We’ve been waiting for things to descend into chaos. And the time has finally come.
The end of Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 1 Episode 4 sets the stage for Raq and Unique to finally start the all-out war they’ve been circling since Kanan and D-Wiz killed Buck Twenty. Now the time has come to stop pretending and go after one another.
May the best person win.
Unique is an intelligent guy. He knew immediately that Raq was behind his re-up getting ambushed, but he didn’t just order a drive-by to try and take her out. No, he thought logically, and he bided his time.
Going after Raq wouldn’t get him his product back, and that’s what he needed, so he sought information and found a willing participant in Kanan’s crush, Davina.
Unique: Listen I wanna help you and your moms, aight. I really do. All I’m asking for is a little love in return. That’s it. You do me that and I got you.
Davina: Nothing happens to Kanan?
Poor Davina is stuck between a rock and a hard place. She’s basically raising her little sister and trying to make ends meet, and while it’s obvious she has affection toward Kanan, Unique’s offer was something she couldn’t pass up when put on the spot.
Her mother is in a bad way, and it’s her mother. Can you blame her for wanting to get her help?
She was woefully naïve to think that Unique would stick to his word and not hurt Kanan, but she’s also a teenager in an impossible situation.
Thinking back to Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 1 Episode 3 and Kanan’s first drug deal being in part to help Davina, to now his first betrayal coming at her hand is twisted and unfortunate. When he finds out (because, of course, he will), this may be one of the many things that harden Kanan over time.
When Unique got to the stash house, I assumed he would send his guys in, guns blazing, to clear the place out. But again, he waited, and his guys struck at the perfect time when Kanan was all alone and with no way to protect himself.
Marvin, bless his wayward heart, should have never enlisted Kanan’s help in the first place. Once you knew Scrap was a no-go, why not just reach out to Lou-Lou and get him to help you?
Granted, Marvin and Kanan already have their secrets, but this was a MAJOR thing for Marvin to ask of his nephew. And then leaving him alone? That was unacceptable.
Side note, even though this show does the 90s insanely well, I still find myself confused at certain times and wondering why people aren’t using their cell phones. Like in today’s world, Unique should have called his guys over to the house and then followed Marvin himself to see where he was taking the rest of the stash.
But alas, that is not what happened, and P-We was left inside trying to get the location of the second stash house, and it ended up costing him his life.
Killing P-We is a problem.
Buck Twenty was one thing, but P-We isn’t a random foot soldier. His is not a death that Unique is going to forgive.
And Marvin knew that when he pulled that trigger.
What will be interesting now is what Kanan and Marvin do next. Raq found Kanan’s shirt, and she’s going to put two and two together when word drops that P-We is dead and half her supply is in the wind.
Do Marvin and Kanan come clean? That would be the smarter play. Trying and getting in front of it will still be a nightmare, but looking Raq dead in her eye lying will be much worse.
She would never touch Kanan, but what would she do to Marvin? Unlike Lou-Lou, who already feels like he could have one foot out the door, you can tell Marvin is wrapped up in the business. You take that away from him, and what else can he do?
Now you can see why Raq keeps things from Marvin because he’s a liability. And that’s not to say he’s the sole reason things are about to escalate to a new level, but he’s certainly not helping matters at all.
Raq may have to put her anger to the side, though, because she’s going to need all the manpower she can get when Unique inevitably strikes back. And she may even end up having to rely on Kanan, who she is continuing to push away from the life.
If Raq truly wanted Kanan entirely away from things, she should have sent him away when she had the chance. He’s only getting older and more curious, and it wasn’t very smart of Raq to think he was going to stop his interest in the business all of a sudden.
Signing him up for those classes with Symphony is another push by Raq to get Kanan interested in ANYTHING else, but for as close as the two are, at times, it feels like she doesn’t know him in many ways.
Nor does she know him in a lot of ways.
Their relationship is close, and it’s honestly one of the best aspects of the show, but the cracks are showing, and they’re only going to get larger as the fallout from the stash hit comes out.
How Kanan deals with this could very well foreshadow his and Raq’s relationship for the rest of their lives.
One of the minor issues thus far with the series, and a complaint you could say is leftover from the other series in the Power universe, is with so many characters and moving parts, there is inevitably a storyline that doesn’t land.
Jukebox’s storyline, both her budding relationship with Nicole and her music dreams, actually started to take greater shape in this episode. And Juke’s soliloquy about Ralph Lauren, culminating in her giving Nicole that Polo jacket, was really well done.
Their romance is just beginning, and it’s beautiful to see Jukebox let her walls down, but you can’t help but get this feeling things are going not to be so great soon.
The destruction that’s coming will affect everyone, even if indirectly. And both Unique and Raq have proven to be tactical and brutal.
To think this won’t end in a mess of bloody tears is to be miserably ignorant of the South Jamaica drug game players.
Everything Else You Need To Know
- Well, the Marvin and Toni experience was short-lived. However, Toni seems the type not to take the disrespect lightly.
- Lou-Lou is such a fascinating character on the surface, but he’s being saddled with this Jessica romance and the music subplot that isn’t all that fun right now. Could it get better? Sure. But right now, it’s a bit of a snooze.
- Last week we had Jukebox and Raq hanging out, and now we get Jukebox and Lou-Lou. Weekly some of the best moments are just the reminders that these people are indeed family.
- Symphony trying extra hard to get on Kanan’s side would be sweet if only there weren’t something so shady about him!
I had to visibly shield my eyes when that man’s ear got ripped off! That was incredibly nasty!
We should be getting a lot of craziness from here on out, and I cannot wait!
Are you ready for the war to come?
Were you surprised Davina helped Unique?
Do you trust Symphony?
Drop me a line down below and watch Power Book III: Raising Kanan online so you can join the conversation!
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.