Power Book III: Raising Kanan’s Mekai Curtis’ ‘Jaw Was on the Floor’ at the Season 4 Finale (Exclusive)

As the Power Book III: Raising Kanan season 4 finale approaches, all Mekai Curtis can say is to get ready.

Following the dramatic events of the penultimate episode, which aired on May 9 and saw Pop take out Kanan’s longtime love Krystal (Aaliyah Turner) and saw the first-ever in-person crossover for Kanan and Unique (Joey Bada$$), Curtis, 24, tells PEOPLE that the next episode is “wild.”

“Man, my jaw was on the floor,” he says of his reaction when he got the scripts for the finale.

He says he was “terrified,” particularly about a “scene that is so big, so the artist’s mind in me was immediately trying to figure out, all right, how are we going to do this? Where do I need to be? What places and marks do I need to hit?”

“It’s wild, man. I’m excited,” he says of the conclusion to season 4 of the Power prequel series, which explores the teenage years of the character originated by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Kanan Stark. “And I got a great strong partner in Patina [Miller] to deal with, so we’re going to have some fun.”

Curtis continues, “Kanan’s story is going to continue to build. That’s what Raising Kanan is…. What you saw this person as in the original show, Power, we’re getting to reverse engineer that here and everything that he goes through, every experience, every person he comes in contact with kind of helps keep that story of him being raised [going].”

“It’s getting grim, it’s getting dark. We’re definitely getting to see more of the Kanan that people have seen in the original show.”

Kanan is locked in a “chess game” that “everybody’s playing,” in Curtis’ words. “And that’s been Kanan’s mindset this whole year too — he doesn’t trust anything.”

Following the drama of the penultimate episode of the season, which aired on May 9, Erika Woods (Pop) told PEOPLE that things are “definitely going to heat up” in the finale, especially given Krystal’s “shocking” death.

“Pop is really starting to step up and reveal herself to the fans. And I just really think you’re going to see a big evolution of Pop from season 3 to season 4,” Wood teased. “People are always saying ‘Snaps and Pop’ — I think you’re going to be hearing a lot more ‘Pop,’ and I think it’s going to be a lot more of the women and what they’re going through and their war.”