones before she goes, stating that there has been negative feedback from the public on her shoes. Neither of them realising that it was humorously her own daughter that had posted about it.

 

Rap music plays in the car as Rob drives Jos back in the car. He asks about her history exam but she lies claiming it was ok. He keeps trying to interact with her and breaks into a rap, telling her about how much he loved music when he was her age. To drown him out she begins turning up the music, leaving him laughing and telling her he’ll shut up. As they laugh, a spark lets out from her hand, shorting the dashboard. Rob pulls over the car and asks her if she’s ok, pausing for a second he asks her if that’s what happened with the microwave. She begins to get upset, telling him no and insulting his music as she storms out of the car. He opens his phone and looks at the image of the girl with the electricity burns on her arm.

 

Allie, exhausted and dirty, gets closer to a car with the hood popped. She passes two young girls playing while their dad waits for a mechanic to show up. She tells him she’s good with cars and could help but he patronises her, leading to the voice remarking that it’s just another man undermining her. She eventually convinces him to try the engine while she uses her hands. She eventually gets it to work but one of the girls, having seen she has her hands physically on the engine, thinks she will also be safe to touch it and gets electrocuted. The girls cry out that she hurt her and their dad pushes her into the dirt and drives away.

 

Riding her bike in anger as fast as she can, Roxy makes her way around London. A van collides with her making her fly off her bike, but instead of checking she is alright the driver gets out and begins yelling at her. She uses her hands and shoots electricity at the van, lifting it off the ground and breaking it at the front.

 

Jos sits around a campfire with Cat (Anissa Matlock) and some of their friends. She and Cat vape while the boys play fight, giving Jos an excuse to watch Ryan (Nico Hiraga). She tells cat her life used to be a 4/10, and now it’s more like a 7/10. Cat repeats this in surprise saying they can blow stuff up, so it’s a 10/10.

 

Margot has travelled all the way to Daniel Dandon’s (Josh Charles) house. She is annoyed that he hasn’t been answering his phone as he sits playing poker while they are in a state of crisis. He says he knows they have literally had fires to put out but that crisis is a little strong. He is aggrevated that she has just shown up at his house late at night and asks her what she actually needs. She tells him she needs emergency funding as the EMS services are tapped. When he says ok, she is surprised, though it seems as if he just wants rid of her. When he smugly asks if there’s anything else she shows him the video of the girl being electrocuted in Nigeria. He brushes it off and tilts his head at her making her insnatly feel stupid. He continues to patronise her saying she is stressed and brings up her anniversary. He tells her he will send the funding and quietly look into the rumours about electric girls. He then tells her she needs to calm down and go to her husband and as someone that cares about her, she shouldn’t get her panties in a bunch. Though she is clearly offended by the remark, she barely bites back, holds her tongue and leaves.

 

Margot gets home to find her loving and supporting husband waiting for her with take out. She’s late and apologizes but he takes it on the chin saying he gave her late notice about the French restaurant he booked with so it’s ok that she is running late. He helps her with her foot that is ripped up at the back from the cheap shoes she’d been wearing and asks about her day at work. She claims she doesn’t want to talk about it, but when he brings a bottle of tequila and glasses she picks up the bottle and chugs it back. He says she definitely needs to talk about it and it shouldn’t be bottled up. She goes on to say that she’s had to learn to keep it all inside otherwise the public see her as too emotional, irrational, hysterical and ultimately, unelectable. He; however, wants her to feel safe to talk to him as her husband and reassures her to let it all out. Eventually she vents about David ignoring her, forcing her to drive all the way to his home just for a two minute conversation they could have had on the phone. She tells him about the panties in a bunch comment, which makes Rob angry that he would dare talk about his wife’s underwear. Rob bets she came back at him hard for the comment, but instead Margot tells him she can’t because women in politics never get to say what they really think. Her husband comforts her with the truth that she is more qualified than he and much more capable of running the city. He then encourages her to break things and they both laugh as she smashes things onto the floor to relieve tension.

 

In their over the top bedroom Tatiana Moskalev (Zrinka Cvitesic) has cringingly awkward sex with her husband Viktor Moskalev (Alexandru Bindea) that even the captions read as “makes bored sex noises.” The giant TV plays the news in the background.

Afterwards he sits now watching the news but Tatiana tries to distract him saying it’s just girls playing pranks. He brushes her off him as it’s announced that there has been a huge explosion in a Chinese phone factory. A guard comes in to tell them that Tatiana’s mother Bunny (Dana Voicu) is outside. Finding the dumpy woman in her long coat and grubby clothes she remembers awful abusive memories of her mother, screaming at her while she was competing as an athlete for her country. Bunny stands out even more against the pink colour scheme of the room that looks as though the entire house has been modeled after one of Katy Perry’s music videos. She is there begging for help as her husband has died and she hasn’t eaten for weeks. While telling her there is no work and she can’t even clean herself she still throws negative comments at her daughter with no regard for the impact of her words. She calls her daughter cruel, but Tatiana responds that she learned from the best. Her mom wants what’s owed to her and believes that she is the reason that her daughter has all the riches she has, but Tatiana clearly unhappy, screams “at what cost?” Tatiana asks about her sister Zoia, visibly upset that she has lost contact with her younger sister who seems to have cut them both out. After more arguing, Tatiana has her mother removed.

 

In her dad’s home Roxy watches the news showing videos from social media of girls who can make electricity come from their hands. Her dad walks in behind her and she tells him she is also able to do it. He and her brother are then walking behind her in a field and she tells them that other girls don’t have as much as she does. She makes it crackle between her fingers, then screams and shoots it across the field exploding a tall electricity pylon.

 

Allie sits down in a field utterly exhausted with the sun beating down on her. She takes off her shoes wincing at the pain from her feet. She repeatedly asks why this is happening to her with her voice cracking and stamps her foot down, she looks down noticing the electricity can also travel out through her foot. The scene is powerful and moving as the woman’s voice tells her the world needs a revolution and she will be its voice. Thunder crackles above and lighting strikes out hitting a telephone pylon, sending electricity crackling back and forth sparking as it goes.

 

Still outside Jos is sat kissing Ryan but the two turn their heads and the others look up as a plane comes down way too fast in front of them, trailing smoke behind it and crashes down not far from where they are sat.

 

Helen calls Margo who wakes up on the sofa with her husband Rob, both hungover and surrounded by broken plates. When she answers the call, she sits upright at what has been said to her. She rushes to the scene of the crash and looks around at the chaos in shock.