Luke Cage: For Pete's Sake
June 30, 2018 5:53 PM - Season 2, Episode 9 - Subscribe
Hunkered down in a makeshift safe house, Luke and Misty butt heads over how to handle Mariah. Meanwhile, long-buried family secrets come to light. (directed by Clark Johnson, written by Matt Owens & Ian Stokes)
AV Club review - Luke Cage invokes deep pain but doesn’t fully explore it
*Misty, Luke, James, Mariah, and Tilda hide at an not-yet-opened Rand Pharmaceuticals facility.
*Bushmaster goes to Tilda's shop, but finds no nightshade. Enraged, he ups the bounty to $3 million for Mariah and Tilda alive.
*At the Rand building, Tilda finds James washing his hands, knuckles bloody from the fight in the church, and offers to treat him. She makes a salve which contains the nightshade, which she explains is a rare form of belladonna.
*Misty and Luke tell Mariah to just admit that Bushmaster started the brownstone fire so they can end this, but Mariah says she won't say anything without complete immunity on all charges. Misty scoffs, but Luke says that need to consider it, for Harlem's sake.
*At the precinct, Misty returns to find Deputy Chief Ridley is now in charge. Misty says she thinks they need to agree to the deal, and then find a way to get Mariah later on some other unrelated crime, and the Chief says she'll take it to the DA.
*At Rand, Luke and Mariah have some verbal sparring ("Harlem doesn't need a hero, it needs a queen."), then she searches for a phone with an active outside line.
*Luke and James manage to get coffee from the vending machine, then have a heart-to-heart about Claire, about being a man and being a hero. (James' Titanic joke makes its second appearance.)
*At the precinct, Deputy Chief Ridley tells Misty the DA approved the immunity deal, and hands her the paperwork for Mariah to sign. Misty tells her that the Rand facility is in Queens, unaware that Nandi is listening from the other side of the interrogation room's mirror.
*Luke talks to Tilda about what she did for his father's hand. She tells him about how her father worked for Doctors Without Borders, and how she started in conventional medicine but later embraced a holistic approach. He asks her if she can use her skills to defeat Bushmaster, and she says she'll tell him everything she knows about him if he'll tell her the whole truth about Mariah.
*At the club, Sheldon tells Bushmaster that the new bounty is out, and that they're working on developing their own nightshade growth but it's much more difficult than ganja. Nandi arrives and says she wants to claim the bounty on Mariah.
*At Rand, James tells Mariah he recognizes her from the news. They talk about the difficulties of parenting, and then Mariah pockets his phone. She calls Shades -- he's at Gwen's restaurant, but doesn't pick up the call from an unfamiliar number. Tilda finds Mariah, and confronts her with what Luke told her about Mariah killing Cornell, and Mariah tells her the full true story of her parentage. Howard Dillard was not her father, he was a gay man who married Mariah to appease/trick his homophobic family, and that Tilda was fathered by Uncle Pete's rape of Mariah. Mariah never wanted what Uncle Pete did to her, she never wanted Tilda, and she killed Cornell for saying that she wanted Pete. Mariah said she tried to love Tilda, but she doesn't and never has, because all she can see when she looks at her is Uncle Pete.
*Misty returns with the deal papers, and Mariah signs. At Harlem's Paradise, Ridley and a team arrive with the arrest warrant for Bushmaster, but the club is empty. Back at Rand, a fleet of cars full of Hammer-tech-laden Stylers arrive. Misty calls for backup, as Bushmaster calls on Luke to give him Mariah and he'll let everyone else go free.
*When no one responds, Bushmaster sends men into the building. Luke leaps through a window and fights Bushmaster, while Misty fights off the men inside. Mariah grabs a gun from the floor, and shoots her way down the hallway and away. Luke manages to fight Bushmaster to the ground, and backup arrives. Bushmaster is taken into custody, and Ridley tells Misty that Mariah's immunity deal is off the table now that they've got Bushmaster on attempted murder charges without her.
*At the ambulance, Luke and James have another heart-to-heart. James asks Luke to come back to Georgia with him, but Luke says he taught him to finish what he started and his work in Harlem isn't done yet. James tells him how much he loves him.
*In the police van, Bushmaster tells the story of the true birth of Jamaica, of the Maroons who escaped from slavery in the sugar cane fields and rebelled, leaving heads of their white oppressors on spikes. He sets off a hidden detonator and blows out the van windows.
*Tilda returns to her shop and finds Sheldon waiting with a sickly Bushmaster. She insists she doesn't have enough nightshade left to help him but Sheldon says to save him or she dies too.
*Shades pulls up to Mariah as she walks down the road. She tells him she's done playing by the rules. "I am who I am. And I want what's mine." Shades is happy to hear it, and opens the car trunk to reveal a bound and gagged Uncle Anansi.
AV Club review - Luke Cage invokes deep pain but doesn’t fully explore it
*Misty, Luke, James, Mariah, and Tilda hide at an not-yet-opened Rand Pharmaceuticals facility.
*Bushmaster goes to Tilda's shop, but finds no nightshade. Enraged, he ups the bounty to $3 million for Mariah and Tilda alive.
*At the Rand building, Tilda finds James washing his hands, knuckles bloody from the fight in the church, and offers to treat him. She makes a salve which contains the nightshade, which she explains is a rare form of belladonna.
*Misty and Luke tell Mariah to just admit that Bushmaster started the brownstone fire so they can end this, but Mariah says she won't say anything without complete immunity on all charges. Misty scoffs, but Luke says that need to consider it, for Harlem's sake.
*At the precinct, Misty returns to find Deputy Chief Ridley is now in charge. Misty says she thinks they need to agree to the deal, and then find a way to get Mariah later on some other unrelated crime, and the Chief says she'll take it to the DA.
*At Rand, Luke and Mariah have some verbal sparring ("Harlem doesn't need a hero, it needs a queen."), then she searches for a phone with an active outside line.
*Luke and James manage to get coffee from the vending machine, then have a heart-to-heart about Claire, about being a man and being a hero. (James' Titanic joke makes its second appearance.)
*At the precinct, Deputy Chief Ridley tells Misty the DA approved the immunity deal, and hands her the paperwork for Mariah to sign. Misty tells her that the Rand facility is in Queens, unaware that Nandi is listening from the other side of the interrogation room's mirror.
*Luke talks to Tilda about what she did for his father's hand. She tells him about how her father worked for Doctors Without Borders, and how she started in conventional medicine but later embraced a holistic approach. He asks her if she can use her skills to defeat Bushmaster, and she says she'll tell him everything she knows about him if he'll tell her the whole truth about Mariah.
*At the club, Sheldon tells Bushmaster that the new bounty is out, and that they're working on developing their own nightshade growth but it's much more difficult than ganja. Nandi arrives and says she wants to claim the bounty on Mariah.
*At Rand, James tells Mariah he recognizes her from the news. They talk about the difficulties of parenting, and then Mariah pockets his phone. She calls Shades -- he's at Gwen's restaurant, but doesn't pick up the call from an unfamiliar number. Tilda finds Mariah, and confronts her with what Luke told her about Mariah killing Cornell, and Mariah tells her the full true story of her parentage. Howard Dillard was not her father, he was a gay man who married Mariah to appease/trick his homophobic family, and that Tilda was fathered by Uncle Pete's rape of Mariah. Mariah never wanted what Uncle Pete did to her, she never wanted Tilda, and she killed Cornell for saying that she wanted Pete. Mariah said she tried to love Tilda, but she doesn't and never has, because all she can see when she looks at her is Uncle Pete.
*Misty returns with the deal papers, and Mariah signs. At Harlem's Paradise, Ridley and a team arrive with the arrest warrant for Bushmaster, but the club is empty. Back at Rand, a fleet of cars full of Hammer-tech-laden Stylers arrive. Misty calls for backup, as Bushmaster calls on Luke to give him Mariah and he'll let everyone else go free.
*When no one responds, Bushmaster sends men into the building. Luke leaps through a window and fights Bushmaster, while Misty fights off the men inside. Mariah grabs a gun from the floor, and shoots her way down the hallway and away. Luke manages to fight Bushmaster to the ground, and backup arrives. Bushmaster is taken into custody, and Ridley tells Misty that Mariah's immunity deal is off the table now that they've got Bushmaster on attempted murder charges without her.
*At the ambulance, Luke and James have another heart-to-heart. James asks Luke to come back to Georgia with him, but Luke says he taught him to finish what he started and his work in Harlem isn't done yet. James tells him how much he loves him.
*In the police van, Bushmaster tells the story of the true birth of Jamaica, of the Maroons who escaped from slavery in the sugar cane fields and rebelled, leaving heads of their white oppressors on spikes. He sets off a hidden detonator and blows out the van windows.
*Tilda returns to her shop and finds Sheldon waiting with a sickly Bushmaster. She insists she doesn't have enough nightshade left to help him but Sheldon says to save him or she dies too.
*Shades pulls up to Mariah as she walks down the road. She tells him she's done playing by the rules. "I am who I am. And I want what's mine." Shades is happy to hear it, and opens the car trunk to reveal a bound and gagged Uncle Anansi.
Emmy for Alfre Woodard!
posted by epj at 12:05 PM on July 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by epj at 12:05 PM on July 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
So ... the cops just didn't frisk Bushmaster? The device he detonated was small, sure, but it wasn't tiny.
I think I had more or less forgotten about Uncle Pete. I don't remember anything about the fight before Mariah killed Cornell.
posted by minsies at 5:06 PM on July 13, 2018
I think I had more or less forgotten about Uncle Pete. I don't remember anything about the fight before Mariah killed Cornell.
posted by minsies at 5:06 PM on July 13, 2018
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I guess I knew on some level that Uncle Pete was Tilda's father, but I hadn't really thought it out loud, so to speak. But it was the reveal that Mariah doesn't and never did love Tilda that was the real shocker for me -- even though I knew she had approached Tilda in the first place on her campaign strategist's suggestion, I totally fell for her whole 'give me a chance to show you what a mom I can be' schtick.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:18 PM on June 30, 2018 [1 favorite]