Luke Cage: Now You're Mine
October 2, 2016 8:47 AM - Season 1, Episode 11 - Subscribe
In one bold move, a friend from his past puts Luke on the defensive, Misty in dire straits, and Harlem's safety in jeopardy.
Luke: Why the hell didn't you leave the club?
Claire: When have I ever done as I was told?
*Luke gets Misty from behind the bar to the kitchen, barricades them in, goes down secret Prohibition Era entrance to basement before Stryker rocket-launchers the barricade.
*Claire gets put with the hostages, treats Candace's sprained ankle and learns about the secret entrance and about her being paid off by Mariah to frame Luke for Cottonmouth's murder, has her fake-faint so she can get downstairs, then knocks out a guard and taps on wall until Luke punches through. She does some emergency first aid with dental floss to try to slow down the blood loss from Misty's bullet wound. Many references to how she may lose the arm.
*Ridley controlling the scene outside, DA tells her about the Chief being in private negotiations with Mariah for enhanced weaponry.
*Stryker does his villain origin monologue to hostage Damon Boone and over the PA - how after he and Carl Lucas stole that car, Carl got sent to the military while he got sent to juvie and then to prison for hard time after he shivved someone in self-defense, how his mother died alone. Shows him his obsessively marked-up Bible. Tells Luke to come forward or he'll start killing hostages, power-punches Damon to death and shoves the body outside.
*Luke makes his way up from basement, knocking down Stryker's men as he goes.
*Shades finds secret entrance to basement, Claire and Misty kick his ass and cuff him to a wall.
*Luke frees the hostages, but Stryker still has Candace upstairs, Luke catches her when Stryker drops her from the ledge, dodges his last Judas bullet, but surrenders when surrounded by police with Judas 2.0's.
*Zip shows Stryker a hidden exit from the club, they get away unnoticed.
*Shades gets taken into custody, Claire stomps his fallen sunglasses.
*Luke gets taken in cuffs to the paddy wagon.
Luke: Why the hell didn't you leave the club?
Claire: When have I ever done as I was told?
*Luke gets Misty from behind the bar to the kitchen, barricades them in, goes down secret Prohibition Era entrance to basement before Stryker rocket-launchers the barricade.
*Claire gets put with the hostages, treats Candace's sprained ankle and learns about the secret entrance and about her being paid off by Mariah to frame Luke for Cottonmouth's murder, has her fake-faint so she can get downstairs, then knocks out a guard and taps on wall until Luke punches through. She does some emergency first aid with dental floss to try to slow down the blood loss from Misty's bullet wound. Many references to how she may lose the arm.
*Ridley controlling the scene outside, DA tells her about the Chief being in private negotiations with Mariah for enhanced weaponry.
*Stryker does his villain origin monologue to hostage Damon Boone and over the PA - how after he and Carl Lucas stole that car, Carl got sent to the military while he got sent to juvie and then to prison for hard time after he shivved someone in self-defense, how his mother died alone. Shows him his obsessively marked-up Bible. Tells Luke to come forward or he'll start killing hostages, power-punches Damon to death and shoves the body outside.
*Luke makes his way up from basement, knocking down Stryker's men as he goes.
*Shades finds secret entrance to basement, Claire and Misty kick his ass and cuff him to a wall.
*Luke frees the hostages, but Stryker still has Candace upstairs, Luke catches her when Stryker drops her from the ledge, dodges his last Judas bullet, but surrenders when surrounded by police with Judas 2.0's.
*Zip shows Stryker a hidden exit from the club, they get away unnoticed.
*Shades gets taken into custody, Claire stomps his fallen sunglasses.
*Luke gets taken in cuffs to the paddy wagon.
That AV Club recap is spot on. Claire Temple is awesome, and since she's now 3-for-3 in the Netflix MCU, clearly she's going to play an important role in bringing everyone together as The Defenders. But if it's because she gets fridged, I'm gonna be fucking pissed.
Also, this bit,
posted by soundguy99 at 7:40 AM on October 5, 2016 [7 favorites]
Also, this bit,
"Though he’s technically a major part of the Harlem crime scene, Diamondback’s motivations are tied much more to Luke than they are to the neighborhood at large. The result is that he shrinks the show’s perspective rather than expanding it. Though Cottonmouth’s death seemed designed to propel the season forward in exciting ways, we basically went from one well-dressed violent criminal to another, less interesting one. It’s a bizarre lateral move."pretty much nails how I've felt about Stryker/Diamondback. First he's presented as an off-screen "power behind the power" with Shades as his menacing representative, but once he actually shows up he's all Freudian Sibling Rivalry 101 rather than "Harlem realpolitik", which kinda dumbs down the show. I think they were trying to keep the realpolitik with Shades being all "Whoa there, are you sure that's a good idea? Kinda going off the rails a little, buddy", but IMO we just didn't see enough of Diamondback as criminal mastermind to make it stick.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:40 AM on October 5, 2016 [7 favorites]
Mariah killing Cottonmouth was such a great and unexpected moment that I wouldn't want to change it, but I couldn't help but imagine whether this scene would have worked better with Stokes as the mastermind instead of Diamondback.
Cottonmouth's motivations would be much more transparent to the viewer -- we've seen Cage dismantle his network until he's left with basically nothing. The desperation and poor choices would have made sense since we witnessed Cottonmouth get backed further and further into a corner where taking hostages in his own club to get Cage killed, captured, discredited, anything to get some measure of payback would seem like a good idea. Heck, apart from the backstory-monologue you could keep the script almost the same.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy this episode. I thought it cleaned up OK after the last one went off the rails toward the end.
I am going to be a bit disappointed, though, if Shades just turns out to be just some jerk who likes wearing sunglasses inside & at night. Claire & a near-death Misty took him down with relative easy.
posted by Jugwine at 8:18 AM on October 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Cottonmouth's motivations would be much more transparent to the viewer -- we've seen Cage dismantle his network until he's left with basically nothing. The desperation and poor choices would have made sense since we witnessed Cottonmouth get backed further and further into a corner where taking hostages in his own club to get Cage killed, captured, discredited, anything to get some measure of payback would seem like a good idea. Heck, apart from the backstory-monologue you could keep the script almost the same.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy this episode. I thought it cleaned up OK after the last one went off the rails toward the end.
I am going to be a bit disappointed, though, if Shades just turns out to be just some jerk who likes wearing sunglasses inside & at night. Claire & a near-death Misty took him down with relative easy.
posted by Jugwine at 8:18 AM on October 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
After the buildup with Shades openly disagreeing with Diamondback, I half expected Shades to switch sides and help Luke after he figures out where Luke and Misty are.
posted by SeedStitch at 10:46 AM on October 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by SeedStitch at 10:46 AM on October 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
The last third or quarter of these Netflix series go a bit odd, probably for structural reasons - there's a turning point and people start acting totally against character and events just become odd. I've become immured to it, and I think they're getting better at handling it as they become more used to the demands of the particular narrative length. I think the biggest fall so far was Jessica Jones, but now I'm used to it I just make allowances. In any case, whereas the first two thirds can be brilliant, I'm expecting a couple more episodes of things falling into place.
posted by Grangousier at 10:15 AM on October 8, 2016
posted by Grangousier at 10:15 AM on October 8, 2016
I love Erik LaRay Harvey. He was legitimately scary in the first episode or two. But the crap the writers are giving him with the craaaazy Bible verse quoting and the cliche jealous brother grudge is so much less interesting than pretty much every other character in the show. Cottonmouth was a much, much better villain.
Diamondback shoots so many people he just doesn't seem real. He's a cartoon.
Claire, on the other hand, is fantastic. And I really liked Inspector Ridley's caution, not rushing into anything stupid, not jumping to conclusions either for or against Luke's innocence or guilt.
posted by straight at 2:05 AM on October 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
Diamondback shoots so many people he just doesn't seem real. He's a cartoon.
Claire, on the other hand, is fantastic. And I really liked Inspector Ridley's caution, not rushing into anything stupid, not jumping to conclusions either for or against Luke's innocence or guilt.
posted by straight at 2:05 AM on October 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
Shades: "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout Willis?"
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:25 PM on October 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:25 PM on October 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
After the buildup with Shades openly disagreeing with Diamondback, I half expected Shades to switch sides and help Luke after he figures out where Luke and Misty are.
There's still two episodes, maybe he snitches? I dunno.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:56 AM on November 15, 2016
There's still two episodes, maybe he snitches? I dunno.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:56 AM on November 15, 2016
Claire is fucking great, though. Long live Claire.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:56 AM on November 15, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 8:56 AM on November 15, 2016 [2 favorites]
Claire has the best Marvel Stairwell Fighttm
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 6:35 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 6:35 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
But none of the other goons thought to actually see if she was in the locker room?
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 6:38 PM on December 19, 2016
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 6:38 PM on December 19, 2016
I love how totally incompetent Diamondback is.
posted by octothorpe at 8:43 AM on December 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 8:43 AM on December 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ugh, this show is so, so much worse than the promise of the first four or five episodes. At least Iron Fist started out stupid, I prefer that to a bait and switch.
posted by skewed at 7:46 PM on December 10, 2017
posted by skewed at 7:46 PM on December 10, 2017
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posted by oh yeah! at 12:08 PM on October 2, 2016 [1 favorite]