Abhiroop Das
Created by Sascha Penn, Starz’s ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ starts out detailing Kanan Stark’s coming of age, but by the end of season 5, we realize that this really has been a cautionary tale. Kanan’s transformation into the drug kingpin we see in ‘Power’ is a ruthless one, filled with deaths, losses, and decay. In the previous episode, he takes a step from which there is no turning back, by killing his own uncle, Marvin. This is a decision bound to send ripples all throughout South Side Queens, and while we know for a fact that Kanan and Jukebox make it out of this saga, the fates of everyone else remain up in the air. In the season and series finale, titled ‘Unconditional Love,’ relationships come together and unravel in one breath, building up to an ending that is more somber than cathartic. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Power Book III Raising Kanan Season 5 Finale Recap
‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ season 5 episode 8 begins with the news about Marvin’s death settling in for everyone. While some, like Raq and Flossie, choose to mourn in silence, Jukebox is filled to the brim with an uncontrollable rage, all of which is directed towards the shooter. Raq seems to know that Kanan pulled the trigger, but for Jukebox, the truth only comes out when she sits down with Flossie. Meanwhile, business seems to have taken a hit due to the increased police crackdown. Breeze soon discovers that Glen and Shane have been talking to the cops, and doesn’t wait for a second before putting them down. Raq’s end of things, though, doesn’t have as easy an ending as even Pino seems to have cut ties with her, leaving her with no supply chain.
With Raq’s business on its last legs, Pino seemingly gives Stefano the green light to have her murdered, but the latter doesn’t seem to be pleased with it either. Meanwhile, the police interrogate Jukebox about the death of Snaps and Pop, just as another cop holds Kanan down as the suspected murderer of Glen and Shane. While both cousins eventually get out of that mess, the real game is only getting started. Determined to avenge her father’s death, Jukebox sneaks out with his gun and begins tailing Kanan, looking for just the right moment to gun him down. Meanwhile, Kanan makes a surprise plea to Stefano to let Raq live, claiming that she has done too much for this empire to have such a miserable end.
Stefano seems interested in letting Raq go, but he has one condition, and for that, she, not Kanan, must sit on the other end of the table. To get that done, Kanan sets up a meeting with Raq as Jukebox watches them in secret. There, the mother and son duo bring out years’ worth of shared frustration about how things could have been different from the start. At the end, it is Raq who accepts that she failed to be a better role model for her son, but that doesn’t mean that they have run out of chances. As Jukebox watches on, Raq and Kanan hug each other in what is the first step towards reconciliation. The conversation with Stefano turns out to be a deal to kill Pino and take up his share, but just when victory seems within reach once again, tragedy strikes.
Power Book III Raising Kanan Season 5 Ending: Is Raq Dead? What Were Her Last Words?
‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ ends with Jukebox killing Raq as revenge for Marvin and Lou-Lou’s death, forcing Kanan to feel the same way as her. Though her original plan is to kill Kanan, that changes when she finds him embracing his mother. That image represents everything that has been snatched away from Jukebox, and for Kanan to secure his mother’s life, having destroyed so many along the way, leaves a burning mark on her psyche. Not so long ago, she even considered Raq to be one of the only people she could trust, knowing that it wasn’t her who killed Famous and Krystal. However, that same trust is smashed into pieces when she realizes that Raq knows about Kanan’s murders, but is still willing to move past it to fix their relationship.
All the way to the end, ‘Raising Kanan’ tells the story of a dysfunctional family that is hopelessly trapped in a cycle with no way out. When faced with enemies at every corner, everyone, be it Raq or Jukebox, naturally gravitates towards the relationships that have been forged by blood and kinship. Though Raq is devastated by Marvin and Lou-Lou’s death, she can never truly separate herself from her son, Kanan. Though some part of Jukebox even understands this twisted dynamic, her drive for revenge simply overpowers it. Ultimately, it’s a question of prioritizing one person over everyone else, and Jukebox chooses her father, even if it means making a lifelong enemy out of Kanan.
Interestingly, Jukebox hesitates for a moment before pulling the trigger on Raq, almost as if some part of her consciousness is still hoping for all of this to be a misunderstanding. However, Raq soon establishes her position by feigning ignorance about Kanan killing Marvin, and this becomes the last straw. Right before Raq is fatally shot, she gives Jukebox a defiant, knowing look, and that seems to have left its mark. Desperate to regain control in her own mind and to twist the metaphorical dagger in Kanan’s back, she claims that Raq begged Jukebox to kill him instead of her. While we know that to be untrue, it is still tragically ironic that her last words are about not associating with Kanan’s issues, which, while technically a lie, summarizes their relationship better than any other phrase.
What Does the Post-Credit Flashback Mean?
In a surprising send-off to the show, the post-credit scene takes the form of a flashback, specifically right after Kanan’s birth. In many ways, this is the start of the ‘Power’ universe as we know it, but here, the scene foreshadows its very end. Cooing to her baby son, Raq notes that she will always be his mother, and as long as she’s there with him, Kanan will be alright. By the end of this story, though, we know that these words, hardly more than a fairytale, still turn out to be ominously true. Reconciling with Raq was the last olive branch that could have put Kanan on a better path somewhere along the line. However, with karma taking that path away, nothing but darkness remains for Kanan, and it is a future we are all too aware of.
The post-credit scene recontextualizes the entire meaning of a show that is named ‘Raising Kanan.’ From the very beginning, this was always a story about raising Kanan from childhood to adulthood, and while his sins are entirely his, they also reflect a broader, systemic failure. Kanan found himself shifting and churning to fit into a deeply hostile world, and somewhere along the way, the hunger for power took hold in his mind. In his final conversation with Raq, he laments not having the childhood of his dreams with his mother, both because of how the world denied it and how Raq never found the right way to guide him in life. In the end, this is how the story is destined to be, not just for Raq, but also Jukebox, his cousin and now, a fellow orphan.
Why Does Kanan Not Kill Jukebox? Why Does She Spare Him?
In her most daring moment, Jukebox invites Kanan to a diner and tells him straight up that she has killed his mother. As he goes through several stages of grief in only a few seconds, the thought of killing Jukebox right there doesn’t seem to cross his mind for too long. This is strange, coming from a hot-blooded character who has been increasingly trigger-friendly over the years, but the shift reveals a lot about his character arc. Despite bubbling with rage and grief, some part of Kanan still considers Jukebox to be his family, and it is where that momentary hesitation comes from. There are also practical reasons, like the fact that they are in a diner in broad daylight, and that the cops are hot on Kanan’s heels, but all that matters less compared to the mind games brewing inside the cousins’ minds.
A rather twisted reason Kanan lets Jukebox go is the same reason she doesn’t kill him either, so that they both continue to suffer. To live as a shell of your former self, as your loved ones are killed left and right, is perhaps the ultimate punishment for the two of them, and as they inflict it upon each other, really, they are inflicting it upon themselves. In a particularly eerie moment, Jukebox echoes the same words that her father spoke before his death, that Kanan will go on to lose everything that he holds dear, until nothing remains, and he then promises the same fate for her. Ironically, though, these are two people who have already been battered beyond recognition, and while their loved ones are actually gone, on some level, Kanan and Jukebox die on the inside as well.
What Happens to Breeze and Stefano? Who Are the Kids?
Curiously, Breeze, the mystery link between ‘Raising Kanan,’ ‘Power,’ and everything potentially in between, escapes the show relatively unscathed, and more importantly, alive. We still don’t know why he is not a main character in the main ‘Power’ series, and while that can mean that an off-screen feud takes his life somewhere down the line, the more probable answer is one that will unfold in the Ghost prequel. For now, Breeze and Kanan seem to be on amicable terms, and after Raq’s death, that bond is likely to only grow stronger. However, it is also true that Kanan has been cursed to lose everyone he cares about, which makes it entirely possible that somehow, Kanan is the one who triggers Breeze’s eventual undoing.
Perhaps the biggest profiteer in this entire saga is Stefano, who leaves the show far richer and stronger than he started it. It is likely that he set his sights on killing Pino after he made the deal with Raq in the first place, as that marks the original break in their equilibrium. While Pino’s death adds to the long list of dents and cracks in Stefano’s criminal empire, he now has two young bloods replacing them all: Breeze and Kanan. What neither of them knows, however, is that a different wave is already on the horizon, in the form of Ghost and Tommy. They make their debut in the series finale as two kids wanting in on the business. Poetically, Kanan sends them away, claiming that they are too young. However, fate seems to have other plans for this duo of children, and just as Kanan was swept into this life all those years ago, so are they destined to be.
Read More: Is Marvin Dead in Raising Kanan? Why Does Kanan Kill Him?
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