OPINION: Kanan and Raquel have both decided it’s time to forge their own paths while Jukebox starts a journey toward destruction.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Over the past three seasons, the one character’s storyline I’ve been the most interested in when it comes to the Thomas family hasn’t been Kanan, Raquel or even Marvin (who became my favorite character in season 3)—it’s been LaVerne “Jukebox” Thomas. Anybody who is a fan of the original “Power” series probably has an inkling why.
During the third and fourth seasons of “Power,” we are introduced to Kanan’s cousin, Jukebox, who is a police officer in Washington, D.C., who is also basically a crime boss with not a hint of goodness in her heart. To call her evil almost feels like an understatement. She is out for blood and willing to do anything to anyone to get it. Her storyline with Kanan and the kidnapping of Tariq St. Patrick, which ultimately leads to her death at the hands of Kanan, was one of the crazier plotlines of that earlier series.
To see her and Kanan as so buddy-buddy and Jukebox as this rough-around-the-edges sweet soul who is trying to find her way and comfort in life while being very human has been wild. As much as I’m enjoying the drug dealing tales of the Thomas family, I’m waiting for ANYTHING that hints at this version of Jukebox that loses her humanity and becomes a cold-blooded, heartless killer. Perhaps I’m grasping for straws (and perhaps we’ll never get the full story of Jukebox’s transformation), but this episode provided one of those turning points that is likely to have a lasting impact.
Jukebox has been trying to get more comfortable with being her full, lesbian self. She’s been going to a gay club in Queens and has befriended some folks and one friend in particular. While walking out of the club with her friend and going to look for food, the friend sees her husband, who throws Jukebox to the ground and throws his wife into his car and speeds off. Jukebox enlists her father to go teach the husband a lesson, which should be light work for Marvin, except she pleads for him to leave his gun in the car when they pull up at her homegirl’s apartment. That proves to be a vital mistake as the husband is more tenacious and unrelenting than Marvin expects. Keep in mind that Marvin gets called in to teach people lessons for the mafia at this point, so he’s got hands and skills.
But Marvin meets his match and is almost stabbed to death (like really, really almost killed) when Jukebox shoots and kills the husband from the doorway with the gun she told her father to leave in the car. Jukebox has already had several traumatic experiences during the course of this show, from reconnecting with her mother, who tries to make a “Christian lady” out of her, to her mother being killed to the death of her girlfriend who overdosed on drugs that were in Jukebox’s bookbag to even her fight with her father, Marvin, over her sexuality. If ever there was a villain with an origin story, it’s Jukebox, but I’m still waiting for her to get to the point of no return, and I feel like it’s coming.
Meanwhile, in other Thomas family news, Kanan has decided he wants to step out from under Raquel’s thumb and become his own guy in the Queens drug trade. I can respect and appreciate the ambition, but the clash between him and his mother is going to be epic, especially as Raquel tries to become the drug connect herself. This becomes especially important as Unique continues his quest to destroy everything that Raquel is attached to, which, I’ve already noted, seems so ridiculous to me. This dude really thinks that Raquel plotted his downfall and is going scorched earth.
Unique storms a warehouse with a cat from a prior season, and I just have to say, these shootouts make ZERO sense. So Unique pulls up to a warehouse where Raq’s drugs are being transported into vans, manages to kill several people who work there, and somehow, despite being shot at, basically at point-blank range, even with an automatic weapon, doesn’t get hit once but manages to shoot several people with his 9mm. Seriously, Unique SHOULD have been dead at least three times, and yet he ran out unharmed. Maybe he is a superhero and we just don’t know it. He should call himself “NONSENSE.”
This episode presented a lot of options for change and new directions. Kanan has his new apartment and is trying to assert his independence, while Raq is trying to stand on top of the mountain by herself. And who can forget Lou-Lou, who is in the music industry now trying to make his mark? I feel like his storyline will evolve, but it is good to see Lou-Lou back on his feet. Lou-Lou’s presence in the rap game leads to the second most important question in the episode—with the first being “How is Jukebox going to rebound from killing somebody?” on purpose—just where in the world is Famous????
Southside.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
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