‘Devastating’: ‘Raising Kanan’ Star Patina Miller, Sascha Penn Break Down Shocking Death

This article contains spoilers for the Season 5 premiere of Power Book III: Raising Kanan.

Fans have always known that Kanan Stark was a loner, but with the closeout season of Power Book III: Raising Kanan, it’s becoming clearer and clearer how he got there. The series ended its fourth season with a blank screen and a gunshot, leaving viewers wondering if Kanan (MeKai Curtis) shot his mother, Raq (Patina Miller), or if something else happened after their charged confrontation. 

Now back with the premiere for its fifth and final season, the show sealed the fate of one of its characters, Lou Thomas, played by Malcolm Mays. In a gut-wrenching opening scene, Kanan accidentally shoots his Uncle Lou-Lou, who moved to stop his bodyguard from shooting at Kanan. Lou, bleeding, looks starkly at his nephew before he drops to the floor. In a blink, Raq rushes to him, but he dies in his sister’s arms. Make no mistake: This death sets the tone for the rest of season 5, and Miller shared how it felt saying goodbye to the character — and Mays. 

“It wasn’t easy,” she said. “This whole unit — we really love this material, and we love these characters. I feel like we were cast so perfectly in these roles.” Miller shared that when Mays first got the role and before she learned who he was, he warmly reached out to her via direct message to greet her. 

“We went into this with love, and he is someone who is so dear to me,” said Miller about their work on the series. “I’ve had such amazing moments with Malcolm on screen, and we’ve been able to just be safe for each other to play, and some of my best work is with him playing Lou-Lou. It was pretty devastating. I’ll say that.”

Viewers have seen the relationship between Raq and Lou have its highs and lows, with her behaving harshly or, at times, betraying his trust. As Lou’s older sister, Raq had the tendency to be bossy, but it was tempered with protection and love.

“That performance is a character saying goodbye to her brother, but it’s only that real because of the love that I, Patina, have for Malcolm as a human. To not be able to finish this story with him was heartbreaking.”

She pointed out that we don’t know who will survive Power, and when she read the script for this episode, it hit her in the heart. “To know that Lou-Lou was riding for Raq in the end and to know the relationship of just how much she loves him… it was devastating.” According to Miller, Lou’s death will affect the story in the next episodes. “The bond is broken. Someone’s missing now.”

Showrunner and executive producer Sascha Penn explained how Lou-Lou’s death was a natural part of the series’ storytelling. “The story kind of tells us which way it wants to go,” he said, adding that it evolved in its own way. “In the case of Raising Kanan, we always aimed to tell the origin story of this incredibly polarizing character who was scary and violent. What are the things that he did to turn him into that guy?”

Exploring that even further guided how things unfolded in this final season, including the killing off of Uncle Lou. “He didn’t start off the way he ended up,” Penn said about Kanan. “I think on some level, every piece of the story we’re telling is answering that question, and this is just a piece of that answer.”

This final season will get more raw and violent

When I spoke to the cast and Penn ahead of the Season 5 debut, one common theme kept coming up in our conversations: “The chickens are coming home to roost.”

The Thomases will be dealing with more than just their enemies in the streets — lies and secrets will be exposed as the show continues. “I think that’s what we’ll be seeing in this final season,” said Penn. “All these secrets that have been kept for too long, and again, the lies that have been perpetrated for too long, really come to the surface in ways that I think are surprising and scary and in some cases, violent. This is a family on the brink.”

Fans will see how all this plays out over the next seven episodes, but Penn expressed that, ultimately, he accomplished what he wanted to with this series as a whole.

“I always thought it would be five seasons,” he said. “I really feel like I was able to tell the full story of the Thomas family.”

As for Miller, she told me that this season we’ll see Raq “in her darkest form” and “her most volatile form.” Lou’s death isn’t necessarily the sole catalyst, but it definitely contributes to what we see and how the show eventually ends. Saying goodbye to Mays and the series was difficult for the star, but as she reflected on reading the final script, she shared why she’s thrilled for fans. 

“I’ve gotten to do some really, really wonderful things, and it is an actor’s dream to be able to do what I was able to do on this show,” Miller said. “So, I didn’t want it to end. But I’m so happy with how the story ends. And people might love it, they might hate it. I think they will be satisfied. I’m excited for people to see it, but it was hard.” 

Season 5 of Raising Kanan airs on Starz each Friday and will conclude its final run in August.