Liam Hoofe reviews the penultimate episode of Marvel’s Luke Cage season 2…
Tensions spill over and everything comes to a head in the penultimate episode of Luke Cage season 2.
While it has not been without its moments, Luke Cage season 2 has, for the most part, been a fairly enjoyable follow-up for Harlem’s favourite hero, and ‘Can’t Front On Me’ brought a lot of the shows storylines together in an enjoyable cacophony of violence and confrontation.
Starting out with a scene at some sort of party, it turns out Mariah has gone against her family tradition and began shifting drugs in Harlem, except, these aren’t normal drugs, and they are being sold under the name ‘Bushmaster’. Her attempt to draw out her opponent isn’t fooling Luke Cage though and he soon sets about working on his next move, leading to one of the show’s most bizarre moments so far – Luke Cage and Bushmaster fighting side by side.
Mariah has risen to be the season’s big bad and everybody is out to get her in this episode. Bushmaster has sought assistance from Mariah’s own daughter, who supplies with a potentially life-threatening amount of Nightshade, Luke is trying to work out just how he can stop her without anybody getting killed and Misty has her in her crosshairs as Shades finally turns and provides a full confession.
Much of the episode follows everyone’s mission to bring down Mariah and some of the best scenes in the first half belong, once again, to Shades. Theo Rossi has been the MVP of Luke Cage this season and his confession this episode was chilling to watch. It was also a nice way to remind the audience that despite him turning on Mariah, he is still a villain through and through. Of course, Shades’ confession won’t be enough to dethrone Mariah, and Misty is going to need to get her hands on Mariah’s gun if she is going to prove anything.
The episode’s final sequence, which took up nearly 25 minutes of the episode saw all of the characters arriving at Harlem’s Paradise on their own quest to finally bring an end to Mariah’s reign of terror. It didn’t take long, of course, for Mariah to work out that Shades had snitched on her, but before she can do anything about it, Bushmaster shows up to unleash all sorts of hell on the former couple. Dosed on up on Nightshade, Bushmaster was at his most powerful yet, disposing of everybody in the club, including Luke Cage and Misty, on his way to Mariah.
Just before he can deliver his killer blow though, Luke recovers and the two men engage in one more battle. Once again, the fight here was perfectly choreographed and a joy to watch. Luke finally managed to get the better of Bushmaster but he let him slip through his fingers when he hesitated about what to do with him. The neck-break moment felt a little forced and I’m not sure how much I’ve bought into Luke’s anger issues this season. While he is the titular character, he hasn’t been the focus of the season and his issues have taken something of a back-seat, especially in the latter half of the season.
The episode ended with Shades finally handing over Mariah’s gun, and Misty taking her away to prison. Bushmaster is still on the loose though, and it seems unlikely that this will be the last we see of Mariah this season. Could we see her find a way to join forces with Wilson Fisk? It seems a bit of a jump, but stranger things have happened in the Marvel universe. Either way, the finale promises to have plenty of twists and turns in store for us.
Liam Hoofe
