Abhiroop Das
Created by Sascha Penn, Starz’s ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ steps into its fifth and final season with Kanan hustling for his own drug business, away from Raq’s shadow. After the shocking death of Lou-Lou, the mother and son duo are quite far from being on talking terms, and with that, everyone associated with them is also forced to pick sides. While Stefano and company support Kanan, in light of their past beef with the Thomas siblings, Raq decides to expand her business to a different territory entirely: Manhattan. Enter Pino Bernardi, the sharp and shrewd king of New York’s busiest corners, who risks it by making a deal with Raq.
As the story goes, however, Raq and Pino’s dynamic starts to fall apart, in no small part due to the political pressure exerted by Stefano, who is, on the face of it, Pino’s ally but, in reality, his rival. What ensues is a chess game where both parties think of Raq as nothing more than a pawn, but therein lies their mistake. In the series finale of the crime drama series, titled ‘Unconditional Love,’ Raq unleashes her real plan, one that has Pino at its center.
Pino Bernardi Gets Killed by Raq at the Behest of Stefano
Among the biggest surprises in the series finale of ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ is the death of Pino Bernardi, the Manhattan drug lord who almost made it to the top of the empire. After going behind Stefano’s back to make a deal with Raq early on in season 5, he then joins hands with Flossie, creating a brand new distribution line that soon rivals the one Stefano has painstakingly built over the years. While this is meant to be healthy competition from Pino’s end, Stefano likely takes it as a blow to his ego, initiating the chain of events that ultimately leads to this revenge plotline. By the end of the season, Pino cuts ties with Raq and urges Stefano to finish her off, not knowing that, behind his back, they have already made a deal for themselves.
The true evil behind Pino’s character comes to light when he sexualizes Raq in front of Stefano, claiming that he was partly investing in her business in the hopes of sleeping with her. In the end, Raq uses his vices against him, pretending to make a deal with Stefano to let her live, in return for her having sex with Pino. In reality, though, Raq’s plan is to get into a room with Pino solely to kill him, and that is precisely what she does. Raq has never been one to back down, especially when she is targeted for being a powerful woman in what is typically a male-dominated criminal enterprise. In his fitting final moments, Pino has to watch the riches he built come crashing down, all because he underestimated how much better Raq is at playing this game.
Pino’s death in the season 5 finale also has a larger purpose, as it explains why he is not a character in the ‘Power’ series in the first place. While characters like Breeze, Pino, and Stefano have been vaguely mentioned to be a part of the larger universe, we only come to meet them as fleshed-out characters in ‘Raising Kanan.’ For Pino to emerge as a rival faction going forward could have potentially taken the focus away from the core conflict, and that can also be felt in the show, as Pino’s side of the story takes place in Manhattan, far away from the familiar Southside, Queens. As such, his exit reverses the power distribution of this series, returning control to the core group of characters we have followed across several episodes, seasons, and shows.
Read More: Why is Raising Kanan’s Breeze Not in Power? How Does He Die?
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