"Now we've got a hero for hire, and he's a black one."
Full spoilers for Marvel's Luke Cage continue below.
Marvel's Luke Cage wants to make sure you understand just how special it is to have a bulletproof black man as a superhero, and it underlined it again and again in the second-to-last episode of Season 1. There even was a rap about it!
While there's nothing wrong with a neatly tied up ending, some of the more interesting elements of the season were lacking in "Soliloquy of Chaos." Even the writing felt a bit too on the nose, with the Method Man (yes, Luke Cage's love for Wu Tang Clan resulted in a cameo!) basically speaking -- and rapping -- for showrunner Cheo Coker in running down the key points he wants people to take away from the show. That lack of subtlety took me out of the story during that portion of the episode.
After a great string of episodes, "Soliloquy of Chaos" focused more on moving all the right pieces into place in a fairly straightforward manner. Diamondback moved into the final phase of his master plan (his own superpowered suit, it seems) while trying (and ultimately failing, though he didn't know that) to eliminate his competition, Domingo and Shades. He also tried to put Mariah in her place by buying off her support, but that backfired as she and Shades teamed up to convince Luke Cage to defeat his half-brother.
From the beginning, Luke Cage was a show where the primary objective wasn't saving the world but rather saving the neighborhood. That remains the case as we head into the finale, as everything seems to be relatively smaller in scale. Diamondback might want to run Harlem, but he's more interested in getting his final revenge on Luke. Though that's a fine way to end a show, the momentum and tension going into that final battle has fizzled out a bit, and there wasn't much focus on saving the neighborhood beyond Method Man's comments earlier in the episode that there's a war brewing between the streets and the police.
Meanwhile the previously complicated police side of things also seems to be moving toward a simple ending, with Candace coming to Misty and confessing everything. Is Candace going to get axed before Misty can protect her? Either way, she has her confession, and Mariah's presence with Shades should be more than enough to convict her. Case closed, Luke redeemed.
With one episode left, I'm hoping Luke Cage still has some surprises left up its sleeve to offer a unique and satisfying conclusion representative of the hero it's bringing to life.
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The Verdict
The penultimate episode of Season 1 was more interested in setting up the final episode than offering more intriguing storytelling, and its fairly straightforward plot progression diminished what has otherwise been a great season.
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