Netflix Retrospective: Luke Cage Season 1 Episodes 3-4 - Who's gonna take the weight?/Step in the Arena

Who’s gonna take the weight?

We open with much of the action having already taken place off screen, (f*ck you for that btw) Luke walks out with the duffel bag of money from earlier. Role credits. I will say I do enjoy the theme music.

We cut to earlier, so hopefully we may actually see the action. We get a news report about the shootout at Pops’. Luke stand at the memorial, remembering the motto. Meanwhile a Latino gang take out one of Cottonmouth’s shipments, injuring but not killing the guards. Luke is at the funeral parlour trying to get a funeral using what was in the swear jar, but Cottonmouth has it all paid for, mocking Luke for his unemployed position but admitting what had happened in an attempt to exonerate himself, even if Luke doesn’t entirely buy into it.

Luke enters the salon, clearly forgetting the whole ‘forward never back’ motto for a second. He talks to Fish, one of the patrons who was playing chess most of the time. Nothing much of consequence happens here, it’ll take $80,000 to keep the place out of the bank’s hands and Luke is now on the warpath against Cottonmouth

Chico is quizzed by police, wanting him to testify against Cottonmouth, but Chico isn’t as willing. Chico is released by Misty’s partner, but he has nowhere to go. Luke heads into the hospital, and naturally stumbles upon Misty. They talk and despite the fact Misty is trying to connect him to everything, it’s still more like flirting.

He does manage to talk to Chico, who’s more open, though says it isn’t his fault, which is blatant bullsh*t but let’s move on. Dante informed them of a lot about Cottonmouth’s operations when they planned their attacks, naturally there’s a lot of cash stored in Crispus Attucks as a safety net, it’s a fortress with all the things you’d come to expect in a Netflix action scene. Luke plans to start attacking the other stash houses to convince Cottonmouth to move it all to Crispus Attucks.

Cottonmouth is at his club as Luke begins his attacks, easily bypassing the security of a locked safe. He also crushed their guns which might be a bit of a giveaway. The police move in, Luke didn’t take any of the money. Luke attacks a second stash house and we get treated to a woman breathing rather than seeing the action. Misty confronts the woman but doesn’t get much out of her.

Mariah and Cottonmouth talk as she gives her speech about how she wants to do good in Harlem, whilst he sees her connections as a Front. Well, because the opening spoiled it we already know how this is gonna pan out, not that it wasn’t obvious anyway since, well, Luke is practically invincible. OK, time for a reason Misty likes basketball… this is so interesting… ok, so they start talking about Luke, which is just as interesting.

So, that Hispanic uprising is starting, Domingo arrives, taunting him, he’s not happy about the gone south gun deal, and also knows about Diamondback. He wants a refund or the product but Cottonmouth refuses, he leaves, but Cottonmouth realises they’ve just declared war on them. A mass of guards enter Crispus Attucks, Luke puts in his headphones and we hear a hip-hop song as he uses a van door to bust the door down, why does he need it? I don’t know, so we finally get an action scene and it’s boring as hell, Luke just ploughs through them all, barely feeling it when any of them land a hit. It’d be cool if it felt badass but it just doesn’t, he doesn’t do anything cool with it, and none of the guys have anything other than conventional weapons. So, Luke finds the money, taking 1 duffel bag out of it

Misty is trying to picture it all, wondering who would’ve just left them alive. She’s not keen on the idea of a vigilante running amok, even though her partner is less bothered, prefer to get a paperwork than take a bullet. He gets a call from Chico, he’s willing to play ball. Chico and Scafe meet, repeating just a load of phrases without actually giving any meaningful intel. GET ON WITH IT! But it turns out Scarfe is corrupt and begins strangling Chico, ok, something happened finally.

Cottonmouth isn’t happy and neither is Mariah. Scarfe comes into the club and reveals Luke Cage is responsible and thanks to certain intel from Misty’s phone, he’s able to find out where Luke lives. Luke gives the money to pay for Pop's salon being saved from the bank. So, the Chinese restaurant, he gives his land-lady some money to pay his debts but Cottonmouth is opposite and FIRES A FREAKING ROCKET LAUNCHER IN THE MIDDLE OF NEW YORK!

The pacing is just, argh!

Rating 7/10

Step in the Arena

Luke is knocked out by the debris but is otherwise unharmed. NYPD traffic cams might pick up the projectile if they were working, but of course Scarfe is on the case, so it probably isn’t.

Luke flashes back to his time in prison, he was a former police officer and he’s initiated into Seagate by General douchebag. I can imagine being a former cop is a lot of fun in prison. He begins yelling and crying, punching the walls until his hands blead, pleading to himself that he’s innocent, and chanting his name.

He meets Reva, a psychologist, trying to get them to make some friends. Luke is less convinced, not wanting to trust the inmates, especially given his history. Shades looks to be one of the higher ups in the prison as he’s talking freely to the guard. They say given how long he’s been brought in for, he pissed someone off real good. 2 inmates try to attack Luke, but he manages to fight them off, but gets placed in solitary, where General douchebag offers him a chance to fight to gain some privileges, but Luke initially refuses.

In the present, Luke finds the restaurant owner still alive but her leg is trapped and they’re deep underground. Luke is ready to deal out more when he spots one of the inmates who attacked him, but an inmate nicknamed ‘squabbles’ stops him and they talk over some pop culture references. Luke becomes a bit more talkative during the next session, but not in the conventional way, he wants to convince her to open up too. She does, but in private where no-one else can hear her, her brother died in prison whilst she was studying.

In another session, people think that people are undergoing experimentation, but Reva denies this, but we’ll find out later she’s talking bullsh*t and knew exactly what was happening, tainting the memory of a dead woman, how charming. General douchebag renews his offer, but this time uses Squabbles as collateral… Turns out he has quite the reputation as a fighter and helps training.

So, yeah, these fights are being put on YouTube, back before they had standards (who am I kiddin’ here?) Luke manages to win his way up the ladder in quite a brutal fashion, sometimes having to be restrained just to stop the damage being worse. Squabbles is concerned he’s losing himself, a view which Reva echoes when she finally sees him again.

Luke (look, I’m calling him Luke instead of Carl as he’s known here for ease of summary) tells Reva about the fight ring and encourages her to leave, giving her details of his lawyer so he can pass evidence. Unfortunately, Squabbles gets a talking to by the guards and by that, I mean he’s killed.

Shades confronts Luke, since Squabbles did talk, and he’s beaten down. Down, but not out, Reva persuades the Doctor to save his life. And Luke is subjected to experiments that Reva said weren’t happening in the prison, so she’s a lying b*tch.

General douchebag is ready to ensure Cage’s death, turning up the acidity level of the bath he’s in, and jesus is that a mistake they’ll live to regret. Luke survives, naturally and has the unbreakable skin he’s well known for.

We seek Luke punch his way out of prison as in the present he punches his way through the wreckage. Luke steals some clothes and a car, giving him his classic Power Man Look, he says he looks like a damn fool. He tries to phone Reva, and they meet a motel. Luke shaves with a cheap looking razor and gets the hoodie. Reva deletes files on Carl Lucas, I think, and the two live a happy life until the incident with Jessica Jones.

Misty comes up to Luke, asking him about what happened but now the press have his name too

I’ll give it this, this is probably the most interesting episode of the bunch, still slow paced and really nothing happened in this episode at all.

Rating 7/10