Episode seven of Luke Cage Season Two, “On and On” puts confrontation front-and-center. Things finally come to a head between Mariah and Bushmaster, Comanche and Shades, and Luke and his father.
1. Luke confronts his father.
Luke’s life flashes before his eyes, and we see visions of his mother, his transformation at Seagate, and Reva. Finally, an image of his father shouting at wakes him up and saves his life.
Luke says that he believes God was speaking to him and had a message and for a moment it seems like he went through a rebirth.
But when he speaks to his father that night, his focuses is on the last time he saw his mother, and why it was the last time. We learn that he has a good reason to be upset with his father and he is having a problem letting go. His experience at the bridge may have changed him and his attitude toward being a hero, but little has changed with his father.
Luke and James’ relationship is complex and layered. James acts as if he still the father, insisting on calling Luke “Carl,” chiding him for his language, and even snaps “you need to get that bass outta your voice” at his son like he’s still a teenager. He calls Luke an “angry little boy” and he’s not entirely wrong.
Luke is often prepared to treat his father as an equal but slips into deference a few times. He nearly pleads for an answer while he tells his father why he can’t forgive him. He’s torn and doesn’t know what to do.
2. Shades confronts his own weakness.
It’s clear there is a snitch in Mariah’s camp, and the search is on. Comanche attempts to put Shades off the scent, but the moment I feared arrives when Comanche is caught red-handed.
“I was gonna get us both out,” Comanche says.
Shades and Comanche briefly reminisce about hot dogs and “that time at Coney Island,” and I thought of Cap and Bucky’s memory of hot dogs at Rockaway Beach. It was a poignant moment and almost started to humanize Shades.
But Shades didn’t want out and says the saddest thing I’ve heard in a long time: “I didn’t see the snitch in you. What the hell does that say about me?”
I guess I am supposed to dislike him. Mission accomplished.
Later, he appears to be mourning as he watches the fire at Mariah’s brownstone.
But what is he mourning?
3. Mariah confronts the Mabel Stokes in her.
Mariah goes a little crazy when she learns that Piranha is missing and Shades’ crew can’t find him. Her empire disintegrates, and she reverts to an angry caricature of her grandmother before our eyes.
She tries to act like a mother to Tilda, but it’s her daughter who is the adult in the room. Mariah’s response to her daughter advice to get out is meaningless talk about “building greatness from nothing” and “nobody pushes us off” but it’s not bad dialog, it’s her character.
When the going gets tough, Mariah falls back into her childhood. Bushmaster was right; Mariah Stokes.
And we see how that works out for her.
4. Bushmaster confronts Mariah
Anansi tries to convince his nephew to change his ways again. Bushmaster has Mariah’s money, and he has the respect of his men; what more does he want?
Bushmaster never answers a question directly. He tells stories. Mustafa Shakir’s Patois rises and falls as he tells us a tale about his mother. Even though he starts out a good distance from the point of Anansi’s question, we know by now that he’ll get there, and he does.
“You can’t drown sorrow with tears. If you want to erase sorrow you must burn it,” he says.
And that’s what he does. He burns his sorrow.
We witness Bushmaster at Mariah’s brownstone and Luke’s with his father in parallel. The themes of confrontation and forgiveness play out as they both make their case for how they have been wronged.
The weaving of the two scenes is perfect. The men tell us how they lost their mothers and when they last saw them. Luke’s father begs for forgiveness, Mariah begs for her life. The similarities are drawn, but the differences are etched into stark relief as we see Bushmaster untouched and Luke almost in tears.
Continued belowMariah begs for her life but, notably, not for Tilda’s.
Earlier I said Bushmaster was no Killmonger. He’s getting there. Before he sets the room on fire, he frees Tilda and says “Let’s see if you’re a better daughter than I was a son.”
And we learn who he really has to forgive.
5. We confront the Fourth Wall
“Who says you’re not my sidekick?” Misty ask Luke after he tells her he’s not in the market for one.
“Me. It’s my show,” Luke says.
That was funny, but this isn’t Deadpool.
Really. Please. Let’s not be Deadpool.
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In “On and On” we said goodbye to a couple of supporting characters while Bushmaster took Harlem. What are your thoughts?
