Luke Cage, Season 2, Episode 10: The Main Ingredient
Huh. This episode's... really has an inconsistent tone throughout it, huh? On one hand, the team-up between Luke Cage and an amazingly-improved Iron Fist is easily the best part of the episode, and definitely one of the highlights of the season. It's light-hearted, fun, and gives Luke some much-needed character moments that isn't just about his daddy issues. On the other hand, in the very same episode we have Mariah
Danny "Iron Fist" Rand is a character I have not been shy about critiquing. But the Defenders and this particular guest spot really shows that the problem with Netflix's iteration of Danny Rand mostly really stems from the atrocious and horrible direction Iron Fist's first season went, and not Finn Jones himself. Removed from all the moronic and self-indulgent tendencies Danny ends up doing for a good chunk of Iron Fist, Danny here shows up as a genuine friend who helps Luke Cage not only to help hunt down Bushmaster's attempt to regrow the magic nightshade, but also to help him center himself. Sure, it's done with some vague talk of Tibetan medicine theory, but instead of sounding arrogant, Danny here sounds earnest in trying to help Luke center himself and get through his anger problems.
Sure, the pacing ends up being sort of ground to a halt because you'd really think that Luke would get Iron Fist to help him root out Bushmaster instead of just beating up the thugs guarding the Grow House (although that is a pretty dang badass scene, and I think this one action sequence is more pleasing than the entirety of Iron Fist), but hey, guest star episodes work by different rules. And Danny ends up learning something too -- don't shy away from actually using money to solve crime-fighting problems. We get a lot of fun scenes, like the two of them interacting with D.W. in the barbershop, or them confronting Mariah, or the scene near the statue overlooking the city... Danny's fun, and those aren't two words that I thought would ever use to refer to Netflix's version of the character.
We even get the once-a-season cameo of good old Turk Barrett, selling bongs in a basement and being an informant for our heroes! Apparently, Turk can see Danny's aura? What's that all about? We also get a fun little continuity nod to the plotline of both Iron Fist and Defenders.
The thing is, the tone of this episode feels definitely off, especially coming from the fact that Bushmaster's gone on a bit of a rampage, beheading many people, beating up Luke twice, blown up a police vehicle, and briefly put out a bounty on multiple people that led to some shootouts in the city. The fact that it's apparently been three days between episodes 9 and 10, and Luke isn't quite as worried about hunting down Bushmaster... it feels jarring and off.
Misty goes on a bit of a side-quest when she basically investigates who sold them out to Bushmaster in the previous episode. It's Nandi, of course, and her entire screentime this episode is basically a sub-plot for them to figure out Nandi's complicity in meeting up with Bushmaster, and then arresting her. I don't have much to say about this subplot... mighty convenient that everyone that questions Misty Knight is actually secretly far more corrupt, huh? It's honestly just building up Misty's own sense of moral superiority, making her previous conflict about her nearly crossing her own moral code feel abandoned in favour of reverting Misty back to status quo, and it's not that well-executed.
Meanwhile, Bushmaster is, of course, being treated by Tilda, who's basically quasi-kidnapped by Bushmaster's number two man, Sheldon. Danny and Luke find Tilda's place ransacked, and they... don't even inform Mariah? I felt that was a bit weird.
Speaking of Mariah, she is perhaps the reason why this episode whiplashes around so hard. After spending the first half of this season trying to escape the gangster life and trying to do good for the community, she's finally done with all this. She's abandoned even her own daughter, is flaunting her power, and is insanely cruel. She threatens Big Ben to never, ever betray her again (it helps that Ben got her money back), and, of course, tortures Anansi psychologically before the brutal scene at the end. Perhaps the biggest part is that she insists to be called Mariah Stokes in this episode, accepting the brand of gangster villainy that she herself associates with the name. Again, I kind of wished we had more than just being traumatized by Bushmaster to really show the change in her character, but being nearly burned alive, having all her money taken from her, all for something that she wasn't even part of... yeah, she definitely wants some payback from Bushmaster.
And, of course, we get the brutal finish to this episode, with Mariah, Shades and a bunch of her henchmen marching a bound-and-gagged Anansi slowly towards Gwen's, knowing full well what's going to happen. This even got Sugar so disgusted he picked up and left, and Sugar was the only one that stuck around with Mariah when she was hounded by bounty hunters! And as Mariah slowly confronts the patrons in Gwen's, she shoots the treacherous Billie dead... and then shoots her sister, and then just starts shooting patrons one by one. And that's what's shocking, really. Bushmaster's attempt on Mariah and Tilda Stokes is horrible since they are only related to Mama Mabel by blood. Mariah killing Anansi? Horrible, but still understandable. Billie? Definitely, she was complicit in betraying her. But killing all the random patrons that just happen to have the misfortune of eating dinner there? The scene was shot horrifyingly too, because after killing Billie the shot just zooms out, and we just see the gunshots light up the restaurant as everyone begs for mercy. It's a genuinely brutal death, and you can't blame Anansi for regretting telling Bushmaster to exercise restraint.
And then as Anansi cries when his restaurant and a bunch of innocents were executed in cold blood, including his wife Ingrid... Mariah goes up and sets him on fire, and then shoots him in the head. It's so cold-blooded and brutal that even Shades is shaken, and Shades was the one who pushes Mariah to embrace her inner gangster.
Overall, though, I think that the back-and-forth between the more light-hearted, chill Danny/Luke scenes contrast pretty poorly against Mariah's dark broodingness. It's still a pretty strong episode after the previous one didn't impress me, and I can deal with a little mood whiplashing if it gives us some neat character moments. With three more episodes left, and both Bushmaster and Mariah being built up to be big bad monsters, we'll see which side Luke picks, yeah?
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