Memories, talk, flashback, lengthen the plot
HERNAN SHADES ALVAREZ IS MY BABY AND I WILL PROTECT HIM
That flashback was pathetic.Good to see more Shades than Mariah.
Shades surrendering to Misty was nice.
Wow. The burning house flashback was bad. But sooooo bad... The CGI, the house totally falling down in 20 seconds, the acting of young Bushmaster, Mabel coming at 5 cm of the flames to throw paper in, and how she talks to him. Everything was so bad.
And why let him live to send someone to kill him two years later when he was minding his own business ?
This whole episode is basically about Mariah being an evil bitch and in contrast, literally everybody else showing some respect for the street rules and basic human decency. Sugar, that left Mariah's crew just in time. Luke protecting Ingrid. Tilda helping Bushmaster (well, she may not have had a choice on this) but also saying she's sorry for what her mother did, and him thanking her and letting her go. Luke and Bushmaster having a somehow peaceful discussion and kinda understanding each other. Shades, refusing to kill Ingrid, then giving himself up to Misty. Damn, 2 episodes from the end and he still keeps getting better...
Luke and Misty head to the crime scene of Mariah's mass-murder mission where they discover that one person survived the incident and escaped. Shades realizes that Mariah had gone too far and can no longer work with her. The ghosts of his past now start to haunt him and he ain't who he used to be. After almost strangling her to death, Shades turns himself in to Misty to finally give up Mariah once and for all. Tilda helps recover Bushmaster and he runs into Luke Cage at the morgue where they just simply chat. Anyone else notice Karen Page was mentioned during the news conference?
Shout by RoseBlockedParentSpoilers2018-07-07T22:31:47Z
Luke Cage himself is out of focus this season, but this doesn't make the show any less great. Step by step we have been learning the story of Mariah, seeing Bushmaster as this villain driven by some grief from the past, as he mercilessly kills people. In this episode the tides are turned. There's much more of Bushmaster's story revealed, while Mariah is now the one mercilessly killing and having no respect for life, so we can see that Bushmaster was right at the very beginning, when he talked about it running in the family. The annoying repetition of "Mariah Stokes" makes perfect sense now. The actors behind both of the villains are amazing, especially Mariah. The looks she gives, the speeches she makes, the emotions she shows, including the mental instability. There's talent everywhere, and Misty too got time to shine again. The "stone-cold guy Shades" role was not really fitting for the actor behind it, so this episode emphasized on that, making him vulnerable just like the character he played in Sons of Anarchy, resulting in a much more suitable role. Even Mariah noted these sides of him.