Luke Cage Season 2 is here and let me tell you, it's great. It's the best thing Netflix has done with the MCU. I'll be honest with you, Luke still has plenty of corny moments, starting with his dabbing in episode one but they've largely cleared up any thing wrong with season one. It's almost a perfect season. That's just the way it is.
I'll keep the plot the description short because I just don't want to spoil it for anyone. It boils down to this. Luke, Mariah and the new leader of the Jamaican gangs, Bushmaster, are all fighting for control of Harlem. Simultaneously, Mariah is trying to leave the world of crime behind, Bushmaster wants what The Stokes family owes his own and Luke wants to make a difference. The confrontations lead to all three crossing lines that they wouldn't necessarily cross. Luke is willing to sell his services as a hero, Mariah is selling drugs and Bushmaster is bringing violence out of the dark and into the open. Meanwhile Misty, is trying to ease back into the task force after learning just about every case she's worked on has been thrown out due to her former partner's plans.
Bushmaster is a villain we've covered here before. He had a silly name but he was always a bad ass, ready to go toe to toe with Luke. I'm glad they kept it that way and modernized the story a little. I also enjoyed the fact that they didn't just make him power hungry and greedy from the start, nor was his goal Luke Cage. Luke was simply an obstacle to overcome. It's a situation where he went about things the wrong way, but he absolutely was right. Harlem's Paradise and Bushmaster, the drink, were his birthright. He went through hell growing up because of things that happened before he was old enough to drive. He had no idea about these happenings but he went through hell for it and if I were him I'd want it as well. There was no redemption arc for him because he didn't need to be redeemed. He's right up there with Cottonmouth when it comes to Netflix MCU villains.
From here down, there will be spoilers. You have been warned.
The theme of this season in my mind, is becoming what you hate the most. We see several characters turn into or almost turn into what they hate. At the end of the season we see Luke in charge of Harlem's Paradise as a crime boss even if he doesn't admit it. He's negotiating territories with drug lords and ruling from the nightclub that every Harlem King or Queen of crime has used. Mariah was a criminal but her entire family hated the drug trade. Her downfall, was selling drugs. She hated the criminal aspect of the Stokes family, until she upped the ante. Misty goes to plant evidence, the thing her partner was guilty of. Shades is the most telling. He hated snitches so much he killed his lover for snitching. Then he turned into a snitch stating "the whole world knows I'm a snitch." Additionally Shades always saw violence as the last option and we never saw him actually take joy in violence. However when he's giving his confession we see him laugh about the violence while on the verge of tears because he realizes he kind of did enjoy it until innocent people started getting hurt.
We were left with a lot of unanswered questions. Will Misty accept Luke's offer of King and Queen of Harlem, the law and the crime? What happens with Luke and Claire now since he's sent her home and away from him? Does Tilda fight for control of Harlem? She was all good with the Stokes family coming to an end, until Luke got the club and she was visibly upset about.
One thing is for sure, any misteps the show made during season one they were sure to correct them. At the same time they were able to write off most villains, in a way that would meant they could be used again if needed. At the same time it paints Luke as the unlikely villain of next season even if he doesn't think he's the villain. I'm going to say it's the best season of any of the Netflix shows so far. Previously Daredevil held that honor but they deemed to have lost their path. Meanwhile Luke has secured his. Feel free to enjoy some tweets as I went through the show down below. They're worth it. Especially for the barbershop heart to heart.
You should buy Darrell's Book, watch him on the Blerds Online YouTube Channel or The CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts.
Luke wearing a sweatshirt that says "African American College Alliance" he better take that shit off if he didn't go to an HBCU. Doesn't he know how hard HBCU Twitter killed Dennis Smith Jr #LukeCage— Blerds Online (@BlerdsOnline) June 23, 2018
Yeah, I enjoyed it way more than the first season. The biggest flaw of season one was that the best villain disappeared too soon. In season 2 there are two really interesting villains and they get a lot of screen time, we even get flashbacks that makes it easier to understand their motives and their upbringings.
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