You Know My Steez
Luke finally has it out with Diamondback. The two fight in Pops Barber Shop and then the fight continues out into the street. A crowd gathers. The fight is broadcast live on TV. Candace and Claire see it. Claire tells Candace to stay with her mother while she goes to Pops to be there for Luke.
The two half-brothers fight to a standstill until Luke is able to figure out that much of Styker's strength is coming from him. The harder Luke hits him the stronger Stryker gets. Luke goes limp and lets Stryker use up all that energy he has amassed and then he knocks him out. The cops have arrived, by that point and are ready to open fire with Judas rounds but Misty steps into prevent them from doing so. Stryker is arrested and carted away. Everything that follows the end of the fight is epilogue and laying the groundwork for next season and possibly in part for part of season 1 of Iron Fist.
Misty arrests Mariah, who stuck around on purpose, after the fight is over. She reveals Luke's original name, Carl Lucas, to a reporter as she is interviewed on live television. Luke is not arrested but is brought in for questioning. Misty and Inspector Ridley do their best to sweat a confession out of Mariah.
Shades works behind the scenes while Mariah is in custody. In the confusion at the end of the previous episode Misty dropped her phone. Shades picked it up. It wasn't clear then whose phone it was. Shades uses the phone to text Candace, pretending to be Misty. Candace goes to meet Misty and is shot and killed by Shades. Her body is found. Her confession on tape drops in value immediately. Inspector Ridley drops all charges against Mariah. Misty in incensed but can't do anything to stop Mariah from walking free.
Two US Marshals show up for Luke. Based on Mariah's reveal of Luke's former identity he is arrested for breaking out of prison and not serving his full sentence. He goes with them peacefully. Claire promises to call her lawyer friend, a clear reference to Matt Murdock although she doesn't actually name him. The episode ends with a montage of scenes of the various players in the story as (the recently deceased) Sharon Jones performs 100 Days, 100 Nights at Harlem's Paradise.
I was ready for this. I was ready for this not to be fully resolved. I appreciate the fact that they didn't wait until the last 5-10 minutes but rather used more than half of this episode, as I mentioned above, to slowly reset the board for the next season. This season should probably be viewed not as a complete story, but as act 1 of a larger story.
I didn't binge watch this season. I don't like binge watching. I especially don't think it makes sense to binge watch a season like this. It should be savored and enjoyed at a leisurely pace. There are going to be slow moments in a 13 episode season like this. I'm amused by people who binge watch and also comment on how the show dragged in places. It didn't drag, it slowed down, which is natural. What isn't natural is binge watching.
On the whole I was very impressed with this season of Luke Cage. There were some episodes I liked more than others but I now feel confident saying that I don't think there were any major misteps in this season. Some things were handled or presented a little too directly, without enough nuance for my tastes, but overall I think the producers and directors did a marvelous job with the whole show in a way that was not done with any of the previous Marvel Netflix seasons. Whether this is what Harlem is really like or not they gave it, the neighborhood in which the story took place (for the most part) a personality which is something that I didn't get from either Daredevil or Jessica Jones.
It can be argued that both seasons of Daredevil are also about Foggy and Karen. Season 1 of Daredevil is also about Kingpin, Season 2 is also about Punisher and to a lesser degree, Elektra. Season 1 of Jessica Jones is mostly about Jessica and Killraven. None of those seasons embraced an environment in which they were set in quite the way Luke Cage did. Finally this season of Luke Cage was as much about Misty Knight (and occasionally Claire Temple) as it was about Luke.
This is by far my favorite season of Marvel Netflix series to date. There's a bit or irony in that appraisal considering that I wasn't very enthusiastic for the series until just before it was released*. My lack of enthusiasm was due to my lackluster response to Luke Cage in season 1 of Jessica Jones. He didn't intrigue me on that show. I didn't feel the need to learn more about him. I didn't realize then the extent to which the producers of Luke Cage were going to make the story about much more than just the main character.
I am eagerly looking forward to Season 2 of Luke Cage and am interested to see if and how elements from this season are carried forward into Iron Fist and the the other Marvel Netflix shows.
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* Some credit for getting me excited about this show is due to the conversation Cheo Hodari Coker, the show runner, had with Combat Jack on the Sep 27, 2016 episode of the Combat Jack Show.
https://soundcloud.com/thecombatjackshow/the-cheo-hodari-coker-episode
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