Netflix Retrospective - Luke Cage Season 1 episodes 9-10 Review - DWYCK/Take it Personal

Who’s ready for more Luke Cage?

DWYCK

Misty is visiting a department psychologist, a visit she denies she needs, but you know, she tried to choke-hold an innocent person so she kinda does and without it, she’s stuck on the desk. She’s shown a photo of her being put up at gunpoint by Diamondback, they have this despite the chance of there being a camera there being very low.

Luke awakens in a garbage truck, he gets out, cue theme. I never used to like this theme, but I admit it’s grown on me. We have a band rehearsing at Harlem’s paradise, with Shades overlooking from his newly repaired office window. Apparently his enforcers have been checking landfills and garbage trucks but have come up empty handed. Diamondback arrives, shooting one of the idiots and shooing them off.

He’s not all that pleased at Shades for killing Cottonmouth, since he was a friend to him. Makes you wonder how much Shades was playing his own game during the last few episodes. Far more interesting to think about than Diamondback. Shades is saved because Zip says it won’t get him Luke Cage, and whilst he’s right, I don’t see what that has to do with anything.

Luke limps into a launderette and steals some clothes from a dryer, he sees that he’s wanted for Cottonmouth’s murder and his face is on the news. Back to Misty, apparently the last time she was in a relationship it was with a wanted felon, the more things change, am I right? She describes her relationship with Luke without actually mentioning his name

Meanwhile, Black Maria is speaking to the body of Cottonmouth, after a flash of her brutally murdering him. She remembers how things happened when he was born. Shades is listening in because why wouldn’t he be? He tells her than she needs to sort out Cornel’s affairs or chaos will ensue.

Meanwhile 2 policeman try and ID Luke who is forced to defend himself, it’s caught on the camera on the cop car. Luke’s down yet another hoody and steals the car. Back to Misty, she tells the story about how her best friend was murdered by a boy, when she left her alone to get a lemonade, inspiring her to become to cop. The psychologist keeps digging into recent events, how she was shaken by not knowing what Scarfe really was.

Mariah visits Domingo, saying she wants to meeting to discuss a transition or buyout of Cottenmouth’s illegitimate business and tells him to gather any perspective buyers for a meeting. Domingo agrees. Meanwhile, Claire is doing her research, when Luke comes in. She’s found the name of the Doctor that turned Luke into what he is and needs to get Luke to him, they’re taking her mother’s car, since that hasn’t been trashed yet.

Alex, whoever he is, gives Mariah an idea to use the situation to her advantage, especially since the dash-cam footage from the cop car leaked and is viewable online. Misty finally breaks down, admitting she lost control, and hated every moment of her confrontation with Diamondback, she wanted that control back and Claire provoked her in the wrong way and she just snapped. Fair enough I guess, I should’ve cut her some slack in the last episode.

Claire has taken Luke out of the city in her car and for once he isn’t being pursued by every cop in the city. She pretends to be student called Sandra Lopez, I guess, but it lasts about 5 minutes. Reeva’s files help him access important information about the project he needs to hurry as Luke is coughing up blood. They take him into a barn, which contains some stolen lab equipment, he and Claire come up with a way to attain a blood sample of Luke for use to recreate the experiment

Misty talks with the woman I constantly forget the name of and gets her badge back, told to get Luke Cage to turn himself in. At the meeting Diamondback shows up kills everyone except Domingo, Shades and Mariah, he asks why Mariah shouldn’t die and she suggests selling Judas bullets to the police, and if it works more customers will come to him for ways to take down powered people. I still hate the idea of Judas bullets, and aren’t they supposed to be super-rare?

Domingo is kept alive to pass on a message to anyone else. Shades seems less happy about the footage going viral and how that serves his own agenda. Misty begins clearing her photo board, and focuses only on the photos of Cottonmouth, Mariah, Diamondback, and Luke. Apparently, the only way to cure Luke is to bathe him in boiling acid. Like I said, this is so contrived there’s no way he’s gonna be hit by another judas bullet, unless they give him some workaround which renders them even more pointless. He makes Claire promise that if he dies, the Doctor won’t keep the data.

The first dip doesn’t work, and the pain is sending him into cardiac arrest.

It’s honestly not a bad episode, just a little slow and boring.

Rating 7/10

Take it personal

Claire shoves an electrical gizmo into the acid, shocking Luke out of cardiac arrest. Because of course that would work. Claire figures out pretty quickly that the temperature was too low, in the fire it would’ve been really high and that may have helped. May I mention the background music sucks here. He goes into cardiac arrest again, and the system begins to overheat but it seems to work anyway. Didn’t he have 2 gunshot wounds?

Mariah comes to Dimamondback’s HQ, he’s managed to somehow break down the ‘judas’ metal for mass production. BULLSH*T but whatever, each bullet is less powerful but can be loaded into whatever gun you like.

Luke recovers but Diamondback is using the Nintendo power glove to assault and kill cops and put them more on alert for Luke. A witness tells them someone said the name ‘Luke’ out loud and Misty rightfully says ‘wait, what kind of idiot would do that unless they were trying to frame someone’ the police meanwhile are bringing in whoever they can find rather than upping the manhunt for Luke Cage because they’re idiots.

Mariah isn’t happy about the cop-killing and neither are the cops, now bringing in and interrogating everyone for Luke Cage. You know how Misty got a psych eval for assaulting Claire, how come the cop that just assaulted a kid didn’t get one. They take a look at the files, finding out Reva was involved from the very beginning. This sends Luke into a rage, he trashes the place. Claire takes the files but it turns out he’d already made a backup copy.

Misty, having earlier got Diamondback identified as Will Stryker is searching through police files, when Mariah comes with the mother of a boy assaulted by one of the officers, the one I mentioned didn't get an on-screen psych eval... She make pictures of the boy public and makes him a poster-child for her campaign, arm the police effectively, stop harassing local folks. She does find something, an article that links Stryker to Carl Lucas, realising that Carl Lucas is Luke Cage.

Because having Luke in the city wouldn’t buy enough time to get the cops armed with bullsh*t bullets, yeah, I’m calling them bullsh*t bullets now, that’s how much I hate them. Misty pays Domingo a visit, she asks about Diamondback and all the missing crime families, he tells her to pay a visit to Harlem’s paradise as it’s ‘Under new management.’

Claire and Cage head to Luke’s old home in Georgia, which is very run down and ruined he remembers a meeting between Mrs Lucas and Ms Stryker when he was a kid, he realises that Stryker is in fact his brother, and not half-brother either, apparently Mrs Lucas couldn’t give birth and there was a huge cover-up.

The Rally at Harlem’s paradise begins, and she uses it to turn public opinion in favour in favour of them getting bullsh*t bullets. Boone tells her he sees right through her and why isn’t he working with the police? He’s proving himself a better Detective than Misty. The guy selling DVDs gives Luke a poster for the rally, and both them and Misty have their eyes on Diamondback. Misty makes her approach and Luke heads off to back her up.

Unfortunately, Misty’s too late and is shot, Luke grabs her and gets her to cover, as the goons begin shooting the place.

It’s just a pity how much I don’t find Diamondback interesting, because this has all the ear-markings of a great episode, it’s just let down with the villain, also Shades’ absence in this episode is puzzling.

Rating 7/10