Patina Miller Says Raq’s Abortion in ‘Raising Kanan’ Felt ‘Necessary’ to Show (Exclusive)

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season 4 premiere of Raising Kanan.

Patina Miller had no qualms about depicting Raq’s abortion experience in Power Book III: Raising Kanan. Instead, she leaned into it.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re going here. But yes, please.’ You know what I mean? I felt it was necessary,” Miller, 40, tells PEOPLE about her character’s bombshell reveal in the season 4 premiere.

The episode, which gave fans a look at how Unique (Joey Bada$$) survived when Ronnie (Grantham Coleman) left him for dead, providing some background and context to the latter half of season 3, also showed Raq discover she was pregnant with Unique’s baby — who she thought was dead — and decide to get an abortion.

“It gives the character — and the audience — something to really think about. I mean, there’s this strong woman who is successful … but having this very real human moment that happens so much,” Miller says of the broader impact she hopes the storyline will have on fans.

“It doesn’t matter how she looks, where she is — it is a universal thing,” she continues. “And I think that for us to talk about it in this show and for Raq to make the choice to go about something so personal, something so huge, by herself, and not feel any guilt and shame around it, which is what we are taught to sometimes feel — it was great.”

The new piece of Raq’s story, which happened “somewhere in season 3 between episodes 5 and 10,” Miller notes, “makes the story, for me, even more explosive, even more dynamic.”

“You really feel for the character more,” she says. “That was a very real, raw, vulnerable moment for Raquel to have. And she had this moment alone — like she does a lot of the time. And it’s an incredible moment that I think is needed and really says a lot about who she is, and accepting that that’s not the right choice for her.”

Joey Bada$$ was equally shocked by the pregnancy curveball when he read the season 4 premiere script. “That was crazy. I was like, ‘Oh, they was getting it in,'” he tells PEOPLE.

“It’s interesting too, because I’m like, damn, how would Unique respond to that?” the rapper, 30, continues of his character. “Especially with him being unhinged, and him convincing himself that all these people conspired against him. How would he respond to that? I think that could be a little small detail that could have probably shifted his mind a little bit [about Raq].”

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The season 4 premiere of Power Book III: Raising Kanan is now streaming on Starz