'Luke Cage' Recap: 'You Know My Steez'

10/29/2016

Written by Scott Edwards

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

As Pop’s Barber Shop is forced to clear out for the two super powered titans to fight it out, a small group of people start to assemble on the street to finally see Luke Cage in action. Not knowing or caring about the masses, Luke and Willis continue to pummel each other and the fight makes it onto the street. Hearing all of the words of encouragement for him, Luke tries to defeat his half-brother at his own game, but is losing the fight. Taking a step back and begging Willis to end the feud once and for all, Luke takes all of the powered up Diamondback’s best shots, but refusing to hit back, Luke seems to be facing certain death, but the fire in his heart will not allow it and seeing Claire, he knows his final move.

With the fight finished up and Willis Stryker lying motionless on the ground, Misty goes to work and first makes sure that Mariah does not have a chance to shuffle off again. Arresting the former council woman, Stryker and Luke, her day is looking good and she is ready to make sure that all of the blame is put where it should have been from the start. Wanting to get a shot at Mariah for the death of her cousin and several others, Misty plays second fiddle to Inspector Ridley who gets to hear the story of a lifetime. With the recording of Candace on her computer, Misty throws all of her cards on the table, but it winds up not being remotely enough.

As Candace spends her time hiding in Claire’s mother’s apartment, she is safe, but when the phone that Misty gave her starts ringing, she knows that it is time to leave. Heading out to meet with the detective she has fallen into a trap that she will never escape. Shades meets up with the witness that has all the dirt on him and Mariah and makes sure that she will never be able to talk again and getting the news of Candace’s death, Misty loses it once again. Being forced to let Mariah take to the streets is not what she had hoped for, but with the lack of her witness, there is nobody to testify, thus no reason to keep the former councilwoman behind bars.

Luke is able to tell his story to Misty and anyone in the station that will listen, about how he handled everything when it comes to Cornell. Being asked repeatedly why he did not get the police involved, Luke comes clean about how the system does not work and there has to be someone that can actually get something accomplished. As he is no longer the man the cops are looking for, Luke is finally able to get a bite with Claire in the station and the two are ready to set up a coffee date, but when seeing Mariah walk out of lockup, he is intrigued. With no case on her, she is free to leave and Luke knows that there will be more work to do, but before he is able to hit the streets once again a couple Federal Marshals show up from Georgia to arrest Carl Lucas and take him back to Seagate. Refusing to run any longer, Luke goes with the peace keepers to pay the price that he still owes society.

The story in this episode was not as packed as most of the episodes for this season, but with plenty of boxing flashbacks of Luke and Willis, it shows how deep their love ran for each other. It is good to know that the people of Harlem will be safe for another day, but with Mariah and Shades running things, I wonder how long it is before Luke gets word that the city has gone back down a dark path. It is difficult to know where the storyline will take this little piece of the cake when The Defenders take to the small screen, but I am sure it will be good either way. With a surprise re-opening of Harlem’s Paradise, the musical act faded out season one with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, singing about a hundred days and I hope that is the count until the next Marvel series hits Netflix.

I have decided that I liked this series the best out of the Netflix Marvel Universe and it is for one main reason, there are no dead storylines. Everyone of the characters introduced in this series have shown plenty of strength in one way or another and that is what made them so love-able. I know I said it earlier, but I miss Cornell ‘Cottonmouth’ Stokes the most out of the baddies in this series, he had a contained madness that we only got to see briefly, while Willis ‘Diamondback’ Stryker was just off his rocker most of the time. Even though I did not like Mariah taking over the family business, her madness has been seen as well and she is just as bad as Diamondback whether she wants to admit it or not, but with Shades by her side, she will be somewhat contained for the time being. I really loved the musical guests on the show as well, and while it did not add to what was happening with the fighting on screen, it did tell a bit of the story that you wanted to hear. I am also pleased with the fighting scenes, although it did take a little while to get to that point as the first couple of episodes were pretty poorly done, but as the series moved on, you got to see Luke looking like he actually had some training somewhere. Well, another Netflix Marvel series is in the bag and I cannot wait for the next one, but until it arrives, at least I can always remember some wise words from this show to make the wait a little easier. Forward always, always forward.

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