Monday, July 18, 2022

'Luke Cage' Season 2, Episode 10: 'The Main Ingredient'

 



The long-awaited reunion between Luke and Danny Rand finally arrives.  The defender of K'un L'un pops in to offer Luke some backup in regard to Bushmaster. 

Oddly enough, Bushmaster doesn't appear at all in this episode.  It's explained in universe as him laying low and recovering from the events of the previous episode.  Still, seeing a 2 on 1 fight where Luke and Danny take him on would have been cool to see.  I guess that's why they had Luke win the last round, to cement that a "team up" wasn't really necessary.    

Instead, Danny offers more in the way of mental and spiritual guidance.  Given his background, it's not that out of place.  It is a little odd, as Luke has mended fences with his dad, so you'd think that he'd already be on the way to a calmer and more assured mindset.  

In any event, it does give the two a chance to shine, as the bond between them remains as strong as it did when they met up back in 'The Defenders'.  They do get a somewhat perfunctory team up fight against some generic mooks when they raid Bushmaster's Nightshade garden.  Even though they never confront him directly, they did deliver a blow of sorts by taking away his source of strength.  Of course, we also know that the plant has severe detrimental side effects, so in a way, they're also doing Bushmaster a favor.

Where Bushmaster remains absent, Mariah steps up in spades.  We see her get her fortune back, but that's only the first step as she delivers a blow of her own to the rival criminal.  It gets to the point where even her underlings are having second thoughts.  One straight up walks off and quits and even Shades gives a horrified look as Mariah unleashes her fury.  Considering he's the one who talked her into embracing the gangster lifestyle, that's quite telling.  He probably should have kept his mouth shut and just let her start her new life as a philanthropist, but hindsight is 20/20.  

Alfre Woodard delivers performance wise.  This season has really given her plenty more to work with and she's been knocking it out of the park.  

Sadly, Misty doesn't get as good a deal.  She's left pursuing Nandi for her snitching.  You'd think that this would allow Misty to use her detective skills, but Nandi basically left a trail of large, easily seen breadcrumbs to follow.  It's almost like she wanted to get caught.

Even the interrogation of Nandi by Misty isn't as good as others the show has presented.  The two apparently go way back, but that relationship wasn't really fleshed out enough for the scene to land the way the writers might have hoped.  Credit where it's due, though, Nandi does get to call out Misty for the immunity deal she had cooked up.  It gave Nandi a little more validity and nuance than the typical dirty snitch cop usually gets.

All in all, this was a solid episode.  A little oddly placed, but it managed to work out pretty well.  It brought Mariah's villainy to the forefront, gave Luke some character development and saw a nice little mini-superhero team up.  It's an hour pretty well spent in my opinion.








Click here to open an E-Trade account

Click here to open a RobinHood account

Click here to become a Swagbucks member

Click here to open a FundRise account

No comments:

Post a Comment