Luke Cage Recap: S1E1 “Moment of Truth”
After months of waiting, Luke Cage is finally on Netflix. The first episode packs a punch and does not disappoint.
What does it mean to live and grow up in Harlem today? How does it feel to have lived there your whole life and watched the city change around you? You wouldn’t think those would be two questions a superhero show would bring up, but Luke Cage, Netflix and Marvel’s latest team up, is no ordinary superhero show. Luke Cage is changing the game with an almost entirely black cast, a black showrunner, and a diverse writer’s room. It’s the show we need right now.
Image via Netflix
Even with just one episode Luke Cage feels different from anything we’ve seen before. The first thing you notice are the visuals. They are stunning. The Harlem that Luke (Mike Colter) inhabits feels real and lived in. From the peeling green paint of Pop’s Barber Shop to the red lit Harlem’s Paradise, each setting has a distinct feeling that is representative of the people who live there. The barber shop is Luke’s safe haven. Pop (Frankie Faison) has built a community full of young men he tries to employ to keep them off the streets. But as we find out in this episode, his best intentions don’t always work.
Luke has escaped to Pop’s and Harlem to flee the events from Jessica Jones. Luke doesn’t mention her by name, but does complain about the headaches he still gets because you know, she shot him in the head. This might just be the most #ItsAllConnected property Marvel has made yet as it mentions numerous people and events across both the films and Netflix shows. Luke Cage might be rooted in the real world, but it reminds us that it still exists as a part of the wider Marvel Universe. (The best shoutout? The guy on the street hawking blurays of “the incident” featuring “the old dude with the shield” and “the big blonde guy with the hammer” which is something that would definitely happen in NYC.)
The dilemmas faced by the characters are very real. It is the clash between people like Pops who have lived in Harlem forever and want to protect the history and culture of the neighborhood and the new people coming into town like Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali) who want to use the city for their own gain. There is also tension between the younger generations and the older over the value of work and what is important. Luke clashes with Shameek at the barber shop in the very beginning of the episode over just this. Luke is a man who has learned the hard way to do his work and keep his head down.
Image via Netflix
Cottonmouth is the opposite. He wants to be the king. He is a powerful man in Harlem because of the businesses he owns, both legitimate and otherwise. And he has the whole city scared. Everyone that is, except for Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard), his cousin and business partner. Cottonmouth may be openly devious, but Mariah seems to be a little sneakier. She is going for the “hearts and minds” approach, trying to win over the people of Harlem in her run for City Council.
“Harlem has been the jewel of black America…For black lives to matter, black history and black ownership must also matter,” Mariah tells a crowd assembled to hear her speak. The script for this episode was written by showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker and features many lines that highlight the current political situation happening across the United States. The tension runs just underneath the surface. The idea of taking back the city seems very appealing to the young people in Harlem who strive to achieve fame and fortune and a way out, some at any cost.
Image via Netflix
After one of these eager men tries to doublecross Cottonmouth in a gun exchange, Misty Knight (Simone Missick) is called in to investigate. She is both of Harlem and above it, a police officer who wants to do what’s right by her city and the law. Her line of work puts her in direct contact with Luke. They meet in Cottonmouth’s club and after some flirting over clothing sizes Luke takes her home. Colter and Missick’s chemistry sizzles off the screen. They seem like two people equally matched despite his super strength and unbreakable skin. Misty is an immediately compelling character, one we don’t mind seeing with Luke despite his previous relationship with Jessica (Krysten Ritter).
As of this first episode Luke’s relationship with Misty seems much more stable and healthy than his previous one. We know he is still grieving over the loss of his wife Reva Connors (Parisa Fitz-Henley), but maybe this will help him move on. Missick plays Misty which such confidence, both she and Woodard command the screen and more than hold their own against their formidable male counterparts.
Luke might look tough, but when he sees Shades Alvarez (Theo Rossi) in Harlem’s Paradise he starts to have a panic attack. Shades is a character we don’t know much about yet other than the fact that he has a past with Cottonmouth and works for a dangerous sounding man named Diamondback. Through a flashback we learn he and Luke were in Seagate Prison together. Exactly what happened between Shades and Luke is unclear, but just seeing him is enough to shake Luke up.
Luke’s fear of his past doesn’t stop him from taking his first step in defending Harlem though. When Mariah’s thugs are threatening Luke’s landlord he steps in and challenges them to a fight. Luke defeats them easily. It’s a cool scene, showing with slow motion and gruesome sound effects just how strong Luke’s skin really is. The landlord tells Luke, “We want to hire you” and Luke replies, “I’m not for hire.” It’s a nice touch paired with Luke heading out the door and back into the streets with his hood up, ready for a different kind of battle.
The first episode of Luke Cage is worth the wait and the hype. It is the bold, dynamic show we have been waiting for and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Stray Observations & Easter Eggs:
- Iron Man 2 villain Justin Hammer’s company Hammer Tech supplied the weapons Cottonmouth was buying
- Wilson Fisk from Daredevil gets a shout out. Some of the Avengers are mentioned (“the green monster and I don’t mean Fenway”), but not named specifically
- Pops affectionately calls Luke “Power Man” which is a delightful nod to his name in the comics
- Luke says he doesn’t curse, but in the comics he works very hard to stop cursing around his daughter
- Luke is an old school Knicks fan, but also has respect for LeBron