The season, and alas, the series comes to an end. On the plus side, it ends on a high note, delivering an entertaining and compelling conclusion to the proceedings.
At first, I thought that the episode would focus on the trial of Mariah, but that was only the beginning. She does get to deliver a good speech about the role that she plays in Harlem when trying to get the judge to reconsider bail at her arraignment. It turns out that she was Harlem's "Guild of Calamitous Intent", bringing a sort of order to the city's crime element. She even makes a subtle nod to "A Few Good Men" in the process. Sure enough, with her gone, things do start to get crazier and more violent, as various gangs try to swoop in on the now open turf.
Admittedly, this assertion is somewhat undercut by the fact that she herself was starting to break the "rules" of the "game", but it did make for some fascinating plot development.
While Mariah spends the rest of the episode in prison (awaiting her trial), she still plays a pretty significant role in the plot. She not only mirrors Fisk in asserting her dominance in the prison, but also shows herself to be a power player by having her own people taken out, lest they follow in Shades' footsteps and turn snitch.
A lot of the episode's highlights feature Mariah in some capacity. She has some great scenes with Shades, Tilda, and even Luke.
Luke's arc here is...weird. They really want to sell the idea that Luke now has to become the thing he hates, but I don't really buy it. Even with Mariah leaving him the club, everybody acts like he has to become a gangster. DW abandons him and tells him to take his superhero activity elsewhere. Mariah herself clearly states that her intent in doing this is to draw him to the dark side, as it were.
The thing is, though, he could make it a legitimate business, and the fact that he removed the Biggie poster and replaced it with something else does show that he intends to change things.
Yes, the episode also shows him meeting with a mafia don to "broker a deal", but even that "deal" was more of a "this territory is under my protection, stay the hell out" than it was anything crime related. I mean, the Doctor tells enemy aliens that all the time.
Sure enough, when Misty confronts him, Luke does say that crime is on the decline and that he is in the process of steering things in the right direction. He even tells Misty that he's counting on her to keep him honest in his goings on here. That doesn't really sound like somebody who is turning heel. Nevertheless, that "Godfather" nod was a nice touch.
Overall, this was a solid ending. It managed to balance action, drama, character, and even threw in a few bits of humor in there for good measure. That's what you like to see; not just from a finale, but from any episode in general.
It's kind of a shame that the show didn't get a third season as there were plenty of seeds planted for another arc. Who knows, maybe Luke will make a return to the MCU. It does seem like Disney is working to better integrate the earlier shows into the bigger picture, but we'll see how things play out.
For now, though, it's kind of good to check another show off the list. Up next, the second season of everybody's favorite hero, Iron Fist.
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