Raising Kanan Season 5 Episode 7 Delivers Its Most Devastating Death Before the Series Finale

Yes, this entire season has been building towards events you could see coming from a mile away, which has limited the tension overall.

But do I care? No.

Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 5 Episode 7 finally pulled the trigger on their biggest death yet, and even though it was inevitable, my goodness was it impactful.

The thing about a prequel series is that you are limited in certain aspects, depending on the present-day storyline.

When Power Book III: Raising Kanan was first announced, many fans (or maybe it was just me) were deeply skeptical of watching the origin story of one of the most despicable characters of all time.

Kanan Stark was a monster, with no redeeming qualities, so why do I want to see him grow up?

The series quickly called me uncultured and short-sighted when it delivered a beautifully complex and nuanced story about a young man who wasn’t born devoid of human emotions.

Kanan’s story is one shaped by confusing family dynamics, constant betrayals, and a deeply misguided sense of self. His story was worth telling, and as we near the end of this ride, I’ll happily admit I was wrong about its appeal.

The series couldn’t end without us fully seeing Kanan’s evolution from young kid into cold-blooded murderer and all-around horrible human being, and we’ve reached that point and then some.

Much of this season has felt a little rushed, and even though there’s so much to wrap up before we say goodbye forever, this hour felt both fast and slow simultaneously, which is quite the feat.

Several storylines were tied up, sometimes with a couple of lines of dialogue, and then we moved on to the next thing. But within that, we got some truly fantastic character beats, which slowed everything down and allowed us time to sit with these characters for one of the last times.

Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 5 Episode 6 felt like Raq’s last stand, and that was only reinforced when we learned pretty soon that there was basically an open bounty on her head.

Raq’s a control freak obsessed with obtaining power, much like a lot of people within this universe, but when it slips away from her, she often goes on the defensive. And in the past, it’s worked.

There have been countless times, especially in the earlier seasons, where it appeared as though she was going to be knocked down a peg or two, but she always found her way out of it. And she didn’t just survive those instances; she thrived.

Now, it feels like Raq’s unshakeable armor has been chipped too much to still be tenable.

Killing Hafiz’s man wasn’t about anything other than revenge, and so it was no wonder Hafiz, and consequently Stefano, were ready to kill her because her moves had gone beyond business.

Stefano’s got his own vendetta against Raq, which is muddled at best, but Hafiz wasn’t out there trying to kill her when he made the deal with Stefano.

Raq, of course, downplayed the threat as she tends to do, and one of the most interesting aspects of this season has been seeing Raq and Marvin’s relationship evolve because Marvin has not been content to be her number one Yes Man in the ways he has been before.

Marvin always had something to say behind a lollipop and a derogatory comment, but did what Raq told him to do, and that was that.

He still did that this season, to an extent, but he also pushed back at every turn, while also telling her about herself in ways that weren’t seeped in disdain like Kanan and even Lou-Lou used to do.

Marvin loves his sister, sees the mistakes she’s made and continues to make, and is tired. Every single episode, it’s like you could see the weariness in Marvin’s bones, and yes, you could chalk some of that up to his grief in the aftermath of Lou-Lou’s death.

Still, much of it felt rooted in watching someone he loves repeat the same destructive pattern over and over.

When Raq yet again wanted to go scorched earth on her enemies, but spare Kanan, Marvin was the one to step in and hit her with a reality check: she’s willing to kill someone else’s kid, but hers must always be spared.

And look, no one is advocating for her to go out and kill her own child, but there’s no more hiding behind him being some scared little boy who’s just acting out for attention, or some other inconsequential label you want to stick on him.

Would Marvin feel the same way about Jukebox? Surely. But Jukebox and Kanan at this point aren’t in the same stratosphere of evil.

Kanan’s made his bed a million times over, and he’ll keep destroying everything in his path.

As the hour wore on, each check-in with Marvin made it increasingly clear he wasn’t making it out of that hour alive, perhaps none more so than during his conversation with Jukebox.

These two have had numerous heart-to-hearts over the years, and if you chart the trajectory of their relationship, you’ve seen them both mature in ways that have allowed them to reach a place where they’re so devoted to each other.

Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 1 watchers would probably never believe a scene like that one here could exist.

At the core of everything, Marvin has always been there for Jukebox, and he’s made many mistakes that he could never take back, though he tried to better himself from it. And he never made those mistakes again.

Jukebox saw his efforts, and more importantly, she saw her dad as a human being full of flaws, who, through it all, never gave up on her and steadfastly tried to prove himself worthy of being her father.

When Jukebox wanted to run off with Marvin, that was his one chance to survive it all, and he likely knew it, which is why he started to put his affairs in order.

Being in the streets your whole life and knowing that everything is likely going to catch up to you has to be such an extremely overwhelming feeling. And Marvin used his last moments leading up to it to be brutally honest.

With Raq, he called out her greed and her inability to get the one thing she really wanted throughout all of this: Kanan’s love.

On the opposing side of that, he told Kanan the absolute truth about himself, and the fact that he was a psychopath who was going to leave this world completely alone by his own doing.

And who knew Marvin was a prophecy all along.

By killing Marvin, Kanan has now killed two of his uncles, his cousin, and his son. And with another hour to go, maybe he’ll add his mother to the list.

Marvin was telling the truth when he predicted that Kanan would have no one to miss him when he was gone, but I’m not sure Kanan ever lost sleep over killing Marvin or Lou-Lou, for that matter.

If he did, he’d long since accepted it and was no longer capable of even a shred of empathy by the time we met him in adulthood. By then, whatever guilt or empathy he may have once had was stomped out and replaced by a ruthless instinct for survival and revenge.

Marvin’s death truly feels like the end of this chapter, which is saying something considering we still don’t know what will happen to Raq. But his character growth and the magic London Brown brought to the role will be sorely missed in this universe.

Thinking about how Jukebox will respond lowkey sends a tingle down my spine because he is the one person she would go to the ends of the earth for. But it’s hard to imagine she knew that Kanan killed Marvin and still maintained any relationship with him in adulthood.

Was that a miscalculation on the part of the show? Or will this be a case where Jukebox never finds out that Kanan pulled the trigger?

Could Breeze be the one who takes the fall for it? That’s something to look out for in the series finale because it feels like a big loose thread that needs fixing.

Speaking of Jukebox, she’s been in her era of not caring about anyone but herself and her dad for quite some time, but she deserves a slow hand clap for being the one person out there who cared about Famous.

Kanan’s beyond help, so it was not at all surprising that he did nothing; the information Jukebox dropped in his lap was the reason. But Jukebox is so far from the girl who was trying to make it big as a singer.

She’s not on the same level as the rest of her family when it comes to the game, but she’s not above doing what she feels needs to be done to defend the things that matter to her. And Famous mattered to her.

Snaps and Pop are some good liars. They almost had me believing they didn’t kill Famous when they confronted Kanan, but in the end, they played a little too loose and fast with the Thomas family.

They scouted everything and made sure to stay ahead of blowback and future issues, but they never saw Jukebox coming. And the cops they had in their pockets leading to their demise? Well, that’s the way the breaks go sometimes.

Through this whole Garcia business, and Burke before him, this was obviously the influence that led Jukebox to enter law enforcement and use it to her benefit. She didn’t become a dirty cop on the job, succumbing to a crooked department or the demands of her environment.

It feels more and more like she saw what she could get away with behind the shield of a badge, and she took full advantage of it.

I doubt we’ll see much of Jukebox in the prequel, but hopefully, she gets a worthwhile wrap-up in the finale, because I am still stuck on the fact that there’s a world in which she ever talked to Kanan again, let alone helped him in any way.

With so many stories now closed or on their way to being there, there’s still the biggest one of all to come: Raq versus Kanan, The Final Chapter.

Raq’s back isn’t just against the wall; it’s molded to it. She’s got the FBI on her neck, no more siblings, and it’s open season on her head.

Whether she gets killed, goes to jail, or rides off into the sunset, this is the end for the Raquel Thomas we knew, one way or the other. And what a ride it has been.

It’s unfair to put the brunt of Kanan’s issues solely at his mother’s door, but Raq had a heavy hand in many of his future events through the way she reared and molded him.

It doesn’t all fall on Raq, but her influence and decisions certainly played a part in the man he would become.

Ultimately, Kanan made his own choice, but the foundation on which those choices were built, well, that was poured by Raq herself.

Everything Else You Need To Know

• Breeze’s personality comes out more and more as we get to know him. I was skeptical about him when the season began and about centering so much of a new series around him, but it actually has the potential to be a lot of fun.

• Why was Raq looking for Pernessa? Did she think she was going to lure Unique out of hiding? If she did, what exactly did she want him to do for her?

• Flossie is going to be so sad about Marvin’s death!

• If Raq goes out, I hope she takes out all her enemies before she goes. Stefano has no business outliving her.

• I’m sorry, but Iesha needs to take a hint and get far away from Jukebox, Kanan, and that whole Thomas family.

• Kanan and Jarita already being over makes sense considering their contentious relationship in the future. But I do wonder if they reconcile at some point when she discovers she’s pregnant, and then it all goes to hell again.

There’s only one episode left, guys.

I’m feeling a little nostalgic because this has really been such a fun and exciting ride that’s ending the way all Power shows do; bloody and dramatic.

Let me know in the comments how you’re feeling as we head into the series finale and what you’d like to see before they call it a wrap on this part of Kanan’s story.

You can watch Power Book III: Raising Kanan at midnight on the STARZ app. On linear, it airs on STARZ at 8:00 pm ET/PT in the U.S.