Luke Cage, Season 2

By Wolfen Moondaughter
July 2, 2018

(DISCLAIMER: My parents both work for Disney, Marvel's parent company, although neither were involved with the making of this series.)

Having been exonerated for a crime he didn't commit, Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is enjoying his newfound fame, even as the people of Harlem put pressure on him to find and deal with people selling heroin with his name on it. Claire (Rosario Dawson) worries the fame is changing him in a not-so-great way. Misty Knight (Simone Missick) is trying to deal with the loss of her right arm, and return to duty. Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard) and Hernan "Shades" Alvarez (Theo Rossi) seek to legitimise themselves -- but have trouble letting go of their criminal ways to do it. And a new criminal kingpin, John "Bushmaster" McIver (Mustafa Shakir) is gunning for Mariah -- and seems able to rival Luke in the power department.

This season does a truly fantastic job of drawing on events and characters from the previous season, with the theme of far-reaching consequences (especially post-mortem ones). The season also, very happily, features guest appearances by a few members of other Marvel-Netflix shows (and a fun use of The Turk), as well as makes mentions of a few others, tying it nicely into the larger picture of the Netflix Cinematic Universe (if not so much the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe). And within the show itself, Misty, Shades, Mariah, and Bushmaster all get plenty of breathing room alongside Luke, and plenty of other supporting players get moments to shine, making this very much an ensemble piece without sacrificing the star's own story.

I'll admit, with the first five episodes, I was a tad underwhelmed -- the show was fine, better than the second half of the first season, but not as brilliant as the first half of the first season. I was enjoying the Shades / Mariah stuff well enough, but nothing was captivating me quite like Cottonmouth had. The sixth episode, though, featured some really powerful conversations, fleshing out people (especially Bushmaster and Shades) and situations. Everything picked up for me from there, staying compelling more or less until it was done. (In particular, a conversation between Shades and his friend Comanche in ep 6 is one of my very favorite scenes in the entire series!) It's a much quieter, more thoughtful season -- and yet, when it's violent, it can get downright brutal. I even had to cover my eyes at one point. When one character was visibly shaken by something they witnessed, I was right there with them -- it was very effective.

But really, I was in it for the themes -- the exploration of nature versus nurture, of our choices and how much we can choose, and the effect of those choices on others. How, sometimes, no matter what you do, there is no good option -- and maybe not even a "better" option. How hard it can be to know what's the right path. How to decide whether or not to commit a wrong for the greater good -- or know how doing the right thing can sometimes turn out for the worse. How some people have options others might not. How some might delude themselves about the options they or others choose, and use that delusion to justify those choices. How some might be hypocritical about it -- like, "Do as I say, not as I do", or how they might accept a certain action from one person but not from another, holding people to different standards, seeking vengeance for what someone has done when they have done the same themselves, etc. I was very satisfied by how the theme of "actions have consequences" was used, particularly through the stories of Mariah and Shades (who, depending on how one looked at them, arguably actually had disparate, though intimately entwined, arcs).

I also loved how new information would force the audience to reprocess the situations of each character, and could thus (sometimes subtly and sometimes dramatically) increase or decrease the sympathy one had for each character through the course of the season -- even within the same episode, or the same scene! And I appreciated how very nuanced and complex pretty much all the relationships were, threads of love and hate wound together intricately, often done contradictorily yet believably. It was very messily -- and beautifully -- human.

I enjoyed the ongoing symbolism, especially the paintings and the chess references. I also loved the Shakespearean overtones.

And I loved the music. That is to say, even when I didn't like a song aesthetically, I could appreciate how it complemented the scene. Of particular note was the Eighties-style action music -- often terrible, yet fitting! And I really enjoyed some of the performances in Harlem's Paradise; I appreciate that they let us just kick back end enjoy them at times, focusing on the musicians and singers for more than just a few seconds at a time. Thank you, show, for introducing me to the stylings of the talented Christone "Kingfish" Ingram ....

Spoiler time now, as I get into specifics.

Still with me? Okay.

Luke's fame and his relationship with it grated on me in the beginning of the season, but I assume it was supposed to. Still, it just didn't seem quite in line with his personality with the first season; I still haven't decided if it was contrived for this arc, or was a natural progression of events. Maybe it's right on the line. Either way, I did warm up to it, more or less, as the season went on, as he started to really encounter problems due to it, coming to regret it. At the same time, at the close of the season, I worry he's back to getting a swelled head, and what path he might head down next season -- especially after turning away his sounding-board, Claire, as he did. (I'm sad that they broke up, but it served the story well, and I wouldn't be opposed to him and Misty getting romantic.) Can we assume, from his swapping out the Biggie Smalls image with the Mohammad Ali image, that he let everything go to his head for a moment, but that that moment passed, and he will make a more respectable comeback? Given that his refusal to see Claire happened after that, and other things that were said after that point, I'm not so sure.

I appreciated how hard his relationship with his father was, how they both really had to work through some stuff. I'm glad his father gained more depth, turning out to be more than an abusive adulterer, without actually treating it like the things he did weren't bad, or like Luke had to forgive the man. (I do wonder, though, if they will recast, considering that Reg E. Cathey, the man who played James Lucas, has since passed away.)

Meanwhile, I really loved Misty all around this season!

I loved that the situation with her arm evolved gradually, that she had to deal with the loss first -- and showed that she was still capable, even as she struggled. I do wish that we'd seen her struggle a bit more with the new arm -- and maybe had a more ordinary prosthetic before it. But I loved the look of the new arm, and how badass she was with it (even without Stark-esque bells and whistles -- although I would love it if she accidentally stumbled across a weapon in it, like a laser or missile, and was like, "A little warning next time??")

I enjoyed the frienemy relationship between Misty and Nandi (and the twist of Nandi betraying everyone just as she and Misty were finally getting along). I loved that, as passionate as Misty was about bringing Mariah down and getting justice for Candace, when it came down to it, she still stopped to ask if there were other possible answers to anything that happened, no matter how much evidence might point to what she wanted to be true, rather than jumping to conclusions. I loved that her feelings about Scarfe were very complicated. I loved that Scarfe and Candace weren't forgotten, that they still had a presence in her life.

I appreciated the bit where she and Luke argued about who was whose sidekick, with Luke pointing out (in a great bit of faux-fourth-wall-breaking) that the show was named for him; the season easily felt as much her show as his, and I would be totally on board for her to have her own show!

Or a Daughters of the Dragon series, given that fun episode featuring her hanging out with Coleen Wing! For that matter, I'd also be down for a Heroes for Hire series; I'm glad we got an episode exploring the friendship between Luke and Danny, and that there were mentions of Danny throughout the season (as well as a few of Matt and Jessica)! Danny is still childish and arrogant, but at least he's not grim anymore, making him more palatable -- especially if he has Luke there to share the spotlight. I was also really happy to see Foggy with a life outside of Matt (even as I miss them together).

Moving on, Mariah's drama-queen scenery-chewing could get downright exhausting (in a good way!), but it made her quiet, (potentially?) truthful, vulnerable moments all the more impactful. And despite the horrible things she did, one could always believe she loved Harlem (even it was a twisted, unhealthy love, mostly a matter of wanting it to love her in turn, to deem her worthy). It wasn't hard to see why Shades would be so taken in with her (even while I could also see wanting to strangle her).

I just have one major plot nit-pick with the season, and it involves her: the decision she made to have all her underlings killed off. Wouldn't that make her guilt patently obvious to a jury, especially if her hitmen had managed to kill Shades? And what about the assassins? Wouldn't they too need to be killed, and then their assassins, and on and on? And while I appreciate her sparing Sugar ... what's the point of killing everyone else if she leaves even one person alive? (Also, I'm sad about Alex.)

I was very satisfied with Mariah's death, though, no matter how hard I shipped her with Shades -- she made her bed. I'm just surprised they didn't have Shades be the one to kill her. Then again, given her story arc with Tilda, that end fit (and, I suspect, has set Tilda up to replace her, given how angry Tilda seemed about Luke getting the club) ....

Moving on to Bushmaster, he was a bit of a mustache-twirler to start, but with the sixth episode onward, he gets more and more nuanced, more grey. I've come to like him enough that his vendetta is frustrating; I understand his feelings, but it's hard to sympathise with his losses when his family was involved with the shadiness and murders in the first place. That's something that always drives me nuts: when a villain is persecuting someone for something they -- or the people they're avenging -- have done themselves. I appreciate that Anansi (love the name!!) tried to talk sense into him, though. And I feel like, vengeance aside, he was a kind, maybe even good, person. (I kind of ship him and Tilda, too -- and him and Sheldon.)

I appreciated how the human tendency of overlooking or misplacing blame, often hypocritically, was also presented in other, smaller storylines, as well. Bushmaster's auntie, Ingrid, knew more or less what her nephew was up to (as well, most likely, as what her sister had been up to), taking his blood money and yet condemning his actions -- unknowingly? -- as savage. Mariah's daughter, Tilda started the season a healer, but despite her Hippocratic oath, and despite being sickened to learn that her family were a bunch of murderers, she killed her own mother, becoming a murderer herself. Not that I blame her, but she did it with extreme malice (making two attempts, no less) and, in essence, seems to have become what she hated.

Patricia Wilson, the lawyer assigned to Shades, seemed to condemn him for Tone's attack on Pop's barber shop (which, sure, almost cost her son's life and did kill her friend Pop) -- never mind that Shades had actually been against Tone opening fire on the shop, or that Shades celebrated the man being punished for his actions, or that Shades spoke respectfully of Pop. I mean, I understand being sickened by him being a criminal in general, and by his glee at a death, but her reaction to him under these particular circumstances -- calling him garbage, recusing herself, and saying she hoped he burned in hell -- seemed off to me, seeing as he hadn't wanted her son to get hurt, even tried to prevent the attack. Now, if she was acting on his murder of Candace (assuming she knew about that going in, since it didn't come up in the interrogation until after she left), I could see it, but it wasn't until he talked about the barber shop attack that she decided she couldn't represent him. About all I can think of as an explanation (seeing as her son is safe and sound, and Shades did not attack him anyway), is that she was pissed at his flippancy. I's just, she's a lawyer, and has seen plenty of hard criminals, so I would think she would be used to their mindset, their blas� or even humourous attitude about violence (which, in his case, sometimes seemed to me a coping mechanism, or a mask to protect himself from seeming weak). Well, maybe the mention of her son was just an opportunity to bail on a guy she wanted nothing to do with at the get-go ....

Comanche's mother, Janice, grieved her son while apparently overlooking the life her son had lived (hence her insistence on calling him Darius instead of his criminal name), ignoring the evils he'd committed (just as Tilda seemed to do regarding Cottonmouth), seeing what Shades had done as a betrayal. But she knew from the confession scene that Shades had killed Comanche for betraying him (and endangering Mariah), deeply regretting killing his friend. And Shades looked after Janice, to boot! She might not have known about Shades protecting someone he loved, but she knew her son was a snitch -- unless she thinks Shades lied about that even during the confession? In any case, she might not even have lost her son if hadn't become a criminal, committed his own sins. I wonder, would she stand still to let the loved ones of the people her son had killed, like Ridenhour, spit in her face? But still, I understand how she could overlook her son's own atrocities (or maybe she didn't -- I concede that we simply might not have been shown that) and be enraged at what Shades did after all she felt her son had done for the man. (And, well, it seems Shades brought Comanche into the life -- although she might not have known that, seeing as Comanche took the blame for their thievery at least once, when it was actually Shades who suggested the theft.)

I loved the irony of Shades, the snitch-killer, becoming a snitch himself (even as he did it at least partially for a good reason).

Hell, even while remembering he's a killer and something of a sociopath, I'll admit it: I just love Shades in general. I enjoyed watching many of the characters of this series, but he's my favourite of them. I loved how he struggled with his devotion to Mariah when she showed signs of going off the rails -- how, at many points when I thought he was going to finally ditch and / or betray her, he held out, still supported her. He didn't let Comanche's taunting about losing his manhood to her spur him to start asserting himself towards her. He was far more patient with her than she deserved! He genuinely grieved over Comanche (I love that they were lovers in prison, and read Comanche's negativity towards Mariah as at least a little bit a matter of jealousy). Shades had reservations about letting their guns loose on the streets, worrying about the potential resulting blood. He took down someone who was firing at Luke at Piranha's party. He was truly disturbed by the massacre at the restaurant and the execution of Anansi. I don't think Misty realised it, but he was getting choked up during the interrogation; Mariah noted that he'd been crying, after, knowing him well enough to see what others couldn't. Even when he tried to strangle Mariah, towards the end, he still couldn't kill her, still loved her even when he got her sent to prison (to keep her from doing any more harm without actually killing her).

The story of Shades and Mariah was a pretty perfect Shakespearan tragedy: full of misunderstandings, betrayals, murder, strategies, friends becoming enemies, ghosts, even horrifying personal history, all artfully laid out. They both tried to bring out the best in each other, but it led to Mariah becoming the worst. Misty was wrong about Mariah being the queen, though. Mariah was Macbeth, a would-be king talked into power by her Lady Macbeth, the conniving Shades. Mariah-Macbeth became drunk with power, growing more and more willing to murder, convinced she was meant to rule and was unstoppable, while Shades-Lady Macbeth came to regret his part, right down to the "out, damn spot" hand-washing scene! (Having already come to see him as Lady Macbeth before then, that scene delighted me!)

Even with the chess analogy, Mariah was the one whom everyone on her side protected, and who had everyone else move around her, those other pieces doing nearly all the work of taking out the opposition (save for that moment with Anansi). By and large, Shades was the one moving everywhere, like a queen does on the chessboard, assassinating the enemy and defending the king at great personal risk of sacrifice (as he ended up sacrificing Comanche).

I think that was well-reflected in how the office art got swapped out, the Basquiat (which symbolised their partnership) being replaced by Biggie's portrait -- the single king, crowning Mariah alone as she stood before it. The Basquiat returned only for a short moment, in the secured room, when Shades ended up trying to protect her from Bushmaster. The Basquiat was important to Mariah as an heirloom, but I like to think her refusal to sell it symbolised her not wanting to let go of her relationship with Shades -- until she did. (The sad thing is that it never occurred to her that she could put it up as collateral / sell it with the option to buy it back. Things could have turned out so much better for her then!)

I loved the poetry of the pearl-handled gun, which Shades gave to Mariah in the first place out of love and respect. Ironically it ended up being the tool he used to bring her down, which, in a way, ended up bringing him down as well -- yet without the gun actually killing either of them!

While I certainly don't approve of his life of crime, I can appreciate that Shades followed his own personal code, didn't kill innocents (at least as he defined them), but rather only those who either broke the "laws" of his world, or else proved themselves a threat to him and those he loved. To him, the people of his world lived and died by the gun, so to speak, and accepted those terms, so killing people who lived in that world was okay. I appreciate that he wanted out -- and that Mariah had convinced him he could get out. He even tried to choose a less criminal way to do it than she did: selling a painting and taking the club off her hands, rather than selling the guns. But we can't forget that he did some heinous things; even if he did them within the terms of his society, the laws of civilized society take precedent over the laws of criminal culture, and so it was entirely appropriate that he, who wanted to become part of the civilized, non-criminal world, be imprisoned by that world's legal system, when all was said and done. Still, there's a part of me that wants to see him further redeemed, and I'm glad he wasn't killed off, as I feared he would be. I hope we see him again -- but if we don't (I would be surprised if he doesn't get a shiv in the gut in prison for being a snitch, although maybe people would understand why he did it and approve of him setting up Mariah), this was a satisfying close to his story, as well the story he shared with Mariah, and the season as a whole.

Keep an eye out in August for an article on this season from my Tart-sister Katherine Keller!

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