‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Recap: Raq Comes Out On Top, But At What Cost? (2023)

Previously on the hood Wonder Years, aka Raising Kanan, Lou-Lou finally wakes up. Marvin gets back in the good graces of Raq but destroys his relationship with his daughter after learning she is gay. Raq puts another gun in his hand and instructs him to take out Detective Howard after she strikes a deal with him. She also hopes this plan will remove her biggest competition, Unique.

On The Run

Kanan’s shooting of his “father” sets off a chain reaction the reverberates throughout Queens, making it a long night for Kanan, Raq, and the rest of his family. After he thinks he completes the task assigned to him, Kanan runs off but trips and falls in the process scraping his hands on the concrete. Kanan’s hands are bloody from the fall, and he possibly could have left some evidence. We shall see how that pans out. He also wipes his hands on Unique’s jacket that Lou-Lou lifted from the drug lord’s bulletproof whip for some strange reason.

These mistakes are pretty laughable and understandable for someone who is still green and wants to be down with the street life, but we feel these will come back to haunt Kanan.

Anyway, a local rock smoker sees Kanan putting on the skates and leaving the scene of the crime. He quickly notices Unique’s name on the back of the jacket, but because “he was as high as a Georgia pine” at the time, he isn’t much of a reliable witness for the authorities to use at the moment. Hence, they decided to bring him in till he “starts making sense.”

Howard’s shooting has Queen’s on lockdown with cops EVERYWHERE looking for the suspect. Kanan tosses the gun in the first body of water he encounters and finds a payphone to relay the message that the job is done and picked up. He will be shocked when Scrappy, who now looks like a hood Nick Fury pulls up to drive him out of the neighborhood.

Kanan inquires where Uncle Marvin is, but Scrappy informs him he was the one instructed to scoop him up. Scrappy also tells him to take off the jacket and utilize the change of clothes provided for him. While all of this is happening, Raq is at church with her mother, who believes her daughter is there to renew her faith in the lord. She has no idea that Raq is just using her as an alibi to justify her whereabouts while the shooting went down.

The reunion with her mother and her mom’s church friends quickly ends when she receives a page that the job is done, and Scrappy picked up Kanan.

We zap back to Kanan and Scrappy, and they are riding around Queens trying to keep a low profile as cops swarm the borough looking for Detective Howard’s shooter. They eventually link up with Marvin, and he instructs them to get to where they need to and stay put, but that’s easier said than done because there are cops on every corner.

Lou-Lou Is Back On His Feet

Uncle Lou-Lou is alive, but he is still not 100%. The firebombing of his crib left his lungs severely damaged, forcing him to whisper when he talks. His girlfriend and her annoying rapping brother are at the hospital to see him. It quickly descends into chaos when Detective Howard, who is still alive, barely, is rushed inside and placed in a room for emergency surgery.

Lou-Lou observes all the action from his room window but gets all of the information when his girlfriend’s brother tells him that Detective Howard got shot and looks like he’s about to die. Lou-Lou decides that his hospital stay has come to an end and gets dressed so he can talk to Raq to figure out what in the world is going on.

Raq finally meets up with Kanan in front of Lou-Lou’s house as per her instructions. They hide out in Uncle Lou-Lou’s burned-down house because she says that’s the one place cops wouldn’t come looking for them. Raq tells Scrappy to do what he has to do and get off the streets. Before he pulls off, he tells Kanan he is a “straight soldier,” a big sign of respect from the guy who at one point couldn’t stand Kanan.

While inside Lou-Lou’s house, Raq debriefs her son to make sure he followed the plan, like him walking in front of the bodega’s camera while wearing Unique’s jacket so they can implement him. Kanan’s green side shows when Raq asks him how many shots he hit Detective Howard with because he can’t remember if he shot him three or two times.

During last week’s episode, Raq told him to make sure to hit his target with two to the chest and one to the head to make sure the job is complete. We already know he failed at that mission.

Detective Burke Is On The Job, Learns About Detective Howards Battle With Leukemia

Detective Burke finally arrives at the hospital and understandably wants answers as to why her partner was at the park alone in the first place. Speaking with her new captain, Burke immediately volunteers to donate blood to help Detective Howard, but he informs her that he is a rare blood type. He also tells her that Howard is battling leukemia, and if people find out, it could affect this pension.

After her new captain tells her that a “junkie” was the only witness at the scene, Burke asks if she can hit the streets to get to the bottom of it since her partner got shot. Her captain finally agrees ad tells her if she sees anything to call it in.

Burke wastes no time and finds Jukebox roaming the streets while they are occupied with police officers. Burke wants to know how Jukebox knew something would happen to a cop, but Jukebox doesn’t crack and reveals nothing. Burke decides to let her go for now.

Jukebox continues on her way to meet up with Kanan, who is now hiding out in the bodega until Uncle Marvin can retrieve him and get him out of Queens. Kanan and Jukebox have a deep conversation, and here we witness that Jukebox is a changed person. She is much colder than she used to be and expresses that with her cousin.

Their conversation is interrupted when Detective Burke and her temporary partner show up to question the woman who now runs the store after Raq killed her abusive husband. She tells Burke that Unique did it and gives the detective the tape from her surveillance camera. Burke puts the word out that Unique is the prime suspect after getting that information.

Raq Comes Out On Top… For Now

Unique is feeling the pressure. Word gets back to the druglord that his name is being floated around as the person who shot Detective Howard and Unique is not happy about that.

While he is venting to his boys, Uncle Marvin arrives at his posh apartment, planting the evidence necessary to implement Unique. After convincing the doorman to let him upstairs, Marvin breaks into Unique’s apartment to plant the custom jacket that Kanan borrowed while shooting Detective Howard.

Marvin places the jacket inside a closet along with Unique’s other jackets. What left us perplexed about this situation is that Marvin did all of this without wearing gloves, so there are fingerprints everywhere. Also, there is that small matter of Kanan’s DNA being on the jacket also.

Marvin gets out in time before Unique shows up with his son and girlfriend. Unique knows he is in a tight spot and is packing so he and his family can get out of Queens, but it’s too late because police show up to arrest him. Raq is also feeling pressured form the cops who are searching the projects where she set up shop and are going through all the apartments.

Lou-Lou, who looks like a hot mess, shows up at the stash house before the cops show up and want to know what is going on? While this is happening, Raq quickly transfers the drugs from the top apartment to the bottom apartment because the cops already searched it. Once the coast is clear, Raq and Lou-Lou have a conversation, and it’s there he tells his sister he is done and no longer wants any parts of the drug game while pointing out how selfish she is looking for even getting her son involved in this mess.

Raq tells her brother there is no getting out of the game and that his record label, and the studio, she owns it because he paid for it with the money she gave him. Lou-Lou doubles down that studio will remain drug-free, but we don’t think Raq will be taking that order from him. A deeply disappointed Marvin returns to the car with his girlfriend and her brother waiting. She tries to give him a pep talk, but he quickly tells her to just shut up and drive.

The night is far from over. Uncle Marvin was supposed to pick up Kanan from the bodega but gets arrested for an outstanding drug warrant.

The warrant directly resulted from nightclub Karen snitching on him in the previous episode, but Marvin doesn’t seem to be too worried at all. While he is currently sitting in a precinct, Raq is paging him like crazy, so he can go pick up Kanan. Officially realizing she is out of options, she decides to call Symphony, and he shows up to get her son and take him to Maryland to hide out till things cool down. Before Symphony and Kanan pull off, the two cousins say I love you to each other, Jukebox heads home.

Jukebox decides to finally read the letter written to her by Nicole before her tragic death and lets off one good cry, probably finally getting the closure to the situation she needed. Raq is on the roof of the projects overseeing the madness she caused and soaking it all in now that she is the biggest drug dealer in Southside Jamaica Queens now that Unique is gone.

In the hospital, Detective Howard finally wakes up, and Burke immediately asks Howard who shot him? It would be a safe bet to assume he will say Unique did it because he still needs his son to save his life.

We are so looking forward to season 2 already.

Relive the entire first season (so far) through photos, with the gallery below: