‘Raising Kanan’ Stars Explain Series Finale’s Shocking Death and ‘Power: Origins’ Nod (Exclusive)

As one Power chapter closes, another one is gearing up to begin. The franchise’s first prequel series, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, took its final bow on August 7 with a series finale filled with twists, family dysfunction, and murder.

One question that has been looming over Raising Kanan since the days of Power was finally answered: What happened to Kanan’s mother, Raq? The final hour answered that question and more. Warning: Power Book III: Raising Kanan series finale spoilers ahead!

After Kanan (Mekai Curtis) killed the one person Jukebox (Hailey Kilgore) loved the most, her father (and Kanan’s uncle), Marvin (London Brown), he had it coming. Jukebox was out for revenge, and she knew she couldn’t take the easy way out by just killing Kanan. She had to make him hurt. And that meant killing Raq (Patina Miller). TV Insider spoke with Mekai Curtis, Patina Miller, and showrunner Sascha Penn about Raq’s fate in the series finale.

Miller found out Raq was going to die in Season 4, thanks to Penn, so she infused that knowledge into her performance in the final season. When it came time to film the series finale, Miller was grieving the sudden loss of her own brother. “This scene literally is in that same week as I’m trying to hold it together, and it was a lot,” Miller said. “I will say, I’m so happy I was surrounded by so many incredible people who allowed me to process my own personal grief and put my personal grief of losing my brother in the last episode, and then having the grief of saying goodbye to a character that I loved playing, the grief of saying goodbye to actors I loved working with, it was very hard. It was very intense, and so that day for me was just hard and heavy, but there was something that was beautiful about being so supported behind the scenes so that you could do that work.”

For Penn, the decision to have Jukebox kill Raq was a way to avoid the show going the “predictable” route. “Given the journey that Raq and Jukebox had been on across these five seasons, I thought it was interesting that that’s who killed her,” he noted.

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Jukebox shows up at Raq’s house and doesn’t waste any time holding her aunt at gunpoint. Raq makes a leap for her gun, but Jukebox shoots her before she can grab it. Before Jukebox pulls the trigger two more times and kills Raq, they share a wordless final conversation. Raq doesn’t look up in fear whatsoever.

“I get teary-eyed when I think about it,” Miller told TV Insider. “I think Raq’s looking at herself. That’s her child. I have always seen Jukebox as an extension of Raq, right? And there’s so much of just the goodness of Jukebox and how smart she is comes from Raquel…. She knows what Kanan did. She understands why she has to do it, which is so f**ked up and weird. But it really is Raquel finally accepting that this is her fate.”

She continued, “She’d much rather be looking up at someone that she loves more than anything. Because she did, even though she went for her gun. It’s a heartbreaking thing. I go back to her saying, ‘You’re perfect the way you are,’ when Juke comes out. I go back to her trying to talk Juke up when her mom is being a mess. You go back to all of these moments, and it’s just so heartbreaking. And I think Raq is not devastated, but she has, in the end, accepted that as well.”

Jukebox delivers the news that she killed Raq to Kanan herself at the diner. “It’s funny because that is the diner where we go for peace,” Curtis pointed out. Later, Kanan goes to see his mother’s body. Curtis didn’t know Raq’s fate as early as Miller did, but he’d had an inkling. “It was poetic. It was an eye for an eye,” he said. This adds even more weight to Kanan killing Jukebox down the road in Power Season 4.

Curtis knew that there was “no way” Kanan would take “his entire bloodline” out. “There had to be something that’s still keeping him bolted down, which is his mom, and somebody that unbolts that,” he said.

Jukebox comes to the conclusion that she has to take out Raq after witnessing Raq and Kanan’s last conversation. Despite Raq and Kanan being at odds throughout Season 4, the bond between mother and son couldn’t be severed completely. He apologizes to Raq for killing Marvin and tells his mother that he doesn’t want her to die. Raq acknowledges that Kanan’s the way he is now because of her. She can’t forgive him for what he’s done, but she still loves him. When Raq asks Kanan if he loves her, he can’t say the words, but his desire to protect her is his way of showing her he does.

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“I’m just so happy they finally had the moment where she finally could say to him what she wanted to say, and it is that moment that really is when Jukebox decides that she has to take her away from Kanan because she sees that Kanan loves her, too. And that bond that they have — if she couldn’t have it with her dad, Kanan doesn’t get to have it with her,” Miller said.

The series finale also gives a nod to the upcoming Power: Origins, which will follow young Ghost (Spence Moore) and Tommy (Charlie Mann), with Curtis reprising his role. In Raising Kanan’s last episode, an even younger Ghost and Tommy share a brief moment with Kanan, who thinks they’re way too young to be getting involved in the business. He tells them to come back when they’re older.

The Ghost and Tommy appearance was actually conceived before the prequel series had gotten the green light. “It was always going to be there,” Penn revealed. “I didn’t know that we were doing Origins when I wrote that, and I don’t think we knew that we were doing Origins when we shot that. It’s obviously the question I’m asked most often: When are we going to see Ghost and Tommy? It’s a nod to the fans.”

What did you think of the Power Book III: Raising Kanan series finale? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Power Book III: Raising Kanan, All Seasons, Streaming Now, Starz