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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