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Luke Cage: Suckas Need Bodyguards

"Yeah, I'd rather be a smart ass than a dumb ass."

Me too, Misty. Me too.
We spent a lot of time looking at characters for who they really are and comparing it to who they think they are.

Cottonmouth is a dumb ass that really thought he was smart. Luke Cage is a hero that desperately wants to be just like everyone else. Scarfe is a good guy working with the bad guys. Does anyone have a healthy view of themself?

I could go on and on. Councilwoman Dillard sees herself as a savior of Harlem. She thinks Harlem's populace should bow down and be grateful to her. Never mind that she's in bed with the very man that takes a percentage of the money in their pockets and puts bullets in their persons.

Cottonmouth reminds me of Wile E. Coyote. No matter how hard he tries to take Luke out, the anvil boomerangs back down on his head. Of course that makes Luke Cage the roadrunner in this analogy. Meep, meep. Cottonmouth even used explosives. I wonder if ACME manufactured that rocket launcher.

Watching Mariah try to pep talk her cousin into getting creative with Luke's murder was almost enough to make me feel sorry for Cottonmouth. From what we've seen she is the only family he has and only showed him moral support after Luke's warning. Ouch. First Scarfe, the former lackey, tries to extort him and then his cousin tries to use him as an attack dog. Life is hard for a fallen king of Harlem, no?

Opening the episode with Trish Talk giving insights into how New York is reacting to the new superhero in town was great. I can't get enough of the callbacks to the previous strolls in the Marvel universe. Plus like everything else in life, people don't agree, which makes sense but I'm so used to seeing either the angry pitchforking mob or a passive mass that lets the hero save the day without comment. How the public perceives him is even more important than usual since Luke might be the first hero in history not to try to hide his identity. I know Jessica didn't either, but still she wasn't on the news. People passing her on the street usually didn't know what she was capable of. With Luke it is different and I've been wondering -- was it a writing choice made to differentiate Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, or does it say something about Luke? Like subconsciously he wants people to know that he is a good person that does good things for people. Maybe it's a lingering effect of getting wrongly convicted.

Oh Scarfe, we hardly knew ye. I hate that TPTB tried so hard to flesh his character out at the last possible minute. It was like a blinking neon sign that he wasn't going to make it through the episode. At least he got to apologize and say goodbye to his partner. That was kind of nice. I wish he didn't die, I wish we had gotten to know him a little sooner, I think he could've been a better character, but he is dead so I will just have to move on.

After Pops died, Luke set out to put Cottonmouth behind bars. Six episodes in and he's done. Already talking about moving away from Harlem and trying to blend into the background of somewhere else. I wonder how he will feel when he finds out that Cottonmouth and Miranda won't be prosecuted so aggressively, if at all? I bet it's not pretty for the men behind the glass making the decisions.

3 out of 4 hollow arrests

Sweet Christmases

Did Luke really have to break the door of Scarfe's apartment building and jeopardize the security of all the other tenants?

How cute is it that Claire's mom called her when she saw the chance for her daughter to follow her dreams. Even though it was dangerous, she still wants Claire to happy and fulfilled more than anything else. And cuter still that she showed up when Claire called for a ride for her new friends.

With Luke Cage, Daredevil and Jessica Jones all in such close proximity, is there really room for evil to lurk?

For whatever it's worth, every time I went to type the title of the episode, I wanted to type/thought 'suckas gonna suck.'

Loved watching Misty put the Perez puzzle together, figuring out his secret, getting him to confess on tape and making him handcuff himself. Girl after my own heart.

Trish Talk: "We are witnessing a massive shift in the boundaries of possibility. But what is scary to some, inspires hope in others."

Cottonmouth: "Never thought I'd be happy to see your ugly face."
Scarfe: "Well, we can't all be as pretty as you."

Luke: "New VH1 show? Criminal Spinsters?"
Mariah: "Who are you calling a spinster?"

Luke: "Bobby just bought these chairs. He's gonna be pissed."
No money in the jar, though.

Perez: "You should work for Kodak. That was deep."
Kodak like the film? Pictures aren't deep. You only see what's right on the surface. Am I missing the joke? I hate that.

Misty: "Scarfe cracks a lot of jokes but he rarely smiles. There's a difference."

Mami: "The van is one thing, if my daughter get's scratched, I'll kill you. I don't care how bullet proof you are."

5 comments:

  1. Mariah telling Luke she would ''wear his narrow ass out'' after he called her a spinster was the line of the episode..
    There is a truly unbalanced side beneath her visage that has shown itself more and more.

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  2. Anonymous, I was creeped out by Mariah this time. Especially when she was telling Cottonmouth about alternate ways to kill Luke. That made me want Luke to put on a mask and hide!

    Scarfe got to me, too, and you're absolutely right, Laure -- they crammed all of his relevant character development too close to his death.

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  3. Yeah, they've never really got me to care about Scarfe. It all went too fast. I did want him to survive though, for utilitarian reasons — good guys surely can use his testimony.

    Claire should just accept her destiny: every time she gets in a proximity of a superhero, someone gets hurt, and her assistance is required. Well, it looks like she already did.

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  4. I really liked the Trish Talk bit in this episode. I wondered, too, if her whole "those of us [in whatever neighborhood] are wishing you well" comment--which I completely misquoted--was a subtle shoutout from Jessica to Luke.

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  5. I loved the Trish Talk part, but it did highlight for me the question of why hasn't Phil Coulson or one of the other SHIELD agents shown up now that Luke is getting press?

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