Abhiroop Das
Created by Sascha Penn, Starz’s ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ introduces Breeze into the show at the very end of season 4, but it is in the final season of the show that we see him do most of the action. True to his name, Breeze sifts through the entire political and familial drama and lends his services exactly where they’re needed: in making money. By the end, he and Kanan seem to have found their frequency and join hands with Stefano to give rise to a criminal empire. The problem with this dreamy conclusion, though, is that we know for a fact that Breeze is met with a gruesome death before the events of ‘Power.’ His role in the larger universe is still a mystery, one that ‘Raising Kanan’ teases that it has an answer to. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Breeze’s Death Will Most Likely Get Covered in Power Origins
With Breeze surviving the entirety of ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan,’ fans have started to theorize about his complete absence in ‘Power,’ save for an early name drop. So far, the most likely answer to this mystery appears to be that Breeze dies sometime around, or before 1997, a timeframe that might just be captured in ‘Power: Origins,’ the spinoff series about Ghost and Tommy. The leading theory prior to this was that Breeze somehow loses his life in the final stretch of ‘Raising Kanan,’ setting up Kanan’s rise as the lone kingpin of his territory. However, the ending we do get conveys the exact opposite idea, that Kanan and Breeze’s brotherhood has only grown stronger since the other major losses of the story.
Though Breeze’s name is dropped as early as season 1 episode 7 of ‘Power,’ at no point do we get to see his face, even in a flashback sequence. While there is a chance that maintaining him as a sort of haunting presence over the narrative is an intentional choice, it can also be that the creators simply didn’t expect Breeze to become so integral to the backstory of this world. We see something similar happen in ‘Breaking Bad,’ where throwaway names like Lalo” and Ignacio go on to describe pivotal figures in the spin-off series, ‘Better Call Saul.’ By bringing actor Shameik Moore on board, the showrunners have shown how much they care about Breeze as a character, and while it isn’t confirmed whether he will reprise that role for future spin-offs, we are very likely to get to know the truth.
We Know That Ghost Killed Breeze, But the Reasons Remain Ambiguous
The identity of Breezes’s killer is initially hinted at, and then confirmed across several sparse mentions throughout ‘Power.’ The killer, ironically, is James “Ghost” St. Patrick, who is introduced in ‘Raising Kanan’ alongside Tommy Egan as a ten-year-old wanting in on the drug business. Though Kanan sends the two kids away, he doesn’t know that they will soon go on to take Breeze’s life, for reasons we don’t even fully know yet. In season 6 of ‘Power,’ Ghost tells his son, Tariq, that he killed Breeze because he was stifling his growth, but that sentence tells us very little about their evolving character dynamics, or the match that lit the fire in the first place. Ideally, ‘Power: Origins’ can fill in that gap by zooming in on the exact conflict that led to Breeze’s undoing.
What makes Breeze such a perfect introduction to the world of ‘Power’ is that he is almost an embodiment of the Joker archetype. Just like his name, he has a tendency to slip in and out of the narrative, stirring trouble in some places and resolving it in others. With such an unpredictable arc, his absence doesn’t necessarily harm the cohesion of the show, even if we never get a complete explanation for it. A good example of a similar ending would be that of Unique, Raq’s former arch-nemesis. Instead of getting a loud, dramatic ending, Unique simply decides to leave the city and settle down with his family, showing us that this, too, is an ending that many of our characters could have had, but never did. That said, we know roughly when and exactly where Breeze meets his end; now only the how remains.
Read More: Power Book III Raising Kanan Season 5 Finale Recap and Ending Explained: Is Raq Dead or Alive?
You must be logged in to post a comment.