‘Raising Kanan’ Season 3, Episode 9: Everything catches up with everybody at some point

OPINION: Bad decision-making eventually catches up with everybody, and Lou-Lou and Jukebox show us how hard it is to get away from your family. 

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

I want to feel bad for Lou-Lou. I really do. Whatever demons and ghosts he’s dealing with that have him spiraling at breakneck speed seem unconquerable. Lou is dangerous to himself and others. The thing is, I don’t even quite understand this spiral. I realize that Lou is still bent out of shape at having to participate in killing Scrap, but I mean, that is 100% of the game that Lou seemed fine with early on. I suppose he got tired of doing what he feels to be the dirt work, and it is weighing on his soul. But you can’t really have a conscience in their game. So off go Raquel, Marvin and Lou-Lou down a dark, windy road and we have no idea if they’re all coming back. 

This sucks for everybody involved, right? Famous really needs a music producer and well, that’s not going to work out. Raq and Marvin are literally (possibly) driving their brother to his own death … THAT THEY HAVE TO EXACT. I mean, talk about Greek tragedy! Even Jukebox, who we’ll get to next, will lose out on a musical aspiration for her that, at one point, seemed fruitful. But, again, Lou is a danger to himself and others. 

Jukebox, oh, Jukebox. So Juke got hemmed up by the FBI after killing her performance with Butta at Garden State Mall. They had her in an interrogation room asking her questions about her father’s role in a drug syndicate, basically. It is now that I think I’m finally starting to see how the Jukebox I know from “Power” starts to form. When she told Agent Tanner that he ruined her whole life, I FELT that. Because he did. The biggest day of her musical career was tanked by the feds coming in and alleging, in front of her manager and groupmates, that her family was part of a major drug operation. Jukebox is, now, a liability and music is gone. I’m expecting her to head off to the Army almost immediately. 

I am, however, confused as to how the feds jacked up Jukebox but didn’t get Marvin, who was at the same place she was. Like, they have enough to force Jukebox to come down to the station but not enough to make Marvin go? That confused me. Maybe Marvin got called to the hospital before the feds started corraling folks? I don’t know — something is amiss there. 

Can we talk about Gerald for a second? I can appreciate how he was trying to distance himself from Marvin a bit, but I also imagine the tremendous strain and pressure he was under. He’s a junkie and the feds used that against him to set up Marvin. That pressure contributed to his terrible parenting decision-making, resulting in the death of one of his kids. Gerald was a dead man well before he actually overdosed. Those poor kids. 

Ronnie, the goofiest villain ever, is an extremely good student of the game. He understands what’s happening at all times. If his personality was better, he could run a company for real, but he’s too weird to be a competent leader. Raq, who just killed Juliana, cut off Ronnie’s supply and now he and Kanan have no work. Ronnie, as you can imagine, is not happy about this and it leads to the only reasonable conclusion for everybody involved: Kanan needs to take out his mother. Whew, chile. The drama and the stress of it all. 

And Det. Howard, aka Kanan’s daddy, is really on my nerves. I understand how he thinks: his goal is to protect Raq, Kanan and himself. But being willing to set up Marvin to take the fall for the family? Has he been watching “Raising Kanan” this season? The world needs Marvin outside doing breathing exercises, eating snacks and making the world a better place. Marvin can’t go to jail. I’ve already said that if they kill him dead I’m going to be very, very upset about this. But I guess that’s just how the game goes and it might be something I will have to understand. 

Marvin, I got your back … from far away. I don’t want to go to jail, either. 

Southside.  

Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio. 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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