As promised, here are the recaps for the second half of Luke Cage. The recaps for these episodes will be published separately, as individual articles, instead of in one big post like the first six episodes. Happy reading!
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
I saw the sniper being Luke’s brother coming.
And that he was Diamondback. Even though up to the last episode I was still sure it was Alvarez.
When he followed Luke and Claire when they were taking cover behind the car, for some reason, right there it hit me that he was Diamondback. Then when they were in the theatre fighting it occurred to me that he may be Luke’s brother.
I would like to know more about their history. Hopefully we get a flashback sometime soon. He makes it sound like Luke had a criminal past, but Luke said that he was innocent of the crime he ultimately went to prison for. I still think that’s true but maybe there’s some kind of misunderstanding between them.
Misty was kind of my hero for a bit this episode. Claire told her Luke was innocent and she believed her instantly. Which was surprising since she seems to have this thing against Luke. I have no idea what it is. But then she still said she was going to arrest him.
He is a suspect in an ongoing investigation so she does need to bring him in, but still. She ruined the moment. The way I saw it, she would arrest him and then back him up and let it be known that he’s innocent.
And she ruined it again later when she attacked Claire in the interrogation room. I get it; she was seriously close to dying and she’s in shock. But I’m glad Claire called her out and told her that she’s either too weak to handle pressure or too stupid to see that Luke is innocent. I don’t know why she thought Luke was guilty this entire time. She knows that all of the crimes that Luke is connected with were perpetrated by Cottonmouth.
I was questioning last episode why the Judas bullet didn’t kill Luke the instant it exploded. I assumed that his insides wouldn’t be as hard as his insides, but it turns out that they are so that saved him. We got to learn a bit more about his powers the same time that he did. He never explored his powers or their extent, or even fully knows what they are, it looks like.
Mariah is really coming into her own as a crime boss and adapting to it really quickly. She didn’t even hesitate when Alvarez asked what they were going to do about Candice if she confesses to lying. She instantly said they would have to kill her. And then she looked at the picture of Ma Mabel later and said she’s nothing like her, but she is. From last week’s episode I thought of her as being so much more like Ma Mabel than she wants to admit to herself. It only confirms for me that Mariah is the one who should have taken over the Stokes family business.
She’s not even a little bit sorry for killing Cottonmouth. She doesn’t even care anymore and got over that very quickly. She’s already in the process of manipulating the situation to make herself look good and get back to her role as councilwoman. But at this point I think Mariah just needs to get out of politics and embrace being the second coming of Ma Mabel. Be Black Mariah.
I want to see how much further Alvarez goes with his manipulation of Mariah. Is Diamondback even aware that Alvarez has been trying to take over? At the same time I want Mariah to become aware of his manipulation and kick him out. I feel like even if she does, though, that Cottonmouth’s former goons will follow Alvarez and not her. He did tell them they work for him. So she’s still actually powerless.
Random thoughts:
- Where are these rocket launchers coming from?
- A little curious as to what Cottonmouth looks like after Mariah’s handiwork.
- I wonder where they got the names “Black Mariah” and “Cottonmouth” and why they don’t like them.
