Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 4 Episode 5 Is a Turning Point for Raq and Kanan

Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

4.5

When this hour started with a flashback to a young Famous and his family, I knew where this story was headed. And knowing that didn’t make it hurt any less.

Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 4 Episode 5 was all about people making moves, various moves to set them up in the future, but this is Power. Everything WILL come to a head at some point.

And when it does, who will come out on top?

Raq’s partnership with Quan has been on shaky ground for a minute now, and Unique’s revenge plan has been damaging Raq from every angle.

With Terry sitting on her product and Quan showing her absolutely no respect, she knew she had to make a move, so she put everything into motion with Hafiz during Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 4 Episode 4.

Raq is a very perceptive person, and she can see the writing on the wall. Hafiz was not only a backup plan, though; he was THEE plan— the one she needed to finally call the shots instead of taking them from the likes of the Quan’s of the world.

Quan never respected Raq, and he made that abundantly clear over their time working together. Hell, taking that meeting with Kanan behind her back was the ultimate show of disrespect because what business do you have meeting with an underling like Kanan at this time?

You’ve got to love Raq, knowing that things with Quan were likely over, getting him to admit his issue with her. I didn’t expect him to wax poetic about Unique for a full minute, but again, he was never fully interested in giving Raq a chance.

Of course, Raq has no idea that Unique ran himself right over to Quan right after he got the tea from O-Cee, but that will be a problem for another day.

Right now, she has to figure out how to sustain herself, and the best way to do that will be to become the supplier. She will have to make that happen because Unique is coming for him HARD.

Unique’s clearly not well, and any time he’s pushed to the limit, he’s incapable of keeping his emotions in check. And that’s a significant departure from the Unique we used to know, right?

One of Unique’s best qualities was keeping his emotions in check and thinking rationally. It’s why he was so successful, and it seemed to draw him and Raq to each other in certain ways.

They had a lot in common, which initially made them enemies and ultimately turned that tension into lust.

We see pieces of that Unique when he’s trying to negotiate a deal. He’s still all cocky bravado, but he’s alone now. It’s not even about him not having a crew; he doesn’t even have a single person backing him.

That’s why it’s scary to see him slink out of the darkness and approach Quan. That’s the kind of backing he needs to get someone like Phil Russo to come to the table in good faith.

Considering we’re halfway through the season somehow, Unique will have to make his triumph return to the real world at some point, and it’s been wise of him to take Early’s advice and wait it out.

But if he can get Quan and Phil on board, that’ll be the time for him to truly emerge from his premature death bed, and I am counting down the days for that to happen because I’m ready for Raq, Marvin, and Kanan to figure out what they’re up against finally.

I’ve enjoyed Unique slinking in the corners and whatnot, but I’m ready for everyone to come face-to-face and really crank things up to a hundred. Things are just simmering right now, and I’m ready for them to boil.

Speaking of boiling, Marvin has been on a killing tear this season. His motto has truly become shoot first and worry about the consequences later, and it was so interesting to see how quick he was to kill Terry when he couldn’t get his way versus his inability to kill his mother.

Obviously, Marvin was never going to kill Joyce, no matter how much she begged or tried to appeal to his ego, but we seldom see him hesitate when pushed these days.

Marvin knows how the outside world perceives him due to his past, and he’s tried to change the narrative in his own way. And when Joyce tried to appeal to him by lauding and admiring his strength, you could see Marvin preen a little under the compliment.

He’s the oldest Thomas sibling, yet he’s number two. He’s embraced the role of Raq’s right-hand, but that doesn’t mean he’s content there or that he doesn’t long for something more.

That’s half the reason why he started doing things for Stefano behind Raq’s back in the first place. He wants it known that he’s more than Raq’s shadow.

Of all the siblings, Joyce probably thought Marvin was the most malleable, but Marvin wasn’t going to kill his mother, no matter how much she begged or tried to shame him into it.

None of her kids would do that.

But I wonder if she’ll try to ask anyone else and what those conversations will be like.

I highly doubt she would ask Kanan and put something like that on him, but if she did, he’d be liable to snap in the aftermath of Famous’s death.

Famous started the series as Kanan’s lovable but annoying best friend, and somewhere along the line, he grew into an interesting character. Once they developed Famous beyond just being a sidekick, there were things to like about him.

But as he and Kanan grew up and Kanan changed, so did the nature of their relationship. That brotherhood-type bond that seemed untouchable during Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 1 was no longer the same.

Kanan grew up overnight, not always by choice, and thus, his childhood friendships became somewhat less important to him and unsustainable because he and Famous were not headed in the same direction.

Famous may have grown up beside Kanan, but he had a much different upbringing than he did, as evidenced in those flashbacks, which served to show us Ms. Figueroa’s love for her son, but also showed the direct contrast between her and Famous’s relationship and Kanan and Raq’s.

I will never sit here and claim that Raq never loved Kanan, but she put him in some horrific situations that forced Kanan to shed whatever innocence he had left, and he’s never looked back from that.

Famous had a difficult upbringing but had two women in his life, his mother and his sister, who did their best to protect him. The night his life was put in harm’s way, they got him out of there.

I’m not saying Raq wouldn’t have done the same, but Raq also has her own interests regarding Kanan in a way most parents would never.

I’m still lost on exactly what happened to Famous, but hopefully, that’s something that we see play out throughout the season because his is a death that probably haunted Kanan for the rest of his life when you think about it.

I’m always waiting for Kanan to make the complete villain switch, and I’ve deduced that we’re seeing all the moments throughout the series, and there won’t be one big one, but damn if this death didn’t push Kanan to a play from which he could never escape.

Everything Else You Need To Know

• O-Cee being the biggest snitch in the world when he works with Kanan daily and knows what he’s capable of, doesn’t feel very smart. I would feel sorry in advance for him when Kanan inevitably finds out, but I can’t.

• Jukebox being completely fine after killing a man is on-brand for adult Jukebox but not the teenage one we’ve grown to know who just wanted to fall in love and sing.

• Guys, I do not care about Lou-Lou and Imani. Good for them if they want to hook up, but this music stuff doesn’t connect to anything else happening on the show, and on top of that, it’s not interesting.

• What was Terry thinking? Did he think he could talk to Marvin sideways, threaten him, and not get multiple bullets to the chest over it?

• Any guesses on what Kanan plans to do with that chest of money?

• I’m more convinced than ever that Power Shawn was named after Famous, and even sadder that Kanan killed Shawn.

This was a great hour. As I said, things are coming to a nice simmer, but I am beyond ready for them to take off!

Please let me know what you thought about this one and where you think things are headed in the second half of the season!

You can watch Power Book III: Raising Kanan on Starz at 8/7c on Fridays.

Watch Power Book III: Raising Kanan Online

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