Teenage girls across the world suddenly find themselves becoming human electric conductors. How will this change the world, and is the power truly in their hands? This would be the easiest way to explain the premise of Prime’s new TV series “The Power.” It is also based on the New York Times bestseller and winner of the Bailey Women’s Prize in Fiction back in 2016 entitled the same.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In ‘The Power’ Episode 1?
There are five characters we meet in the first episode of “The Power.” Allie is a black foster child being raised by white parents somewhere in the US. She doesn’t speak to the foster parents, and they see a psychologist about this. He suggests Allie may have had some traumatic experience that has caused her to be non-verbal. The mother then says there’s no such thing, and she hopes that prayer will set things straight for her daughter. It is very clear that there is something wrong in this family that isn’t revealed. Allie also doesn’t love going to church and isn’t a believer, even though her foster parents seem to be forcing it on her.
Somewhere in England, Roxy, the daughter of a mobster, complains to her mom about how her dad doesn’t care about her. She wants a job under him, but her mother knows he will never give her one. Roxy looks to be extremely close to her mother and is living alone with her. Her dad is married to another woman, and Roxy is getting ready to go join the celebrations for her oldest half-brother’s wedding. Jos is the daughter of Mayor Margot of Seattle, who, as a teenager, resents her mother for never spending time with her and uses the internet to hate on her as an outlet for her emotions. Her mother is a powerful woman in politics who does not take her position for granted and appreciates her job very much. Jos and Margot do not get along for obvious reasons, but Margot is putting in a lot of effort to show her teenage daughter that she loves her even though she’s too busy for her.
In Nigeria, a girl named Ndudi searches for answers about a group of girls with powers and invites her friend Tunde to join her as a journalist. He turns her down because he has plans with his girlfriend. Roxy, Jos, and Allie all soon discover that they have actual electricity in them and notice something under their skin near their collarbone. Roxy leaves the party to head home because her dad, as her mom predicted, would not cooperate with her. Allie isn’t speaking because her foster father is abusing her. But now that she has the power, she can also hear a voice in her head. The voice of God, but she’s female. Allie finally feels safe, finding her voice again. The first thing she talks about is how she doesn’t like meat because it comes at the cost of killing animals. There’s some back and forth between mother and daughter until the father says Allie shouldn’t backtalk her mother, and that she requires punishment for this.
Meanwhile, Tunde then gets zapped by the woman he sees, shocking him, and he decides to head to where Ndudi is. Jos discovers she’s not the only one and makes a new friend in school named Cat who has the powers too. Cat can control her powers better than Jos. The powers are also not equal for all girls. Like anything in the body, each girl gets a different amount of strength and control. Some girls don’t even have it at all.
What Did Allie Discover?
Jos learns to appreciate the power with Cat. Allie’s punishment is sexual abuse from her foster ‘father.’ It seems the mother was also in on the deed and never stopped her husband because she had to be a good wife and trust in God. Allie, who used to be incapable of doing anything, can now zap this man with a finger. So, when things are going to get worse for her, she chooses to kill her father because the voice in her head asks her how many more girls she could allow this to happen to. Allie saw her chance and grabbed it immediately, killing her father and running away, all with the guidance of ‘fem-God.’ She finds herself walking a really long distance and getting tired, all alone, and hungry. When she isn’t able to go on much longer, she sleeps in the fields near a highway because she feels safe enough to know that her powers will protect her. She finally makes her way to an aquarium, where she finds electric eels. Her God tells her that this thing in her is natural because it existed before her in nature. Allie finds solace in this idea and the eels.
Back in Nigeria, Tunde looks up what this new electric wave that’s hit the world is. He realizes it connects to what Ndudi said and heads out to find her. The Nigerian people are calling these girls witches, and when Tunde reaches there, he finds an empty house, but after some investigation, he hears noises. He gets his camera out and starts to record everything he sees—all the young girls have electricity dancing between their fingers. They’re doing tricks, dancing around, and lighting up their cigarettes with their fingers—all without realizing Tunde is recording them. Ndudi finds him and tells him that this is her story to tell, and Tunde had other plans anyway. Before they can continue their conversation, though, one of the girls finds him and gets aggravated by his presence. She tries to zap him, but Ndudi defends him, saying he came with her. The girl is unbothered and lets out her power again, but this time it hits Ndudi, and she falls to the floor, writhing in pain. All the girls run away, and Ndudi and Tunde are left alone with no help.
