'Luke Cage' Recap: 'Manifest'

Written by Scott Edwards

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

With Cottonmouth behind bars, Luke is ready to move on with his life and with Claire helping to give him a little guidance, it may be for the better. But things are about to make a change for the worse as Cornell Stokes is being released for lack of evidence against him and with Detective Rafael Scarfe not surviving the gunshot wound from the gangster, there is nobody that will testify against him. Seeing that the system will not work the way it should, Luke is ready to leave since nothing he did made Harlem any safer, but Cornell wants to have a conversation with his foe once again and this time he will make it known that Harlem belongs to him and not the former fugitive turned vigilante that is standing up for what is right.

After getting blasted in the media and her cousin being sent to jail for a minute, Mariah is having more problems than she knows what to do with. Getting a visit from an old political rival is not making her day any easier and the talk of having her need to resign is getting on her nerves. When Shades is witness to seeing how weak the Stokes family is becoming, he wants to light a fire under Mariah’s butt to have her step up and be the leader, like Mama Mabel was when he was growing up. Not having too much time to think about it, Mariah gets the official call from the council telling her that she will resign and not knowing where to go, she heads off to her cousin’s club to try and get something worked out. Not knowing what to say or do, but knowing that the Stokes name is being tarnished, Mariah finds out what she is really capable of when the pressure finally makes her crack.

Misty is in trouble at work and after seeing Cottonmouth leave without even a slap on the wrist, Internal Affairs is ready to look into her case and see what she is and is not doing. With an old partner, Inspector Ridley watching the young detective work her magic, she sees one common piece in all of the cases around Harlem; Luke Cage, and does not understand why Misty has not brought him in yet. Knowing that the Harlem hero is not responsible for everything that is happening around the city, she does know that he has a story to tell and she needs to find out what it is before more people die around him. But knowing Luke and seeing his actions thus far, there is little she can say or do to make him take a seat and speak with the police, especially after Cottonmouth was released.

But this episode was about Cornell ‘Cottonmouth’ Stokes and how he became the crime lord of Harlem that also happens to have a get out of jail free card. Seeing the young Cornell under the watch of the infamous Mama Mabel, he was more interested in music than anything else and his uncle Pete would do anything to encourage his passion to keep the kid out of trouble. But Mama Mabel has other plans for the boy and forces him to jump into a life of killing to make sure he understands what it takes to be the head of the city, especially when things get tough. Even though he is resilient, he still follows the orders given by the queen of the underworld and is forced to show that no matter what happens, family will always come first, until they betray you. Having to put a bullet in his uncle for crimes against the family, Cornell shows that he has the chops and Mama Mabel has a street captain ready for the future to carry on the family legacy.

Damn you Netflix, you made me watch this episode twice because you decided to crash right in the middle of it. Actually, that's not a bad thing since I got to watch the Cornell backstory twice and it was really good. Made me feel bad for the gangster that is able to kill people and always get away with it, but all is not all right for Cornell as he challenges his cousin and loses the fight of a lifetime to her. With knowing who Luke Cage really is, Cottonmouth is ready to exploit that information to bend the Power Man to his will, but that is not what Diamondback had planned, so Shades is kind of put in a rough place. Luke wants to run, but Claire is able to convince him to stay in Harlem and do some more good for the community and knows that the people will not lose respect for him if they find out he was a criminal, since he is trying to do the right thing now. But the former councilwoman is the biggest surprise of the episode, I never thought Mariah would have it in her to put a physical beat down on anyone, but she proved me and the world wrong and showed who the dominate Stokes child really is. With an ending that I did not see coming now out of the way, I am pretty sure I have no idea what will happen next, nor do I have a clue how the Judas bullets can pierce Luke Cage’s skin, but I bet that it will be explained very quickly as the Power Man’s kryptonite has been located and it was not a woman like I thought it would be.

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