Marvel & Netflix’s Luke Cage Recap Episode 10; “Take it Personal”

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As the heart rate monitor flatlines and Luke is laying dead in an acid bath, Claire gets desperate and drops an electrical device in the acid. The electrocution revives Luke and they try the only thing left they can think of to recreate the conditions of the original experiment closely enough to save Luke. It’s a desperate race against the clock to get the shrapnel out while Luke’s skin is soft enough to cut through. They just barely manage to get all the shrapnel before he flatlines again.

Misty stares at the still of Striker holding her at gunpoint and wonders aloud who he is. Meanwhile Dillard meets with Striker at his private hideout. He shows her an arsenal of the Judah bullets made from Chitauri metal leftover from the battle of New York, and tells her to sell it to the cops by stoking the fear of Luke Cage.

Luke wakes up and teases Claire by pretending to have amnesia as she’s talking to the doctor about his experiments. Meanwhile Striker starts his plan to fearmonger against Cage by using a souped up alien metal glove to punch a cop to death and shout that he’s Luke Cage. Dillard chews Striker out for stupidly killing a cop and he proves how delusional he really is by being as ignorantly single-minded about Cage to the point of making mistakes. Cops go full tilt gestalt trying to find Cage thinking he’s a cop killer but Misty isn’t buying it. One douchebag questions the son of the law student who used to hit on Luke at the barbershop. The kid doesn’t bend.

Luke and Claire talk to the doctor about why the experiment was even being done. After he leaves, Luke asks Claire to show him the files about him on the drive and watches Reva videos discussing his suitability as a candidate from the moment they met, and Luke realizes he was just another guinea pig. Back in Harlem, facial recognition proves the fake Luke Cage is Striker, and Misty has to go help pull the douchebag cop off of the kid from the barbershop. Luke and the Doctor talk about Reva involvement in all of it. Luke destroys everything so no one can recreate the experiments. Claire takes the flash drive and they leave.

Misty scrolls through old microfilm to find out who Striker is and stumbles across Luke’s true identity when Dillard brings Victoria in to browbeat the cops about how a cop beat up her son in interrogation, and she pulls a press conference drumming up more fear against Cage and sway the police to buy the Judah ammo. Luke a Claire stand at the shoreline looking out at Seagate prison and talk about his hurt feelings about Reva lies. He still loves the idea of her, but no longer loves her herself. Claire tries to convince Luke to go back to Harlem with her and finish things.

The doctor digs through the wreckage of his lab trying to salvage the info from the flash drive. Misty visits Domingo’s gym and asks him about Striker. He directs her to Harlem Paradise. Luke and Claire arrive at his father’s church to find it abandoned in an empty neighbourhood. H flashes back to catching his father cheating on his mother with Strikers mom and realizes Striker IS his brother. Luke has a revelation and realizes he has to be his brother’s keeper after all, that this ends with him and Striker having it out.

Dillard is having a rally at the nightclub selling her snake oil to the crowd to further pressure the cops to buy the ammo. She cites Luke and Jessica Jones as examples of the superpowers “menaces” that are the “real threats”. After she hands off to a local pastor, the councilman who tried to take her job a few episodes back tells her he sees right through her. Meanwhile Luke and Claire are back in town and at the rally, as is Misty. Luke sees Misty headed upstairs to see Striker and follows her keeping a low profile. Misty has her gun drawn and Striker again proves he’s a giant idiot by shooting her right above the crowd. Luke runs in and shields her from the army of idiots shooting at him and the cop he’s protecting in full view of about 8 dozen people. Luke tells Misty he’s got her while bullets fly. End of episode.

Penny is a now divorced intersexed disabled lesbian in BC Canada. She's been watching wrestling and reading comics since she was a kid, and knows her stuff. She lives with her pets and passes her free time writing, drawing, doing paid photoshop work (including logos done for Pulse's Own Mike Gojira), and is a part-time Queer model.