Episode 11: “Now You’re Mine”
Episode eleven of Luke Cage is one of the more self contained episodes of the series. It takes place in Harlem’s Paradise right where episode ten left off. Luke, Claire, a number of hostages, and an injured Misty are all trapped inside the club. It’s chaos.
The media has decided that Luke Cage is the cause of mayhem in Harlem. Thanks to Diamondback’s use of chaos and misdirection no one can see the truth. Everyone, from the NYPD to the reporters, just wants someone to blame. It doesn’t help that Luke *did* attack a few police officers a few episodes back and now the footage is now all over the internet making him an easy target.
Diamondback’s only goal at this point is to make Luke look bad publicly. He’s mad and acting like a spoiled child whose father doesn’t love him-which in this case is exactly what he is. In this episode we find out that as kids Diamondback and Luke stole a car, but Luke got off without a record because his father was a respected preacher who made a deal with the judge. Diamondback was sent to juvie and while he was there, his mother died. Needless to say he is not happy with the way things turned out and he sees Luke as the one to blame.
Diamondback is not a master manipulator like Mariah or a suave business man like Cottonmouth. He just wants revenge. He doesn’t have a plan. This causes him problems with his right hand man, Shades. Shades like to see the endgame so he can see his moves and stay two steps ahead. With no direction Shades has to improvise which is not his forte- obviously because he ends up getting arrested (after being taken out by Misty and Claire first).
Luke gets arrested at the end of this episode too. He could easily fight back, but he wants to set the record straight especially now that Misty has seen the truth. Misty finally believes Luke is one of the good guys and is now out to get him justice. Took her long enough.