Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
As much as I’d like to discuss with you all the ongoing goings-on of the Southside Jamaica, Queens, New York, drug families that we’ve come to know and love, the truth is, all I can really focus on is the “bull in the china shop” that is Ronnie Mathis, Unique’s older brother.
Out of respect for everybody else, let me try to knock those things out quickly. Let’s see, Jukebox is in an NYC-area girl group that’s the equivalent of TLC and one of the girls doesn’t have rhythm for dancing but does have rhythm for Jukebox. Do you see what I did there? I’m sure you do. Lou-Lou is well on his way to becoming a player in the New York City hip-hop scene by partnering with Club Vous to promote the dive bar and turn it into a space for hip-hop open mics.
Oh, Famous ripped that performance at the open mic. Had me asking my kids “Where ya at?” over and over again this past New Year’s Eve. Marvin continues to impress me with his growth. He’s an anger-management accountability partner with a music writer for the Village Voice, and they’re out getting breakfast and talking about life, which was cool to see. Two men from different walks of life find common ground through their shared living experiences — it’s a buddy heist movie in the making. It’s also endearing enough to make you forget that just a few episodes back, Marvin killed a man at a christening — at a church. I suppose Marvin contains multitudes. I’m also pretty sure that’s not how “multitudes” works.
Speaking of multitudes (or not at all), Kanan’s enterprise has hit another snag as Famous got knocked (NYC slang for getting picked up by the cops), which has continued to expose a rift between Kanan and Famous since Kanan thinks Famous is an eternal screwup. I wonder how far Famous is going to make it in life? Not professionally, but like, literally. Again, my mind always ventures to the future when we see Kanan and Jukebox back in New York on a mission to end James “Ghost” St. Patrick’s life that goes awry. With all of these characters that we meet in “Raising Kanan,” you can’t help but wonder what’s happening to them during the time period that exists during “Power.” Is Famous alive? Dead? In prison? Did he have some early success as a rapper? Lou-Lou watched Famous on stage and looked like he had some ideas for him. This is the problem with well-done spin-offs; you get invested in the lives of all the folks involved. Let’s just move on to the good stuff.
So boom. On the last episode, which I did not recap because of Christmas — and I didn’t want to be talking about death on Jesus’s alleged birthday — Ronnie goes to Deen’s house and kills him as Deen’s deaf grandmother watches television in the other room. Deen was changing the batteries in his grandmother’s hearing aid at the time. Ronnie is tactical if nothing else. Why did Ronnie kill Deen? Because Deen told Ronnie that he didn’t want anything to do with him AND challenged Ronnie to a death match after Ronnie threatened him. Well, Ronnie won, fam, Ronnie won. Word gets out that Deen is dead and Unique realizes that Ronnie is a man bold enough to do it. Unique tells Raquel — they were on a dating break, but it’s permanent now — that Ronnie is a bull in a china shop, and Raq is like somebody has to pay for all that broken china. Profound, yo. Profound.
Meanwhile, Ronnie is rolling around New York trying to find a connect or some work and thinks that Unique is lying about his supply. Ronnie even runs up on Kanan, who is moving weed, and tries to bully him out of the truth that Unique is his supplier; he is not. Unique, who is really trying to make a lot of things work at the same time, tries to give Ronnie the Chinese carryout setup from episode four as his shop, but Ronnie doesn’t want it. Ronnie is pissed at the world and especially Unique for sleeping with the enemy — Raquel — and for fumbling all of the territory he left Unique when he went to prison.
Let me just point out here that Ronnie is a special kind of psychopath. The calculated, deliberate manner in which he does everything is intense. He’s a maniacal, creepy, unpredictable, simple man. He moves so carefully that it makes me, a watcher, uncomfortable. Shouts out to Grantham Coleman for the masterful work he’s doing as Ronnie.
On one particular stalker mission for drugs, Ronnie runs up on Raquel’s former connect, Juliana, in Washington Heights, asking, again, for work. She says she doesn’t trust Unique and that Ronnie needs to get rid of him. Ronnie, in one of the few shows of a human side, assures Juliana that Unique is his brother and isn’t going anywhere. Well, Ronnie then tells Unique’s baby mama that Unique and Raq are smashing and all of that goodwill goes out of the window. Unique and Ronnie get into a huge fight where Unique asserts his dominance with fisticuffs — the little brother has become the leader. And then Ronnie beats Unique to death and dumps him in the woods. Let me point out that, before Ronnie and Unique fought, Ronnie took off his glasses and laid them gently on a table. I don’t know if it’s because he’s crazy or because glasses cost a lot of money and he doesn’t have a spare. The fact that it could be both speaks volumes about Ronnie. All I know is in a week, Ronnie took out two Queens drug dealers and who knows what other havoc he’s about to cause. I’m concerned.
Most importantly, RIP Unique, who I was starting to enjoy as a part of Raquel’s story; I can’t imagine what’s about to happen next, but whew, chile.
Southside.
Correction, Jan. 2, 2024: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the relationship between Ronnie and Unique. Ronnie is Unique’s older brother. The story has been updated.
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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