'Luke Cage' Season 2, Episode 8: 'If it Ain't Rough, It Ain't Right'

 

The show may have jumped streaming services, but we continue on.  

I did have to play a bit of mental catch up, as it has been a while.  The episode does take its time before moving forward.  It works, as characters are mourning losses; so, a slower, more somber tone is more appropriate.

Overall, the episode is still largely dialogue driven.  The police interrogations actually are a highlight for the episode.  Mariah and Misty clash quite nicely and the detective also manages to give Shades a run for his money as she quickly picks up how things went down with Comanche and Ridenhour.

Most of the characters do get highlight moments, but Mariah likely comes out the episode's MVP.  Her character goes through an emotional gauntlet and Woodard pretty much nails all of it.  Oddly enough, the one weak bit was when she was supposed to be genuinely shocked by Ridenhour's death.  Her big no fell flat, which is ironic as it was supposed to indicate the opposite.  Still, Mariah endures fear, anger, potential betrayal, and her trademark confidence all within the span of 40 or so minutes.  It's impressive.

The scene where she and Shades clash is another highlight for the episode.  It seems like a wedge is going to be driven between the two, but their bond endures.  I could have honestly seen it go the other way.  It's a little jarring, but seeing Shades go back to motivating Mariah to get her gangster groove back was still pretty heartwarming in its own weird way.

Luke himself is largely relegated to the sidelines.  He gets some hero moments, but there's a lot of other stuff going on and he takes it upon himself to go make sure his dad is safe.  To his dad's credit, he doesn't flinch when Luke says that gangsters are gunning for him.

In fact, when the gangsters do make their move (apparently forgetting any rules about killing on hallowed ground), he beats one down as retribution for shooting his son.  Yeah, Luke is bullet proof, but it was still a noble and heartwarming sentiment, and an awesome moment in general.

I don't know if I'd mark this as a stand-out episode, but it definitely has its strong suits.  It moves at a brisk pace and there are plenty of solid character moments.  The finale also makes good with the action as the shootouts are pretty tense.

The episode ends with Luke suggesting that they call Danny for a favor.  It would be a cool hook, except that Danny doesn't show up until the episode after next.  I guess we'll have to wait and see what the favor was, then. 

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You're Chad? I'm Whelmed

 The "Chad" archetype is designed to instill a sense of defeatist resignation, right?  He is the top 10% tier "high value man" whose "sexual market value" (so...power level?) is so high that you can't hope to compete.  To wit, you don't even register on a woman's dating scouter...radar.

If you look at what Chad actually brings to the table though, it's not a lot.  Abs and money...that's... it.  Anybody can bring that to the table.  If this is supposed to be some unbeatable adversary, I'm not impressed.  Furthermore, as far as foundational building blocks for a strong, happy, healthy, long-lasting relationship go; those things suck.  

You have to wonder if, on some level, the "manosphere" knows what a weaksauce opponent Chad really is.  I mean, even within the confines of their own narrative, he's constantly losing to the...what do they call 'em?  Oh, right, the uh "beta-simps". 

No, Dave, they're not "losing"; the women are settling because they can't get him

Are they, though?  Chad's an over-valued asset who doesn't have staying power.  Is it any surprise that women eventually drop him for something more substantive?  With his metrics, you could easily argue that a woman would be settling by staying with that.  If you're going to go "all in" would you want to do it with Gamestop or Proctor & Gamble?

OK, so Chad is a bush-league, two-bit, punk @$$ honky; should we put the kaibosh on him?  Hard as it may be to believe, I say, no.  There actually is a way we can use this phantom figure to our benefit and that is by reversing his polarity.

Rather than use him as a tool to engrain passive defeatism (honestly, hasn't progressive post-capitalism done more than enough of that already?) he should be used as a motivational tool.  Make him your "Kakarot" figure; the one you push yourself to surpass and transcend.  Maybe it benefits your dating/love life, maybe it doesn't, either way you still come out ahead.

The key takeaway here, though, is that Chad is a goober and you can totally take him.

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'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 4, Episode 12: 'The Eggplant, The Witch, and the Wardrobe'

 

With Heywood Sr. out of the way, Neron moves onto the next phase of his plan, which involves abducting Ava and possessing her so that he can have control of the Time Bureau and its resources (more specifically, all the captive monsters.)

Suffice it to say, Sara is not fond of this plan.  As such, she resolves to descend into Ava's own personal purgatory to get her soul back.  Constantine is not initially on board with the plan but does eventually decide to go along.  

Sara does acknowledge her own experience of coming back from the dead and retrieving her soul, but it turns out that this is a completely different kind of endeavor.  As this is Ava's own purgatory, it involves a lot more metaphors that represent her own doubts, fears, and anxieties.  It's a little on the nose at points, but it provides the necessary character insight and does allow the two characters to work past them to reforge their damaged relationship.  The whole shopping/megastore setting could have been cringe, but the episode actually made it work.

On the flip side, the Nate/Nora reunion isn't what it could have been.  After building up the idea that her presence has to be kept secret, the crew is made aware and doesn't really seem all that bothered by it.  Even Nate relents surprisingly quickly.  I guess he trusts Ray, but you'd think they'd want to maintain that tension for at least a little while.  He just kind of shrugs and goes back to what he was doing.

He does get some degree of closure, though.  While Nate initially wants to shut the theme park down, he decides to keep it going, coming to view it as something that made his dad a better man.  It does still seem like a pretty bad idea.  Nate himself even kinda/sorta makes the "Jurassic Park" comparison, but ultimately, the idea will live on.  What comes of it? It's hard to tell at this point.

The other main source of conflict comes from Neron himself, who is pretty easily captured by the remaining legends.  However, much like Madam Gao, this actually works to his advantage as he can wreak mental havoc on crew members, stirring up anger, creating tension, and escalating already existing ones.

Nate comes close to making things more difficult for the team.  It makes sense, as he is angry over the death of his father, but the team is able to talk him down.  Oddly enough, it's Ray who messes things up.  In his defense, he didn't know what was happening, but him walking in distracted people, which allowed Neron to escape  

While it wasn't initially clear what happened, the episode's closing wham moment lets us know just what happened to Neron after that big explosion.  It turns out that he had jumped into Ray's body.  The bit was well done, with a dog viciously attempting to attack Ray.  It's odd at first, but once he starts whistling, you know what's happening.

There's only four episodes left in the season.  Neron is still on the loose and the episode even hints at some sort of demonic partner named Tabitha.  What she has to do with the endgame isn't clear, but that's something to be uncovered later, as we move closer to the finale.    

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