Luke Cage S02E04 Review: Bushmaster Backflip

Marvel's Luke Cage, Season 2, Episode 4: I Get Physical 

This episode isn't quite as strong as the previous entries. Last episode ended in a huge emotional confrontation which led to a pretty damn awesome cliffhanger. And the follow-up is pretty neat as Bushmaster actually shows off that he's not just some nameless crime boss in town, but actually straight-up does a badass backflip kick to lay Luke Cage down on his ass straight in front of everyone -- even Luke's self-appointed chronicler, recurring character D.W. And a not insignificant portion of this episode is spent showing the reaction people have to Luke getting laid down on his ass by Bushmaster, the new badass in town. And the delusion that Luke has had about him being invulnerable has been utterly shattered.

And this episode sort of drives it home -- it's kinda sorta meant to be like a dark mirror to the first episode in a message of "popularity is fleeting" sort of way. Luke's biggest fan DW sells DVD's of Luke getting his ass laid down by the Bushmaster. Claire ends up moving out, leaving her apartment and not picking up his calls -- even if Luke wants some actual medical aid instead of "coffee" this time around. It's a bit unfortunate, of course, but at the same time it also builds up to the sheer life-shattering situation Luke's found himself in. Hell, even the random civilians seen here (Claire's land-lady and the random dude that serves Luke at the end of the episode) are noticeably colder to Luke compared to everyone else in the first couple of episodes. And even the people that don't desert Luke completely -- like good old Bobby Fish -- are taken away from him. 

In Bobby's case, he has to go to San Diego because his daughter has a kidney problem and he's the only donor available... and I so hope this isn't a "kill the nice old man" situation. Bobby's great and that whole speech about him feeling like a hero is a great tearjerker moment. Honestly, that scene is genuinely pretty powerful, with two very great actors playing off each other well. 

Meanwhile, Misty Knight, seeing that no one at work is really going to give her any sort of meaningful help and is either too intent on leaving Luke Cage's assault unmolested out of spite, or telling Misty to piss off out of spite. Misty ends up helping Luke out in her own "support the vigilante... legally" way, eventually leading to the two of them stumbling upon Nigel's bloody headless corpse. We also have the rather awkward and honestly too-soon scenes of Luke implying that he wants to crash in Misty's home, with a rather subtle undertext of finding a quick rebound. Thankfully Luke doesn't push it and Misty tells Luke to get his bag out of her car so he does't have an excuse to come by tonight. 

Misty, meanwhile, ends up getting a robotic Winter Soldier esque arm from Danny Rand! Danny does something right, yay! She also gets a rather intro-dumpy scene where she interrogates one of Bushmaster's old gang buddies (who I don't think is a character we've seen before) who tells Misty of Bushmaster's motivations, about the man on top of the hill and the man living at the bottom of the hill. Clearly, Bushmaster sees Mariah Stokes as the woman on top of the hill, and wants to come up and take what is his. 

Luke ends up finding some sort of healing-slash-solace from Tilda, which... does everyone just happen to walk into Tilda's herb shop? The scene was done well, and there's certainly chemistry between the characters, but I really felt that this was a bit of a contrived coincidence. Also a coincidence -- Tilda randomly figuring out the weird ritual that Bushmaster was doing with the herbs he bought. Unless there's far, far more to Tilda than we initially expected? 

Meanwhile, after the beatdown he delivers to Luke Cage, Bushmaster's big scene in this episode has him come face-to-face with Mariah, and the confrontation was... not quite friendly. It doesn't end with anyone punched in the face, but Bushmsater makes it clear that he's apparently the descendant of a family that constructed Harlem (or the Harlem's Paradise club, anyway) but apparently his ancestors were denied their fair share or something along those lines? Not the most complex of motivations and barely explains Bushmaster's obsession with his birthright... but sufficient enough to whet our appetite at this fourth episode, I suppose. Bushmaster's enjoying an increased amount of popularity at the Jamaican restaurant Gwen's, with some great bonding scenes with his uncle and aunt. 

It's a bit of a shame, then, to see Mariah sort of self-destructing. The parallel with Luke's own story, again, is present. She ends up alienating everyone around her who tries to give her advice. It's hard to be sympathetic to her when she keeps dismissing poor, poor Comanche as a thug throughout the first couple of episodes. It's somewhat forgiveable, I suppose, when Comanche was just speaking out of turn, but this episode has Comanche come to Mariah and talking to her about how you must understand scams and that Mariah's being scammed by Piranha Jones, she just straight-up refuses to listen to Comanche and ends up causing him to abandon his post in the climax of the episode. Bushmaster, thankfully, didn't come with the figurative machete to cut off Mariah's head, but who can blame Comanche for deserting Mariah?

And then we get the revelation that Comanche was actually working for the police as an informant, adding a whole new wrinkle to the Comanche/Shades dynamic.

Shades himself, meanwhile, also finds himself alienated by Mariah. Perhaps not quite as much as Comanche or Bushmaster (there's really no reason for Mariah to be an ass to Bushmaster), but she's way too eager to just mollify and control Shades with promises of how she's in control and sensual favours. The problem is, just like Claire Temple, Shades isn't a dumb person and is an independent person in his own right. Shades hasn't quite made his move just yet, content to sit back and observe Bushmaster as he goes back to his restaurant, but it's definitely interesting to see how this plays out.