Luke Cage: I Get Physical review S2 E4

I Get Physical needed to be a cool down episode after the first three came shooting out the gate. No need to exhaust all the awesome in the first quarter after all. That’s not to say this was a wasted episode, but it was easily the weakest of the first four.

We get a different perspective on Bushmaster attacking Luke. It wasn’t so much a sucker punch as it was a straight up uppercut Luke didn’t see coming.  Luke’s buddy, DW, saw and recorded the entire beat down. You kinda saw this coming as Luke was getting too cocky and Bushmaster was motivated to humiliate him. Even Stephen A. Smith got in on the commentary. I like this effort to portray Luke’s exploits in a real world setting.

Despite the beat down, Shades is convinced Bushmaster is in Harlem for Mariah, not Cage. It’s interesting how this season is positioning him the same way he was with Cottonmouth. Shades is advising a Stokes who keeps blowing off his sound advice. Although with Mariah he’s emotionally connected and likely to commit more irrational acts.

Comanche keeps looking at Mariah like a mouse he’s about to devour. He warns Mariah dumping all her money into Piranha’s investments might not be wise. Predictably, she blows him off, but I think he’s onto something. But Comanche has a reason for pushing so hard — he’s only out early to infiltrate Mariah’s crew for Captain Rittenhouse. That’s not going to end well for either of them.

Luke Cage has always done a good job of world building for the supporting characters. Iron Fist was largely terrible at making any of the side players besides Colleen interesting. With Cage, the investment in the supporting characters has paid off.

That’s why Misty Knight can carry long chunks of episodes. I’m digging this new bond she has with Luke. It’s not quite like siblings or BFFs, but like real partners. Since Misty doesn’t have one on the force anymore she’s falling into that routine with Luke and it’s been one of the best aspects of this season. Misty figured out what happened with Claire and advises him to just give her space.

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They track down Nigel’s headless body and learn the Yardies have a splinter faction called the Stylers. Interestingly, Tilda figures out Bushmaster used a combination of her herbs to power up to beat Cage. Even though Cage drops by for some information, she keeps that valuable tidbit to herself. Just like her mother…

Bushmaster visits Harlem’s Paradise to essentially size up Mariah, who at this point is feeling herself too much to be concerned. Mustafa Shakir has this real menacing charisma that makes him a unique presence among the Marvel Netflix villains. I’m not crowning him best villain yet, but he fills a space we haven’t seen yet in that he has his own degree of adoration from those closest to him. It’s not fear, but a genuine love. He’s competent in battle and he’s fearless. It’s going to be interesting to see where Shakir takes the character the rest of the season.

Back at her office, Misty gets a letter from Danny and Colleen — they’ve got a prosthetic arm ready for her. After Misty’s breakthrough last episode, it’s the right time to move forward.

More changes are coming for Luke’s crew. Bobby Fish’s daughter needs a kidney transplant and he’s a match. So he’s gotta leave town too so Cage’s support system of Claire and Bobby are both gone. Hopefully this isn’t the last we’ll see of Bobby as this season will be all the poorer with Ron Cephas Jones long term.

Luke doesn’t have long to think about it though as he gets served. The only problem is given his recent actions, which one led to him getting served?

I Get Physical was another solid entry for the season and laid the groundwork for some big developments the rest of the way.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Photo Credit: Netflix