Taylor ArdreyUSA TODAY
Aug. 7, <a href="https://comicvibe.com/the-best-smart-glasses-for-2026/” title=”The Best Smart Glasses for 2026″>2026, 2:54 p.m. ET
Raquel “Raq” Thomas would always take up space no matter who was in the room.
Throughout the five seasons of “Power Book III: Raising Kanan,” the no-nonsense queenpin, played by award-winning actress Patina Miller, lived for the drug game.
Raq was fly, never backed down, and didn’t rat when her back was against the wall, all in the midst of trying to protect her son Kanan (Mekai Curtis), who is determined to build his own empire outside of his family.
“She was unapologetically herself. The confidence to walk into rooms where sometimes you can be made to feel like you don’t belong, but you take up space, and that is what Raquel did,” Miller told USA TODAY, reflecting on her character’s impact.
“I can’t tell you the amount of women of all colors who have told me how Raquel makes them feel as a woman.”
Raq’s fate is revealed in ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ finale
In the finale, Raq is gunned down by the last person she expected: her niece, Jukebox (Hailey Kilgore).
“I hope that there is no sort of applause for Jukebox killing her aunt – an aunt who really loved her, who fought for her, who saw her, even if sometimes she felt like her aunt didn’t see her,” Miller said. “I hope that, like, they’ll watch the end, and they’ll be like … ‘What a good ending to a really good series.’ This is the only way it had to end.”
“Raising Kanan” creator Sascha Penn said that Jukebox pulling the trigger “put a poetic punctuation point” on her and her cousin Kanan’s relationship. Power Universe die-hards already know that Kanan ended up killing Jukebox years later, as seen in Season Four of the flagship series.
“Jukebox was pretty pathological in ‘Power.’ There was a sense with Jukebox that she had been through quite a bit. I think we had to sort of explain some of that,” Penn added. “Over the course of the series, (Kanan and Jukebox) had been so close, so linked … she had been his protector. For me, I wanted to end that relationship in a place that made sense looking forward and backward at the same time.”
Curtis believes fans may be split on Raq’s fatal outcome.
“There are a lot of fans that will see why this is the way the story needed to end. And I think there will also be a lot of fans that are heartbroken this is the way the story had to end, but that’s the beauty in the story. There’s a duality in all of these characters, and that’s where the conversation starts,” the actor said.
How to watch the grand finale of ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’
“Raising Kanan” premiered on Friday, August 7. It dropped at midnight on the Starz app and the network’s streaming and on-demand platforms.
Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at tardrey@usatodayco.com.
