Tamal Kundu
Portrayed by Steven Williams, Quentin “Q” Dickinson is an important supporting character in the Showtime crime drama series ‘The Chi.’ Set in the Southside of Chicago, ‘The Chi’ tells the story of a group of characters whose lives are interconnected through the threads of violence. Q is an older kingpin in the neighborhood, a man who has seen and done it all. He has been gone for some time, and his return causes ripples across the community. The man is undoubtedly a criminal, but he strives to protect families in the neighborhood. If his absence in season 6 has made you wonder whether Q is dead in ‘The Chi,’ we got you covered. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Q’s Destiny
In season 1, Q returns to Chicago from Cuba to find his neighborhood in complete disarray. When he went away, he thought he was leaving the community behind in the good hands of his friend Trice, with the hopes that the local children would have a safe place to grow up in. Ironically, the series begins with the death of Jason Roxboro, who turns out to be Q’s biological son with Tracy.
When Tracy was a teenager, her stepfather, an addict, sold her to Q, who kept her as a sex slave. Jason’s murder serves as the primary mystery in the first season of ‘The Chi.’ Toward the end of the season, it is revealed that Detective Wallace killed Jason, prompting Q to exact vengeance on the man by killing him.
Q remains absent from the series for the next three seasons before making his return in season 5. When Q reappears in the fifth season, this is the first time the audience has seen him since the season 1 finale. Many even presumed that he died off-screen. Toward the end of the season 5 premiere, Tracy is watching TV when she hears a knock on the door. As she goes to open it, she exclaims, “The f[expletive] you doing here?” The audience sees that it’s none other than Q, who says, “I came back to finish what I started.” The same scene also reintroduces Douda to the narrative, connecting the fates of the two characters.
Q is ultimately killed toward the end of season 5. Victor, running for the City Councilman’s office, represents the light of the community. However, for him to exist and thrive, someone needs to remain in the shadows. Season 5 develops in such a way that it seems that this person will be Q, but the penultimate episode reveals something else.
Q Was Killed by Douda
Douda kills Q. The former has an interaction about this with Tracy. It is Douda who first compares Victor to light before claiming himself to be darkness. When Tracy tells him that he can always let Q do it, Douda reveals that he intends to put Q “out of his misery.” Despite the horrors Q put him through, Tracy advocates for the man, stating that he is the father of her son, prompting Douda to gently remind her that her son is dead.
Douda later visits Q’s home, making the latter remark that he is early. Just as Q lets him in, Douda shoots him multiple times, but Q doesn’t die. In the following episode, Victor is in the car with Douda when he begins to hear a repetitive sound. Douda opens the trunk of the car, where the dying Q presumably is, and kills him before asking Victor to help him get rid of the body. When Victor asks why he chose him for this and not anybody else, Douda simply says that the other man is the only one he knows has something to lose, indicating that he intends to use this as leverage against Victor.
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