Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 4 Episode 3 Sees Tensions Rise Over Dinner and Deception

Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0

4

The hour started with a murder and ended with an awkward family dinner, yet Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 4 Episode 3 felt slow.

It was not a bad slow, but not a good one either.

It’s just a slower set-up hour that, hopefully, will get us closer to the meat of this season. 

Unique’s plan to screw over Raq and Kanan has gotten off to a swimmingly easy start, namely because no one has figured out that he’s alive yet.

The jig will be up the second someone recognizes Unique and lives to tell the tale.

While revenge has been at the forefront of his mind, he’s also trying to get back what he feels was taken from him, which was part of the reason why he went to the restaurant.

Unique lost everything when he was left for dead, and he essentially has had to start over. Taking a significant amount of product, as well as money, will allow Unique to settle some debts and get started on re-establishing himself.

Or it should, at least.

Unique’s vision has been clouded by the incessant need to derail Raq, and the day those two get within five feet of each other and must have a conversation will be one of the most explosive moments in Power universe history.

Raq will have a heart attack when she sees Unique’s face, but she’ll be even more shocked to learn he’s been sabotaging her business, which this season is starting to feel like her entire life.

There’s something different about Raq this season regarding Kanan. She’s much more accepting of the status quo, which is a far departure from past Raq, who constantly made terrible decisions to keep Kanan under her control.

Did Raq finally learn she pushed Kanan to the point of no return? Or is she using their business arrangement to find a way to slither her way back into his life, whether he likes it or not?

It’s nearly impossible to give Raw the benefit of the doubt because she’s done so many questionable things over the years with little concern over the potential emotional fallout.

But maybe she is trying to atone for the past.

She was there for Lou-Lou when he got his sobriety chip, which was the last place I would have expected her to be.

The Raq and Lou-Lou relationship felt irrevocably broken during Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 3, but therapy and sobriety have helped Lou-Lou in immeasurable ways.

He was able to step away from his environment and talk about difficult emotions, and best of all, he could extend himself some grace.

So much of Lou-Lou’s drinking was to mask the pain he felt. And it was pain coming from a lot of different angles, even if the main one he focused on while under the influence was Raq.

With a clear mind and a lot of time to sit with himself, he’s now in a place where he truly does want to move forward.

It was important for Raq to hear about what he went through so she could see and understand his progress and how broken he was at that point in his life. And she did play a part in that.

I’ve always liked the Marvin and Raq dynamic better than Raq and Lou-Lou because while Raq bosses them both around and lords her power over them, she is apt to treat Lou-Lou more like Kanan than a brother at times.

At various times, it felt like Lou-Lou had little agency in his life.

The best thing for the two of them was for Lou-Lou to get out of the business and find something he could be proud of. He’s never walking out of that meeting arm-in-arm with Raq if he never cuts ties with everything from his former life.

I’ve never shied away from not exactly loving the music aspect of the series because it has always felt far removed from everything else.

The Power Universe loves to have many different storylines gestating simultaneously, and that’s usually okay, but the record label and music stuff always felt a little forced and unengaging.

Nothing about B-Rilla and his journey to speak his truth via music is moving the needle thus far. But it’s nice to see Lou-Lou with focus and drive.

It looks good on him.

You know what also looks good on someone? Jukebox being her true, authentic self.

Jukebox has always been herself, for the most part, but she’s still a kid, and she’s felt the pressure to perform or be someone she’s not for the sake of her peers or even her parents.

Jukebox has never struggled with her sexuality and knowing who she is at her core, but that didn’t mean she was always in environments where she felt free to be herself.

Part of the reason she ended up leaving the Army was due to how stifling it was, on top of the rampant homophobia and violence that pervaded every single aspect of her experience.

Her decision to get out was for the best because she realized she would again be hiding a part of herself to conform to her surroundings. And that’s not who Jukebox wants to be.

I love the idea of Jukebox figuring out what she wants this season. Getting back into school may be okay for now, and maybe that’s where she’ll eventually get the drive to pursue law enforcement.

Or maybe she’ll decide that’s ultimately not what she wants, and we’ll see her go a different way, but it’s a change of pace for Jukebox this season to see her much more relaxed with herself and okay with not necessarily knowing what comes next.

One thing that all members of the Thomas family are accepting of is not going backward. In their own way, everyone is looking into the future and what that could look like for them, whether professionally, personally, or both.

I mentioned Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 4 Episode 2 feeling like the calm before the storm because everything was going along a little too smoothly for my liking.

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses, but there certainly weren’t massive bombs to navigate like we’ve seen in seasons past.

But in this hour alone, Unique disrupted Raq’s business. Marvin LIED straight to Raq’s face, and the dinner party from hell closed out the hour.

The Thomas kids have complicated relationships with Joyce that we’ve seen throughout the series, and perhaps none more than Raq.

Joyce’s brand of “tough love” came across more like disdain. She never missed any opportunity to let her children know that they disappointed her or weren’t the people she needed them to be.

Raq, as the only daughter, felt that maybe ten times more than her brothers, and so hearing that Joyce was dying over a family dinner was a tricky thing for her to accept in that moment.

Her reaction was raw and extremely real.

Raq is often fully in control of everything, including her feelings, but no matter how she feels about her mother, she has to be angry and scared at the same time.

Yes, everyone at that table has been around death, but it’s a whole lot different handling impending death when it involves your blood.

The Thomas family is intriguing because it is so close yet estranged. They would die for each other and protect each other, but they keep so much inside and aren’t open with each other.

Joyce’s illness could force them to actually talk and to get honest with one another in a way they never have, but it could also start to be their undoing, as well.

None of them have been known to always handle their pain in the best ways, and the eventual loss of Joyce will be a difficult thing for them to handle.

Everything Else You Need To Know

• Kanan and Krystal have no business living together, but Kanan has met his match in Krystal. She’s the most in tune with him of anyone else he’s like throughout the series.

• We barely know anything about O-Cee, but I do know that I already feel terrible for him in advance because Unique is going to kill or torture that man, and he doesn’t deserve it.

• It was sweet to see Marvin check in on Amber. That whole Gerald business really messed with Marvin’s head.

• Speaking of Marvin, he has no one but himself to blame for doing things behind Raq’s back and lying to her. He’ll have to deal with those consequences when she inevitably finds out.

• I don’t think we’ve ever seen Jukebox smile more, and you know it won’t last, which is both sad and terrifying.

Alright, folks, what did you think about this hour?

Was Raq’s reaction to Joyce’s news justified?

What will Unique get up to next? 

Leave all your comments below so we can talk about it!

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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