The tragic story of Cornell Stokes.
Full spoilers for Luke Cage's seventh episode continue below.
So I was a little wrong and a lot right about the way Luke Cage would handle its villains. Cottonmouth's incarceration lasted about as long as it took to load up a new episode of the Netflix show, proving that Luke's big win lacked a lot of punch. But much like episode 4 (my second favorite of the season so far) offered an inside look into the origin of Luke Cage, episode 7 gave us a deeper understanding of why Cornell and Mariah are who they are.
One of my favorite elements of the show that I plan to get into deeper in the full season review is showrunner Cheo Coker's use of music. We frequently catch up with Cottonmouth as he's vetting performers for his club, and more often than not those sequences are intercut with big action. Instead of just being the soundtrack of the show, the music is part of its DNA, just like we find out it's a part of Cornell's. He should have gone to Juilliard; he has the soul of a musician, not a killer. It's been bugging me throughout the season how ineffective Cottonmouth has been as a big bad despite all his bluster, and finally we find out definitively that it's because he really isn't cut out for this type of work.
Cornell Stokes sees himself as a Biggie, as evidenced by the fact that he has a massive painting of the late rapper hanging in his office and the frequent framing of shots to show him as wearing Biggie's crown. But it's something that never fit comfortably on him; both he and Mariah are plagued by the legacy of Mama Mabel, a legacy that neither of them fully wanted to carry. Those flashbacks and the non-linear manner in which they were rolled out was some of the most effective storytelling of the season, and when Mariah finally dealt the killing blow, I was shocked even though her ascension to power has been pretty well choreographed.
Legacy is a big part of the Cornell storyline. For Cornell, he wanted to be the same type of gangster he idealized in the Notorious B.I.G. For Mariah, she wanted to leave behind a better Harlem. But both of them tried to do so by ignoring their own legacy, and sweep the darkness of Mama Mable under the rug. Mable's biggest lesson to them was that family is most important, always, but she said that after she made Cornell kill his uncle, and after letting Pete abuse his niece for an indefinite period of time. That lesson was tainted from the start, and it culminated in the way it fractured when Cornell and Mariah were at their lowest.
While that's compelling enough on its own, Shades' involvement in facilitating it, in knowing the anger brooding beneath Mariah's surface and the way Cottonmouth was lacking, added an interesting complication. Theo Rossi has been delivering a quiet performance all season, but it's clear there's much more to him than what we've seen. He's a conduit for bigger things to come, and the moment Cornell overstepped too much was when he stepped in. Is this still Diamondback pulling strings behind the scenes, or is this Shades working on his own? And with Cornell dead, who was the person who hired the gunman at the end of the episode?
Partway through the episode it seemed like Luke's biggest threat was Cornell's threat that he would send "Carl Lucas" back to Seagate, but with Cottonmouth dead at Mariah's hand that now seems to be neutralized. Still, Shades and Diamonback have the same option if they want to get Luke back behind bars, and Misty Knight and the Harlem PD seem like they're on the right track to figuring out who "Luke Cage" really is. But the more pressing threat is the bulletproof superhero is no longer bulletproof halfway through Season 1. Lucky for him there's a helpful and capable nurse standing right next to him (one who has a "lawyer friend," no less), but unlucky for him there's a whole mess of people who would like to use his new vulnerability to take him down.
The Verdict
In Luke Cage's best episode yet, the veil gets drawn back on Cornell Stokes and Mariah Dillard to some tragic results. It's a credit to stars Mahershala Ali and Alfre Woodard and director Andy Goddard that the reveals with these characters were so effective. Cottonmouth's death was especially well-choreographed and acted, so it came across as a surprise even as it was inevitable.
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