There’s a special lesson in these
next two episodes. Plain and simple, our heroes and/or mentors aren’t always saints. One of the harshest lessons in life is that no matter how much
we idolize or model ourselves after the best parts of those we idolize, they are
still just as human as the rest of us. And people, sadly, have their demons. In this episode,
the poster child for this principle is Detective Scarfe, Misty Knights mentor
and confidant who is an outstanding cop but is as dirty as they come, and
Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes’s Uncle Peter is the poster child in the next
episode. More on him later. Let’s get to it.
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| We need to find a way to get Charlie Cox and Mike Colter to do a live action version of this. |
We open to Luke Cage jogging. He’s
listening to talk radio debate whether he’s a hero or menace. He and Spider-Man
should hang out. I mean, in the comics they already hang out, but they should
hang out here too. Just saying. They could bond over the Love/Hate relationship
they have with the NYC. He arrives at the home of Council Woman Mariah Dillard
and tells her in no uncertain terms he’s coming for them. Her, Cottonmouth,
their operations, and he’s going to tear it all down. Mariah puts on a confident
face but seems shaken by his direct declaration. Not surprising, when your
INVINCIBLE enemy stops by your house and promises to undo all you've worked for.
Elsewhere, Cottonmouth meets with Scarfe,
expecting to get his guns. Scarfe’s willing to part with the firearms, but refuses to give up the
guns unless Cottonmouth pays him $100,000 dollars. Rather… annoyed by this,
Cottonmouth punches him in the face, steals his gun and shoots Scarfe a half
dozen times. He drives off, some nearby construction workers had heard the noise, leaving Scarfe for dead. Obviously, cop getting
shot blows up rather quickly, especially when Scarfe’s body is nowhere to be
found. In no time, half of Harlem is out searching for Scarfe. At Harlem’s Paradise, Mariah arrives and berates her cousin for his…
overreaction to the Scarfe situation. She wants him to give up his fight with
Luke, give up Harlem's Paradise and run. For his own safety. But Cottonmouth refuses. I feel the need to quote one of Michael Clarke Duncan's good lines from that awful Daredevil movie a few years back, "They say too much pride can kill a man." Word to the wise, Cottonmouth. He tells Mariah that he needs to get the Judas to stop Luke. He thinks it’s the only way to
get around Luke's bulletproof skin. She counters by asking how Luke handles fire,
or water, or poison. Her mentality, ‘find his weakness and squeeze,’ reminds
Cottonmouth of their Grandmother “Mama” Mabel. She’s not pleased with the
comparison.
Back with Luke, he and Bobby Fish
are enjoying breakfast, just as Claire Temple enters the diner. She
reintroduces herself to Luke, and tries to see how he’s doing. Keep in mind,
last time she saw him, Luke had just barely survived a pretty severe
concussion. He tells her he’s fine and tries to run from her, but she follows.
Luke and Claire arrive at the Barber Shop and find Scarfe laid up in the
backroom. He’s bleeding badly and begs for Luke’s help. How on earth he
traveled however far to get into the back of the Barber shop with several
severe gunshot wounds, I’ll never know.
We hop over to Misty and the cops.
Her captain is adamant that they find Scarfe, as he’s one of theirs regardless
of the corruption allegations. The captain pairs Misty with Lieutenant Perez,
the other corrupt cop on
Cottonmouth’s payroll, and sets them on the case. I’m sure this will go well.
At the Barber Shop, Claire starts
working on Scarfe. The situation is far from ideal, but she’s able to stop the
bleeding a bit and get one or two of the bullets out. He’s pretty darn
desperate and trying everything he can to get Luke to protect him. Luke isn’t
interested, until Scarfe confesses two things. That he’s a bad man, that’s done
bad things, but he has proof Cottonmouth’s worse, and that he killed Chico.
Luke is initially furious at this, but Claire talks him out of strangling Scarfe.
After catching his breath, Scarfe tells Luke that he can find a journal of all
Scarfe’s Cottonmouth dealings at Scarfe’s apartment. Luke sneaks over, just
barely getting by Misty and Perez. He nabs the journal, but is forced to escape
out the window when Perez and Misty finally notice him. I’d say he got away, if
in this version of New York there was only currently one known guy who could
cause a crater in the sidewalk and walk away from it. Maybe they’ll think it’s
from Hulk’s last visit.
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| What if Justice puts out a restraining order? |
Luke, Claire, and Scarfe escape the
barber shop thanks to a van they borrow from Claire’s mother. They just barely
evade Misty and Perez. After finding the bullets Claire dug out of Scarfe, the
cops try to call in back up. Well, Misty does, Perez calls Cottonmouth. Knowing
what Scarfe might have on him, Cottonmouth puts a $100,000-dollar bounty on
Scarfe. Cottonmouth was able to find the guns, and get them to Domingo, so the
bounty isn’t total bull spit. Luke and co are chased by some goons looking to
get the bounty, but are able to give them the slip for a bit. They park in a
tight alley, next to a wall. Luke then smashes through the side of the van, and
the building next to it, to buy them some time.
Back with the cops, Perez is being none too subtle about trying to keep Misty from finding Scarfe. She, not being an idiot, turns things around on him and tricks Perez into confessing to being dirty. It was actually ridiculously easy. Like, my twelve-year-old nephew
could have thought of a more complicated plan. But it works, for reasons. She
cuffs Perez and then makes for the last known location of Luke and co. Luke,
meanwhile, beats up the various goons, and stops Claire and Scarfe from being
run over. Misty catches up with them, just in time to say goodbye to Scarfe,
who dies holding her hand.
Cottonmouth is arrested, Mariah’s
political career is in tatters because of that, and the barber shop is being
rebuilt. Luke believes that things are wrapping up, and he plans on moving on
once Cottonmouth is officially jailed. Little does he know that he has another
seven episodes to fill. We’re just getting started.
This episode feels a whole lot like
the fourth episode of Daredevil
season 2, “Penny and Dime.” Where, while we the audience knew things were far
from over, Matt Murdock and co. thought that all the problems in Hell’s Kitchen
were solved when they captured Frank Castle, aka The Punisher. Which is good
for a mid-season cliffhanger, make things feel nice and calm before things hit
the fan again, but with greater intensity. There is a downside in that most of the… characterization of Scarfe feels
a little forced. Like, we’re just now learning that Scarfe had a son that was
unfortunately killed when Scarfe left a gun lying around. Oh, and that’s he’s
an overall unhappy person, as shown because he often cracks jokes, but almost
never laughs. Would have been kind of nice to know a few episodes to go. Even
when it was revealed that he was a dirty cop it didn’t really give him much…
depth. He was a wisecracking senior officer, who also took bribes. Not a
Shakespearian level character there. I did like how Misty described how their
professional relationship began and evolved. As Misty put it, “He had [her]
front and [her] back,” when the rest of the department thought she was going to
wash out in a week. Explains why she put so much faith in him for so long, even
when the evidence started piling up. Not a smart way to operate, but that kind
of loyalty is pretty rare and worth mentioning. Overall, a solid middle. Next
time, episode 7, aka What a twist!
https://www.pinterest.com/ryanbailey1983/avengers/
http://wikicomics.ru/photo/posters/1820-misti-nayt.html
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