Netflix Retrospective - Luke Cage Season 2 episodes 7-8 - On and On/If it ain't rough it ain't right

Well, the last episodes of Luke Cage were interesting, Mariah’s got it coming on from all sides. Luke wants to use Piranha to get the cops involved, Bushmaster wants him to steal her fortune, and Comanche is trying to convince Shades his involvement with her is a bad idea, we ended with Bushmaster cheating in a fight and Luke drowning.

On and On

Oh come on, you’re making this too easy for me.

We open with Luke drowning in a scene that reminds me of Skyfall, he has flashbacks to various bits and pieces of his life but comes to just in time to rise to the surface and stop himself from drowning. Or at least just long enough to run back to the church. Roll credits.

Luke wakes back up again, about an hour later. Apparently, Piranha decided to be a f*cking moron and leave, be out in the open with no back up with men trying to kidnap you, and Frank Lucas only verbally attempted to stop him

Speaking of morons, Riddenhour tries to convince Misty to come back, mentioning his ‘off-the-books’ informant. You told Mariah several pieces of information you could only have got from an informant. You’ve just signed Comanche’s death warrant. Riddenhour tries to convince Misty to help Luke Cage bring in Piranha but she refuses

Meanwhile, Mariah is pissed about the possibility of an informant, she’s scary and tries to reveal who it is by stabbing one of her guys through the hand, but when nothing comes from it, she gets them all to go after Piranha. Shades warns her that fear is not always the best tactic when it comes to loyalty.

Cue pop song that has nothing to do anything, as Tilda arrives at Harlem’s paradise, seemingly enjoying the music. And it turns out Piranha was indeed captured, they want passwords to get Mariah’s fortune, and the club and whatnot. Pirahna is rather easily intimidated. Misty visits Luke at Pops. Misty has traced the plate back to a place in Brooklyn but without her law enforcement buddies, she’s on her own with this one.

They’re quickly on the scene and take out the guards but it’s too late, Piranha’s in a fish tank suffering death by irony. This weighs heavily on Luke, who punches the wall in frustration. Misty calls it and does not have nice words for Riddenhour when she learns he wants to cut a deal with Mariah.

Cut to Riddenhour trying to cut a deal with Mariah, in this case hoping to further implicate Cottonmouth for some reason and secure Shades. It doesn’t work but Mariah asks for time to think when he brings up Tilda. Unfortunately, at this point, Mariah finds out that Bushmaster has taken her money, and begins an exit strategy. Shades and Comanche continue to argue about Mariah, this is getting old, guys. Comanche puts Sugar on the suspect list for their snitch.

 

After a scene with Bushmaster that doesn’t tell us anything of note, we cut to Luke heading back to the church… So after nothing of consequence happens, Misty hits the bar, eyeing up someone. Comanche meets with Riddenhour, and yeah Shades didn’t buy their little talk for a minute and followed him. Comanche reacts by killing Riddenhour but Shades ‘reluctantly’ kills Comanche anyway. He plays his hand a little too far by shooting him a second time in the heart to finish him off as a mercy killing.

Bushmaster steps right into Mariah’s house, shrugging off her gun. Misty gets the call that Riddenhour is dead. We get more backstory for Bushmaster but we’re going to get an episode dedicated to this, so I’m skipping it. 

Frank (Lucas) at least has the decency to apologise for his actions, although the whole business with Diamondback kinda puts a damper on everything. 

Bushmaster lets Tilda go, giving her the option of running alone or trying to save her mother, he sets the room on fire.

DW shows up, having found Cage somehow and lets him know about the fire, that Shades is seeing from a distance. We get another performance on the club, now owned by Bushmaster. Misty arrives on the scene with Riddenhour’s body as Tilda tries to save her mother. Luke arrives and ends up having to save them both. Now Mariah wants to hire Luke to protect her.

I’ve skimmed over a fair bit of this episode, but a lot of it is fluff, still the progression we get is good and we get some resolution on long-standing plot-points and a better understanding of Bushmaster’s motivations.

Rating 7/10

If It Ain’t Rough, It Ain’t Right

I’m not touching this title.

Shades is burning the gloves he used when handling Riddenhour’s gun, he’s clearly not happy to have shot one of his oldest friends. Everyone’s a bit shaken at the Police Station, including Tilda and Mariah. Mariah offers comfort to her daughter but discourages her from talking to the police, saying they’ll handle this on their own terms.

Luke eventually agrees to protect Tilda, even though at the moment, Mariah doesn’t have a penny to her name. Worse still for her, Misty is on the warpath after Riddenhour’s death, considering this to be another case of her cleaning up shop. Shades goes to console Comanche’s mother and the memories hurt, a lot. She wants answers but before she can get them, Shades gets a call from Mariah and needs to head off.

Riddenhour did a lot of this off the books, which means that the department are worried about another corruption scandal and there’s little Misty can do about it. She and Luke both work out how the scene came about, making Shades’ attempt to cover it up seem pretty pathetic but whilst Misty works that angle, there’s still Bushmaster to worry about. Luke hopes Tilda can link things back to him, with Misty asking him to work that angle

Bushmaster finds out quickly that Mariah and Tilda are alive thanks to Luke, and Luke does manage to get through to Tilda. Misty is having less luck with Mariah, but does see that she’s genuinely shocked to hear of Riddenhour’s death. Shades comes by with Donovan, but in the process Shades is declared a person of interest in Riddenhour’s murder, and is detained as a suspect.

Misty correctly works out that Riddenhour couldn’t have fired the killing shots, he wouldn’t have been strong enough to be that accurate with the first, and the second shot was from above, an angle Riddenhour couldn’t have been at. Of course, Donovan dismisses all of it as hearsay until he gets a phone-call saying Mariah has no money so he f*cks off.

With that Mariah decides to leave Shades to his fate, but it’s a shootout outside with the guys saying both Mariah’s and Luke’s families are now targets. With minimal evidence against Shades, Misty has to let him go, but tries her hand at convincing him that Donovan left him because Mariah told him to. Luke goes to protect his father but he refuses to leave the church.

Mariah heads to the wreckage of her house, where she has an altercation with Shades where he convinces her to start striking back against Bushmaster. Officers storm Harlem’s Paradise, but Donovon is now their lawyer and he’s denying everything. Mariah and Tilda talk and we find out more about their relationship, and the complications that come with having an authority figure like Mama Mabel.

Meanwhile, Bushmaster’s out of nightshade. He hopes to home-grow it but he’s told it won’t be as pure a strain. Anansi, Bushmaster’s uncle decides to leave whilst Shades is watching. Frank gives his sermon, about forgiveness as Luke watches from afar as gunmen storm the place, Misty arrives at the chemist as Stylers storm there too, Luke arriving just in time to save them. Tilda says something about making a herbal antidote for the nightshade.

With the police station an easy target, and time of the essence Luke advises Misty to call in a favour from Danny.

It’s a short summary but definitely one of the better episodes this season, with a more brisk pace and less fluff, we’re in a very interesting spot now.

Rating 8/10