Episode Title: Suckas Need Bodyguards
Originally Aired: September 30th 2016
Episode 6 of Luke Cage could be titled Suckas Need a Plan or Suckas Need to Read a Book, but after what happened to the last person who liked to read it might be safer to mindlessly fight Luke repeatedly. How many times can you shoot someone, have the bullets bounce off him and then be smacked upside the head, before you figure out that plan is not going to work. Do they think they can get lucky or that Cottonmouth has bad aim when he shot a RPG at Luke and dropped a building on him? I know criminals are not always the smartest people in the world but this seems like the kind of thing that they could understand. I hope going forward that the fight scenes will start to change and they try to poison him, drown him, set him on fire maybe try a car bomb or anything that is different than a 45 in an alley or dimly lit room.
Other than a major arrest and the death of another main character, this episode was mostly filler with only about 10 minutes being worth telling. The rest of it was filled with Luke lamenting that he has changed and Mariah spouting the same pro Harlem stuff we hear in every episode, and then being hassled by a reporter over her criminal connections. I like her as a character but she is becoming overly repetitive, she only has three types of scenes so Far this season. First, she is schmoozing the public or media about how great she is and how magical Harlem is. Second, she is telling Cottonmouth that he could be so much more if he applied himself in different areas and not so focused on money and guns. Third, she yells at Cottonmouth about his tactics for handling Luke and how she wants and needs money. This episode introduced a fourth type of scene I’m sure we will see her in several times, the hassled by a reporter and calling for an assistant to get them away from her. She is a bad person with the sensitivities of a southern debutante, I would not be surprised to hear her say something like, and how dare you speak to me with such righteous indignation.
One good thing about this episode were the interactions between Claire and Luke. When Luke asked her if she wanted to get some “coffee” it was the best scene this season for Mike Colter in my opinion. He just felt more natural in that scene than he normally does. It was a genuine reaction when he normally feels like someone who is over thinking it and trying to act instead of just acting. I am excited to see how long Claire will be around she has already played a much bigger role than I anticipated. She was much needed in this episode too, because there was not much going on that was any different from what we have seen before.
Overall, an OK episode with two important moments wrapped around a bunch of generic filler that I was mildly interested in and my wife called boring. This could be the start of a downward trend for the series but I have faith in the Marvel and Netflix team that next week will be something special. I am hopeful that it will not take long for us to get to the Luke and Misty confrontation after it has all been laid out on the table the kind of things he is capable of doing. She has never seen it first-hand always after the fact and had to wonder how things happened and does it look like what it could be. Now she knows he is more powerful than a speeding SUV and able to leap from a fourth story window with the greatest of ease and things are going to come to a head now that he will be hew main focus.
Channel: Superhero 