Upamanyu Biswas
The final episode of ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ season 4, titled ‘Gimme the Weight,’ ups the ante for our characters as growing family rifts threaten to upheave the established order. In the previous episode, we saw Kanan being played by Snaps and Pop, who made him believe his mother was behind the deaths of Famous and Krystal. However, that intrinsic feeling of betrayal only becomes all the more prescient in the finale as Kanan struggles to see anything positive about his mother, leading to a massive cliffhanger at the end. Meanwhile, Marvin also struggles to find an appropriate tactic to deal with Stefano’s loss of trust in him. With so many black marks against his name, the Thomas family enforcer quickly falls down the ladder in and out of the family. In his absence, Lou-Lou decides to step up, taking an active role in Raq’s army after a significant time away. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 4 Episode 10 Recap
The episode begins with Raq visiting Unique’s hideout, where she confronts him about his recent interactions with Kanan. She warns him about involving her family members in his vengeful crusade. However, he informs her that Kanan thinks of her as a greater enemy than him, which should send shudders down her spine. Frustrated by his stubborn attitude, Raq promises to involve Unique’s family members in the war as well if he does not back away from Kanan. Once the meeting is over, she tells Lou-Lou to find out where Parnessa is hiding and keep a watchful eye over her every move. In the meantime, Kanan is devastated about Krystal’s death. He flings objects around the room in desperation, confused as to why anyone would harm his innocent girlfriend. However, in the back of his mind, he suspects Raq may be behind it.
In the meantime, Marvin tries to make amends with Stefano over his involvement in the Howard Beach murder. He tries to attribute the blame for the incident to Tyler’s head. However, Stefano does not buy the excuse because Marvin had vouched for Tyler’s involvement in the empire. Therefore, he must bear the brunt of any bad decisions that may have come out of the arrangement. Although Marvin tries protesting, Stefano shuts him down, stating that he regrets ever getting into business with the Thomas family as a whole. He regrets the partnership because gangsters like Phil Russo are now challenging him and vying for his power, which would have been a non-incident in the past. As a result, the deal between Stefano and Raq’s empire is scrapped, with Marvin taking much of the flak.
Elsewhere, Raq finds her business crumbling steadily as the Golden Pavilion owner decides to move away from South Jamaica, New York, because of the increasing number of dead bodies cropping up everywhere. Despite Raq’s best efforts to convince him otherwise, there is no change in the outcome. She also faces scrutiny from Jukebox, who tells her about Raq’s increasing paranoia and belief that Raq was behind the murders of Famous and Krystal. Although she maintains her innocence in the matters, there is too much distrust brewing between each family member. Meanwhile, Snaps and Pop encourages Kanan to become a powerful distributor by himself. They also urge that he meet up with their nephew, who happens to be a key player in the surrounding region.
Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 4 Ending: Does Kanan Kill Raq?
Season 4 ends on a huge piece of cliffhanger as Kanan shows up at Raq’s home with a gun pointed at her. Although meant to be startling, Kanan’s increasing level of paranoia and distrust towards Raq only intensifies in the latter parts of the season. As he points the gun at his mother, she tries to appeal to his better sense, stating that while she may have done bad things in the past, she is innocent of the allegations he is leveling at her. Unfortunately, because Kanan’s belief in her words has dwindled so much, he refuses to see any rhyme or logic to her actions other than to control him like a puppet and keep him close to her. It is a life-changing moment for Kanan to face his mother like this. However, we are left in the dark regarding the outcome of the scene as the screen fades to black before a gunshot echoes in the distance.
The confrontation between mother and son has been brewing for a while, mainly because tensions have grown more and more tenuous since Kanan realized how pernicious and invasive Raq can be when she wants to achieve her goals. So far, he has seen her ruthlessly dispatching people close to her without any hesitancy. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that he loses his faith in his mother, especially after Famous and Krystal’s death, two people who were extremely close to him and whose murders leave an indelible mark on his fragile psyche. He believes that his mother killed them and O-Cee, an idea put in his head by Snaps and Pop. All in all, his trust level in his mother, which has been bad for a long time, reaches an all-time low near the season’s conclusion. To that end, a clash between them in season 4’s end feels unsurprising.
While things don’t look so good for Raq, there is still a chance that Kanan listens to reason, and the gunshot we hear later is only meant to be a false clue. Despite his hatred towards her, killing Raq will only exacerbate Kanan’s problems and make him susceptible to the game being played by Snaps, Pop, and Unique. They want Kanan and Raq to be torn apart, which weakens the entire Thomas family operation from the inside. To that end, if Kanan kills Raq, he will basically carry out the enemies’ dirty work. Instead, mother and son should put their differences aside and work together one last time to face Unique’s army in the upcoming war. Alternatively, Kanan might kill Raq and later learn who killed Famous, Krystal, and O-Cee. By that time, it may be too late to save Raq, but he could exact revenge for wrongly murdering her.
Is Stefano Dead or Alive?
One of the big developments that take place near the end is the increasing level of hostility between Stefano Marchetti and Phil Russo. While the two are powerful gang leaders, they use Raq and Unique as proxies for a silent war taking place between these higher powers. By backing Unique, Russo makes it clear that he has his eyes set on Stefano and his empire. However, Stefano considers his association with the Thomas family to be a convenient arrangement that helps him boost his own income. Unfortunately, the trust between the groups starts to wane after Marvin is held responsible for the murder of an important person belonging to Stefano’s organization. To that end, he decides to sever ties with Raq and Marvin and arranges a meeting with Russo near the banks of the river.
During their idyllic meeting by the river, Stefano and Russo talk about the nitty-gritty of their organization and the war being fought in their stead. The former believes that a meeting is a way to appease any further hostility between them, and the pair can go back to handling their own side of the business without any more hassle. However, Russo has a different plan in mind. He uses the opportunity of reduced security to stab Stefano through his mid-riff, leaving him bleeding out on the bench. Subsequently, Russo leaves the vicinity without anyone following him. Meanwhile, it seems inevitable that Stefano is going to die because of the severity of his stab wound. The entire incident feels orchestrated by Russo to get what he wants while also removing a strong enemy from his back.
At the end of the season, we learn through some spare pieces of dialogue that Stefano managed to survive his attack. Instead, he is under hospital care, albeit unresponsive. Russo tells Unique that if Stefano regains consciousness, his entire operation and Unique will come under attack by the New York godfather. It is unlikely that Stefano will forgive Russo for attempting to murder him during a peaceful meeting meant to stop their hostilities. To some extent, his actions have kickstarted a war of epic proportions between two powerful forces. However, it is all predicated on Stefano waking up from his terrible state and making the next move.
Why Does Lou-Lou Abduct Parnessa?
As a way to prepare for the war against Unique, Raq tries to think of alternative ways to hurt him. She gets the inspiration for her move after seeing Unique trying to turn Kanan against her. Although she is disgusted by the fact that he has involved her own son in the mix, Raq decides to pay him back in kind by tasking Lou-Lou with keeping tabs on Parnessa and her child. Earlier in the narrative, we saw Unique take Parnessa away from South Jamaica to hide her from any potential enemies who might try to get leverage on him. However, he failed to realize that Raq would go to extreme lengths to stop his plans from coming to fruition. Thus, as the season nears its conclusion, we see Lou-Lou pull up next to Parnessa and her child and abduct them both, indicating that Raq has the upper hand over Unique if things go awry.
The season 4 hostilities feel more significant and personal than any previous season of ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan.’ It is possible that because Unique is the enemy, a character we have grown to love and hate throughout the show, there are more personal stakes in the balance. A perfect example of this type of encounter is the widening differences between Kanan and Raq. Our main characters make some drastic decisions in the fourth season, often bordering on the territory of cruel and malignant. Still, with so many rifts developing everywhere, it seems inevitable that the spilling of family blood will occur before the end of the series. It is in the nature of many of these characters to take the harshest and most brutal route possible to achieve their goals, and using Parnessa as a blackmail tool is one of many such events.
What is Unique’s Plan?
From the beginning of the season, Unique has shown himself to be a difficult tumor for Raq to eradicate. Since returning from the dead, the character has made it his life’s mission to make Raq as miserable as possible by taking everything from her. He starts this process by killing people in her vicinity and disrupting her criminal operations. Once the preliminary attacks were over, he revealed himself to Raq, announcing his revenge plans to her in the cold light of day. Even after knowing what he is up to, Raq is unable to stop Unique from constantly being a thorn in her side. His moves leave her floundering for alternatives and also emotional in places, such as when Kanan meets with him. To that end, Unique’s war and plans to take over Raq’s profitable businesses only seem like a glorified effort to mask his real intentions to strip her of everything.
At the season’s end, war is about to tear through the streets of South Jamaica as Unique’s men go around burning down key business locations used by Raq. Although these businesses are pivotal to Raq, the Thomas family matriarch considers their losses trivial in the long run. Her sight is mainly set on taking down Unique, who was set to be the father of a baby Raq might have had before she got an abortion months ago. The complicated threads connecting them both only seem to have increased their hostilities towards each other, particularly in the case of Unique. Rightly or wrongly, he believes that she got rid of him to take over his business. Like Kanan, he is unwilling to listen to reasons and considers Raq to be the poison chalice from which every bad thing originates. It will be interesting to see if their conflict resolves itself and, if so, how it comes about in season 5.
Read More: Power Book III Raising Kanan Season 4 Episode 9 Recap: It’s About That Time
