A hero in the open.
Full spoilers for Marvel's Luke Cage's fifth episode continues below.
Finally, we're getting to the good stuff. All of the best parts of Marvel's Luke Cage came together in its fifth episode, as Luke stood up as a hero and fought for the sake of Harlem. Like Daredevil was about saving Hell's Kitchen, so Luke Cage is simply about Luke standing up for the people of Harlem. Here, there's no confusing the two sides of this battle. Luke and Cornell Stokes are not only aware of one another, but the people of Hell's Kitchen are aware that there are two sides to this fight.
The bulk of this episode featured Cottonmouth trying to turn the people against Luke, and within an episode our hero was -- seemingly -- able to win them over. Luke's big coming out party at the end of the last episode let the people of Harlem now know to come to him when they have an issue. Cottonmouth's big plan was to send them all running to him and have him disappoint them, which didn't work out quite the way he planned.
Cottonmouth is spiraling pretty quickly this season, which seems like it's just paving the way for Diamondback to show up and set things right. As a big bad, Cornell Stokes seems to be pretty ineffective; he's compelling as a character, but beyond the first few episodes lost a lot of his bite. His relationship with Shades has become pretty interesting, especially now that Shades knows Luke Cage = Carl Lucas, but this episode really underlined how the power dynamic has shifted to Luke being the one with the upper hand. Now Cottonmouth knows about the bullets that work on superheroes, but even that doesn't seem like a big enough McGuffin to make us concerned for Luke.
Claire Temple finally showed up more than a third of the way into Season 1. While Misty Knight is a compelling enough leading lady all on her own, it's welcome to have Claire back in the mix. Her big revelation to her mother in this episode is that she wants to be a nurse for powered people, like she was with Matt Murdoch and, previously, Luke.
Luke Cage: Season 1 does a much better job with picking up her story in the aftermath of Daredevil than it did carrying over Luke's from Jessica Jones, and you can feel how the Hand's attack on the hospital left a deep impact on her. There's still a slow burn with the storytelling in reconnecting her with Luke, but that's a relationship to look forward to the show exploring.
The recurring themes and topics of Marvel's Luke Cage are coming to the forefront five episodes in. The music is exceptional, both the score and the in-episode song choices. Intercutting violent scenes with performances at Stokes' club is a smart stylistic choice by showrunner Cheo Coker, heightening both and bringing through the heart of Harlem.
That was especially underlined in this episode when one of Cottonmouth's lackeys mentioned how he was reading a book about the politics that led to the rise of hip hop. It's an intentional irony that Cornell has a massive painting of Biggie hanging in his office yet he had a deaf ear for the legacy of hip hop and how it could apply to his situation. Contrast that with Luke, who is constantly reminding himself and those he's with about the legacy of black Americans, particularly those who came out of Harlem.
In the show, it's Pop's legacy that hangs a large shadow over Harlem, and over Luke's journey. He is still deciding what type of hero to be himself; currently, he's a man of the people. He won them over to his side, but how long will that last? What sort of target has he put on his back now that they know a superhero is in their midst? What sort of trouble is he brewing with Cottonmouth, who preaches that he stands for the neighborhood but is quick to demolish a street corner with a rocket launcher when it suits him? Luke Cage is just getting more compelling as it brings its titular hero out into the open.
The Verdict
Marvel's Luke Cage is getting to the good stuff as we get into the second act of the season. Now that Luke is out in the open as a hero, he's in new territory. Coker was smart to not show us another superhero show where the villain and hero are hiding from each other or from the public; it's far more interesting to see them battling it out with words in front of the city they're sworn to protect instead of in the shadows. Bringing Claire Temple into the mix also promises good things to come as Luke's story gets more complicated.
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