‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Recap – ‘It’s a Business, Man’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 206 of ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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When we are young and looking to decide our future career path, we tend to turn our attention to the family business or the profession that hangs over our household. For it is an easy way to get a taste of what the working world is like and digging into the family business and being a part of it, helps us to see if it is for us and for a fair chunk of us, it isn’t, and we look elsewhere. But for some of us, the family business calls to us, and we come to love the idea of keeping the family’s trade rolling, and we are so excited to join it that we quickly believe that we will be successful and ready to roll the instant we agree to take it up. But regardless of how much excitement we harbor or how much we’ve absorbed from watching our parents run that business… we quickly come to learn a hard lesson about taking up the mantle.
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In that, we are still a babe in such matters and not ready nor qualified to be the next CEO of the business, we have to learn it and become a master of It and that takes time and trial and error. That kind that isn’t dangerous for us in the slightest since we have the safety net of family and their love to fall back upon. But that isn’t the case for everyone, and there are dangerous gigs that are family related that require a tough learning curve, as evidenced by this week’s episode of Power Book III: Raising Kanan. For when we catch up with Kanan Stark in ‘It’s a Business, Man’, he was in that plucky mindset and eager to quickly rise through the ranks, despite being asked to start at the bottom. Since he was working to be the bag man for the cash in this tale and well… it didn’t take long for him to discover the dangers of this gig and how much he has to learn. For the local punk named Freddy, came at him and Famous on Kanan’s first day, and they snatched Famous’ jewelry and the drop for the day.
 
A move that pretty much put Kanan in a panic. After all, that’s the worst-case scenario for day one and it spoke to how he didn’t understand the streets and the business just yet, or the hard nature required to be successful at this job. But Kanan was of course… a quick study and he quickly got his hands on all the necessary tools to get the drop back and he used those tools to teach Freddy a valuable lesson in respect. But alas, more complications arose from that, since tuning up Freddy bought forth the police and they put Famous in handcuffs and the bag went with him to jail. But… an assist from family, specifically Detective Howard, made this a good day for Kanan. Since arrangements were made to get Famous out and to put the drop back in Kanan’s hands… intact no less. Keeping Kanan’s nose clean and in the end, there were lessons galore for him here, the kind that he would absolutely take to heart, and it was quite unique to see this plot parallel the family business way of life in our everyday world, just with an ugly twist.

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Speaking of ugly twists, there were other ones present in this story as well. Because while Kanan did his best to keep his mom from finding out about his big and bad mistake… Raq was handling business with Sal and his boys. Because the beef had to end and end quickly before it exploded into an all-out turf war and that is precisely why she used Worrell’s suggestion to bring Unique into the fold, because of his ties to the Boselli gang. To broker peace and get the empire growing again and that plan worked. Since it did bring forth calm and snagged Raq some savings regarding the business too. The only downside to the plan, was the expectation that Unique run the Jersey outfit, since such a request… from Sal no less, made it clear that Raq was played here by both Worrell and Unique. But after she put all the pieces together, she filed his win away, and that isn’t good news for Unique in the slightest. Because Raq does not forget, and she will undoubtedly make life tough for Unique in the days to come as the business continues to grow. 

Not to mention, there was ugly to be found with Lou in this tale as well. Since he saw his world basically fall apart in every way imaginable. In part because Raq basically made it known that she was ready to cast him out from the business since his heart was no longer in it and that Crown betrayed him behind his back. Not to mention, Zisa’s single had yet to air on the radio, making him appear to be nothing more than a grand failure at everything and that led… to one scary moment. Wherein Crown finally confronted Lou about their problems, and he was eager to share his thoughts on Lou’s place in the music business as well. Which were words that hurt Lou deeply and well, a man of his stature and nature, one that commands respect and lives in two worlds… had no problem teaching Crown the ultimate lesson for disrespecting him. Putting Lou on a new and terrifying path for certain, one that takes him into uncharted and dark territory.

If anything, it is safe to declare this episode as the darkest of Raising Kanan to date. Since it saw Lou completely commit to the anger that’s been welling up in him for ages on end now, and it also saw Raq’s fury begin to boil over after being played by Unique. But above all… we watched Kanan Stark begin the first real steps in his dark and tragic journey. One that would take him to some ugly places in the original Power, and that was tough to watch. Since now we know what kind of person he started out as. But that’s what a great tragedy does, it breaks out heart along the way, and truly, it will be fascinating to see how Kanan continues to grow into the man we met years down the line in the weeks to come and to see what other dark surprises await us. But sadly, we will have to wait a little longer to see what comes next, since this bold and dynamic series is set to return in a couple of weeks. Until next time.

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