Episode six of Luke Cage “Suckas Need Bodyguards cranks things up a notch or two. Scarfe tries to get more money from Cottontail who punches his bought cop and then shoots the man with his own gun.
Stokes’ cousin, Councilwoman Dillard is not impressed that Cornell shot a cop. She is furious with her cousin. Mariah recommends that he sell the club and get out. She also asks what he means to do about Luke Cage.
Mariah then gives Cornell some tips about how to take care of Cage.
Before she expresses her displeasure, and offers her cousin some advice, Dillard continues her publicity campaign machinations. Cage stops by to mock Stokes’ partner in crime.
Luke then meets with Bobby Fish to talk about Pop’s barbershop and he tells Bobby that as soon as Stokes is in jail, he will leave Harlem. Cornell calls Perez, his other bought cop and tells him to sort Scarfe and Luke Cage.
Claire Temple hunts down Cage at the diner where he is eating with Bobby. She talks about the shotgun blast that should have killed him and tells him that he is amazing.
Luke explains that he does not want to be different. Cage pays up and leaves Claire sitting at the booth.
At the precinct, the captain tells her people to stop the gossip and get on with finding Scarfe. Perez and the captain ask Misty what she may know. Captain Audrey asks Knight and Perez to find her partner and to learn what he was up to.
Claire and Cage walk and talk all the way to Pop’s barbershop and find the door unlocked. They go inside and find Scarfe about to bleed out. Misty and Perez go to her partner’s apartment and she does that crime scene thing again.
The Lieutenant says she is weird but Misty explains that she can “see” crime scenes from photographs as well. Meanwhile Claire patches Scarfe up. She removes one bullet from his body but the other has damaged the liver and is beyond her reach.
Luke learns that the crooked cop has evidence on Cottonmouth back in his apartment. Knight and Perez are staking out Rafael’s place but Luke gets in without being seen. While he looks for the incriminating information, the two detectives realize that someone is in the apartment.
The two cops rush up the stairs to find out who it is. Being caught in Scarfe’s apartment does not fit in with Cages’ plans. He finds the evidence and lo the the windown.
Scarfe refuses a hospital and Luke asks him about Chico. The Lieutenant initially lies but then crumbles and tells Cage that he killed Chico. Luke then decides to take the seriously wounded cop and the evidence to the police.
Temple calls her mother who delivers a catering van and a warning to Luke, do not harm a hair on Claire’s head. The couple then try to get a dying Scarfe to the cops and keep him away from Stoke’s goons who want to finish the job.
Mariah is set up by Thembi. The reporter easily outmaneuvers the good publicity diatribe from the councilwoman and ends up getting kicked out of Dillard’s brownstone. She does try to get one more quote from Mariah when the news of Stokes’ arrest comes over the wire.
This episode allowed Luke the chance to take on more gun wielding badmen from Cottonmouth’s stable of thugs. The villains never seem to figure out that filling Cage’s shirt with holes will not stop the man.
“Suckas Need Bodyguards” also shows off Misty Knight’s detective skills. She outs Perez as being on Cottonmouth’s payroll with a pretend call from Scarfe. The lieutenant then tries to shoot Knight but fails. Perez ends up in cuffs.
Scarfe dies and Cottonmouth has been arrested but the gangster with the big dreams may not be down and out just yet. Captain Audrey tells Misty that the city officials are treading lightly around the gangster. Plus Mariah dropping those ideas on how to take Cage out of the picture may mean she might step up to the plate if Cornell does go down.
Cage is convinced that he is finished with Cottonmouth and he hopes to do a quick fade from Harlem. However, if the captain is right, Luke is not done yet.
Luke Cage continues to look at the grittier side of Marvel. This series and Jessica Jones both provide a seedier look at crime fighting. The move away from spandex and capes is a welcome alternative version of superheroes that reaches the parts that the others miss.
The series is streaming on Netflix and all 13 episodes available to watch now.
Cast:
- Mike Colter – Luke Cage
- Mahershala Ali – Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes
- Simone Missick – Misty Knight
- Alfre Woodard – Mariah Dillard
- Theo Rossi – Shades Alvarez
- Frank Whaley – Rafael Scarfe
- Cassandra Freeman – Partrica Wilson
- Jacob Vargas – Domingo Vargas
- Ron Cephas Jones – Bobby Fish
- Jade Wu – Connie Lin
- Thomas Q. Jones – Comanche
- Rosario Dawson – Claire Temple
- Jaiden Kaine – Zip
- Manny Perez – Lt. Perez
- Sonja Sohn – Captain Betty Audrey
- Tijuana Ricks – Thembi Wallace
