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Death row episodes are the worst. It's a barbaric practice and everything about it just screams how immoral this country is. It's exceptionally gross. The idea that "Oh hey we killed someone for the crime we're never going to open the case again even if we get evidence" is so horrific it makes me gag and it's the central premise of this episode as Jane and the FBI have to get a confession before the execution or else no one will care what the real killer has to say. The irony of someone in this episode pointing out how it's about justice when they end up being proven that the death row inmate isn't the killer. Which we know from the episode construction had to be true from the start. All this and that's ONLY the ethical consideration. Not even accounting for the physical and fiscal considerations that of course aren't the purview of this show.
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@wolfkin So many facets to the issues around our death penalty, and main stream media (MSM) helps set the boundaries of acceptable thinking.
For instance, in Norway the prisoner's human rights are so important the maximum prison sentence is twenty-one years, and for the final couple of those years prisoners are transferred to a special prison where they learn how get along in the real world. Bastoy island prison has no locks, no guards, no guns and the inmates get their own rooms and aside from chores they get recreational activities, get to go anywhere on the island... Here's a link to a 2010 documentary:
https://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/11254/bastoy (1:14)
But, in the U.S. we're so brainwashed we can't even think that's possibly normal - the idea that that inmate is going to be released, and is going to live down the street from our Mother... and WE have a choice over whether or not they are going to be a better citizen when they get out, or a worse one.
Sister Helen Prejean made it her life's work to counsel forgiveness to People inside and outside prisons here... the prisoners and the families of the victims. I remember learning about her work through a story on Democracy Now (an independent global news hour) where a man had forgiven a black woman being released after a twenty-eight year sentence for stabbing his elderly white mother more than twenty times as a teen. (The girl had been in twelve foster homes by the time of the home invasion robbery) He learned from Sister Prejean that forgiveness was the act of taking a stand against letting the crime poison his soul. And, yet, in our mainstream media you would never hear about that, and punitive justice is still the "normal" point of view.
My theory is that the rich fund MSM "news," and the rich expect that news programming to divide the People by focusing on individuals who commit crimes, while the bulk of crimes are committed by corporations (which, even though they sell minority percentages of stock in, are owned and controlled by the wealthy. I believe MSM provides cover for the 1% by being their apologists in the news (ie: "Bank of America commits fraud in every facet of their business, but they say they're working to fix that").
But, I could be wrong.
I thoroughly enjoyed the series, but the twist at the end was kind of lame imo. This will still earn a high rating from me, but it seems like the writers took the least likely conclusion for the sake of shock value alone.
[Big Spoiler Alert]
I find it hard to believe that there wasn't any trace of Jaden's DNA or fingerprints at the crime scene, or at Tommy's place. I was completely absorbed by this show, up until the implausible twist.
While eagerly awaiting the finale, my hunch was that Rusty's son did it and Rusty would take the fall for him. It seems like the writers went to great lengths to make him a red herring, but misdirection is more effective when the actual outcome is just as believable.
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@ytijani1 I used the spoiler slide, and a written warning just in case. Since you've already seen the episode, it displays spoilers. Anyone who hasn't seen the episode won't see my comment. Smh
Review by wolfkin
This is an episode that cements something that's been bothering me this entire time. I'm not a fan of all the changes they've made to the relationship dynamics but these things are inevitable. But the thing that really bothered me is that Wednesday comes to this school and three nearly identical dudes are super into her, which in itself is fine. The problem is that contrary to what Xavier says here Wednesday gives absolutely zero indication that she's into any of them. So when the boys get upset that she isn't returning their affection I'm confused like why? She has given you nothing. The real problem is the framing of the show suggests they are right and Wednesday should be recognizing what she's doing to these poor guys. While I never saw Wednesday as an emotionally stunted child like they're clearly making here, Ortega has done a brilliant job of making Wednesday show absolutely zero affection for anyone or anything except the oppressed. She protects her brother. She protects her friends. She protects anyone who needs protection. But she couldn't care less about your romance neither rejecting nor accepting just completely apathetic.
For a show that keeps name checking patriarchy it's kinda weird that the show also wants to basically shame Wednesday for doing absolutely nothing in the deluded fantasies of white dudes that insist she's giving them signals.
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@wolfkin Spot on! I really struggled to see what it was about this episode which bothered me so much, but here it is in plain words. Even Tyler, who we are supposed to feel some sympathy for, just comes across total creep and emotionally exhausting.
Review by wolfkin
Oh man the copaganda is strong with this one. It hit me so hard in this episode I had a bit of whiplash. I like Selena as a character but why is she allowed to be so close to this case? I think her entire character is written to be "gets too close to the case and flips out inappropriately so everyone can dress her down". It's silly. I don't blame this on the actress. Heck I don't even blame it on Selena. I blame it on everyone else who keeps letting her participate. It's ridiculous from the times she goes "I can handle whatever it is… tell me" and then right after finding out goes "NO… no… you're wrong". And then everyone dresses her down like "Hey Officer Juarez, be objective". Ironically, they are the ones not being objective. They're wildly speculating. In real life, cops who do this are the problem. But because it's TV, their wild speculation is 100% on the mark with no errors. Selena's problem isn't "Not being objective". It's being emotional. Openly emotional. You could have an argument about the sexism in that scene but generally I don't think The Rookie has as big a problem in that area.
I like how this is the second cop show this week, where I've seen cops threaten someone with rape. I don't know what else "or do you remember what it's like to be a pedophile behind bars" is supposed to mean. Oh, maybe it just means assault. That's… better?
This show and other cop shows want you to think if you just talk to cops and you're empathetic enough cops will believe the words coming out of your mouth. Never talk to the police more than required. Never volunteer information. Always get a lawyer. Cops will use what happens on TV to trick you in real life. On TV, the cops will just ask you to talk to them and just tell them real quick and they'll let you go and find the real bad guy. In real life if you say anything that can be used out of context to make YOU look like the bad guy, then they'll just do that. It's easier and they don't have to hunt down someone they might or might not find. After all cops love to talk about how many crimes they solve. Doesn't matter if they solve it correctly. That number doesn't get publicized. Cops will convince you that you don't need a lawyer and if you talk now it won't be as bad for you. It will be as bad for you. They're under zero obligation to treat you better because you were cooperative. Unless it's in writing you're free game. Half the time even if it's in writing no one will see it anyway to contradict if they decide against it anyway. That's just something cops say they do on TV. Like asking suspects to just confess… because they're staring at them with their sexy steely eyed gaze?
The LAPD cops find a convicted pedophile they're legally allowed to harass any time they want for zero reason (and yes that's harassment but because it's a pedophile we're supposed to think "well good. He deserved it. They need this power to harass scum like that". Nevermind that IRL this get used against a single mother with two kids working three jobs who doesn't even have time to get sexually assaulted by a LEO today but hey whatever). They find this guy. He's super cagey. He has mementos of the missing child. Then, when they bring him in, he acts shocked at the momentos and they stop thinking he might be responsible. Now they stop looking at him for the crime because it has to be the stand-up cop who has no evidence against him. Nah couldn't be the pedo where the only evidence was found.
And of course again, because it's TV, they are 100% right. There is a super tight conspiracy where a cop does everything right and frames someone perfectly while committing horrific crimes repeatedly every year like a criminal mastermind. But sure somehow it's way more plausible that PerfectCop is the perpetrator and not the guy who did it repeatedly and shows zero remorse. The hidden message of this portion is that cop guts are how police work should be done. The cop suspected another cop based on gut instinct. The cop let go of the creepy man based on gut instinct. Honestly the irony of "We can't arrest him. That starts a 72 hour clock after which we have to let him go if we don't have a charge" and then they solve the mystery and find the girl in like 5 hours just baffles me.
Cops do this stuff all the time arrest people for 24 hours and ruin them just because they want to do it. But because it's a fellow cop he "knows all the procedures". Cops don't have special procedures. Cops don't even have good procedures. What they have is money and numbers. LAPD Patrol isn't some silent hero-team doing elite level effort on grunt work on the streets that no one appreciates. They do what they want, when they want and they have the legal authority and weaponry to get away with anything. If some LAPD cop wants to get tatted up like a gangster and ride around the highway with longguns for no reason in an unmarked car and pull over a teenager and her father who assume people in unmarked cards with tatts and guns are just gangsters (to be fair that was a Sacramento not LAPD incident). They will. They don't have to justify it. They just do it and then when all is said and done they'll arrest everyone questioning them for obstruction and resisting arrest. The stuff that happens on The Rookie is pure fantasy. And as Wheel of Time heads will know based on my username I love fantasy. No one looks at Death Valley (2011) and says those cops are real. People look at the Rookie and everything is presented as if it's real or real adjacent.
On top of all the random legal corruption and illegal corruption, there are semi-organized gangs within law enforcement and no one has the authority or will to do anything about it. They rape, they murder, they kill pets, they steal and all of it makes them so hard they'll go home and give it to the wife or 40% of the time take it out on the wife. The Rookie, however, wants me to buy that one of the most infamous beats in the nation dresses down their rookies for being "not being objective".
And that final showdown? I don't know what I supposed to take from this except that cops want to kill you. Because there's no reason to breach an empty abandoned house RIGHT AFTER the only hostage was freed. They keep talking about wondering if they could have talked him down and whether it was necessary and honestly. It wasn't. There was no rush. No urgency. No safety concern and yet they ran in as soon as possible. Who was he a danger to? Himself? Well lucky he didn't kill himself then. Oh he was suicidal guess we should bum rush him. And this is how they treat one of their own.
And Officer Juarez forgiving her mother saying it wasn't her fault it was her sickness when two episodes ago she was saying functionally how dare her mother blame this on her sickness and it was her fault. Pick a lane sugar (I'm trying to pick a pejorative to her age not her gender), either you understand addiction is a disease or you don't. You don't get to pick and choose when you care. More specifically you don't get to pick and choose and then dress down everyone else for not understanding when your understanding is conditional. You just know before this arc started she would have dressed down anyone just like every other TV cop who refused addiction as a disease.
How the mighty have fallen. Seeing Wesley talk about how he can "sell" a scenario where one person did the crime and not the other one in spite of zero evidence is gross. It's exactly the kind of prosecutorial overreach that Wesley used to talk about when his character was introduced. It's entirely the sort of thing that leads to people getting convicted for crimes they didn't do.
There are far too many people in /r/TheRookie, who seem to love Schmitty. He's an awful character but he is everyone's favorite incompetent and finally he does something effectively and efficiently.
In another show these wouldn't be a big deal. Cop shows are cop shows and they're lies from the opening credits to closing credits. Everything about them is a lie from how much they hate IA, to how cops will lie to other cops about whether they're being investigated, to how cops will sit across from you in an interrogation room, to how cops won't lie and make up evidence to get you to convict yourself. We all know these are laws and every cop show since the dawn of the cop show in the 60s or 70s has been feeding us this lie to the point where too many people don't understand it as a lie until they're faced with the reality.
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Just sit and wait it out?
Yes. That's my point. It's an abandoned building. not a maze. There's no secret tunnel exit. They have plenty of time and man power to just stand watch at the exits. Call in a hostage negotiator and get him to come out alive. Because that's part of their job. To get the criminals in jail ALIVE. Forcing a stand-off is stupid. They knew it was a cop. They knew he let go of the only person in the house. They knew the cop might be emotionally unstable. There's no reason not to consider he might take "the easy way out" as it's often put in cop shows when criminals self-terminate.
As for the other bit. I maintain I'm right and you're wrong but that's because I don't think you understand what I was saying. Shock and surprise don't have any thing to do with what I'm referring to.
I’m still confused, is the cp his son’s or not? Maybe i missed something, the wife seems to make it even more confusing and makes it leave towards it being for their son . From what i remember it should be for the guy at the church that gave him the drive. Is it another drive? That would be one hell of a coincidence.
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@wolfkin My confusion is why the vicar brought the drive home and just casually threw in a bowl with his keys. Even if he doesn't know what type of porn is on the drive, he shouldn't have been so casual about it!
I’m still confused, is the cp his son’s or not? Maybe i missed something, the wife seems to make it even more confusing and makes it leave towards it being for their son . From what i remember it should be for the guy at the church that gave him the drive. Is it another drive? That would be one hell of a coincidence.
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@j_345 The drive and the contents belongs to Edgar the church member. Vicar Harry took the drive from him and kept it. Apparently THIS is the stuff his mother was berating him for.
When Harry realized his son gave the teacher the flash drive he said basically "oops it's porn" and the kid played along to try to take the fall for Harry "Oh that's my porn I'm a growing boy lol" not realizing what kind of porn it was.
What's unclear so far here is how much Harry and his wife knew about the situation. It SEEMS like they knew Edgar had a porn issue which is why as a vicar's wife she might be aware that Edgar has an issue with pornography. It's unclear whether or not they knew it was a c porn issue though it's clear if they didn't know before Harry told her now.
My confusion is why Janice would be so quick to presume that the porn was Ben's not just because he said it jokingly but she refused to believe a literal vicar when he tried to say it belonged to a parishioner. Do they not have the Seal of the Confessional in the UK? Priests keep secrets. It's what they do.
Okay, well that was confusing. The most notable storyline in this episode is the one involving the maths tutor, well specifically the maths tutor and the vicar.
Good lord woman why are you so.... and I struggle to find another word for this but stupid. Just one stupid moment flipped the entire path of the story for a character who honestly was amazing before then.
When you know someone so well why would make the presumptions she makes. Being shocked at CP I get. That's awful stuff I can't imagine. But assuming that Ben your math student is gleefully and casually taking ownership of it is ridiculous. The worst part is that in spite of the fact that his father is a vicar she can't imagine any other outcome than it's Ben's "He told me from his own mouth". Now Harry is also a moron for being unable to explain a simple concept like "it belongs to a parish member" without going through three fumbles. Just explain. How this ended up with her bleeding in your basement is beyond belief.
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@wolfkin you explained this so well, I went on a crazy rant i feel like lol. I feel the exact same. I dont want to sit here and blame Janice because she’s ultimately the victim here but her unwillingness to trust people or even like people got herself into more trouble than she ever needed to be. Theres no way to explain what Janice is without sounded like we are victim blaming so ill just leave it at shes a handful.
Then the Priest is an idiot for allowing her to bully him into submission, when all he had to do was call edgar and say something along the lines of “hey can you come by the church to pick up your harddrive because i dont want my son or wife to find it” something like that or any other way to get him to admit it was his.
People have all sorts of thoughts on what it means that so many protagonists are white guys who are serial killers, drug dealers and thieves but such as it is I do enjoy the occasional serial killer show. As long as it's more thriller than horror of course. It's part of why I couldn't stomach Hannibal. I think I made it two seasons of that torture porn television and I just didn't want to go back for the final season. Anyway my point is there's a lot that I could enjoy about Prodigal Son. The premise of the son of a serial killer worried he might be a psychopath and using his father as.. well as a Hannibal to solve crimes is compelling. It's why I watched the show in the first place. I'm already in a positive place and that makes me willing to overlook things I don't even notice until I read negative reviews.
But there's something odd about the plot that no one in the show is pointing out. This is a live action television show set in a contemporary era. If there is some part of the premise that doesn't make sense you're supposed to highlight it or explain it. Instead the show ignores it. Bright is the son of The Surgeon. Now Bright's mother I'm pretty sure was Bright's mother on Everwood but that's not cogent to my point. My point is that The Surgeon was arrested and locked up in a 3 sided jail. That's when they put you in a cage attached to a wall. It's a ridiculous thing that I'm pretty sure never happens in real life but on TV and Movies happens all the time. This way you can enter the room and see that inside the room they're in another cage. The Surgeon is very clearly under guard in his cage when Bright is a little boy. But in the present we learn he performs surgery on the black market. Which doesn't make sense. Either he's locked up or he's performing black market surgery. How is he using black market money to improve his cell when that's not a thing that would be allowed. It's not even presented in the show as something we're going to learn. It's presented as just another thing. It's ridiculous.
The rest of the show is tolerable. The main lead is a weird looking white guy with light eyes and the ugliest haircut you can imagine. The father is a more handsome and compelling character. Lou Diamond Phillips is great as always and we have a guy and girl cop to fill out the "work" cast. She's gonna be the Jekyl and he's going to be the Hyde. It's expected, it's forumlaic, it's what I'm here for. Honestly there's not a lot to go on in this first episode to judge the path of the series. But that weird gap in logic really stands out. Still you need three episodes to judge and a pilot is often workshopped so much it's rare to be able to use it to judge.
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@wolfkin The part of your review describing hannibal made me laugh out loud. Torture porn television is decently apt. Oh and fyi the "worst" as you may call it, isn't even in the first two seasons so.....
Not a bad show by any means but if I'm honest I liked WandaVision more. I feel like I am missing a lot of background.
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@paulvincent83 I totally understand your point. But I only remember very basic things from the movies and when they talk about stuff here I don't think I get everything. And they seem to be drawing from the comics which I don't know at all. That's not the shows fault. And you're right, this and WandaVision are two different animals. Wanda just had me more intrigued.
Nevertheless I will continue watching. Maybe everything falls into place at the end.
It's not enough that they're in the quarantine. But EVERYTHING has to go wrong. Not just that they had a pregnant woman but she has to give birth then and there.. not just that but the baby isn't angled right not just that but after the cesarian that baby is suffering AND the mother is suffering. It's just .. frankly it's just ridiculous. Because that's just one of the maybe 5 medical plotlines going on in this episode.
And on this episode of Shawn is the worst doctor: I thought the lightbulb thing was stupid last episode but it turns out he literally meant the lightbulb AND the yelling. Dude if you're an ER doctor and yelling is going to throw you off your game. Why are you an ER doctor? This doesn't make sense. There's been plenty of yelling before and he's not going thought an emotional crisis. As sad as it is I actually found the lightbulb messing with him more credible than the yelling. Which is doubly funny because one of the plotlines to this episode is that Shawn isn't a delicate flower and you don't have to treat him with kid gloves.
However in contrast to the last episode Edit: almost nobody dies. Which is whatever. Maybe having 5 stories going on at once actually helped because there was less room for stupid nonsense you typically see in a show of this budget.
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@wolfkin The father donating marrow died . . .
Man, I hate this show for making me cry in every single episode... But that's about it when it comes to hating this show. Pretty much everything else about it is great! This episode was no exception. We still don't know who's behind the God account but, quite honestly, I don't really want to know. I like the whole mystery about it. I like having Miles, Cara and Rakesh helping people every week. They have a good thing going on, there. If you think about it, once they figure out the "who" and "why" behind the God account, the show loses its purpose. So either they reveal that in a series finale or they have to get really creative to keep the show going on after that. With that in mind, let's see what the season finale coming up next has in store for us...
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@wolfkin my short attention span prevents me from reading walls of text (also because I was about to go to sleep when I was notified about this). But I promise I'll keep the e-mail notification in my inbox to read your comment some other time. Please don't take this wrong :)
Man, I hate this show for making me cry in every single episode... But that's about it when it comes to hating this show. Pretty much everything else about it is great! This episode was no exception. We still don't know who's behind the God account but, quite honestly, I don't really want to know. I like the whole mystery about it. I like having Miles, Cara and Rakesh helping people every week. They have a good thing going on, there. If you think about it, once they figure out the "who" and "why" behind the God account, the show loses its purpose. So either they reveal that in a series finale or they have to get really creative to keep the show going on after that. With that in mind, let's see what the season finale coming up next has in store for us...
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@wolfkin I've never watched Person of Interest, but Prison Break had a superb first season and a truckload of appalling ones after that (with the promise of yet another one in the works, yay...). I honestly can't see how this show will go on after revealing the origin of the God account, the whole premise will fall flat after that. So, best case scenario, this will be a one season show.
6.9/10. This was a very confused episode, that was trying to do a lot of good things, but never really manages to get them off the ground due to, at times, incoherent plotting or just plain dumb logic. Let's go through them!
Clare and Dr. Burstein managing to fix Luke was a fairly tense scene...that didn't make much sense. I mean, to some degree you have to go with comic book logic and accept the technobabble, but why heat was necessary to make Luke's skin more pliable, when that level of heat was what made his skin strong in the first place, is fairly puzzling. Still, the show replicated the sort of ER hecticness of a patient flatlining to keep the intensity of the scene up, so you can kind of let them get away with it.
But that's not the only piece of dumb logic in the episode. When Diamonback is trying to frame Luke, and get him tarred as copkiller, it's pretty ridiculous that he himself goes out in a hoodie and uses some superpowered punch thing to do it. The reveal of his shared biology with Luke means there's the grain of a good idea there, but the two don't really look alike, in build or in their facial structure, and Diamondback yelling out "I'm Luke Cage!" just seemed humorous. Maybe you can cut the show some slack for trying to provide a commentary on the problems with cross-racial eye-witness identification, but I'm not sure I give the show credit for such headiness, and either way, it doesn't really work within the logic of the show.
But it works flawlessly, to where Misty is the only person who seems to doubt that Luke was the one who punched that nice cop to death. What, however, is her argument beyond the fact that she just doesn't think Luke would do that (despite the fact that there's dashcam footage of him punching other cops across the block when feeling cornered)? This assailant was wearing a backpack. Luke doesn't wear a backpack! This case is airtight! It's not like Luke could have just put on a backpack for some reason! Yet again, the show tries and fails to show that Misty is a sharp detective. It knows how it wants to present her, but doesn't have the writing to actually demonstrate that she's good at her job beyond the "visualize the crime scene" ability.
Of course we jump back to Dr. Burstein's barn, where Luke uses the laptop to discover that Reva was in on the whole thing. What should be a piercing emotional reveal falls flat due to Mike Colter's acting, which continues to be not quite enough at heightened moments like these. It's an interesting story, feeling betrayed by the one person who gave you hope in a dark place, but Colter can't really sell the moment. His anger and destruction of Burstein's lab/barn feels more like a plot save than a canny narrative choice. it's supposed to be cathartic and feel like justice in Luke preventing someone else from going through what he's been through, but it's shortsighted since he may need those facilities again if he gets shot once more.
It also leads to more dull non-chemistry between Luke and Clare that doesn't really add up to anything but Luke going back to visit his dad's old church in Georgia. I really like the way the scene is shot and edited -- with smooth transitions between the past and the present as Luke stares at the dilapidated chapel and remembers what happened when he was a kid -- but the reveals are underwhelming. There's a fairly direct Isaac and Ishamel parallel going on, and I can I appreciate that as thematic subtext to the issues between Luke and Diamondback, but the show does a pretty weak job at showing how young Luke could have missed his Dad having an affair with Diamondback's mom, while adult Luke can put the pieces together. The things he remembers aren't exactly subtle, and while you can handwave it with Luke having repressed the memories until the site of his dad's church made them all flood back, it seems very strange that he wouldn't have put this together sooner.
Things get dumber still after the cops start beating around the block trying to get info on where Luke is. Again, I like what the show is trying to do here. There is a The Wire-esque quality of these scenes of cops being angry at the loss of one of their own, and taking it out on the streets, hassling corner boys and being needlessly rough. That side of things rings true and feels motivated, even if, again, everyone feels like a sucker for falling for Diamondback's ruse so easily. The cop interrogating Little Lonnie and going too far feels like a bit much, a bit too calculated to tug on your heartstrings, but it works for what the show's going for.
The problem is that since Mariah is being strongarmed by Diamondback to try to sell the public on Luke Cage and powered people generally as a threat, the show has to tie her pitch for the police department buying superpowered weapons from Diamondback to the cops beating up this kid, and it doesn't really add up. There's a strange "the cops abused their power, so we should give them really powerful weapons" logic that doesn't make any sense, but for this episode in particular, you just kind of have to go with the flow and accept that nothing makes sense and the story's just going where it needs to go regardless of the demands of basic logic.
So of course, Luke returns to Harlem (this whole thing seemed to happen very quick, how long did his trip and curing take and visit home take?) and Misty is after Diamondback at Harlem's Paradise and Luke jumps into save her as we hit a cliffhanger. Why the hell not? It's vaguely action-y, and it gives us some cool scenes of Mariah riling up the crowd and showing herself as an expert manipulator and showman even when the pitch makes no sense. With Alfre Woodard's delivery, I almost believed it.
That's the big problem though. This show wants to traffic in real life tensions between police and the black community. It wants to play in the realism of its setting and the genuine issues facing the people of Harlem and similar urban areas. But it has to marry all of that with an out there comic book storyline, involving secret brothers, magic labs in barns, and elaborate schemes to sell superguns. The result is something that often feels very stitched together and not really doing justice to either side of the equation. You can employ comic book logic the whole way through, or you can try to ascribe for something approaching realism, but finding the balance is a tricky business, and it's something that all of Marvel's Netflix shows have struggled with to some degree. Luke Cage in particular seems stuck in the middle, with no clear idea on how to reconcile its hardscrabble atmosphere and its superhero roots.
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@andrewbloom What your describing is about a 5/10 or maybe a 6/10 episode and that's on a hard 10 point scale not the 100 point scale you use. You present a well thought out review which I liked. It was compelling. I agree with some but not all of it. However your score of nearly 7 (69/100) I think doesn't match up to what I read. That score is way too high for your thoughts. That's all. Carry on.
6.9/10. This was a very confused episode, that was trying to do a lot of good things, but never really manages to get them off the ground due to, at times, incoherent plotting or just plain dumb logic. Let's go through them!
Clare and Dr. Burstein managing to fix Luke was a fairly tense scene...that didn't make much sense. I mean, to some degree you have to go with comic book logic and accept the technobabble, but why heat was necessary to make Luke's skin more pliable, when that level of heat was what made his skin strong in the first place, is fairly puzzling. Still, the show replicated the sort of ER hecticness of a patient flatlining to keep the intensity of the scene up, so you can kind of let them get away with it.
But that's not the only piece of dumb logic in the episode. When Diamonback is trying to frame Luke, and get him tarred as copkiller, it's pretty ridiculous that he himself goes out in a hoodie and uses some superpowered punch thing to do it. The reveal of his shared biology with Luke means there's the grain of a good idea there, but the two don't really look alike, in build or in their facial structure, and Diamondback yelling out "I'm Luke Cage!" just seemed humorous. Maybe you can cut the show some slack for trying to provide a commentary on the problems with cross-racial eye-witness identification, but I'm not sure I give the show credit for such headiness, and either way, it doesn't really work within the logic of the show.
But it works flawlessly, to where Misty is the only person who seems to doubt that Luke was the one who punched that nice cop to death. What, however, is her argument beyond the fact that she just doesn't think Luke would do that (despite the fact that there's dashcam footage of him punching other cops across the block when feeling cornered)? This assailant was wearing a backpack. Luke doesn't wear a backpack! This case is airtight! It's not like Luke could have just put on a backpack for some reason! Yet again, the show tries and fails to show that Misty is a sharp detective. It knows how it wants to present her, but doesn't have the writing to actually demonstrate that she's good at her job beyond the "visualize the crime scene" ability.
Of course we jump back to Dr. Burstein's barn, where Luke uses the laptop to discover that Reva was in on the whole thing. What should be a piercing emotional reveal falls flat due to Mike Colter's acting, which continues to be not quite enough at heightened moments like these. It's an interesting story, feeling betrayed by the one person who gave you hope in a dark place, but Colter can't really sell the moment. His anger and destruction of Burstein's lab/barn feels more like a plot save than a canny narrative choice. it's supposed to be cathartic and feel like justice in Luke preventing someone else from going through what he's been through, but it's shortsighted since he may need those facilities again if he gets shot once more.
It also leads to more dull non-chemistry between Luke and Clare that doesn't really add up to anything but Luke going back to visit his dad's old church in Georgia. I really like the way the scene is shot and edited -- with smooth transitions between the past and the present as Luke stares at the dilapidated chapel and remembers what happened when he was a kid -- but the reveals are underwhelming. There's a fairly direct Isaac and Ishamel parallel going on, and I can I appreciate that as thematic subtext to the issues between Luke and Diamondback, but the show does a pretty weak job at showing how young Luke could have missed his Dad having an affair with Diamondback's mom, while adult Luke can put the pieces together. The things he remembers aren't exactly subtle, and while you can handwave it with Luke having repressed the memories until the site of his dad's church made them all flood back, it seems very strange that he wouldn't have put this together sooner.
Things get dumber still after the cops start beating around the block trying to get info on where Luke is. Again, I like what the show is trying to do here. There is a The Wire-esque quality of these scenes of cops being angry at the loss of one of their own, and taking it out on the streets, hassling corner boys and being needlessly rough. That side of things rings true and feels motivated, even if, again, everyone feels like a sucker for falling for Diamondback's ruse so easily. The cop interrogating Little Lonnie and going too far feels like a bit much, a bit too calculated to tug on your heartstrings, but it works for what the show's going for.
The problem is that since Mariah is being strongarmed by Diamondback to try to sell the public on Luke Cage and powered people generally as a threat, the show has to tie her pitch for the police department buying superpowered weapons from Diamondback to the cops beating up this kid, and it doesn't really add up. There's a strange "the cops abused their power, so we should give them really powerful weapons" logic that doesn't make any sense, but for this episode in particular, you just kind of have to go with the flow and accept that nothing makes sense and the story's just going where it needs to go regardless of the demands of basic logic.
So of course, Luke returns to Harlem (this whole thing seemed to happen very quick, how long did his trip and curing take and visit home take?) and Misty is after Diamondback at Harlem's Paradise and Luke jumps into save her as we hit a cliffhanger. Why the hell not? It's vaguely action-y, and it gives us some cool scenes of Mariah riling up the crowd and showing herself as an expert manipulator and showman even when the pitch makes no sense. With Alfre Woodard's delivery, I almost believed it.
That's the big problem though. This show wants to traffic in real life tensions between police and the black community. It wants to play in the realism of its setting and the genuine issues facing the people of Harlem and similar urban areas. But it has to marry all of that with an out there comic book storyline, involving secret brothers, magic labs in barns, and elaborate schemes to sell superguns. The result is something that often feels very stitched together and not really doing justice to either side of the equation. You can employ comic book logic the whole way through, or you can try to ascribe for something approaching realism, but finding the balance is a tricky business, and it's something that all of Marvel's Netflix shows have struggled with to some degree. Luke Cage in particular seems stuck in the middle, with no clear idea on how to reconcile its hardscrabble atmosphere and its superhero roots.
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@wolfkin I have to admit, I struggle with translating my thoughts on an episode or movie into a raw number, particularly for a show like Luke Cage where I may think an episode was fine immediately after watching it, but my opinion of it weakens and weakens the more I actually sit down and think about it. Just to let you in on how the sausage is made -- I typically come up with a score first and then adjust it up or down after I finish the review. And I also try to review a show against itself (e.g. an episode that was a 7/10 for The Sopranos might translate to a 10/10 episode of Agents of Shield for me). This is all to say that I find coming up with a number to represent my feelings about a show really hard.
But anyway, thanks for your kind words about my review! Sorry the score seems out of whack!
