ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When we talked a few weeks ago, you said there would be some big reactions to the final episodes. Im sure a lot of that was in reference to what happens here to Raina. What went into the decision to kill her off?
COURTNEY A. KEMP: It had a lot to do with the inevitable, which was that Tariq was getting more and more over his head in dealing with a world he doesnt understand. What are the natural consequence of messing with gangsters? You get hurt. And in this case, Tariq has also been raised in a family where lying is how it goes this is what they do. What we also liked is this idea that Tariq has told his sister that he doesnt want anyone to know, so she finds out and wants to tell mom, and he begs her, Please, dont tell anyone. Well, she listens to him and it costs her her life. And I think that is a really kind of beautiful way to tell that story. She loves her brother, her brother loves her, but at the end of the day, Tariq is possessed with the need to individuate from his parents and it blows up in his face. Unfortunately, shes the one who gets hurt.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The most obvious way for Raina to die would have been as a result of Ghosts business. So what intrigued you about making it unconnected, and more interestingly, a result of the actions of her aspiring criminal twin brother?
COURTNEY A. KEMP: We wanted it to be about, the sins of the father that are visited upon the son and the daughter are really his neglect as a parent. Ghosts self-involvement and his eye being elsewhere made him vulnerable to arrest and incarceration, and distracted from the family. And while all that was happening, Tariq was getting further and further into a life of crime. We wanted this story to really be about Tariq and, as a result, its about his rebellion against his father. So its about Ghost in one way, but in a lot of other ways its actually really about, Are criminals born or are they made? Nature versus nurture. We always said that Raina is a truly good character and, you know on Power, if youre a good guy, you die. Whether youre Shawn (Sinqua Walls), Greg (Andy Bean), Julio (J.R. Ramirez), if youre a good guy, youre probably going to get it on our show.
