What I’m Watching: Luke Cage

Luke Cage: Season 2, Episode 8 “If It Ain’t Rough, It Ain’t Right” (B+)

We’ve reached a point where everyone in Harlem is on the defensive, with Bushmaster hiring assassins to take out Mariah and Tilda in plain sight of police officers and right in front of the precinct. The episode’s ending was particularly indicative of where things stand right now, with Misty and Nandi, formerly at each other’s throats, rushing in to save Mariah and Tilda with Luke right behind them, finding these cops, vigilantes, and criminals teaming up against a real threat that doesn’t respect any kind of code. It’s particularly disturbing these days to see men with guns walk into a house of worship and start firing, but fortunately that kind of action in this show just results in Luke taking them out before they can do any damage and even the reverend getting a good hit in because of the audacity of these attackers to choose to disrupt his church service. I do like when Misty recreates crime scenes, something that we haven’t seen in a while, and she seems completely certain that her good friend Tom couldn’t have killed Comanche. Shades is feeling somewhat conflicted about his actions with Comanche, stopping by to see his mother and contemplating whether Mariah has what it takes to stay on top. With five episodes left in this season, I don’t think Bushmaster is standing down anytime soon, but we’ve now reached a place where literally everyone else in this show’s world is lining up to take the Jamaican down and save Harlem from his influence.