SPOILER ALERT: The following reveals major plot points from the series finale of the Starz crime drama Power Book III: Raising Kanan.
Following the shocking death of Marvin (London Brown) in the penultimate episode of the Starz crime drama Power Book III: Raising Kanan, there was no other way to open the series finale than with both Juke (Hailey Kilgore) and Raq (Patina Miller) in mourning.
As one life is over, another begins. Kanan (Mekai Curtis) meets up with Jarita (Asjha Cooper), who tells her ex that she’s pregnant with his baby. Always a cynic, Kanan inquires as to the possibility that one of her Johns could be the father of the child she carries. She shuts him up by revealing she always used protection with them. Anyways, like the baddie she is, Jarita tells Kanan she is not trying to get him back, and he can do with the information about her pregnancy whatever he chooses.
Later, Juke meets up with Flossie (Leslie Grossman) on the advice of her late father. Marvin left behind a letter with the suitcase full of cash, saying Flossie is the only person she can trust. In conversation, it becomes apparent that it was Kanan who took down Marvin, the second uncle he killed in one season.
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Elsewhere, Raq learns from Pino (Joe Pantoliano) the truth about who murdered Marvin. She met with Pino hoping they could work together so she would be protected. However, he had other things on his mind. Pino proposes to Raq a “different type of relationship,” but she firmly passes. With no protection, Raq meets again with detectives to exchange information on Pino and Stefano (Tony Danza) for full immunity and witness protection for her AND Kanan. A mother’s love runs deep, but knowing Kanan killed both her brothers, Lou (Malcolm Mays) and Marvin, she needs to come to terms with the fact that she can’t save him. In her desperation, Raq visits Flossie about getting an audience with Stefano, but Flossie coldly turns her down. She’s running out of options.
While momma bear is running around, Kanan is with Breeze (Shameik Moore) discussing Raq’s future. Before Snaps (Wendell Pierce) and Pop (Erika Woods) were gunned down by Juke in Episode 7, they put the wheels in motion for Raq to be slain. Kanan, who earlier met with a detective who told him about Raq’s request for full immunity for both of them, seems to have cooled off a bit. He proposes to Breeze that she be allowed to leave New York and disappear forever. Breeze is listening, but he repeats that it’s Stefano who wants her dead and it has to happen.
Later, the long-awaited moment of the series goes down: Kanan meets two young boys: one is named Tommy, and the other is James, the latter of whom will later be known as Ghost. To be clear, the boys are around 13 years old. Too young for Kanan to corrupt—even he has his limits, for now. He tells them they should come back when they’re not eating Happy Meals anymore, setting up the reconnection in the upcoming Power: Origins.
For anyone who thought we had seen the last of Brown, he is back yet still dead. Juke visits him while he is resting peacefully in his casket, and sweetly stashes a Dum Dum lollipop in his shirt.
Kanan goes to visit Stefano and pleads his case to let his mother live. He seems open to it, but he has a condition. To find out what it is, Raq has to meet with Stefano in person. The whole thing reeks of a trap, but there’s no other way. Kanan admits he doesn’t want her to die, and encourages his mom to meet with Stefano. In these moments, Kanan shows he isn’t fully lost just yet. Raq apologizes to Kanan for all that’s gone down and lets him know that she knows he took both her brothers from her. With tears in their eyes, Raq wonders if her son still loves her. He tells her that she is his mother, but he’s been waiting for her to be who he needs her to be.
Further, the hurt little boy inside Kanan tells Raq she keeps letting him down. Remembering all the bad that has gone down between them, Kanan tells Raq that they can’t undo the past. Raq apologizes profusely, though, centering herself throughout the whole convo, but Kanan seems to be receptive. They embrace on the street in a powerful scene where Kanan drops his guard and asks Raq to go and speak to Stefano. While this reunion was happening, Juke was watching from a safe distance, plotting.
Trusting Kanan, Raq visits Stefano in one part of New York while Kanan visits his late Uncle Marvin’s last resting place in another. What does Stefano want Raq to do? Take out Pino and leave the city and never come back. An easy task for Raq, which she completes. She goes home to pack a bag with the essentials: money, clothes, etc. As she was rushing, she was met by Juke, who was furious and packing heat.
To get even with Kanan, Juke murders Raq, her surrogate mother. Afterward, Juke meets her cousin at the diner to tell him what she did. She explains that he was her target first, but after seeing him on the street reconciling with his mother, Juke decided it would be best that Kanan survives and wanders around in life with no one left to care about him. Before leaving, Juke tells Kanan that before Raq died, she pleaded with Juke to kill Kanan instead of her. This is a lie, but Kanan appears to believe it.
Kanan then heads over to his mom’s house to confirm what Juke said was true, and it was. Looking at his mother dead before him, a voiceover from Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, series executive producer and star who played Kanan in the original Power series, speaks to the viewer.
“My story didn’t end here. Shit, in a lot of ways, this was the beginning of me: what I turned into, who I ended up being. See, this isn’t just my story; this is our story, and now it’s your story. But like I said all along, more than anything, this is a Southside Jamaica, Queens story,” Kanan Stark, Power Book III: Raising Kanan series finale.
