Who shot Ghost? 'Power' reveals the killer in series finale of 50 Cent drama

Spoiler alert: This story contains details from Sunday's series finale of "Power."

Who Shot Ghost? We know now.

“Power” answered that long-running, pivotal question in the series finale of the six-season Starz drama: Tariq shot and killed his father, James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick). 

However, the finale of the series, which lays the groundwork for four planned "Power" spinoffs, really was more of a family affair. So it was a fitting end for the story of the elder St. Patrick, a nightclub entrepreneur and drug kingpin, and the family and colleagues who surround him.

In Sunday's finale, Tariq (Michael Rainey Jr.) pulled the trigger – sending a bloodied Ghost hurtling backward in a now-familiar visual – but he barely beat his mother and Ghost’s ex, Tasha (Naturi Naughton), to it.

And Tommy (Joseph Sikora), who was like family to Ghost, witnessed the aftermath. He had a chance to shoot Tariq, but Ghost, in his dying breath, persuaded him to spare his son.

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Tariq, Tasha and Tommy were part of the pool of suspects in Ghost’s killing, first revealed late last fall but played out from various perspectives over the final five episodes. 

To avoid a leak of the assailant's identity, "we shot a number of different endings," creator Courtney Kemp says. "It's actually a testament to the popularity of the show, and I can't complain about that."

Although the identity of Ghost's shooter remained up in the air until the end, the kingpin's fate was preordained, she says.

“With Ghost, it was always dead or in jail. That was always going to be how he ended, because we told that (story) from the beginning,” Kemp says. “From the beginning, (Ghost) was very sanguine about that. And then, toward the end of his life, he got arrogant enough to think that he could escape it. But that’s not how life works.”

Besides lifting the veil on the details of Ghost's demise, the finale also featured the return of a familiar face, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as Kanan, the drug dealer and one-time Ghost mentor who was killed in Season 5. He returned as a vision to Tariq just before he shoots his father.

"We wanted to (convey) the idea of the ghosts: You will be visited by three ghosts, the '(Christmas) Carol' of it, the 'Richard III' of it," Kemp says.

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Jackson, also an executive producer, was happy to revisit Kanan.

"I think it surprises the audience when that happens, because we’ve gone for some time now without seeing the character," he says. "It was exciting for me to get back into it, and it's a cool way to bring yourself back on the show, right?"

After Ghost's shooting, Tasha stages an elaborate ruse to shield her son and herself from suspicion, setting up her current beau, Quinton, by leading police to a gun at his place. She gets a job and arranges for Tariq to attend college, with graduation a requirement to receive the inheritance Ghost left for him.

But an unexpected twist exonerates Quinton and undermines Tasha's plot. The episode ends with Tariq in a college dorm room and Tasha in a jail cell. 

But that's not exactly the end of it. A flashback to 1996 features  high school versions of Ghost, Tommy and another "Power" character, Angela. They're younger, lighter and full of promise, but it's not the segue to a "Power" prequel. "It's just a coda to our main story," Kemp says.

As one series ends, however, "Power" spinoffs are in the offing:  Starz on Sunday picked up three new series in addition to previously announced "Power Book II: Ghost," starring Mary J. Blige and Method Man, that's due this summer.

"Book III: Raising Kanan" is a prequel about the early years of Kanan Stark in the '90s; "Book IV: Influence" follows Rashad Tate's (Larenz Tate) "ruthless pursuit" of political power; and "Book V: Force" follows Ghost's friend and colleague, Tommy Egan, as he cuts his ties to the past and leaves New York.

"Power Book II: Ghost," which picks up 48 hours after the end of "Power," features original series regulars Tariq (Rainey), Tasha (Naughton) and law-enforcement antagonist Cooper Saxe (Shane Johnson)..

As for the original series, "I would love for it to be remembered as a snapshot of a culture, a blending of the crime genre with a family drama, and proof that lead characters don't need to be white for a show to be successful," Kemp says. "When we came out, people said, 'No one will ever watch that because the people in the leads are of color.' And the truth is, I get stopped by people all the time of different ages (and) races who love the show. Some of my biggest fans are white men over 70. You just can't predict what people will enjoy."