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Luke Cage: Soliloquy of Chaos

"You got this all figured out, huh?"
"No... actually, I don't."

Going into the finale, not having everything figured out is the best place to be. Anything can happen.

To a degree.

I mean, Luke probably won't die and if Claire dies, I plan on staging a protest. All things considered, though, we got a solid episode. I am hoping that Diamondback will be defeated and that for season two Mariah will be the big evil calling the shots. She is equal parts smart, creepy and ruthless which always makes for a smart villain. Whatever points Diamondback had earned with me went on the window when he pulled that super suit out. Only because he is an idiot for not putting it on at the jump. Dumb villains just aren't fun to watch. Mariah Dillard is a force to be reckoned with. Mama Mabel knew it. Cottonmouth knew it. Hell, Shades always seemed pretty confident in her too. But finally, Mariah sees what they always saw in her and she is ready to own that darkness. Yikes.

Putting Luke in cuffs was laughable. Sure, he turns handguns into useless lumps of LACMA-worthy art, but three pairs of handcuffs... that'll work. Of course it was all a show for the cameras, but still. Why weren't there guys with armed with Judas bullets trained on him in the back of the van? Not that I'm complaining, I'm in no hurry to watch him take the acid bath again, but it still seemed like lazy police work. On a side note, Luke might have a career in the art industry when he finally decides to hang up his cape hoodie.

The kind police officer at the start of the episode was smart enough to know he'd have to out-think Luke to catch him and smart enough to see enough good in him to let him go. I wouldn't mind seeing him again. Plus it was a little foreshadowing of the change we saw later in the episode. The people are behind Luke again. They see the good in him too and aren't letting the spin Mariah and Diamondback are putting on his character cloud their judgment anymore. Considering that all those people were at the anti-Luke Cage rally like a day ago, that's a pretty quick turn around.

Like everyone else with a brain, I love Claire. I love that she is smart and brave and dedicated. Please, don't kill Claire. I love that she and Luke have been making eyes at each other. I love that she didn't hold a grudge against Misty. And I hope the place she is hiding out in has a masseur. Claire deserves a personal masseur.

Misty is another story. On top of finding out that her partner was dirty and watching him die in the street, she was shaken by Luke and what he is capable of. As a result her judgment has flip-flopped all over the place. I'm hopeful that her badassery in this episode is a return to form and not more waffling, but we will see.

Diamondback told Zip that he values loyalty and he's obviously got a thing for power. Is he trying to make up for the fact that his mother had no power over her life and his father wasn't loyal to her?

As far as setting us up for the finale, this was very very good. All the players got good character work and I am excited to see where this goes.

3.5 out of 4 pimp stormtroopers

Merry Christmases

I love Bobby Fish. Bobby Fischer is a pretty famous chess player. I didn't catch that before.

Shades' real name is Hernan Alvarez.

Luke literally walked around in camouflage for most of this episode.

'The hole-y hero' newscast made me laugh out loud. And people stealing Luke's signature look to show solidarity was lovely.

Romeo was mentioned twice. Do we know who that is? Zip's father? Mentor? Friend?

As sick as it may be, I get a deep satisfaction watching smug characters get put in their places. In Turk's case, he went from playing it cool and lying to Luke to screaming the truth in a dumpster. And Zip went from gleefully garroting Shades to trembling on his knees.

Officer: "Triple cuff him."

Turk: "I'm doing business with him, yes. But I ain't his boy. And I definitely ain't his bitch."
Zip turned around and said that Turk didn't know what he was talking about. Half a second later, Diamondback addressed Zip as 'my boy.' Always listen to your elders. They've been where you are. They know the things. #LifeLesson

Method Man: "It's you, isn't it?"
Luke: "No. It's you."

Method Man: "There is something powerful about seeing a black man that's bulletproof and unafraid."

Fish: "What the hell? What kind of Jean Paul Gaultier shit is this? What are you, a pimp stormtrooper?"

9 comments:

  1. This one was an improvement. Loved the robbery, the radio station stuff, and the dumpster. :) I particularly liked the way Misty warned Luke about the bullets without giving away that she was helping him.

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  2. It wasn't until this episode and his life was in peril that i realized Shades was my favorite character.
    Particulalry liked the exchange with Method man and the following radio station/freestyle.

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  3. And we go back to the "bad" territory.

    You know, just before this episode started, I was wondering, how could it go wrong. I mean, it's not even the last episode, I knew they won't just get together and sing Kumbaya. Cudos to writers: they found the way to make it all go wrong. By having Luke escape.

    I mean, imagine what would happen if he didn't. First group of hostages already told the cops Luke was the target, not the shooter. Second group would immediately tell them Luke helped them escape. Misty would swear Luke saved her life, repeatedly. He would emerge as a real hero! OK, maybe they would hold him for a while on suspicion of murdering Cottonmouth, but is it such a big deal? Misty already figured out he's innocent, and it's her case. And Candice would probably tell the truth in no time. Meanwhile, cops would be free to chase Diamondback, and, even if they don't catch him, he would surely have lots of problems on his hands.

    But of course, Luke had to escape. Bravo.

    OK, moving on from bad stuff to other bad stuff. Why the hell Diamondback bailed out Shades? It must've been a ton of money. It would be easy, reliable, and cheap to have him killed in prison. And of course, he escaped.

    And what about Turk? Tell me: who is MORE responsible for Pop's — and Rico's — death, Turk or Cottonmouth? Stokes, despicable as he is, never wished any harm to Pop, and punished the one responsible himself. He was ready to make a deal with Pop. Turk was the one who ratted Rico out. But no, Cottonmouth is given hell, while Turk gets a slap on the wrist.

    After the previous episode turned out quite good, this was a serious disappointment.

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  4. Hi everyone!

    Programming note: I'm reviewing the last episode of Luke Cage. However, I've had serious problems with my internet for the past two weeks, so I'm still catching up on the show. The review of the season finale will post on Sunday.

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  5. I don't know about "bad." The problem is if Luke didn't escape, he runs the risk of being killed by corrupt policemen potentially in Mariah or Cottonmouth's pockets. Misty's partner was only one of several, and Luke has no guarantee of safety at the station in any measure until Misty is there.

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  6. Hm. Killing Luke is very hard even with Judas bullets, and, if he doesn't feel safe, he can walk from PS at any time, regardless of whether he is locked up or not.

    Also, they just found out who of the police officers is (was) in Cottonmouth's pocket, so, it's much safer that it used to be.

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  7. Holey hoodies = 'I am Spartacus'.

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  8. migmit, a cop beat up a minor who may have had information relating to Luke Cage. Do you realized how fired he'll be? So I wouldn't put it past even a non-dirty cop to execute Luke and say he was trying to run. It was in the interest of his life to make a run for it. Plus what Misty was telling him was that the police weren't looking for the actual person who committed those crimes because they were convinces they found him so if he was out the investigation widened.

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  9. "There is something powerful about seeing a black man that's bulletproof and unafraid."

    I loved this line. I loved how this episode tackled the issue of black men being shot just because. I loved this episode. To be more accurate, I loved it sans the Diamondback parts.

    Diamondback is such a lame villain. I think I liked Adam from Buffy more and that is saying a lot because Adam was very dull. Stryker is so dumb that everyone turned against him, and the ones who didn't are dead. The fact that now he only has a suit in his favor speaks a lot about his smarts. It's not just the writing, though, the actor is not making me care about this guy one bit.

    I agree that Mariah is a great villain. She is a delicious character to watch and her development this season has been top notch. And it took a while for me to like him, but I also enjoy Shades now. His relationship with Mariah is great, I liked that he took the step to make it a true partnership instead of something based on blackmail. That duo joining Luke was such a fun twist and Misty's entrance only made the final scene better.

    I didn't mind Luke running away from the police. He is not one to let others solve his problems for him, and he definitely doesn't trust the cops.

    And people stealing Luke's signature look to show solidarity was lovely.

    Yes. Great text and subtext there. And great review, Laure.

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