'Power Book III: Raising Kanan' Season 3 Episode 5 Recap

Raising Kanan Episode 305 production stills

Source: Courtesy / Starz

Tension between Ronnie and Unique comes to a head while Kanan clashes with both Raq and Famous. Juke bonds with her bandmate, and Lou works to revitalize Cafe Vous. Howard’s attempt to manipulate the Task Force backfires.

Similarly to how last week’s episode ended, episode 5 of this season started with Ronnie continuing being a menace. This time it came in the form of him robbing a random guy for his vehicle at gunpoint. Meanwhile at Raq’s house, Kanan is trying to stay on top of business despite his situation. Raq walks in and hears Kanan on the phone with Famous giving him instructions and telling him not to mess things up. When she questions him about the conversation and the large maps he has, Kanan is quick to shut the conversation down. After getting a new ride in the middle of the night, Ronnie decides to go over to Unique’s. In the midst of their conversation, Ronnie tells Unique that he’s tired of living with him and Pernessa and that he was going to flip the car to get him some real money. The next day, Marvin and Gerald share breakfast. They discuss their daughters and how Gerald writing about Juke could be good for his writing career. The conversation takes a turn when Gerald mentions the murder of a suspected drug dealer in South Jamaica. An inquisitive Marvin asks if Gerald has a name and is shocked when he learns that Deen is who Gerald was referring to. Marvin isn’t the only Thomas family member shocked by something. When Raq arrives at her new property, she peeps that her windows have been broken. Oddly enough, around the same time she arrives, the cops from before also do. They mention how she has an extensive list of code violations and they’ll have to report them. Although they don’t openly just say it, the officers in so many words tell Raq that if she pays them, they can make the vandalism stop and won’t report her to the Department of Buildings.

Lou seems to be trying to turn a new leaf. This is evident by him pulling up to Cafe Vous and turning down his usual drink from Shirley. She asks him if he’s alright and he responds that he’s maintaining. While they’re talking, Lou notices that she plays a certain record religiously. He tells her that he’ll pick up some records from his mother’s house and will roll up on his radio connect to get some promotion for the show. For the second straight episode, one of Kanan’s friends is arrested. This time though, it was Famous and it happened right outside of the building he lives in. Marvin makes his way to see Raq and share the news he had just found out. Although Raq seems genuinely concerned, she can’t give too much energy to it considering that she’s dealing with her own issues, which she shares with Marvin. He then tells her about how he fronted Lou some money for Cafe Vous and invites her to the hip hop night. She first makes it known that she doesn’t think giving him money was a good idea and then doubles down on saying f-ck him. Kanan shows up to building he and Famous lived in and is caught off guard when the deliver guys tell him that Famous got rolled up on by the cops. Elsewhere, Unique tries to show Ronnie their new operation in the Chinese restaurant. He even offers to let Ronnie run the spot. Unfortunately for Unique, his older brother is not at all impressed. He doesn’t like the Chinese people that own the spot and he notices how there isn’t anyone coming through it. He further expresses his frustration after Unique asks him if he heard about Deen. He emphasizes that Unique is always worried about the wrong things and puts it out in the open that he knows Unique has some sort of sexual relationship with Raq. Unique tries to explain that Raq isn’t in the game anymore and the lane is wide open for them but Ronnie doesn’t buy it and believes Unique has other work elsewhere. While Ronnie was looking for motion, Juke had it. That wasn’t the case for all three group members though. During a rehearsal, Iesha could not get the choreography down. N’Kiyah warned her that since it was so early it wouldn’t take much for her to be replaced. At the police station, Famous is questioned about Freddy (the kid he killed last season). After Famous denies knowing him and where he lives, the cop lets him know that he got an incident report placing him at Freddy’s apartment complex just a few weeks before his murder. In the same fashion that the heat was on Famous, the same applied for Raq. She got an unexpected visit from Laura Walsh, the social worker. Unsurprisingly, Kanan was not there when she arrived but Walsh decided to stay until he returned.

It turns out that Kanan was busy doing the exact opposite of what he should have been doing. Instead of being at home with Raq, he was on the block giving orders to his workers. Once he sends them off, Ronnie again pops up on him. This time, Ronnie wants to know who put Kanan on and if he’s working for Unique. Kanan is taken back when Ronnie mentions heroin because at the moment, he and his crew are strictly moving weed. As Lou is grabbing records for Cafe Vous, he has a very interesting conversation with his mom. She mentions how someone needs to take care of her and mentions how Lou is going to follow his pipe dreams straight to the grave just like his father. Lou responds by telling her that music wasn’t what killed his father. Before he leaves, he gives her a stack of money. Back at Raq’s, Kanan still isn’t there. Ms. Walsh emphasizes how serious the situation is and that Kanan needs to make new friends closer to home. Ms. Walsh eventually lets the instance slide but warns Raq that if she comes back and Kanan isn’t present, he’ll be taken from her care and their case will be handed over to family court. We find out some important information the first time we see Detective Howard this episode. As he meets with one of his superiors, he’s hipped that there isn’t any real proof to hold up the Crown Camacho story so the task force is pushing hard on all the players to see if anyone’s story changes. Howard tells Ogden that he’ll see if he can get anyone to talk. Ronnie pops up on Juliana in another attempt to get work. She again declines his offer, stating that her and Unique have bad history. Juliana brings up her husband’s death, basically hammering home how things can change quickly. Ronnie stands strong on the fact that Unique isn’t going anywhere. Juliana simply tells him that maybe it’s up to him. When Famous got home from the police station, he was met with an abundance of questions from Kanan. Famous told his best friend that the cops were just trying to see what he would spill and that the money was gone. After Kanan says he knew he couldn’t trust Famous and Famous mentions how Kanan didn’t come get him out of jail, Famous feels like there’s only one thing he can do…admit the real truth. He tells Kanan that he’s the one that killed Freddy and that’s the reason the cops actually pulled him in. Kanan tells Famous (who is clearly still tripping out about what he did) that he needs to bury that information with him. Lou made good on his word to get hip hop night some promotion by pulling up on DJ Mo Craze. He obviously remembers what Lou is about because he was shook as soon as he seen him and didn’t waste anytime getting the word out over the airwaves.

Raq and Unique reconnect for the first time in a minute at Deen’s homegoing. After Raq mentions how it takes a bold person to hit Deen, Unique tells her he knows just the person bold enough to do it. He continues by saying that Ronnie is out here wilding out. Raq agrees and tells him that someone’s going to have to pay for everything that Ronnie is breaking. Literally in the next scene, Ronnie decided to break Unique’s home. After Pernessa caught him in their house, Ronnie asked her where Unique was. Before she could answer, he suggested that Unique was probably out having sex with Raq. As one would expect, this pissed Pernessa off. The next morning, Raq let Kanan know that he missed the social worker’s visit. She told him that unless he wants to be in a boy’s home, he needs to be there the next time she comes through. Kanan didn’t have anything to say to his mother. He gave her the silent treatment while he ate his cereal. At the dance studio, Juke and Iesha shared a very heartfelt moment where they praised each other’s talents. Juke also mentioned Nicole to Iesha and how it didn’t work out. There’s clearly some type of spark between the two. A spark that was quickly dying was the one between Unique and Pernessa. After making Unique a sandwich, Pernessa wastes no time bringing up what Ronnie had mentioned to her pertaining to Raq. Although a frustrated Unique tries to downplay the situation, Pernessa reminds him that Raq shot at him with their baby in the car and tried to frame him for the shooting of a cop. This just further infuriates Unique, who storms out of the house. After Juke is done helping Iesha get the choreo, Juke invites Iesha to hip hop night. A proud Marvin shares a moment with Juke after he had witnessed the two talking. It’s amazing to see Marvin being open and accepting of Juke and her decisions considering where they came from, especially after he found the tape of Juke and Nicole. Juke tells Marvin that they’re just friends (even though we all can see otherwise). Howard got Demo (the guy in the wheelchair who got close with Marvin) to come in and talk to the feds to try and put the Crown Camacho situation to rest. While speaking with Agent Tanner, Demo mistakenly referred to Raq by that name instead of Raquel Thomas. This gave Tanner a reason to circle back on Raq although they had previously ruled her out. At Cafe Vous, Shirley thanked Lou for everything he had done for the place so far. She tried to toast him with a shot of Jim Bean but again Lou refused to drink. It seems like Raq was actually going to put the pettiness aside and show up to hip hop night. When she opened her door to leave her house, she was greeted by Agent Tanner telling her that he wanted her to come in for a conversation related to the mob shootings in South Jamaica.

Juke, Iesha and Famous are enjoying the local talent at the hip hop night when Kanan arrives. When he notices Kanan, an uneasy Famous gets up from the table and heads for the stage. Him and Kanan walk past each other without speaking. Once Kanan sits down, Juke asks Kanan what’s going on between them two and he says nothing. Juke introduces Kanan to Iesha which urges him to ask if that’s her girl or not. Although she obviously has some type of feelings for the girl, Juke tells Kanan that she isn’t hers but she is a nice girl and he can’t treat her like the other hood rats he’s been with. After she gives him the green light, Kanan goes back over and starts talking to Iesha. When Marvin gets to the show, he congratulates his younger brother. He then asks him if Raq had met it yet. Lou tells Marvin that they don’t need Raq there and he doesn’t want her support or anything from her but to be left alone. Unbeknownst to both of them, Raq was at the police station. Tanner asked her some questions about her involvement in Bulletproof Records and the studio. Raq’s lawyer realized that Tanner and his task force didn’t have anything real on her and told him that Raq was going to continue her business elsewhere. Afterwards, he assures Raq that she shouldn’t have to worry about the FBI or the task force anymore. He told her that they thought they smelled something but it was their own stench. Back at the show, Famous rocks it. By the end of his performance, he has the whole crowd rapping with him. He even gets the attention of Lou, which could end up coming in clutch for him. After angrily riding around the city, Unique finally catches up to his brother. Unique and Ronnie get into a very heated argument that eventually turns physical. Unique gets the better of his older brother and attempts to peel out after leaving Ronnie on the ground. Ronnie got up before Unique could walk out and began viciously attacking him with a metal pipe. After taking Unique’s chain off of his neck, Ronnie kicks his younger brother’s body down deep into the woods. Is Unique really dead? If so, how will Pernessa…and Raq respond? What is Ronnie’s next move? Is Famous back on track with his music? What happens next for Juke and the group? Will Iesha cause a rift between Kanan and Juke? Can we expect Kanan and Famous to get back close? How long will Lou stay sober? Will Raq finally pay the officers off for protection? There are so many questions we still have left at the midway point of this season. Let us know what you thought about this episode and what you think will happen on the next one in the comments!