Luke Cage Episode 4
It's backstory time!
Before I get into that, I am so happy that Connie mananged to survive.
I thought that the flashbacks to Luke's time at Seagate, when he was still Carl Lucas, were very well done. I like Reva, seeing Poet from Oz again (RIP), and the connection to Shades. Poor Carl, innocent of the crime he was convincted for, and having to fight other inmates because the guards are assholes. I liked the commentary on private prisons, how there's lots of mystery and rumor, little indication of oversight, and how the prisoners can be treated even worse than public prisons.
But, as always in these types of stories, the experiment done on a prisoner goes in a way the doctors didn't intend. In The Passage the prisoners become vicious vampires who usher in the Apocalypse. In this show, they create a superhero who is super strong with skin that cannot be pierced. He can still be knocked out and hurt internally, as we saw here and in Jessica Jones, but it takes a lot for him to get to that point. Lucky that the superpowers went to a fundamentally decent person like Carl instead of a sociopath like Shades.
I figured out how Carl chose Luke Cage as his new name pretty early but it was still nice to see. Well, I thought that the Luke came from his former last name, Lucas, rather than a bible quote but I was close enough. If I'm thinking of name references I'll never even consider religious texts so there was no way I could have predicted that. Cage worked really well and I liked Reva thinking he might choose Freeman but him saying it was too on the nose. Nice and quiet lighthearted moment between them.
Speaking of lighthearted, I busted out laughing when I saw the glorious homage to Luke's comic outfit and him saying he looked like a fool. Because, yes, comic Luke looks ridiculous. It works on page but would make it hard to take seriously if they'd tried to do it for the show. I'm also equally thankful that they didn't make Kilgrave have purple skin and just made him wear the color a lot. It would have been hard to take his powers, villainy and Jessica's fear seriously if they'd gone that route so I'm glad the Marvel costume people have a sense of reality.
Still waiting on Claire but this episode was about Carl becoming Luke so she wasn't needed.
Before I get into that, I am so happy that Connie mananged to survive.
I thought that the flashbacks to Luke's time at Seagate, when he was still Carl Lucas, were very well done. I like Reva, seeing Poet from Oz again (RIP), and the connection to Shades. Poor Carl, innocent of the crime he was convincted for, and having to fight other inmates because the guards are assholes. I liked the commentary on private prisons, how there's lots of mystery and rumor, little indication of oversight, and how the prisoners can be treated even worse than public prisons.
But, as always in these types of stories, the experiment done on a prisoner goes in a way the doctors didn't intend. In The Passage the prisoners become vicious vampires who usher in the Apocalypse. In this show, they create a superhero who is super strong with skin that cannot be pierced. He can still be knocked out and hurt internally, as we saw here and in Jessica Jones, but it takes a lot for him to get to that point. Lucky that the superpowers went to a fundamentally decent person like Carl instead of a sociopath like Shades.
I figured out how Carl chose Luke Cage as his new name pretty early but it was still nice to see. Well, I thought that the Luke came from his former last name, Lucas, rather than a bible quote but I was close enough. If I'm thinking of name references I'll never even consider religious texts so there was no way I could have predicted that. Cage worked really well and I liked Reva thinking he might choose Freeman but him saying it was too on the nose. Nice and quiet lighthearted moment between them.
Speaking of lighthearted, I busted out laughing when I saw the glorious homage to Luke's comic outfit and him saying he looked like a fool. Because, yes, comic Luke looks ridiculous. It works on page but would make it hard to take seriously if they'd tried to do it for the show. I'm also equally thankful that they didn't make Kilgrave have purple skin and just made him wear the color a lot. It would have been hard to take his powers, villainy and Jessica's fear seriously if they'd gone that route so I'm glad the Marvel costume people have a sense of reality.
Still waiting on Claire but this episode was about Carl becoming Luke so she wasn't needed.