‘Raising Kanan’ Boss Talks Spoiler’s Devastating Death In Season 5

SPOILER ALERT: The following reveals major plot points from the Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 5 premiere.

The first few moments in the Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 5 premiere answer the big cliffhanger from the Season 4 finale: Does Kanan (Mekai Curtis) take down his mother, Raq (Patina Miller)? The answer is no, but what does go down is something just as sad and painful.

While Kanan stood there hesitating to shoot his mother, he was startled from behind as Raq’s bodyguard, Ruben (Dean Wil), cocked his gun to take Kanan down. In a split second, Lou (Malcolm May) shoves the would-be shooter, whose gun accidentally goes off, but the bullets go in a different direction. As all of that is going on, Kanan is also reacting. He turns around and pulls the trigger twice, fatally shooting his uncle.

In his final moments alive, Lou briefly looks at his sister and nephew before falling down. In the aftermath, Raq is yelling at Kanan, “What the fuck did you do?”

Raq runs to Lou and comforts him. Ruben suggests calling an ambulance, but he is stopped by Raq, who questions what they would tell the authorities about what went down. So Lou just lies there bleeding to death and crying while Raq tells her baby brother how much she loves him.

And just like that, the heart of the Thomas family is gone. Poor Lou didn’t even get to say one word before he was killed off. The heart of the Thomas family is gone.

There’s no time to mourn, however, as the body needs to be taken care of without it coming back to Raq or Kanan. Ruben helped Raq clean up the scene and take the body to dispose of it. On the ride there, Ruben admits he wasn’t going to shoot Kanan; he was trying to scare him off so he wouldn’t shoot her.

“What’s done is done,” Raq tells Ruben somberly while driving him home. She tells him he can’t tell anyone about what happened that night, but she killed him anyway so as not to leave any loose ends. Raq acts hard, but in a later scene, she breaks down trying to clean Lou’s blood from the walls and reckon with everything that went down.

When Marvin learns his baby brother is dead, he is beside himself. His pain turns to hatred, and with that, an intense urge for revenge. The streets say Nique (Joey Bada$$) is behind Lou’s murder, and Marvin is on the chase, one that continues beyond Season 5’s first episode.

Deadline spoke to show creator Sacha Penn about Lou’s death, going back to Manhattan, and how the new characters this season shake things up.

DEADLINE: First of all, Sascha, how dare you? Not Lou! He was my favorite.

SASCHA PENN: If I’d known… You never told me, Rosy. We’ve talked so many times. You never told me Lou was your favorite. Lou is my fault. I never… maybe it would have changed things.

DEADLINE: [Laughs] Okay, he had to die. I understand. But poor Malcolm Mays doesn’t get even one word in Season 5.

PENN: It’s true.

DEADLINE: Why did you pick Lou, and what effect did you want it to have on Kanan?

PENN: It’s a seismic shock for the entire family, right? Because I think up until that point, there is this feeling of, I won’t say invincibility in the family, but it does feel like on some level they can’t be touched. They haven’t been touched in this way. So I think part of the reason why it hits quite as hard as it does is that it does set off the story in a way where it’s like, Oh, wow, anything is possible at this point. That’s the way it is for the characters as well; they’ve lost. What’s interesting is that Lou, and it’s probably one of the reasons why you and a lot of other people who watch the show care so much, was the heart and conscience of the family.

DEADLINE: Kanan is doing a good job isolating himself from the family. Now, he’s running with Breeze (Shameik Moore), who is becoming a big influence on Kanan. What can you share about this relationship?

PENN: Breeze is this character that’s always existed in this mythological space of the Power universe. We always felt like he would be a part of this fifth and final season because we wanted to introduce him. I think the challenge with something like this, Rosy, is that the character you imagined is never the same as the character that you actually experience. So I’m fully prepared for part of the fanbase to be like, this isn’t who I thought Breeze was going to be.

I do think that you see his impact and influence on Kanan in interesting ways. By the way, knowing full well that down the road, and this is again, Power mythology or lore, he ultimately does meet his end by Ghost. So he’s not some sort of deity or anything. He’s a guy who is charismatic, and he’s smart, and he’s talented in his own way, but he’s also just a guy. We do sort of humanize him in that way.

DEADLINE: This season, the show connects to Manhattan, where it all began. The new location brings new characters in the fold, like Flossie (Leslie Grossman) and Pino Bernardi (Joe Pantaleon). What can you share?

PENN: This story always ends up in Manhattan; that was inevitable. The thing about Manhattan is the stakes are higher, and the players are probably a little smarter in some respects. It’s interesting to see Raq and Kanan bump up against that. It’s nice for Raq to have another foil; she hasn’t had too many other female characters who have been as formidable. Flossie is. The new characters open up the story in really interesting ways.

DEADLINE: After the traumatic loss of Lou, Raq and Marvin aren’t in their right mind. How will that affect their game?

PENN: It does impact their thinking in ways that are not entirely helpful. When you go through trauma like that, in real life, you’re just reacting to everything at that point. Life comes at you, and you just react; there’s not a lot of forethought or anything, because you can’t think straight. That’s a big part of what we see happen for Marvin and Raq across Season 5; rather than thinking adaptively, they’re reacting instinctively, and that’s always dangerous.