Viewer Log: Luke Cage ep 9

When we last left Luke, he was informed that a childhood friend turned enemy is actually his brother, and was then shot for the second time by said brother… I feel like I should say, Scott, Matthew, my brothers, I am so very glad that neither of you is likely to shoot me. At least… I think. Back on task. Luke escaped the deranged Willis aka Diamondback by falling into the back of a garbage truck.

While Luke does his best to avoid getting tetanus, Shades reopens Harlem’s Paradise. He’s riding high after taking Cottonmouth’s club, which doesn’t last when Diamondback stops by. Willis isn’t happy that he lost Luke, and that their goons couldn’t pick up the trail. He murders one of the lesser goons in frustration. And then chastises Shades, for thinking he could just waltz in and take Cottonmouth’s spot. Apparently, Willis doesn’t want his new top henchman thinking that killing his former top henchmen will go unnoticed. Zip distracts Diamondback with an update on Luke, probably saving Shades’ life.

Yeah, Luke vs Drill, Luke wins.
Even when he doesn't want to.

Luke escapes the dump truck, gets a change of clothes and limps away. A news segment reveals that the cops are looking for him.  So not a great continuation to a sucky day.

We then get a very interesting scene with Mariah and Cottonmouth’s corpse. She kisses the top of his shroud and gives us a little more of their background. Apparently, Cornell’s father was a druggy that OD and his mother ran off a short time later. They’ve been rather vague about the age difference between Mariah and Cornell, but she was old enough to remember baby Cornell being dropped off, and that she was his primary caregiver. Growing up, she called him Mo. Cornell assumed that this was a weird shortening of Cottonmouth. So obviously wasn’t a huge fan of that one. In actuality, she was shortening it from Moses. As he was her abandoned little prince. Which is pretty darn sweet. She admits that she did everything to protect Cornell, but in the end, she couldn’t save him from their family’s bad business. How sad. Shades arrives, breaking her silent reflection, and tries to convince Mariah to help him transition into being the new local crime boss.

Luke’s luck lapses, and a couple of curious cops corner him. They try to bring him in, but unfortunately for them, Luke is still about 90% bulletproof, so it doesn’t really end well for them. Why would you ever try to take on a man with documented super strength with just two people? That plan was doomed to fail from the start.

Mariah goes to Domingo and sets up a meeting with Harlem’s top crime bosses. Luke meets up with Claire. They agree that his only option right now is to get out of town. Claire had been researching Seagate Prison, and learned that the head doctor at the private prison was still alive. The dynamic duo tracks him down and makes him a deal. In exchange for Riva’s, Luke’s dearly departed wife’s, hard drive, the Doc uses his knowledge of Luke’s anatomy to fix the bullet holes.

It's hard to see these two together, knowing how
it'll all end.

Back with the bad guys, Mariah and Shades try to re-solidify their powerbase. Well, re-solidify Shades’ powerbase, Mariah is clearly trying to get out of the crime game. Unfortunately for them, Diamondback got wind of the powwow, and intervenes. The slippery serpent murders most of the assembled crime bosses, aside from Domingo, Mariah and Shades. He makes it clear he’s taking more or less direct control of Harlem, and these three will continue to work for him. Regardless of how they feel on the matter. Can’t argue with that logic… and live.

The Doc preps Luke for the procedure. While the flashdrive filled in a number of blanks in the Doc’s research, and that he has all the chemicals and tech needed to recreate the procedure, he doesn’t know how hot the solution needs to get to effect Luke. So, there’s going to be a fair amount of guess and check here. Also, if you’re wondering why the Doc’s home lab has all the equipment he needs… he stole it when his Seagate research was shut down. Pretty simple explanation. They try once, and fail, and then try again, and Luke’s heart stops. So… not a great day all around.

I think that this episode’s best scene was Mariah with Cottonmouth’s body. In only a handful of minutes we get all of the important notes of their history, and how much his death must be having on her. He was arguably the most important person in her life, and she ended it. Anger; uncontrollable, savage, and cruel, ended her the life that she held most precious. How very sad. With Luke’s story, it’s your typical “hero lost his powers and needs to reclaim them.” But with bullet holes. Said bullet holes do make fixing Luke and getting him back to 100% a little more pressing then mopey Peter Parker having to get them back in Spider-Man 2. Oh no, Mary Jane was kidnapped, again. Not the same as “I’m literally bleeding to death and my body makes it impossible for conventional medicine to help me,” now is it? So yeah, a pretty standard hero powers-lost story with a short but above average scene in it. Next time, either more Luke Cage or we’ll pause and try something a little different. We’ll see.

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Viewer Log: Luke Cage ep 8

So, where did we last leave Luke? Oh, right, he’d just been shot with the Judas bullet. These bullets are made from metal taken from the Chitari Invasion a few years back. Alien metals don’t follow the same rules as Earth metals, apparently. As such, they’re able to pierce Luke’s nearly impervious skin. And what’s worse, after breaking the skin, they burrow deeper and then explode. So, Luke is not only suffering from a pretty serious GSW but also a pretty serious case of internal bleeding. Not a great place for Mr. Cage to be, now is it? Let’s get to it.

First Cottonmouth, then Diamondback,
Luke may be up against the whole
Serpent Society next. Yes, that is a thing.

Luke and Claire are able to put some distance between themselves and the shooter, Diamondback, as the new adversary reloads. Claire is able to get an “off the books” ambulance and tries to rush Luke to a hospital. Luke isn’t a fan of the hospital idea, being that he’s a fugitive, and argues against it. While these two quarrel, Diamondback catches up to them and blows the ambulance away. Diamondback taunts the injured Cage as our hero is forced to limp away.

With the baddies, Mariah is still reeling from man-slaughtering her cousin. Shades does his best to walk her through how the investigation is going to go. Prepping her for the questions that will be asked, and how to set up the timeline of events to not incriminate herself, to start. At the same time, Misty arrives at the scene and starts visualizing the course of events. She gets a good amount of the details right, but also a few wrong, thanks to Shade’s altering of facts. We see some of what he did to make Cottonmouth’s death look like a beating from a superstrong man. He also creates a few ‘witnesses’ and has his goons plant evidence in Luke’s apartment.

Back with the good guys, Claire and Luke make it to a closed women’s clinic. They break in and Claire uses her medical skills to try to get the bullet out. Unfortunately, Luke’s nigh-unbreakable skin and sturdier then average muscles and organs makes it impossible for her to get any sort of instruments into him to pull the bullet out. Every attempt she makes just pushes it in deeper. Way to suddenly be more of a hindrance then a help for once, Superpowers.

Misty is continued to be given bad information, from the false witnesses and Cottonmouth’s former lawyer. I have no idea what his name is, so I’ll be calling him Mr. B. The B stands for Business, Bad Business. Mr. B helps keep Misty too off balance to get the info she needs from the witness. Despite this, she does notice a lot of inconsistencies. Chiefly, the waitress that is claiming to be Cottonmouth’s lover was originally too scared/intimidated to go into Cottonmouth’s private booth alone. Misty had witnessed this herself in the first episode, when the waitress asked Luke to escort her up when Cottonmouth ordered champagne. Misty wants to grill Mariah about the story, but her new chief is insistent that the follow Cage instead. What is with authority figures always assuming the obvious good guy vigilantes will change tactics and start murdering people? Instead of obvious bad people killing other obvious bad people?

At the clinic, Claire uses an ultrasound machine to determine where the bullet is and how far the fragments have gotten into Luke’s abdomen. It’s not looking good.  As time keeps passing, the fragments burrow deeper, causing more damage and becoming even more difficult to effectively remove. At around this same time, Misty call’s Luke’s phone and tries to get him to turn himself in. He’s obviously incapable and unwilling to do so, and hangs up. Unfortunately, for Luke, Misty had begun a trace on him and has gotten a general idea of his location. She heads out.

Why must brother's fight?

Shades, meanwhile, is consolidating his forces. While Zip and his crew try to make a clean break from Harlem’s Paradise and Cottonmouth’s former associates, Shades is insistent that they stay. He’s taking over, and they’ll work for him or die. Hard to argue with that logic. Which, for me, begs the question of how much of Cottonmouth's fall from grace and death were products of circumstance and how much was indirect manipulation on Shades' part. Something to think about moving forward, if nothing else.

Misty catches up with Luke and Claire at the clinic, mere minutes ahead of Diamondback. He fires a few Judas rounds into the clinic walls, trying to finish off Luke. When that doesn’t work, he breaks into the clinic to fight. He and Luke throw down, but the slippery serpent strikes our hero’s severe sores to get the upper hand. Luke freezes up when he sees Diamondback’s face. If Diamondback’s obvious personal hatred wasn’t enough, then the freezing up makes it pretty obvious that they know each other. Diamondback knocks Luke down again and makes a break for it. Misty chases after him, but gets caught. Diamondback takes out Misty, knocking her unconscious, and leads Luke on a chase through Harlem. They meet up at a movie theater. It’s revealed that Diamondback is Willis Styker, a former friend from when Luke Cage was still Carl Lucas. He is passionate, downright biblical in his lust for vengeance against Luke Cage.  He also reveals that he was the one behind Luke’s imprisonment and most of the troubles he had a Seagate. Pretty much everything except the murder of Riva, which is still squarely on the shoulders of Kilgrave and a mind controlled Jessica Jones. They throw down some more. Luke, while injured, proves stronger and sends Diamondback flying.

Claire is taken into police custody and interrogated by Misty. Both are steadfast in their beliefs, Claire in that Luke is a force for good, and Misty in that a vigilante needs to be stopped before anyone gets hurt. They butt heads until Claire is allowed to leave.

Big things, small packages.

With the bad guys, its revealed that Mariah paid off the waitress to make her lie about Luke. Knowing that this girl will most likely have a crisis of consciousness and reveal her lies, she makes plans to execute the waitress if that occurs. She’s visibly chilled when she realizes that this is exactly what her dear Mama Mabel would do.

Luke catches up with Diamondback. Luke, tired, hurt emotionally and physically, and bleeding out, tries to apologize for whatever he did to hurt Stryker. He claims that Stryker was like a brother to him. Diamondback callously throws back “[Negro] I am your brother,” and shoots him with another Judas. Luke pitches backward and into a garbage truck. Can a superhuman get Tetanus?

This is an interesting introduction to our new antagonist. Diamondback is much more… upfront in his motivations then Cottonmouth was. And, while I think I prefer Cottonmouth’s evil class to Diamondback’s evil bluntness, they do give him plenty to say. Lot of memorable quotes from this guy. “I gave you wings. I sent you to hell, and you came back with superpowers. Ain’t that a bitch?” is one of my favorites. Seeing the unstoppable Power Man being put through the ringer with two bullet wounds was also an interesting change. One of the best ways to get character development done quickly with these kind of guys is to strip them of their powers, after all. And, while once again Misty’s plot line isn’t as interesting, it is intriguing to see her get pushed against the wall by the very rules of law she wants to protect. Another simple but effective means of character development, put their beliefs to the test. So yeah, solid episode. I do find it interesting that, while the Judas Bullets cost was apparently enough to make wealthy criminals like Cottonmouth pause, Diamondback uses them like you could buy them from any street vender. Either Diamondback is an even more wealthy arms dealer then was implied, or he is at the level of hatred for Luke that killing him is worth any price. Next time, part 9. 

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Review: Doctor Strange

The Sorcerer Supreme has made his way onto the big screen and it is a heck of an entrance. The film is visually stunning, funny, and just plain awesome. One note before we get started, there is a difference between sorcerers, wizards, warlocks, magicians, and mages, but I will be using the terms interchangeably. Why? Because they are all fun words to say. And writing sorcerer over and over again is just boring. I got to try and keep things linguistically lively, or I’ll go insane. Well… more insane. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Very, very, very trippy visuals.

The movie opens in Nepal, in the sacred site of sorcerers, Kamar-Taj in the dead of night. A group of people in cloaks march into an ancient looking library. Given the residence of this location, this probably isn’t too out of the ordinary. The group almost immediately attack the librarian, summoning energy whips to hold him in place, and the group’s leader, Kaecilius, decapitates him. That’s probably not normal. The evil wizards steal a few pages out of an old grimoire and make a run for it. Another hooded figure arrives, the current Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One. She, yes I’ll get to the gender-ethnicity change later, chases down her former pupils after they try to escape to New York. Using crazy time bending magic, she stops several of them, but Kaecilius and a few followers escape through a portal in space/time. Frustrated by this, the Ancient One wanders off into a crowd.

We then jump to our protagonist, Dr. Stephen Strange. He’s an incredibly gifted but arrogant neurosurgeon. In his first few minutes of screen time he performs two surgeries, one of which was removing a bullet from a guy’s brain. He also does his best to humiliate a fellow surgeon, who pronounced bullet-in-brain guy dead prematurely. Stephen attempts to rekindle things with his ex, Christine Palmer. It doesn’t go super well. Stephen then goes stag to a surgeon’s lecture, which turns out to be a very bad idea. While driving to the lecture, Stephen gets a call from his assistance. The assistant pitches several cases for him to try out, one of which is a veiled reference to Rhodey, but finally trips Stephen’s trigger with a case of a gal with an electrical implant who was struck by lightning. Stephen, looks at the chart while driving, which causes him to get into a horrible car accident. Like, top 10 worst crashes I’ve ever seen in a movie bad. He awakens a few days later, his body blackened and bruise, and his hands horribly mangled. In case you didn’t know, steady, non-jacked up hands are kind of important in brain surgery. Stephen spends nearly every penny that he has with experimental surgeries to get his hands back to normal. None of which work. Christine tries to convince Stephen to let go and move on, but Stephen won’t listen.

While in physical therapy, Stephen is told of a guy named Jonathon Pangborn. Pangborn was in an accident that left him a paraplegic, but somehow recovered despite the extreme nerve damage he suffered. Pangborn told Stephen about Kamar-Taj. Stephen, desperate and out of options, spends the last of his funds on a one-way ticket to Nepal. Once there, he spends days searching for Kamar-Taj but everyone he speaks to just gives him weird looks. Probably should have brought the Nepali Bhasa phrase book, just saying. After being mugged by some locals, Stephen is saved by Mordo, a student of the Ancient One. He saves Stephen, and brings him to the Ancient One. Stephen mouth offs to both Mordo and then the Ancient One. She doesn’t take kindly to the mouthing off, and shows off some of her power. She forces Stephen into the Astral Plane, and then sends him flying across the multiverse. He gets a peak at creation, and the face of Dormammu, bringer of darkness and death. And, after showing him all the wonders of the multiverse, kicks him out. Why? Because he reminds her of Kaecilius. It’s the arrogance. But, Mordo pleads Stephen’s case, and Stephen’s five hours of hammering on the door, convinces her to relent.   

Hobo Strange in Nepal.

Stephen is trained in the practical application of magic by the Ancient One and Mordo, and in mystic theory by the new librarian, Wong. Stephen proves to be a prodigy at magic, quickly mastering powers in a matter of weeks. In his studies, Stephen learns that Earth is protected from sinister sorcerous schemes by a supremely superb shield. Said shield is skillfully synthesized by the special sanctums found in special cities, specifically New York, London and Hong Kong. Side note, Alliteration like a BOSS. Around the same time, Kaecilius and his cohorts use the pages they stole to contact Dormammu, forming a bond with their new master. Stephen continues his education, even going so far as to “borrow” the ancient Eye of Agamotto and using it’s time bending powers to have a look at the pages that Kaecilius stole. Mordo and Wong stop him from experimenting too much, as bending time is one of the biggest magical no-no’s.

While they’re giving Stephen the lecture about time bending, Kaecilius and his minions attack the Sanctum in London, destroying it. The three Sanctums are connected to Kamar-Taj via transdimensional doorways, so when Kaecilius and co attacked London, it sent a shockwave through the portal into Kamar-Taj. Said shockwave blasts Stephen out of Kamar-Taj into the New York Sanctum. How convenient. Kaecilius and his minions then attack the New York Sanctum. Again, convenient. Stephen is able to hold them off, partially thanks to his new best friend, the Cloak of Levitation. I’m going to call him Cloakie. Stephen and Cloakie keep the baddies at bay, and even captures Kaecilius in a weird trap. Kaecilius tries to get Stephen to turn on the Ancient One, claiming that she uses magic for her own benefit. While Kaecilius distracts Stephen, one of the zealots stabs him in the back. While bleeding profusely, Stephen is able to make a portal to escape, taking him to the hospital that Christine worked at. Cloakie stays behind to beat the heck out of an evil warlock. Christine, while freaked out, does her best to patch him up, while Stephen and the evil magician fight on the astral plane. Stephen overpowers the warlock, obliterating his SOUL. That’s dark, Stephen, real dark. He does his best to explain the situation to Christine after she patches him up. The astral projection, soul fighting, Cloakie, and open rip in space/time help sell the story. He departs through the portal.

On the other side, he meets Mordo and the Ancient One. She tries to promote Stephen to the rank of master and put him in charge of New York’s Sanctum, but he’s had just about enough today. He confronts her about Kaecilius’s claims that she’s abusing her powers. Specifically, that she is drawing power from the Dark Dimension to make herself immortal. She storms off, and Mordo angrily berates Stephen for not trusting in the Ancient One. Mordo thinks that Stephen isn’t brave enough to fight to kill, and Stephen claims that Mordo is too ready to fight and kill for the Ancient One. Their disagreement is interrupted by another attack by Kaecilius and co. Mordo runs in to fight, while Stephen instead tries to trap. Mages can take others into the “Mirror Dimension,” a world tied to but separate from the real one. Which was really, really stupid, as the power boost Kaecilius is getting from Dormammu makes the MORE powerful in the Mirror Dimension. They are chased across a crazy bendy New York, in an amazingly done chase sequence, just barely escaping their pursuers. The Ancient One steps in to save their butts, revealing that she is, in fact, drawing power from the Dark Dimension. She fights off most of Kaecilius’s men, but is mortally wounded in the battle.

A sorcerer beset by his own demons.

Stephen takes the old sorceress to Christine. She does her best, but the Ancient One has only moments. The Ancient One astral projects, and Stephen follows. The Ancient One asks Stephen for forgiveness, and tries to encourage him to do the whole save the world thing. Stephen is hesitant, but agrees. He grabs Cloakie, Mordo and the two travel to the Hong Kong Sanctum to stop the end of days.

The Good first. This movie is visually stunning. From the magically summoned weapons, to the Stephen’s mangled hands, to the Mirror Dimension, to the crazy matter bending, to Dormammu’s oversized head, all of the effects are amazing. Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing as Stephen Strange. He’s his usual jerky but charming self, I could totally believe him as the super doctor that was struck down by his own hubris. Chiwetel Ejiofor is great as Karl Mordo. He’s a very ridged man, steadfast in his belief in the Ancient One and in the power of magic. Which, is what eventually leads him to his fall from grace. Yeah, spoiler alert, but Mordo becomes a baddy. Goes by Baron Mordo, and is a raging psychopath in the comics. Weird to see a version that I like. Both Cumberbatch and Ejiofor have great speeches in this. Powerful, and moving. Benedict Wong play Wong, the head librarian at Kamar-Taj, trainer of Stephen Strange and overall badass. I was actually a little surprised to see him in this, since in the comics he’s Stephen’s… man-servant. Uh… he was originally written 60s. That is literally the only excuse I can make. This Wong is a bit of a curmudgeon, but still fun to watch.

   

A very different look, but not a bad one by any stretch of the
imagination.

Let’s talk about Tilda Swinton. I’m not going to get into a long rant about changing the Ancient One’s race and gender, whether it was good, bad, racist, sexist or white washing. That is for people more intelligent, more informed, or more interested in the subject. I will say, Tilda Swinton is great in this role. She’s incredibly wise, controlled, with a very commanding presence, which are three major requirements for the Ancient One. I loved just about every scene she was in, particularly when she was battling Kaecilius, when they were bending all of New York to fight. Awesome.

Now, onto the bad. Kaecilius isn’t the best villain. They try to give him a tragic backstory and reasoning for his evilness, but he just feels really one dimensional. Just because you go with the "dead loved ones" backstory doesn't turn a Jafar (Aladdin) into an Iago (Othello). You need to work to make a character complex, there is no shorthand for it.I also find it incredibly hard to believe that any rational human being would take the word of a literal demon that lives in the Dark Dimension at face value. That’s just stupid. And, while we’re told that Stephen is arrogant on a number of occasions, there is really only one or two instances that I can think of where he was shown to be that. It’s characterization via words, not actions, which isn’t the best idea. The movie also hits most of the cliché’s pretty hard. Student A turns on Master. Student B arrives, is pretty similar to Student A. Master refuses to train Student B because of similarities Student A, but relents. Intense training that would probably kill him, but works because reasons. Basic, straightforward, and generic.

Overall, I’ll give it an A-. It’s great. Really great. I’d say that it and Captain America: Civil War tie for second place in the best Superhero movie of 2016. Great effects, great cast, great movie. There are a few weaker elements to it, but doesn’t really drag it down too much. I say see it if you love the Marvel movies, or just want to see what all the fuss is about. You will not be disappointed. Next time, back to Luke Cage. He’s on the run, with a hole in his stomach and a whole new snake chasing him. 

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Viewer Log: Luke Cage ep 7

Ready for a villain flashback? It doesn’t matter if you are, that’s what we’re getting. Don’t worry, these are still pretty good. But, these had better be the last flashbacks for a while. Flashbacks are like explosions, used well, they’re awesome, overused and this turns into a Michael Bay film. And nobody wants that that. Well, nobody that matters. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Fit him with some adamantium fangs, and we've got
ourselves a supervillain.

If Luke Cage thought that things would calm down the second that he had Cottonmouth arrested, he was very sadly mistaken. The next day he had to scare off Cottonmouth’s #2 Zip while trying to sell the Hammer Tech guns. Zip is under the impression that while his boss is down, he’s far from out. And sadly, he’s pretty much spot on.

At the police station, Cottonmouth is represented by the same lawyer that works for Wilson Fisk. I wonder if this guy specifically sells his services to rich criminals? Probably, but we’ll wait to say it definitely until Iron Fist’s show. If this lawyer reps Danny’s baddy, then yes, yes he does. Using his evil lawyer powers, he gets Cottonmouth released. Claiming that the evidence was too circumstantial or some such nonsense. This, unfortunately, works, and Luke is forced to fume as Cottonmouth struts out of the precinct. At Harlem’s Paradise, Cottonmouth acts like he’s walking on air. Imagine how angry he gets when Shades still refuses to get him the Judas bullets. He claims that there’s too much heat on Cottonmouth right now, and he’ll recommend Diamondback get him the Judas bullets after things have calmed down. In response, Cottonmouth demands a meeting with Diamondback, to which Shades agrees to set up. A day or so later, Cottonmouth calls Luke for a parley. Luke, still fuming, does agree.

Meanwhile, Mariah is having career problems. Obviously, Cottonmouth’s recent troubles have reflected poorly on her. A Colleague arrives at her home and basically tells her to step down from her position on the city council and he’ll make sure things transition easy for her. She, obviously refuses. Just before the parley, Cottonmouth plays the piano and reminisces about his childhood. He grew up with Mariah, raised by their Grandmother “Mama” Mabel, and their paternal Great-Uncle Peter. In their youth, a teenage Cornell Stokes dreams of being a musician. This dream is fostered by his Uncle Peter, but stifled by Mama Mabel. She’s got a criminal empire to run, she doesn’t have time for musical aspirations. She forces Cornell to help Peter dispose of a goon that violated their rules. Apparently, Mama Mabel deals in a LOT of criminal enterprises, but she never ever condoned selling drugs in her territory. Even crooks have principles, I guess. Cottonmouth’s flashback ends when Luke walks in. Luke remarks that “Even though I hate your #$%, I’ve got to admit you’ve got talent,” as he heard the ending of Cottonmouth’s piano playing. Once the parley commences, Cottonmouth gives Luke an ultimatum. Luke starts working for Cottonmouth, doing when he says, when he says it, or he’ll reveal that Luke Cage = Carl Lucas. He lets Luke leave to think things over.

Luke tries to run, to protect himself from Cottonmouth’s retaliation, but Claire convinces him to stay and fight the good fight. Cottonmouth and Shades meet up. Shades is rather upset that Cottonmouth revealed he knew Luke’s secret. Apparently, Diamondback wanted to keep this a secret for a little while longer. We get another flashback to Cottonmouth’s childhood. Mama Mabel is quite upset her grandson missed an appointment to protect one of her other goons. Her anger is somewhat abated, or perhaps redirected, when Cornel reveals he and Uncle Peter were at a music audition for him, and then Spanish Harlem. Mama Mable is quite displeased to learn her Brother-in-law is dealing with their biggest rivals, but thanks Cornell for being honest.

Finding beauty in broken places.

Luke, starts targeting Cottonmouth’s allies, since he can’t attack him directly. For now. He tracks down Domingo, and shows his displeasure at their illegal dealings. The police start looking into Luke, at their new polices chief’s insistence. A forensic guy notices that Luke’s too clean, as in, other than a driver’s license and social security number, he doesn’t exist. No email, no social networking page. It’s just too weird to be normal. Back with Mariah, she officially loses her spot on the City Council. There’s a pretty great scene of how she reacts to it, she’s visibly shaken by losing everything.

Another flashback, with Mama Mabel and Peter. We learn that they have some pretty weird history. They used to “date” before Mabel moved on to Peter’s brother. So weird. She confronts Peter about the Puerto Ricans and Spanish Harlem. He admits he was working with them, trying to set up a deal to expand outside of Harlem. Mabel isn’t interested, claiming “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.” Mabel forces Cornell to be the one to take him outback and shoot him. It’s also revealed that Peter was abusing Mariah. So yeah, Mama Mabel’s house was a pretty messed up place.

Mariah meets with Cottonmouth at Harlem’s Paradise. She begs him to drop the Luke Cage vendetta once and for all. This causes things to boil over. Cottonmouth explodes, releasing I’m assuming decades of repressed anger at Mariah, who got to liver her dream while he was forced to be Mama Mabel’s successor. He does the absolute worse thing imaginable and claims that Mariah “wanted” Uncle Peter’s abuse. She snaps, defenestrates Cottonmouth, and then beats him with a mike stand. All the while screaming “I never wanted it!”

Is your Grandma so intimidating that she can make you
                 kill a man?

Shades walks in, and praises Mariah for killing her cousin. Apparently, he’d been planning for this, and is now going to sets it up to look like Luke Cage was the murderer. Given what we later learn about Mariah’s relationship with her cousin, this isn’t the best thing to hear.

Luke drops off the Hammer Tech guns with Misty, where they argue the ethics of vigilantism. A short time later, Misty gets called about Cottonmouth’s death.  At the same time, Luke and Claire go on an evening walk and bond. Luke reveals that his father is still alive, but doesn’t know Luke is alive. Before we can delve deeper into this, a mysterious gunman hits Luke with a Judas bullet. He starts bleeding, and the bullet explodes.

This was a very strange episode to process. While I knew that Cottonmouth would be dealt with, I assumed that it’d be at the season finale. Cottonmouth has been almost another main character throughout Luke Cage’s run, so seeing him axed off in episode 7 is pretty nuts. I assume that this is to make room for Diamondback, but again, I thought we weren’t going to see him officially until season 2. At least he starts out with a bang. Yes, Diamondback is the shooter. The background with Mariah and Cottonmouth’s past is very interesting, I am one of those guys that is always interested in seeing how villains are shaped, so seeing how the despicable duo got their start is interesting. Physically, emotionally, and mentally abusive paternal figures usually lead to pretty awful people too. It’s a very chicken/egg situation. That being said, I think that they went a little overboard with Mariah’s freak out. Granted, I have never (to my knowledge) had a long conversation with an abuse victim about said abuse. That being said, I do know that the phrase “you wanted it,” should never never never never never come out of one’s mouth during that conversation. But, since they seemed to be going with a crime of passion explanation, they let the rage go on a little too long. I could see someone flipping out and pushing someone out a window. I could see someone flipping out and beating someone to death. I can’t see someone flipping out, pushing someone out a window and then beating them to, while still being on the initial rage buzz. Just saying. So, in summation, an interesting episode, Cottonmouth’s departure was abrupt and early, but good insight into the baddies. Next time, we’re taking a quick break from Luke Cage and having a look at Dr. Strange. It’s gonna be cool!

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