Luke Cage - 'Step in the Arena' and 'Just to Get a Rep'

"I'm concerned about the beard."

We open in the wreck of Genghis Connie's, with firefighters trying to clear the rubble from above and Luke doing the same from below. As he explains to Connie, he's kinda strong. Still, these things take time, so let's have a flashback while we're about it.

As a new intake enters Seagate Penitentiary - later to be the home of Justin Hammer and Trevor Slattery - and HOLY SHIT! BEARD!

Yeah, just to get this out of the way, Mike Colter turns in a storming performance as framed ex-cop Carl Lucas, but the real star is his amazing prison beard. It comes in huge and gets huger, its wildness signifying his isolation, self-imposed or otherwise, finally being scraped away... But we'll get to that.

At first refusing to get involved with anyone, to associate with fellow prisoners or open up to psychologist Dr Reva Connors, he is slowly drawn out. He makes a friend in fellow inmate Squabbles, and lets his guard down with Connors after he pushes a little too hard in trying to make her back off. He's in full on surly mode, but we still see his mind at work, sharp and insightful, and somewhere behind that beard a good heart that regrets hurting good people, even in self-defence. We also hear rumours of experiments at the prison, although Connors denies them, which of course convinces us that she is some sort of dupe.

Unfortunately, connections allow head guard Rackham to exploit him, threatening Squabbles and Reva to force Lucas into a prisoner fight club run by and for the guards. Lucas determines to bring down the corruption, but Rackham's prisoner goons - including Shades - get word out of Squabbles with a fatal beating and deliver same to Lucas. As he is dying, however, Reva appeals to shady physician Noah Burstein to save him by putting him into a mysterious immersion tank. When Rackham tries to stop the procedure by sabotaging the tank it explodes, and Lucas emerges with his now-familiar powers. He escapes from Seagate and finds Reva, who admits to being more than just a psychologist.

"You look like a damned fool."

Triumphs of this episode include the beard, but also Colter's performances as Lucas, an introverted ball of rage almost unrecognisable as the same man as the more mature and confident Luke (although we saw snatches of him back in Jessica Jones.) The reveal that Reva Connors was no dupe, but in on the experiments was also a smooth move, and explained just where that so-important flash drive came from. I still strongly suspect that the Seagate experiments are related to the source of Kilgrave and Jessica's powers. Oh, and in his escape, a combination of snatched clothes and the restraints from the tank gave us a brief moment of Luke's classic Power Man garb for pure fan service.

In addition, 'Step in the Arena' provides a critical piece of punctuation in the series. One of the issues - bug or feature, YMMV - of the new-style of all-at-once bingeable TV streaming is that arc plots dominate and individual episodes become less distinctive. By shaking the formula, the flashback episode is a clear bookmark between the first three episodes and Luke's increasingly visible heroics to come, as well as an excellent story in its own right.

It's that woman again!

What follows this full stop is escalation. In its quieter moments, 'Just to Get a Rep' reintroduces us to Claire Temple, newly returned home to Harlem after being fired for not going along with the great hospital ninja coverup and pondering a future in super medicine, but the action of the piece involves Cottonmouth's declaration of open war against Luke Cage, who made a bit of a splash when he crashed out of the rubble with Connie.

We begin with Stokes sending his soldiers to shake down Harlem and refill the coffers that Luke emptied. And if the people ask why? "Tell them it's the Luke Cage stupidity tax." One of his underbosses does suggest, based on his reading about the politics of early hip hop, that it might be better to let Luke have his side of the street, and gets shot for his troubles. Shades notes that Stokes is losing control, his reaction to Cage not one of strength, but of fear.

Another triumph of the series is that we can see the common soldiery of
Cottonmouth's mob starting to fear Luke, instead of all running in convinced
that it's going to go differently this time.

As the shakedown begins, people start coming to Luke. It's the day of Pop's funeral and he's dressed to impress, thanks to Bobby Fish splashing a little cash to call in the services of hustle-chic legend Dapper Dan, but he sets out to 'do right by Pop' and make sure that Cottonmouth spells his name right. Unfortunately there's a lot to do, and for some people he's just too slow, leading one of the robbed citizens, Alicia, literally gunning for her own justice.

Luke busts several shakedown crews, then heads to beard the lion in his own den. He makes it very clear to Cottonmouth that he can't be broken, although he also reveals his identity to Shades. Shades offers two solutions to Stokes: Liquidate his assets and move on, or purchase a special bullet from Diamondback, made from Chitaurii metal and designed to take down powers. Stokes won't give up his club - "It's my rep, my blood, my legacy." - and he won't ask Diamondback to deal with Cage because that would mean giving up Harlem, so instead he promises to recover the Puerto Rican's guns and make good. To do this he calls on Detective Dirty, although swiping military hardware from lock-up is clearly more than he signed up for.

"Stop me if you've heard this one..."

We wrap up at Pop's funeral, where we learn that Pop had a son, who barely spoke to him, and Stokes gives a speech about how Pop was his mentor and he believes in protecting Harlem from outside invaders and 'interlopers with arcane powers'. Points for the use of the word 'arcane', but then Luke gets up and blows him out of the water with his own eulogy, in which he explains what Pop inspired him to become. "I don't believe in Harlem," he says. "I believe in the people who make Harlem what it is." His message is one of community, and a cry to stand up to bullies, especially ones who call themselves friends. It's a timely reminder that Luke is not a one trick pony or a blunt instrument, but the entire package; body, mind and heart of a hero.

Still, Misty warns him that he's playing a dangerous game. "Your ass may be bulletproof, but Harlem ain't."

Luke Cage continues to play on its themes of family and legacy. Pop turns out to have been a lousy father, before he became a great father figure whose family transcended blood. Stokes meanwhile is still obsessed with blood, and with his own legacy, while Luke believes in respecting the legacies of those who came before. Reva, Pop, Crispus Attucks and others. Cottonmouth wants to rise above, Luke to stand together. Stokes talks about Harlem as an entity that belongs to him, while Luke sees it as a setting for the community that he is part of. If it is true that the king and the land are one, then Luke is more of a king than Cottonmouth, not least because, regardless of Stokes' assertion that everyone does, Luke doesn't want to be the king.