'Luke Cage' Recap: 'Who's Gonna Take the Weight?'

​Written by Scott Edwards

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Something is wrong in Harlem and it is that Pop’s Barber Shop has been shut down after being shot up. Luke knows how important the shop is, not only because it was his only remaining job, but because it was a safe place for everyone in the city to visit. Talking with Bobby Fish about his reasons for staying behind, the two discuss what it will take to keep the doors open and respect Pop's memory the right way. Even though it will not be easy for anyone, Luke knows of a way to respect Pops and hurt the man responsible for his death, but he will need information to make it work.
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Visiting the funeral home, Luke is greeted by Cornell who is also mourning the loss of his oldest friend in the city.  Wanting to take care of all of the funeral costs for Pops, Luke is forced to sit back and watch as the arrogant man rubs money in his face. Not caring that Cottonmouth’s man worked alone in the killing, Luke is aware that Cornell is responsible and must pay for his actions.  Knowing that the only way to hurt Cornell is to take money out of his pockets, Luke must find out how his business actually works and there is no one better than Chico to fill him in. With the locations of stash houses now known to Luke, he takes to the streets to send a message in the name of Domingo Colon to make sure that Cornell Stokes knows that his business is no longer safe in Harlem.

Wanting to get information from Chico, Misty and her partner Rafael try to play hardball with the injured robber to no avail. But Rafael is playing his cards close to his chest and when he allows the convict to leave on his own, he gives Chico a sense of security. While at the office, Misty is trying to figure out how Luke was not hit during the shooting in the barber shop, but before she is able to get too deep into that, reports of robberies around the city start coming in. With no one being killed and shots fired all over the place and the only description of the attacker being a ‘fine guy in a hoodie’, Misty is starting to put the pieces together of who this mystery man really is.

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Cornell and his cousin Councilwoman Mariah are getting ready to move on their next venture and Mariah wants to leave the city better than how she came into it. With renovation and new housing projects on her plate, she just needs the money to fund them and Cornell is the master of keeping it moving. But there are problems mounting as Cornell’s stashes are being hit one by one and he needs to put an end to it before he loses too much.  Calling in Domingo for a one on one meeting, Cornell finds out that the Latino gangster is not behind the hits, but his pissing contest has led him to war and he had better mount up.
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Moving from one stash house to the next, Luke is happy to see that his plan worked and now the remainder of Cottonmouth’s money has been pooled in one location.  Breaking in the front door with a car door, Luke lays waste to everyone that is trying to get in his way with force like no one has ever seen before. Finding the cage where all of the money is locked up, Luke takes his bag and gives a call to the police to come and clean up the mess he left.  Not really understanding the motives of this vigilante and why money is not being taken from the crime scenes, Misty and Rafael have to decide if what this new watchdog is doing is right or wrong, but first Rafael needs to go meet with Chico and find out what the injured man actually knows.

I have been skipping over Rafael for the first couple reviews and I feel really bad because he makes me smile, but so far he has not had a strong part in the series. Now, well, things have changed as he shows who he really is and where his loyalties lie. The best part of this episode to me was the interaction between Luke and Bobby Fish, the chess player. Both losing a good friend, they cope with it in their own way, but one way or another they wind up in the barber shop that has meant so much to them over the years. The Cornell and Mariah storyline is starting to heat up now, as the Councilwoman’s office was hit in Luke’s raids and Cornell has lost eighty percent of his cash to the police, but that will not be the end of his troubles since he also pissed off Domingo and will be facing a gang war that he did not expect. The cop story is a little fun as Misty knows that there is something strange about Luke and trouble is following him wherever his chiseled body goes. It is gonna heat up, but one of the thing that you cannot miss in this series is the musical acts that are just fantastic, this episode Charles Bradley brings the funk and in the last episode Faith Evans melted our hearts. I hope this continues as it has become a staple for the show in my mind that I really enjoy.

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