The first season hits its penultimate episode. It's a slower, quieter affair than you might expect, but it isn't without its highlights.
It was rather interesting to see Diamondback's entourage all slowly turn on him. They all have their own individual reasons for their respective betrayals, but it worked well. Granted, you kind of knew that Diamondback's survival was a foregone conclusion, given that he's the main villain, but it was still fun to watch.
The shootout with Domingo's gang made for a solid action set piece and we also get to see Mariah and Shades attempt to recruit Luke in order to take out a common enemy. It's a common comic book trope, but it does allow Mariah to indulge her inner politician, as she tries to broker a deal. Luckily, Shades has evidence that can work to clear Luke's name, so they have a valid carrot to offer to their one time adversary in exchange for his cooperation. It was a nice, tense scene that was fitting for the episode's closing minutes.
Shades as a whole was a standout this episode. His taunting of the cops during his time in custody was entertaining. He also gets to overpower Zip and two mooks when they are tasked with taking him out for his earlier insubordination. I was expecting him to bite the dust, but he got to turn the tables in rather glorious fashion.
Sadly, I think Diamondback was a weak link here. He was in the episode, but I don't think he actually did anything of note for a vast majority of the episode. It's surprising as Harvey was usually a highlight for most of the episodes that he's been in.
One highlight, however, was Method Man. Now, this cameo has been built up and praised quite a bit already, suffice it to say, it lives up to the hype. The fact that he's playing himself, as opposed to some nameless guy in a convenience store, works to the episode's advantage as both a robber and Luke stop to gush over his musical work. It also leads to a later radio interview where Method Man vouches for Luke and even delivers a free style rap in his honor.
It's kind of weird how Luke is still viewed as a public enemy at this point. It seems like more than enough people have spoken up in such a fashion as to break the narrative that Diamondback tried to build. At the same time, people aren't wrong to call him out on running when it would seem he had no reason to.
Also weird is the fact that Claire isn't in the episode at all. This is despite the fact that her name appears in the credits. Up to this point, the credits in these shows have only listed characters who appeared in the individual episode, so it was an odd turn. Granted, considering how many balls this episode had to juggle, having another character probably would have been a detriment, but it did get my hopes up and proceeded to dash them.
As to the cliffhanger, I wasn't a fan. Having Diamondback barge in on the conspirators worked, but his new "power suit" is underwhelming. I get that they want to give Luke a physical challenge, but I'm not sold.
I also get what they were trying to do having the screen cut to black just before the fight started, but for some reason it came off more corny than jaw dropping.
We're down to the finale. While I'm sure that the confrontation with Diamondback will be fun, I'm actually looking forward to seeing if they lay down any teases for "The Defenders". Granted, we still have "Iron Fist" in March for that, but I think it would make for a nice episode closer to tease that. While there is a second season coming, I don't expect to see any sort of sequel hook as it hadn't been approved at that point. Of course, I could be wrong, so I guess I'll just have to watch and see how it all plays out.
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