Bushmaster's still under the weather, so Sheldon fills us in on past events as Misty and Luke try to deal with a derailing Mariah. The police having found the carnage at Gwen's, Misty tries to console Luke, who blames himself.
Misty is sure Mariah was involved, but another officer notes that while they could expect a Jamaican response, they can't rule out other gangs, to Luke's disgust. Still combing the scene, Misty notices clues that a revolver was used amongst all the 9mm bullets, and Luke spots a trail of blood revealing someone survived. He points out to Misty that the survivor would be in danger if Mariah's people found them. With Bushmaster struggling due to little Nightshade, Tilda uses additional methods as Sheldon urges him to fight. Flashing back to the 80s, we see a young Bushmaster, working as essentially a servant for the Stokes family, overhear Mabel and Gwen taking legal action to settle the situation regarding Harlem's Paradise and Quincy's death. A young Ben Donovan claims the Stokes owe Gwen nothing, but her lawyer reveals a napkin Buggy and Quincy signed as a contract, splitting things 50/50. Mabel protests, but Gwen reminds her that she and Pete were there when the paper was signed. The lawyer says Gwen wants Quincy's half as well as continued profits from the club, but Mabel and Pete laugh at the suggestion. Bushmaster leaves when Mariah orders him to get her a drink, only for her to begin listening to the conversation. At Harlem's Paradise, Mariah is shown a high-tech bunker now built into the club she can access with a touch pad. Impressed, she immediately suggests potential furnishings, but Shades scoffs at the room, saying it won't stop Bushmaster. Luke breaks Misty's concentration as she ponders the crime scene back at the precinct, and Bailey arrives with reports on Stephanie, who wasn't even 15, and Anansi, who's been legitimate for decades. With a brochure about Gwen's, the group is able to find Bushmaster and find out his connection. Misty also realizes Ingrid is the survivor. Saying he won't mess up the case, Luke agrees to first shake down the other gangs before trying to find Ingrid. He quickly takes care of them and reports back. Reminding him not to mess up the case, Misty sends Luke video footage of Ingrid's escape, and pleads with him to let her scramble the hospitals. Saying that will take two long, Luke decides to find Ingrid himself, hanging up as Misty warns of the West Indian Day Parade that will cause confusion. Ridley calls Misty to her office, revealing the media, in particular Daredevil and Punisher's Karen Page, know of the attack. She explains the mayor wants Misty to be part of a press conference to calm people. Despite Misty's protests, Ridley tells her that being a black woman helps because of the area and that, as Misty could be commissioner one day, she needs to learn to handle this kind of situation. While Luke heads to hospitals, Misty takes the conference in typical fashion, cutting at one point to Shades, who is frantically washing his shaking hands. Luke learns Ingrid's not at the hospital, but a nurse suggests she might be at a more discreet neighborhood place. Misty almost slips up saying she's Harlem's defense since Luke isn't an officer, but says every officer is working a hard job to keep the city safe. Angered when a reporter refers to the night as the "Rum Punch Massacre," Misty says they will release a report when they can and heads back inside. Despite Misty refusing to say if there's a survivor, Mariah knows Ingrid's alive. She tells Shades to kill the woman, but he says she won't talk if she did survive the attack. She tells him to head out anyway and join Alex and Tony, surprising Shades with the news her assistant is now calling shots. Mariah urges him to be Shades for now, not Hernan, and handle this. Disgusted that she believes she can come out of this clean, Shades nevertheless relents. Back at the precinct momentarily, Misty asks Bailey if any .38 bullets were in Anansi's body, explaining all the other bullets were 9mm and a .38 revolver killed Candace. We cut to Tilda, who says she's afraid to keep going, but Sheldon tells her to anyway, explaining he met Bushmaster when they were 11 and he has always been strong. He recounts a time where free vaccinations were given out in the 80s. While he didn't take it, Bushmaster did, and was the only one who didn't die from it. Saying his friend has to survive to finish what he started, because the rum is only the beginning, recounting when the Stokes family burned his house as a kid. At the precinct, Bailey reveals a .38 was indeed used on Anansi, and Misty shrugs off his suggestion that some random person had it by noting how uniquely the gun was created, saying it's obviously a treasure, hinting it could be Mariah's. Meanwhile at Harlem's Paradise, Mariah meets with the Yangsi Gonshi leader Yang, ultimately persuading him to bring her into the heroin business. Luke, having found the proper hospital, scares off Mariah's men and convinces Ingrid to follow him. He tries to lead her outside to slip through the parade, but Shades grabs her when Luke's back is turned. He takes her to a room where he struggles with his current situation and she cowers in fear. Finally deciding he can't kill her, Shades leaves as Luke busts in. While agreeing to go with Luke, Ingrid demands that she simply be taken to Anansi, as she feels the cops can't keep her safe. Luke urges her to end the violence by going to police and telling her story, but Ingrid counters that she doesn't want to relive the pain, saying he could stop Mariah. Luke relents and, in a rather ridiculous version of the "we're not so different" trope, says he and Bushmaster are similar, but that while Bushmaster lets his anger go, Luke is more dangerous because he keeps it inside. Now, this whole season has dealt with Luke not properly handling his rage, but the suggestion that he's worse in his actions than Bushmaster is rather ridiculous. While Luke does bottle things up inside, other times he simply controls himself. Bushmaster, on the other hand, flies off the handle every time something gets under his skin, and damages objects or people around him. I guess in a way, Luke is more like an adult who doesn't know how best to process his anger, afraid to let it overtake him, while Bushmaster comes off as a raging toddler throwing a temper tantrum. Continuing with the episode, Luke says it will be risky but agrees to take Ingrid to her friend's restaurant, and they escape in the parade. Tilda is hesitant to give Bushmaster more Nightshade, saying it's dangerous, but Sheldon tells her to keep going anyway. As she prepares the Nightshade, we head back to two years after the Stokes attack, and see Bushmaster, now selling fruits as a street vendor. His happiness with a good situation turns soon as Pete comes, shooting him twice in the stomach. Ingrid begs Sheldon to help him, so he takes Bushmaster to his mother, who gives him his first dose of Nightshade to save his life. Intercut with this is Tilda, smearing nightshade over Bushmaster's wound, causing him to begin thrashing around. While in the past Sheldon's mother says the Nightshade doesn't heal but rather reveals who you are, we see current Bushmaster as the shrapnel in his body is slowly pushed out thanks to the Nightshade, soon leaving him looking normal. Ingrid continues with her comparison talking to Luke, and though he says he'd never put innocents and loved ones in danger, she says she can tell he too tries to destroy evil he sees. Though she continues stating she doesn't want cops involved, Luke tells Misty he has her as she learns of another homicide where a bullet matched the .38 revolver. Though it wasn't solved, she goes to the evidence room and learns it was the death of Pete. Mariah, now drunk at Harlem's Paradise, hallucinates Mabel chewing her out for getting into drugs. Defensive, Mariah says Mabel's the one who ruined everything while she has spent her own time building shelters for women and children. She stands firm when Mabel brings up Cornell, but loses her nerve when Pete appears as well, taunting Mariah about their past and Tilda. Mabel tells Pete to be cautious, and Mariah rants that she's in charge, and, being owed something, will run the whole city eventually. With Bushmaster recovering from his injuries, he tells Sheldon to make the call and Tilda reveals the Nightshade has poisoned his organs to an extent. His claim to be able to live off credit after cheating death is interrupted when a broken Sheldon enters, unable to tell him what exactly happened at Gwen's. Misty is ecstatic after her find, telling Ridley they now have a way to link Mariah to three crimes, only for Ridley to crush her hopes by pointing out Scarfe was involved in Pete's case, therefore causing potential issues if they move forward, and on the remaining two cases there is only circumstantial evidence. To further her frustration, Luke explains to Misty that Ingrid won't testify, and he supports her desire to simply take Anansi's body back to Jamaica and move on. Bushmaster checks out Gwen's, where he laments that an attack meant for him killed his loved ones, and he allows Tilda to leave. Back at Harlem's Paradise, Shades walks in on Mariah drinking and getting cozy with Alex, so he pulls his gun to make the latter walk out. Feeling he is seeing her for the first time, Shades chastises Mariah for breaking street rules by killing innocents, saying he watched her enjoy Anansi's death. She points out how he murdered Candace, and he counters that she had broken rules as well and wasn't innocent, and a surprised Mariah wonders where his violent attitude from the past went. He admits he didn't kill Ingrid and says he's done, despite Mariah saying the woman could go to cops and take them both down. Mariah brings up his involvement in shooting everyone, and he reminds her he said to use Anansi as leverage. With Mariah saying she's just ending what Bushmaster started, Shades claims she's lost her heart, which was the best thing about her. Remembering how Shades previously said killing gets easier after the first one, Mariah tries to get him under her thumb again, only for him to turn away. Things get heated when Mariah reveals a fact she knows about him, and after he makes a decision we see Luke have a confrontation with Bushmaster and later Sugar. Last episode gave us a nail in the coffin of Shades and Mariah's relationship, and this episode hammered it home. As it is, Shades is still reeling after having to kill his best friend and former lover for Mariah, upset and lacking the edge we previously saw him with. Mariah continuing to ignore his advice has caused him irritation throughout the season, and choosing to kill Anansi and those at Gwen's, rather than use the old man as a bargaining chip, was the final straw. Shades seems to be a firm believer in the rules of the street, and killing innocent people in a crusade against Bushmaster left him feeling terrible. From his conversation at the barbershop with Comanche, it's clear Shades was looking for a way to stay in the life to an extent, but avoid the violence that tends to come along for the ride. Now, however, he's been witness to the horrific act of slaughtering innocents as a message to one man, and burning another man alive. As most probably expected, Mariah is starting to go down a path similar to Cornell, which Shades didn't want for her. Upon regaining the club, Mariah chose to have her painting put down in the bunker, while up top in the office she put back the painting of Biggie Smalls. To match this symbolic suggestion at her mindset, we see her being to spiral down as she, while drunk, sees and talks to Mabel and Pete. Despite her actions, Mariah still believes herself to be the hero, as she tells her grandmother that she has been trying to clear the Stokes name and do things for the community. Given how, despite this, she has taken on a role more similar to Cornell, however, one can easily guess that she'll meet a grisly end just like he did. And while Mariah sees herself as the hero, the backstory we get on Bushmaster in this episode works wonders in giving us a more interesting take on the belief that every villain is the hero of their story. While Mariah wasn't involved in the McIver murders, getting the sights of a kind John McIver go through his mom's murder, then being shot by Pete Stokes, makes one feel for him in his crusade. Obviously he has gone too far, but he is a man who was pushed to almost death by a family that killed his and left him with nothing, and it can be easier to go from their to a violent path like he did. Further legitimizing his side, we know from what we've seen thus far that, while Mariah has tried to clean the family name, she still tried to keep McIver out of things, pretending the past didn't happen, and retaliated in turn to everything he did. However, it's still a lot easier to see that Luke has a point over either person and is trying to keep the peace between both sides. It seems odd that he's trying to protect both people in the conflict, but it goes back to the typical hero belief that everyone is worth saving. The comparison of him to Bushmaster is a rather obvious move and very cliche, given how often a "we're not so different" moment happens. A physical comparison is constantly drawn due to their powers, but along with that is the comparison of the personalities, such as in this episode with Ingrid talking about their anger. As stated before, I find that comparison to be rather ridiculous, as one man is controlling his anger and protecting people, while the other is on a psychotic path of vengeance and beheading people. The season is coming to a close, however, so hopefully we'll get fewer comparisons as tensions between characters explode in a final confrontation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
April 2020
Categories
All
|