10:08Kate Aurthur‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Creator Sascha Penn and Star Patina Miller Talk Kanan and Raq’s Final Confrontation and Introducing [SPOILER] at Last: ‘I Expect Big Reactions on Both Sides’

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Gimme the Weight,” the Season 4 finale of “Power Book III: Raising Kanan,” now streaming on Starz.

Since its debut in 2021, “Power Book III: Raising Kanan,” has taken fans on a dark and stormy ride. The family crime drama centers on teenage Kanan (MeKai Curtis), who, having been raised by his cutthroat queenpin mother, Raquel “Raq” Thomas (Patina Miller), transforms from the innocent school-focused boy to the murderous villain (portrayed by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) who resurfaced in “Power” seeking vengeance and blood. 

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Though Kanan, Raq, her brothers Marvin (London Brown) and Lou-Lou (Malcolm Mays) and Kanan’s cousin Jukebox (Hailey Kilgore) were originally a tight-knit (though criminally minded) crew, greed, power, death and deception have continually fractured their bond.

In the final moments of the Season 4 finale, “Gimme the Weight,” Kanan and Raq find themselves in a stunning confrontation. Enraged by the murders of his best friend, Famous (Antonio Ortiz) and his girlfriend, Krystal (Aliyah Turner), Kanan, who blames Raq for their deaths, aims a gun at her head. As the screen goes black, a gunshot rings out, closing out the penultimate season of the 1990s-set series. 

“For Raq’s final scene, we felt we wanted to make sure that it felt earned,” creator and showrunner Sascha Penn tells Variety. “It didn’t feel too over the top, because we’ve built these really compelling characters and this dynamic between this mother and son. We wanted it to end in a way that felt credible as it related to their relationship. One of the things that I see fairly consistently online is people are like, ‘Oh, Kanan’s so stupid, Kanan’s operating on bad information.’ Well, first off, of course, he is. He’s 17 years old. Every 17-year-old is operating on bad information, and every 17-year-old thinks they know everything. But having said that, what we wanted to get across in that scene is the pain and the desperation that both these characters feel that things have gotten to this point.” 

For Miller, who has garnered rave reviews for her portrayal of the cutthroat drug lord, the emotional impact of that final scene will stick with her for a long time. “Oh my God, it was one of the most intense nights,” she says. “Mekai and I have been working together for a long time in different setups and situations, but to be here at the end, the finale of the fourth season, there were a lot of different emotions all at once. We knew our characters would probably get to something like this, but we always hoped they wouldn’t. So we were mourning the whole relationship; it was incredibly emotional. It was a dark night.” 

The fourth season of “Raising Kanan” has been intense overall. The relationship between Raq and her brothers has also been given a reset. Though Lou had initially been her right-hand man, his battle with alcoholism and his desire to make a name for himself in the music business led to his retreat from the family business. As a result, Raq’s older brother Marvin stood in Lou’s place. However, amid a new betrayal, the siblings’ dynamic has shifted again.

“I always think they’re stronger when they’re a team — the three of them,” Miller says. “But they’ve never been able to be a team. The fact that Raq has to be in this space with Marvin again, it sucks. He keeps letting her down in a way, and she can’t really trust him. She doesn’t trust Lou, and she doesn’t trust Marvin.  So, even though they’re family, she’s in the middle trying to figure out how to navigate the relationship.”

In addition to the fractures in the Thomas family and Kanan’s journey, the series has also depicted Jukebox’s transformation. “Power” fans will remember her as a murderous cop portrayed by Anika Noni Rose, who dies by Kanan’s hand. 

“It’s a testament to Hailey Kilgore and her remarkable performance across all seasons of ‘Raising Kanan,'” Penn says. “That was always the target we were aiming for, which Anika fully realized in ‘Power.’ One of the real joys of writing ‘Raising Kanan’ and experiencing it is seeing these kids grow into young adults. Kanan and Jukebox become some version of the characters you later meet in ‘Power.’ It has all been very deliberate. One of the things that happens in this series that I take some pride in is that as these characters get older, their eyes open wider. They start to see who these people are in their lives and get a fuller sense of the world around them. Juke has always been the conscience of this series. She has had an awareness that other characters have not.”

He adds: “One of the big stories we have to tell in this series is how Jukebox and Kanan ultimately become at odds with each other. And we tell that story, and a piece of that story is them getting older and realizing who they are individually rather than collectively because they’ve grown up together; they’ve only known each other as a unit. But now they’re starting to understand themselves as individuals, and that can be a real rocky transition.”

Though Raq has always acted in the best interests of the family business, her actions have ostracized her from everyone around her. In the Season 4 finale, Jukebox, who has been the closest person to her aunt, confronts her. It’s the first time viewers see Raq’s stoic mask slip all season.

“Juke has been a source of comfort for her throughout the four seasons,” Miller says. “It’s always felt like Jukebox has been someone that Raq could be herself with and let down her guard in a way that she cannot with others. I feel like there was always an understanding between the two. So when this happens, it is rattling and heartbreaking.”

Penn agrees, adding: “Raq has functioned as this mother to her, and Raq has needed Jukebox. Needing is not necessarily loving, and that’s always been the tension between them. We see Jukebox realizing that across these four seasons.”

Raq has been an island this season, even before her clash with Jukebox. It’s a type of isolation that the matriarch will likely be unable to sustain. “If it were some other world, I think she would have so many different kinds of friends from different parts of the world,” Miller says. “Maybe she would trust people, but she can’t trust anyone. She’s realized that to get to the top, she has to be lonely. And it’s the one thing I am sure about the character, which is her wanting better for herself, but knowing that that’s never going to look like what she wants it to look like.”

Midway through rewriting Season 4 (due to Joey Bada$$’s resurrection as the vicious drug dealer Unique), Penn learned that Season 5 would conclude the series. “When I first pitched ‘Raising Kanan,’ I said that I thought it was five seasons,” he says. “I was very concerned that we would start to repeat ourselves and do stuff that was pretty familiar if we stretched it for too much. Some decisions I made resulted from knowing there was, for lack of a better word, an ending to the story.”

In the Season 4 finale, Kanan’s mentors and financial backers, Snaps (Wendell Pierce) and Pop (Erika Woods) introduce the teen drug dealer to their nephew Bradford Frady, aka Breeze (Shamiek Moore). Fans of “Power” know that Kanan and Breeze eventually build a drug empire and mentor James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick) and Tommy Egan (Joseph Sikora) until Ghost ultimately betrays them, taking over the business himself. 

“I’m mentally preparing myself for the response to the casting,” Penn says. “Everyone will have their own vision of who Breeze is supposed to be. So I expect big reactions on both sides, but that’s part of the fun of what we do. I always felt like Breeze couldn’t just come out of nowhere, that he somehow had to be organically connected to the story we were telling in the characters on the show.  As the casting goes, I’ll say for myself: I’ve been a huge fan of Shameik since I saw him in ‘Dope.’ Breeze was always described as someone who was incredibly charismatic. Shameik has that inherent quality, and there’s just a lot of personality there. It felt like he would be a great choice for the role. As the fans will see, he more than lives up to the task.”

With Raq’s fate in the air and Breeze’s long-awaited entry into the “Power” Universe, Penn assures fans that in the final season of “Raising Kanan,” any missing pieces of the puzzle will begin to click together. 

“I believe that we answer almost all the questions,” Penn says. “But we don’t answer every question. I think it’s a real emotional journey. It’s a worthy ending to the story that we’ve set out to tell. I don’t think there’s a false step. It all feels genuine, and I also think many surprises will come. I think people will be stunned to see how the story ends up. But I hope that everyone feels satisfied. I believe they will. This is not one of those endings that is open to interpretation. I think we put a punctuation point at the end of it, and I think that’s something that was always important to me: telling a complete story.”