Luke Cage 1x08 Review: No, I Am Your Brother

“Blowin’ Up the Spot”
Written by Aida Mashaka Croal
Directed by Magnus Martens
 
The Story
Claire gets Luke into an ambulance, but the shooter isn’t done with him yet. He blows the ambulance off its wheels. This guy is someone who knows Luke as Carl. Crap. Mariah relives killing Cornell. Shades helps Mariah hide the evidence of the murder. Also, he punched Cornell in the face over and over until he was almost unrecognizable. Misty questions Mariah about what she found when she got to the club. She’s got a hostess from the club framing Luke for the murder. Which is what Mariah tells the press when they swarm her. Luke refuses to take anesthesia while Claire investigates the bullet wound with a scalpel. Misty takes the hostess back to the precinct to take her statement. Cottonmouth’s lawyer tries to get her to stop talking. Misty remembers her from the club; she was the one who wanted Luke to go upstairs with her because she was scared of Cottonmouth and his goons. Misty very much suspects Mariah, but the I.A. lady lets her go before she can squeeze her for a statement. Claire is going to have to get very creative to get the shrapnel from the Judas bullet out of Luke before it does more damage. Misty calls Luke and gets a close enough read on his location to go looking for him when he refuses to come in. Shades brings the remainder of Cottonmouth’s crew into the club. He’s appropriating the goons and they’ll all be working for Mariah now. Also, he planted evidence against Luke at Pop’s.
 
Misty catches up to them at the clinic just when she gets the news about the evidence, and she tries to arrest Luke. However, Claire spots the laser sight from the sniper, who is about to shoot Luke in the head. He and Luke wind up tussling inside the clinic, but fortunately there aren’t any Judas bullets left. He drags Misty away. He’s about to kill her, but Luke comes chasing after him, so he merely pistol-whips her and flees. This guy’s name is Willis Stryker. Luke follows him into some kind of theater. Oh, and he’s Diamondback. And he’s responsible for every bad thing that happened to Luke in prison. He definitely didn’t intend for him to have superpowers. They fight. Luke isn’t doing well. He starts coughing up blood. But then he throws Diamondback into a pillar. Help, Claire! Only, she can’t because Misty’s interrogating her at the precinct now. Claire tries to walk out, but Misty tries to insist. Claire gets in her face, and Misty slams her against the wall by the throat! Dang. She is not helping herself with Internal Affairs. The girl who lied for Mariah feels very bad about it. Mariah pays her and consoles her evilly and drops her off at home. Mariah accepts that the girl is expendable if she shows sign of weakness. Yikes. Diamondback catches up with Luke out on the street. Luke tries to apologize for whatever he did to this guy, but it doesn’t work. Because Diamondback is his half-brother.
 
Okay, so I was half-convinced that Shades was Diamondback, but a Star Wars-esque long lost evil family member reveal works too. Mariah is getting scarier and scarier, which is awesome (but yeah, scary). The twist that Diamondback is Luke’s half-brother will become much more satisfying once we get his backstory, because it seems rather improbable that the half-brother Luke didn’t even know he had wound up a crime boss in Harlem, where Luke eventually ended up too under a different name.
 
Things I Liked

• Misty’s amused expression as Mariah tells her the ridiculous story
• Aha, Luke’s organs are about as tough as his skin. That’s good. But also difficult, medically.
• “Luke Cage is innocent, Misty. You’re after the wrong man. That’s my statement. Write it down.”
• Mariah’s insecurities about whether she’s becoming Mama Mabel

 
Things I Didn’t

• Seeing Luke fighting even though he’s hurting
• Luke getting shot with another Judas bullet! Argh! I just want him to be okay! Can Jessica show up now because she’s heard about him getting shot?

 
The Characters
Okay, the Jesus metaphor is getting stronger. Luke would rather be in a lot of pain than risk other people getting hurt because he was incapacitated by anesthetics.
 
Claire just keeps getting more awesome. She takes crap from no one, and she gets scared off by nothing. I’m so glad that she’s in all three shows.
 
Yeah, Mariah’s illusions of nobility were definitely stunting her growth as a ruthless villain, but how can she be a ruthless villain if she hates the idea of becoming Mama Mabel? She’s going to have to either embrace that inevitability or turn herself in at this point.
 
So has Shades been working for Luke’s brother ever since he first went to Seagate? This is all still a little fuzzy. Also, if there’s a character who fits the Satan metaphor in this show, it’s Shades, not any of the major villains, despite the fact that two of them have snake species nicknames. He was trying to groom Cottonmouth into becoming the biggest villain, but Cottonmouth screwed up too much, so he dropped him for Mariah. And he’s also been working with Diamondback. The villain behind the other villains is a much better Satan metaphor than any of the actual upfront villains.
 
Overall Rating
5/5