Luke Cage Season 2 Episode 3 Review: Wig Out
This article comes from Den of Geek UK.
This Luke Cage review contains spoilers.
Luke Cage Season 2 Episode 3
Hey look! It’s the best thing about Iron Fist! Colleen Wing! This sequence was extremely Daughters of the Dragon and frankly after the extreme waste of everyone’s time that was Iron Fist (I swear to god I’m trying to be generous) I’d be very happy to see that show in place of it. Colleen Wing is great. More cameos by her please.
But back to the Luke Cage stuff. Claire saving Cockroach and giving Luke a good talking to makes me wonder how long this relationship is going to last, not least because Luke is being extremely hard-headed to her otherwise reasonable suggestions. And then punches a wall. Rosario Dawson works overtime to sell that moment but I’m struggling to believe that Luke, who has previously been super laid-back and gentle, was sitting on a reserve of anger that has now boiled over. I’m willing to see where it goes. The question right now is how long it takes for the other shoe to drop relationship-wise. I swear to god if they kill Claire for some shock value twist I’ll be… annoyed.
I’m enjoying the powerplay between Shades and Mariah and the rest of their collaborators though. This is some properly dramatic crime stuff. I forget how I felt about Mariah and Shades last season, but their interplay here is layered and interesting, with chemistry that really crackles. Any time they’re in the room together I’m enjoying it. Once again, I have to say the Netflix prayer: please don’t let these characters die prematurely for shock value. We all saw what you dunderheads did to future Oscar winner Mahershala Ali.
Misty’s internal police politics drama is, for the moment, the least interesting part of the show for me, not least because having just come off leave, Misty is immediately engaging in the kind of terrible decisions and insubordinate behaviour that would have her busted back down to traffic cop. I get that she knows Luke’s a hero. I get that she’s frustrated with red tape. But if the show’s going to make her do whatever the hell she wants with no repercussions, just make her freelance. Talk of the higher-ups wanting her protected only barely covers this amount of dramatic license.
As for Luke, I massively enjoyed his fight with Bushmaster’s goons, not least the look on his face as he prepared to crush that grenade which, to me, said “I hope I’m not wrong about this.” A slightly more scientific approach to the testing last episode would’ve alleviated that anxiety. When Luke encounters Bushmaster, newly powered-up with extra herbs (seriously, a Jamaican who gets his powers from herbs? I’m embarrassed just typing it) you can bet that things are going to throw down.
Er, well. Next episode anyway.
Oh, and Piranha, who appears in this episode, first turned up in Power Man #30 (1976) where he has very sharp teeth. We don’t learn either way how sharp his teeth are in the MCU.
Read James’ review of the previous episode, Straighten It Out, here.
