Luke Cage S1 Ep7 – Manifest

Well, that was a doozy!

He never saw it coming, and neither did I.

I certainly got what I asked for, and more, from Mariah. She’s getting all the political consequences for her criminal associations, in a way that seems quite realistic. And of course I still don’t know how she could get any legitimate political credibility back, even after the events of the episode. But maybe Shades will help. Now, I’m not sure why he wants to help, despite his words about the power of the Stokes name, but I’m interested to see exactly what his plans are for her. He certainly appears to have her number. The scene where she, er, “gets her nerve” is chilling but powerfully done.

The Stokes family backstory we get this episode is also rich and telling. I do wonder what an alternate reality in which Cornell got to be a musician would be like. Mariah’s political career probably would have gone better in that world. I’m glad we’re not watching a show about Mama Mabel, though, because she’s terrifying. Or about Uncle Pete, for that matter. However, I do enjoy the chance to have seen more depth to Cornell’s character. I should have known that the villain only gets an episode partly devoted to backstory and depth right before he gets killed off.

Still totally on board with Claire as the conscience/mentor to the superheroes. I’m kind of fascinated that Luke told her his life story. It’s almost making me change my mind about shipping them, but I really don’t, still. Also, not that it’s her fault for not knowing about the Judas gun, but I bet she feels a little bad for telling Luke that nothing can hurt him, now. Because yikes.

Nurse, sage, priest – Claire kind of does it all.

For some reason, it hadn’t clicked before their conversation that Misty might be slightly more inclined to trust Luke now that she knows Scarfe trusted him. I’m glad of that. I wonder what else he could give her to get her closer to really believing in him. As Luke points out, though, she does have less reason to trust the justice system, after Stokes gets out scott free. I hope the Internal Affairs lady is genuinely interested in the truth. With everybody after Luke now, I don’t want everyone to be after Misty, too. I assume Misty won’t believe that Luke killed Cottonmouth – and I hope other cops will require there to be real evidence, first, as well.

So Luke is not, in fact, completely bulletproof, and that isn’t good news at all. Are we to assume this would-be assassin is Diamondback, finally making an appearance?