Sunday, June 12, 2022

'Luke Cage' Season 2, Episode 9: 'For Pete's Sake'

 



With Bushmaster gunning for them, Luke and the others hide out in a Rand pharmaceutical center that is about to be opened until they can come up with a concrete plan.

This, not surprisingly, leads to a more dialogue driven episode.  It works extremely well as the characters all bounce off each other in fascinating and entertaining ways.  Both the script and the cast bring their A-game so each scene stands out.  You'd think that there would be a highlight or two, but just about every scene works and keeps you engaged for the episode's whole duration.

Misty and Mariah clashing is, of course, fun to watch.  You could almost put those two in a room and just have that be the episode as they are both capable of some pretty amazing snark.  It gets to the point where Misty is on the verge of outright attacking Mariah, but Luke breaks it up before it can start.

Another highlight comes from the fact that we see characters who wouldn't seem to sync up interact.  Luke's dad gets solid scenes with both Mariah and her daughter.  The prior is especially notable as Mariah seems to drop her guard and open up about parenting.  It's a really good scene, even though Mariah is later shown to have just been trying to get the guy's cell phone to make a call.  A later conversation shows that the deception goes even further, as Mariah reveals that she has no love for her daughter and with understandable reason.

The episode does culminate with a big action climax, as Bushmaster and his squad storm the building.  Again, just about everybody gets a chance to shine here.  Luke and Bushmaster face off again, with Luke taking the win, though Bushmaster does give him a hell of a fight.  Misty herself gets to face off against some mooks, and while Mariah doesn't throw hands like the aforementioned characters, she does get her hands on a high-powered assault rifle and dishes out some pain and payback of her own.

While Bushmaster does end up in cuffs and police custody, you kind of figure that it's not going to stick.  This isn't the season finale.  Sure enough, he escapes.  There are obvious parallels to Fisk's but the scene still works really well.  It doesn't feel like a rehash.  The story Bushmaster tells is equally compelling and Mustafa Shakir does a great job delivering it.

This was a very strong episode and coming down to the final four is bittersweet.  On the one hand, this is gaining some serious steam.  On the other, I have quite a few other shows to get through in order to get caught up. Still, it's going to be interesting to see how things play out going forward.









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