Why is Shanely Caswell leaving Power Book III: Raising Kanan following the dramatic season 3 premiere? Creatively, it’s easy to understand why Shannon Burke had to die. For most of season 2, she was digging into her partner Malcolm Howard and some of what he was up to behind the scenes. She was relentless in her pursuit, but she also made a number of mistakes. Howard was smart enough to figure things out and when he realized that she knew too much, he shot her.
For Caswell (who appeared on NCIS: New Orleans prior to this show), this was a death she did see coming. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, she explained that the only real mystery was when Burke was going to head off to what is affectionately known as Power heaven. She also shared her thoughts on the way in which her character died:
I thought it was great. She has this one final moment of trying to break through and, like she always does, she shoots herself in the foot by saying too much. Shannon says one thing that sets off Howard and it’s in that moment where you see he makes the decision. It comes down to her always being too stubborn and headstrong trying to prove a point. Then right after, it’s 50 Cent’s voice saying “f— the police” and it shuts to black. That was a cool moment.
Now, we do wonder how much this will be a jumping-off point for some other stories. Remember here that Burke, while suspended, was still a cop. This is the sort of death that the police are almost certainly going to look into, especially when she is from a family of officers. This death in a lot of ways justifies that backstory, and what could become a major thorn in Howard’s side moving forward.
