Welcome to back to our review of Luke Cage Season 2.
“All Souled Out,” the fifth episode, is about moral dilemmas. Luke takes a questionable job to raise money to settle Cockroach’s lawsuit. Misty considers following in Scarfe’s footsteps. Tilda is offered a chance to make a difference, but with money that she just learned is dirty.
1. Watch out for those cheap Ikea tables.
Luke’s temper flares again and he snaps the end of a conference table off during a meeting with Cockroach and his lawyer. It’s a moment tinged with humor, but the specter of Luke’s anger continues to loom. This episode is full of moments like that one, where humor leavens serious and sometimes frightening moments.
A lot of the humor comes from with the addition of Foggy Nelson to the cast, at least for this episode. Elden Henson portrays a nuanced Foggy, that can bring a lighthearted tone to any scene while often being the smartest guy in the room. His exchanges with Luke are particularly entertaining, especially when they discuss why it doesn’t make much sense for Cage to wear a mask. (“I’ve been known to rock a hoodie back in the day.”)
But Foggy also fills part of the void left by Bobby Fish. Luke needed a voice of reason a few times, and Foggy was there for him.
2. Fanboy Piranha
Piranha Jones is a Cage aficionado and hires Luke through Foggy. We learn that Piranha is at least as crooked as Mariah, but is also a bit of a goofball.
Piranha’s office is delightfully creepy with wall-to-wall Luke Cage memorabilia and Luke’s reaction—pointing out the questionable provenance of some of the gear and where it came from—is perfect.
Luke’s job, an appearance at a party Piranha throws to celebrate the Atreus Plastics deal, is a tragicomic view of what a real celebrity hero might look like.
Jones bought one of Luke’s bullet-riddled hoodies (or at least a realistic facsimile of one) and insisted that he wear it to the party. This sets up a comedic one-two punch when Luke says “Goddam cosplay” after he puts it on and then stuffs a dollar in Pop’s swear jar.
Luke is swarmed with guests wielding cell phones, all scrambling to get a selfie with him. One of the partygoers attacks Luke with a bottle so that he can get video and is hailed as a hero by his friends.
It’s a well-executed bit of social commentary 21st Century celebrity and an innovative riff on what we’ve already seen with the Harlem’s Hero App and the ESPN appearances.
But while this storyline provides us with some laughs, it advances the plot too. It’s Luke’s first encounter with the Hero for Hire business, and he almost refers to it as such, and it puts him back in the midst of Mariah’s business. We also see Luke show a little bit of business savvy he proves to be a better negotiator than Foggy.
3. Glenn Industries?
Seeing Foggy play a big part in this episode, and then hearing another reference to “Glenn Industries” made me think.
Are we going to see a new love interest for Matt Murdock in the run of Daredevil? Heather Glenn was Matt’s girlfriend for a long time in the comics, and they were nearly married. She inherited her father’s business—you guessed it—Glenn Industries. She had a lot of trouble with her inheritance when she found out that they had a subsidiary that was involved in illegal activity.
It was named Atreus Plastics
4. Misty reminisces.
The fallout from Scarfe’s corruption continues. Cockroach was released because of his tainted cases, and Misty feels responsible. Through a series of flashbacks, we see Scarfe plant evidence on Cockroach, and how Misty missed because of her trust in her partner.
The flashbacks are framed with Misty looking at Cockroach’s old case file, and then poignantly when Misty finds one of his whiskey bottles in her desk.
Parts of the sequences are gut-wrenching, especially when Scarfe more or less tells Misty what he’s been doing, by explaining how to frame a suspect, and then laughs it off as a joke. Simone Missick’s performance in this scene is incredibly effective; we see her shock when Scarfe lays out his plan, and then her sadness when we return to the present and her holding the whiskey bottle as she remembers the conversation.
Continued belowMisty makes a fateful decision, and it contradicts a lot of what we’ve learned about her character. I’m not sure how I feel about it and how she got off the hook because of someone else’s actions. I’m curious to see how this is handled in the next few episodes.
Either way, Misty is this series’ second lead, not a supporting character.
5. Mariah is still a threat.
Alfre Woodard makes it hard to tell when Mariah is lying and when she believes the stuff she’s shoveling. At times I want to think that she really wants to give back to her community, but then a look askance or an offhand remark reminds me of who she really is.
Mariah is a master at manipulation that manages to sell a moral dilemma to Tilda where there isn’t one.
“Now I am a legit philanthropist, that’s the American way girl.” She says, trying to downplay where her money comes from and position herself as morally superior to her mother and grandmother.
Tilda is wise to her games and wants out. However, events at the close of the episode are going to change this dynamic.
Mariah is still more than a target for Bushmaster. She’s a significant player in this story, and we have two fascinating villains vying for control and screen time.
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“All Souled Out” is a memorable episode, with character growth and important plot development. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
