Oh we movin’ now.
Way back, during episode 2, I stated that everything you’d want to find in a gritty, modern blaxsploitation superhero was contained within that single, magnificent installment. Crime-based drama, social politics, snappy dialogue, sizable nods to black culture, great fuckin’ music – it was all there, as it took the way Netflix did the whole Marvel thing and progressed it somewhere new to sit alongside the corridor-fighting darkness of Daredevil and the psycho/thriller feminism of Jessica Jones. Since then, the show’s been a little all over the place, with the overall quality of the show taking a sizable dip once Mahershala Ali’s charismatic crime boss, Cottonmouth, was violently shown the door. All of it has been serviceable, but once again for a Netflix/Marvel jam, there really didn’t seem to be enough story here to comfortably fill the thirteen episodes ordered. However, during the last episode, the show finally dug its heels in and muscled it’s way out of its slump with style. With only two episodes left to go, can Luke Cage continue to go from strength to strength?
After Diamondback’s rather risky plan to mount a siege in Harlem’s Paradise and try to pin it on Luke Cage, the man formally known as Carl Lucas is currently in the hands of a very antsy police force. Triple cuffed and kept within range of those Judas bullet armed SWAT members, it seems that the hero’s half brother has finally got one over on him. However, after a coded lecture from Misty Knight clues him in to when the best time to make his escape is, Luke busts free of his many handcuffs and a paddywagon to once again go on the run. It’s here that Cage learns something rather extraordinary – from the beat cop who has him in his sights but decides to let him go – to rapper Method Man whom he saves during a store robbery, there are plenty people in Harlem who still belive in him despite the various smear campaigns and framings enacted by his enemies.
Speaking of whom, the three major players left on the bad-guy board all seem to be at odds with one another. After getting arrested at the club, Shades is cooling his heels at the station when his gargantuan bail is paid. Obviously that means Diamondback now regards him as a loose end. But after surviving a hit from the underlings of his former boss, he goes scurrying back to Mariah Dillard in order to continue grooming her to be a crime lord herself. She’ll have to tread carefully however, because a rapidly unhinged Stryker is making some big plays with some of the weapons tech he’s got to play with.
While Shades and Mariah use some vital information to dangle in front of Cage to get him to finally take out his crime boss brother, Diamondback decides to take out his various loose ends by the most comic book way imaginable: pull on a suit that makes him super strong and durable and attempt to beat everyone to death…
Where the hell was all this momentum when the show was brought to a dead stop by constant character injuries and sub-plots that had them all going around in circles? Once again, everything that you would hope you find in a modern, blaxsploitation, superhero property is all present and accounted for and better yet, the whole episodes moves, changes gears and makes it’s various points with a smooth confidence that has sorely been lacking for what seems an eternity. You want social commentary? The very fact that the episode begins with a black man fleeing from armed police equipped with bullets made specifically to kill him may not be the most subtle-made point in the world (some of the characters actually spell it out, surgically removing a lot of the “sub” from the subtext), but it was certainty the one the show was born to make. It also helps to make Cage finally seem vulnerable without having to lay his ass out for multiple episodes.
But while Cage goes on the run, he refuses to leave Harlem, finally cementing the “hero” part in Hero For Hire and it it seems that numerous other characters have suddenly regained their mojo too, as their story arcs rise like phoenixes out of nowhere. While Mike Colter runs for his life amid a hail of Judas bullets, Simone Missick’s Misty Knight suddenly explodes into life as if that bullet wound in the arm was filled with caffeine – or cocaine, or something. After literal episodes of simpering, whimpering and doing embarrassingly little other than getting held at gunpoint and getting the runaround by a portly psychologist, we now find Knight shrugging off her injury to try and play both sides – helping Luke while still trying to bring him in as save her career. Even bad guy outliers Maria and Shades each get meaty plot shifts that push them both in the direction their characters should have been going episodes ago.
But while a wealth of supporting characters finally get a sense of direction and purpose (there’s even a sizable return for returning Marvel/Netflix crook, Turk), the real achievement here is the return of that more grounded tone that drew in and exhaled black culture like a pair of socially conscious lungs. Again, subtlety may not be the order of the day when you include a subplot that sees Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man saved from a robbery and who then goes on a radio talk show and literally raps about his savior (it’s called “Bulletproof Love” and it’s awesome), but again, it’s restoring the fact that Harlem itself and it’s people are just as important a supporting character as anybody else and it’s damn good to have them back. Plus, it gives Method Man bragging rights over Ghostface Killah after his cameo in Iron Man hit the cutting room floor.
However, while the old vibes of the show have returned stronger than ever, still waving the flag for the more overtly comic book parts of the show is still William “Diamondback” Stryker who, after plenty of evil grins and violent plays for rival territory, finally goes full supervillain when he shows up at the end of the episode wearing a super suit. In some ways it’s the episodes only bum note, mainly because the show is trying to put a gritty riff on an admittedly ridiculous comic book costume (the man dresses like a damn snake) that doesn’t entirely come off. However, while I like a good climactic Marvel brawl as much as the next guy, I don’t know if the show can pull off such a showdown without things starting to look visibly hokey. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
I suppose that with this penultimate-episode return to form, Luke Cage has pulled off a late-stage comeback worthy of a superhero itself, but even as we revel in its glory, you can’t help but think how good (and consistent) the season could have been if it had been ten, or even eight episodes long.
While the chance of a quality finale is still very much up in the air (action hasn’t exactly been the show’s strong point), Luke Cage’s penultimate episode gives it some impressively secure footing to at least put up a defiant defence. But even if the final showdown bombs like nobody’s business, at least the show has given itself a chance to go down fighting. Just the way the people of Harlem like it.
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