‘Raising Kanan’ Star on the Death of One of the Greatest ‘Power’ Characters Ever

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the penultimate episode of season seven of Power Book III: Raising Kanan, “Penultimate Means Second to Last.”]

The penultimate episode of Power Book III: Raising Kanan didn’t disappoint. Unlike the first episode, “By Blood,” where Lou-Lou’s death was unexpected, Marvin’s demise seemed inevitable in “Penultimate Means Second to Last.”

But it’s not just that Marvin dies — it’s how he dies and who kills him.

After the beatdown Marvin, played by London Brown, gave Kanan to close out episode five, “School of War,” Raising Kanan fans can’t be too surprised that Kanan comes around and kills Marvin. But the details do matter. And so does impact. This action by Mekai Curtis’ Kanan certainly aligns with 50 Cent’s portrayal of Kanan that fans know from the flagship Power series.

But something else also happens in this next-to-last episode: Hailey Kilgore’s Jukebox also takes a step closer to how Power fans met her, as portrayed by Anika Noni Rose. She does this by not just finding out who killed her and Kanan’s friend Fame, or Famous, but by avenging his death. She kills the crime boss duo that has been stirring up things since season three — Ishmael “Snaps” Henry, played by Wendell Pierce, and Stephanie “Pop” Henry, played by Erika Woods.

Together, Snaps and Pop have been central to sowing bad will, especially within the Thomas family. Kanan really began breaking the umbilical cord to his mother Raq (Patina Miller) when he started believing that she killed his best friend Fame and then his girl, Krystal. Last season ended with Kanan putting a gun to Raq in response to those deaths, when the truth is that Snaps and Pop are the puppet masters behind it all.

And they are active to the end. They are behind Shameik Moore’s Breeze joining forces with Kanan. Because of Kanan killing Lou (Malcolm Mays), they are the catalyst for Marvin beating Kanan down and demand that Kanan proves his loyalty to them by directly ordering hits on Raq and Marvin to avenge Defcon’s (Rondell Stark) murder. Clearly, they didn’t see their own deaths coming. And why should they?

“We haven’t lasted this long in the game without being able to play the game, and that’s what you get to see at the height of the tension and the turmoil,” Wendell Pierce, forever remembered for his role as Detective Bunk Moreland in the iconic HBO series The Wire, explains to The Hollywood Reporter about the pivotal episode. “We know how to play the game … they wouldn’t have lasted this long and have had this much of an impact if they didn’t. And that’s what I love about love about these characters.”

Pierce is also grateful to Raising Kanan creator/showrunner Sascha Penn for being able to work alongside his real-life better half. “Working with Erika, we’re like hand in glove. We kind of finish each other’s thoughts and finish each other’s words. Sascha and the writers have really created this couple that will be long remembered. People dress like us for Halloween,” shares the Elsbeth star.

Woods tells THR, “I wanted to conquer her backstory, because she’s based on a real character. Then I wanted to jump into the dialect. I’ve been in New York quite a while, but I wanted to make sure I did her justice. I studied and spent a lot of time in Queens, talked to a lot of people, and really tried to get grounded in her dialect.”

The ultimate payoff for the Texas-born, Kansas-raised actress? “When people ask me what part of New York I’m from.”

In that pivotal moment with Jukebox, Woods, who has played more cop than gangster roles in her career, says Snaps and Pop “didn’t think she was going to kill us. So when you don’t think someone’s going to do something, you move in a different kind of way. But I always kept in the back of my mind, she might shoot us, but, of course, we’ll shoot her. We just weren’t prepared, so my only preparation was thinking how we could outmaneuver her and talk her out of shooting us, so that we could maybe shoot her.”

Woods also adds that “because this is not their first rodeo, I don’t think they thought that she would have the heart to pull the trigger, and they just weren’t prepared. They usually have people with them, and it was a very rare day. She did a lot of preparation.”

That word “preparation” also applies to Brown’s portrayal of Marvin this season. The exiting star spoke to THR below about Raising Kanan’s final season and his demise, touching upon who Marvin is and has been, his relationship with his daughter Jukebox and his relationship with Patina Miller’s Raq and, of course, the beatdown scene with Kanan and that final moment in the church when Kanan takes Marvin out — and Marvin remains as gangster as ever.

Even though we knew it was coming and that it had to happen, we still weren’t ready for Marvin to go. But before we get into the specifics of how it ends, let’s talk about Marvin’s journey in this final season of Raising Kanan.

First, thank you for talking to me. I appreciate it. This season we see a different side of Marvin because he’s been affected in a different way, unlike the previous seasons. I think a lot of people initially felt Marvin was just an irresponsible uncle and just snacking. They were unaware that they were slowly becoming emotionally invested with Marvin, and so now, when we see this turn of emotions at season five, people I think have realized, “Oh, we actually do care about Marvin, and we do feel what he feels.” There’s a part of the audience that’s cheering for Marvin because, in season five, I think people have put it all together and realized he is a real person. He may not always be the most responsible with things, and, to a default, he’s so loyal that he kind of gets in his own way.

In the previous season, the audience was like, “Marvin, you got to breathe, you got to slow down and you got to think.” I don’t think anyone is even thinking anything about that this season, which is to say that they’ve become a part of Marvin’s journey. Nobody’s thinking about breathing. They’re like, “Go after whomever they got to get after,” [regarding Lou] to bring resolution. And that’s why even with that whole scene, people have been talking about Marvin and Kanan’s whole fight sequence; nobody was even thinking about any therapy. Nobody suggested it. Nobody said, “Hey, man, Marvin, you’re going too far?”

Because I think it’s justified, but only because the audience feels something for Marvin. Now that they’ve gone along with him, they’re like, “Yo, man, whatever Marvin got to do, hey, you get it done. We’re there to support you.” But that’s only because we feel that Marvin is human. We just feel bad for Marvin. We want Marvin to hopefully find some sort of resolution to all the pain he’s dealing with.

We’ve also seen him grow in his relationship with his daughter, Jukebox. After initially rejecting Jukebox’s sexuality and even harming her because of it, Marvin accepted his child’s sexuality and won her trust and love over seasons two and three. By this final season, they are very close. Can you talk about that growth?

With Marvin, we are talking about in the ’90s, too. So [sexuality] wasn’t as discussed as it is now. It wasn’t as liberated as it is now. Marvin just really didn’t even understand that world. But I think what he realized was, at the end of the day, “Man, it’s still my daughter. I do love her. I may not even understand it, but, because I love my daughter, I’m willing to try to understand this.” And I think once he realized that the relationship with his daughter was more important than his own opinions, he was able to live [with it] and I think it brought them closer. Because, in the beginning, they were kind of distant. Then, through therapy and breathing and having some talks, he got closer to her and he became super dad. And now, with this [new] relationship, he realized she’s got his back and he has hers.

How did you and Hailey Kilgore, who plays Jukebox, develop that chemistry?  

She’s great, man. She is one of my favorites to work with because she always just shows up. It’s important to do scenes with people you trust, and with Hailey, I never had to worry about if she was going to be present or not because I’ve done some scenes with actors who are not present. They’re just saying the words. I’m looking into their eyes trying to connect, and there’s nothing there. But with Hailey, she’s always present. She’s right there with me emotionally, and I know she’s going to give me something, and really listen and respond accordingly, and let these words form organically. She’s so great for that. So shout out to Hailey.