"I had to tap into real loss": what happened to Papa on The Chi, as told by Shamon Brown Jr.

Papa's father, Pastor Stanley Jackson, was murdered in season 6. Papa spent the next two seasons trying to hold onto his father's church and his faith, and he ends the series back on the air and thinking about proposing.

Shamon Brown Jr. has played Stanley "Papa" Jackson II on The Chi since its first season. He was a recurring player in season 1 and was promoted to series regular for season 2 in 2018. Lena Waithe's drama about Chicago's South Side ended its eight-season run when the series finale, "The Last Dance," premiered on Paramount+ on July 24, 2026.

Spoilers through the series finale follow.

How Papa lost his father

Pastor Stanley Jackson was introduced in season 2 as Papa's father and the head of the family 's church. In season 6, which premiered on August 6, 2023, father and son had a bitter falling-out. Pastor Jackson disapproved of Papa's relationship with Kenya, a young mother, believing he was too young for that responsibility, and he disagreed with the teachings of her father, Pastor Zeke. The argument at Papa's graduation celebration ended with Papa being put out of the house.

That same night, a masked figure strangled Pastor Jackson while he prayed. Here's what the show later revealed:

• The killer — Nuck, who did it on the orders of the crime boss Douda.
• The reason — Pastor Jackson was no longer willing to be Douda's puppet. Confronted later by a grieving Bakari, Nuck said the pastor had talked too much.
• The funeral — held in the season 6 episode "Long Live," where Papa delivers his father's eulogy.

Read more: Meet '215,' a series drawn from Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s early years

That eulogy is the scene Brown has singled out when talking about the role.

"I had to tap into real loss," Brown told The Hype Magazine. He added that it was the first time he had let himself be that vulnerable on screen.

How Papa lost the church

Season 7 turned the grief into a trap. Papa's mother, Diane, discovered that Pastor Jackson had left the family and the church in debt. Against her wishes, Papa went to Pastor Zeke (Daniel J. Watts) for a loan, and Zeke told him to think of the money as a down payment on his father's church. Papa became Zeke's assistant pastor and eventually handed the church over to him.

What Papa didn't know was that Zeke worked for Douda too, laundering money through the church, and had been installed as the replacement for the pastor who refused to.

The final season

Season 8 premiered on Paramount+ on May 22, 2026, and opened at Zeke's funeral. He had been killed off-screen. His widow, Carolyn, tells Papa she believes Nuck did it, and Papa passes the suspicion on to Tiff, who is still with Nuck. Nuck later confesses to Bakari that he killed Zeke because he couldn't risk the pastor talking to the police.

Ahead of the season, Brown told The Hype Magazine that Papa's final arc was about the character finally putting himself first, after years as the group's anchor. Not every critic thought the show delivered on that. Reel Chicago's review of the finale argued that Papa was underused for much of the season, his story playing out at the margins despite how central he had been to the show's heart.

By the end of "The Last Dance," Papa is back on the air with his podcast, Papa's Pulpit, and thinking about proposing to Kenya soon. He's one of the characters The Chi lets walk away from the South Side's violence with his future still open, which, on this show, counts as a happy ending.

Earlier we wrote: Who killed Denise on The Oval? Her beheading went unsolved for a whole season