written by Kiara Williams
SPOILER WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT
Well, this was a roller coaster of an episode, huh?
Danny Rand shows up to Harlem to give Luke a bit of help with Bushmaster, as he already did when he allowed Luke and the others to hide out in his building in the previous episode. Luke tries to tell Danny that he doesn’t need any help, but as a Defender and Luke’s friend, Danny feels obligated to help. Their bro moments throughout the episode were really kind of sweet. I enjoyed watching them interact. All the weird things you’ve seen, and you can’t believe in a dragon, Luke? Sweet Christmas.
On a less sweet note, it doesn’t take long for Misty and Chief Ridley to find out that Nandi was the one who sold Mariah’s location out to Bushmaster. They tell Bailey about Nandi’s apparent betrayal and it’s clear he’s been drawn in by Nandi’s fun exterior and nice singing voice. No one wants to believe their friend could do something so awful, and Bailey even calls out Misty, his former partner, for trusting Scarfe. “That’s low,” as Misty says. But after being presented with the evidence, Bailey helps find Nandi in order to clear everything up. Misty intercepts her at the airport, moves in to arrest her and…Nandi, darling, why would you try to fight someone with a metal arm? I’m never gonna try to fight someone with a metal arm. I’m too fragile to get slapped around with automail all willy-nilly.
Back at the precinct, Nandi’s childish rant is eyeroll-worthy, and I’m glad that Misty says as much. Nandi’s only out for herself, getting what she wants while setting others up for failure. She wants Mariah dead, so she sells Misty out, damned if Misty gets hurt or killed in the process, right? As long as Nandi gets what she wants.
Meanwhile, Mariah and Shades still have Anansi and are trying to get information on Bushmaster out of him, but it quickly becomes clear that Anansi isn’t going to give up anything. So Mariah drags Anansi to Gwen’s, an act which gets Buggy to sever ties with Mariah and leave. Considering what happens next, I’m glad he wasn’t there. Mariah finds Bushmaster’s mole and then, in a brutal act, proceeds to kill everyone in the restaurant, forcing Anansi to only listen to the bullet hail until the dust settles. When Mariah’s henchmen finally remove the bag from his head, he is left to find only corpses and silence, his friends all dead in front of him. Anansi’s cries and curses are heartbreaking to listen to as Mariah’s men pour Bushmaster rum all over him and set him on fire. It was so painful to watch that I was strangely relieved when Mariah shot him. There was no escape for him, but at least his suffering was over. Shades only watches Mariah’s actions in horror. “This is not what we talked about,” is all he says, but he’s clearly more troubled than he lets on. Hell, who wouldn’t be?
Later on, Danny reveals that Claire asked him to come to Harlem to check on Luke. Claire still cares, but I’m pretty sure she wants to know how he’s doing with his anger. If he’s still the same way he was during the beginning of this season, she wants nothing to do with him, so Zen Bro Danny was sent in to check on his status. Luke has definitely come a long way, so I’m hoping Danny gives him an A on his Anger Management report card.
Mariah gets an F, though. Because damn, girl.
Luke Cage is available now on Netflix. Kiara can be reached on Twitter @DJPrincessK and her webcomic can be found at http://www.electricrosecomic.com/.