Full spoilers for Marvel's Luke Cage continue below.
To go forwards we might go backward sometimes, and Marvel's Luke Cage could have benefited a bit more from that idea. As the first half of the season was very much about Luke figuring out how to save Harlem, the second half became much more about him facing off against Diamondback. But not enough seed was set to make that conflict stick, and waiting until the finale to use a series of flashbacks to offer more context into their teenage relationship -- and a minimal amount at that -- was the wrong move.
Though their big fight was a knock 'em, sock 'em beatdown in the streets of Harlem, it lacked enough punch to make an amazing finale. Even the kicker for how Luke was able to beat Stryker's Hammer Tech suit was vaguely explained, with Luke essentially not attacking his half-brother in hate and thus being able to knock him out/paralyze him.
That arc was ultimately the most unsatisfying in what otherwise was a great season. But beating Diamondback was just the beginning of Luke's problems, and as was pretty easily telegraphed, Mariah got out of police custody by killing Candace and thus killing Misty's alibi. Her whole "I can still spin this" attitude definitely makes her the "b***h we all hate to love," as Shades would say, and honestly I was happy she made it out the season alive and running Harlem. She's the Black Mariah she wanted to hide from the world, fully living in Mama Mable's legacy. Bye Biggie, there's a new queen in town.
There weren't many tied up ends in the finale. Even Luke and Claire's supposed happily ever after for "coffee" was cut short when Mariah made a point to mention "Carl Lucas" on the news, thus alerting the Feds to his whereabouts and getting him brought back to prison to serve the rest of his sentence. Will Matt Murdock get him off early, like Claire suggests, or will he sit through his sentence? Either way, this seems like an easy way of keeping Luke in one place until he's called into action for 2017's Marvel's The Defenders.
Even the defeat of Diamondback isn't permanent, as the episode ended with Dr. Noah Burnstein taking Luke's half-brother's body to seemingly try to replicate the experiment on him that gave Luke Cage superpowers. If that's not a cliffhanger that will pay off in Luke Cage: Season 2, whenever that ends up coming out, then I don't know what is.
This lead to solid finale that wasn't quite up to the high points of earlier parts of the season, but still was a satisfying way to end Luke Cage's first solo outing. He's a superhero who doesn't use as much pomp and circumstance as someone like Daredevil, but there are nice nods to forward momentum -- like Misty Knight in her full comics get-up keeping an eye on Harlem's Paradise and Claire signing up for martial arts classes -- that promise even more great material to come in future Marvel Netflix shows.
Marvel's Luke Cage had a solid finale that saw the defeat of Diamondback, but left a lot of threads open. Mariah is still free, Luke is heading back to prison and Dr. Burnstein is seemingly trying to give Stryker superpowers, so there will be lots of trouble left to deal with once Luke becomes a free man again.
