In Episode 11 of Luke Cage Season 2, we see John McIver’s past, how he became Bushmaster, the Stokes family in Jamaica, and an intriguing confrontation between Luke and Bushmaster.
Here are five thoughts about “The Creator.”
1. The Real Creator
This season’s episode titles are all taken from songs by Pete Rock & CL Smooth. A few times the titles were on the nose, a few others they were more subtle. This title is dead on.
“The Creator” shows us what we would call Bushmaster’s “origin” if it were in a comic. While the source of John McIver’s abilities is the combination of an unknown vaccination (an illegal trial?) and nightshade, his real creator is Mabel Stokes.
After Buggy killed John’s father, Quincy, Mabel killed McIver’s mother. She was on the scene and probably threw one of the burning bottles into the McIver’s shack. (I wish they said those bottles had rum and not gasoline in them. Would have been an excellent way to make Mariah’s actions look even more like her grandmother’s.)
Bushmaster has dedicated himself to taking his revenge on “The Stokes,” but the people responsible for his misery are dead, and the target of his attack is a victim too.
Mabel created Mariah. Mariah’s “origin” has been playing out for us over two seasons. But when we see her confront her memory of Mabel in “The Creator” it’s clear that Mariah has decided to be a better Mama Mabel than the original, even going as far as breaking the family rule against dealing drugs.
Pete molested Mariah, and that profoundly affected her, but the lesson she took away from Mabel was to have him killed. (And of course, he was really killed for making side deals.) So even as Pete played a critical part in making Mariah who she is, Mabel made her something even worse.
Even Tilda is unable to escape Mabel’s orbit. She went to medical school, became a doctor, and then started a business more in keeping with her beliefs. But not one, but two of Mabel’s creations sucked her right back into the family drama.
Mabel Stokes is “the big bad” in the Cage-verse. Her influence is everywhere; even on Shades and Diamondback.
“The Creator” establishes this season as a tragedy, with two villains that are tied together in ways they would deny if asked.
2. Crises of Conscience
Sugar walked away from Mariah in the last episode. Seeing how Anansi was treated up until that point was too much for him; he didn’t even see the massacre. As soon as he heard about it, he went to Luke and offered to help take down Mariah.
Shades, after killing Zip last season, Comanche this season, participating in the massacre at Gwen’s, and then learning that Mariah was going to enter the drugs trade, finally had enough. The first time we see him, he’s doing a poor man’s Lady Macbeth, attempting to wash the guilt from his hands. The remorseless killer can’t kill anymore.
The difference between the two men speaks volumes. If you want to stretch the creator theme a little, you can say that Mariah created two defectors with her excesses. She’s changed the direction of the Dillard (Stokes!) empire a great deal in a short time and driven away two of her trusted soldiers.
I’ve been critical of Shades in past reviews. I see now what the writers were trying to do, but I am still unsatisfied with the execution.
We’ll see where this ends. I hope he’s gone by the end of the season and not around for season three.
3. Villains
In the best superhero stories, we come for the heroes and stay for the villains.
Marvel gets this: Loki, Zemo, James SpUltron, Thanos, Kilgrave, Killmonger, to name just a few. Meanwhile, DC…but I digress.
Now we have Bushmaster, Mariah, and Mabel Stokes.
I’ve compared Bushmaster to Killmonger several times, and this episode finishes the cycle. They are both villains whose only sin is not overcoming adversity. Both men make you wonder: what would you do?
“The right thing to do. The wrong thing to do. You think too simply, Luke Cage,” Bushmaster says to Luke in the scene that made him a first-class villain. The two men meet in the morgue by Anansi’s body in a calm that is sure to be followed by a storm.
Continued belowBlack Panther managed to make the villain’s death scene a tear-jerker. I didn’t think anything was going come close to that for a long time, but Luke Cage is there.
Bushmaster benefits from getting much more screen time than Killmonger could in a 2+ hour movie, but Mustafa Shakir’s performance makes this character the same way Michael B. Jordan made Killmonger.
Luke hears many times that he and Bushmaster are alike or “not so different,” as Bushmaster puts it. That is where this season of Luke Cage and Black Panther intersect. There are many similarities between Luke and McIver, just as there are between T’Challa and N’Jadaka. But unlike the movie, McIver is struggling to take a throne that Luke has no interest in occupying.
Mariah is a first-class villain, too. Alfre Woodard’s scenery-chewing makes the character tough to empathize with, but that’s part of what makes her great. She transformed from a reluctant ganglord that sold her business to go legit and leave Harlem, to a Stokes that is doubling down on guns and drugs in a bid to take over the entire city. She drove Shades away and to the police when she mocked his relationship with Comanche.
And of course, there’s Mama Mabel, whose legacy lives on. She’s Harlem’s immortal deity.
4. Police Work
With the stupidity that is Nandi’s betrayal behind her, Misty goes back to being a good cop. It was refreshing to see her track down the gun that killed Anansi. I’d rather she be an independent investigator, but if she is going to stay on the force, seeing her do things that make sense are preferable to the silliness before.
5. Casting
The casting in the flashback scenes in Jamaica was spot on. For example, even without his name being mentioned, I immediately recognized young Ben Donovan. The attention to detail in this show never fails to please.
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In “The Creator” Luke Cage leveled up. What do you think of it?
