Even though he’s doing his best, we open episode ten, ‘The Main Ingredient’, with Luke Cage (Mike Colter) getting hassled by people along the street about how to use his powers, how to serve Harlem and even how to handle Bushmaster (Mustafa Shakir). After shaking them off, he goes to Pop’s Barber Shop, where Danny Rand (Finn Jones) shows up to have a chat. Luke apologizes about what happened to the Rand Pharmaceuticals office in episode nine, but Danny brushes it off as a totally understandable loss. He’s there to talk to Luke about Bushmaster and even though Luke tells him that it isn’t his fight, he insists that someone coming after his friends means that it’s his fight now too. Luke tries to push him away, but caves and tells him that he can stay to help, but it’s got to be done by Luke’s rules.
Nandi (Antonique Smith) is still missing, and when Misty (Simone Missick) calls Bailey (Justin Swain) in to an interrogation room at headquarters, he’s faced with both her and Chief Ridley (Karen Pittman) questioning him about where Nandi is. Misty tells him that Nandi had to have told Bushmaster about where Mariah was, and where Misty was going. Nandi’s keycard to go in to the observation room was used while she and Ridley were in the interrogation room discussing the location of the makeshift safehouse. He tries to pass blame to Luke or Mariah, then even Misty. He wants Nandi to have the benefit of the doubt, but Misty pushes that she might have a direct line to Bushmaster.
Mariah (Alfre Woodard) is back at Harlem’s paradise. She blames Ben Donovan (Danny Johnson) for having lost it in the first place, but he tries to sooth her by informing her that all of her money, holdings and even Harlem’s Paradise have been restored. Since Piranha (Chaz Lamar Shepherd) had been tortured in to doing so, his transferring of money and assets wasn’t legally binding. Shades (Theo Rossi) is more than a little suspicious of Donovan, but his spirits are lifted when she tells him to call everyone home, that they are going to take back the streets.
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At Pop’s, Danny is meditating and Luke is attempting to meditate. Danny asks Luke to tell him, blow for blow about the fight with Bushmaster. Luke tries to shrug it off as him just having won, but Danny gets him to realize that Bushmaster bleeds, and if he is, then he’s injured, and if he escaped, then he’d need to find a doctor. Luke quickly realizes that they need to check out Mother’s touch. When they arrive, Luke and Danny find the shop in ruins, with a piece of Bushmaster’s clothing left behind in the rubble. He explains the use of the Nightshade to Danny, and Tilda’s (Gabrielle Dennis) theories about how bushmaster is using it. He considers it, and suggests that by having manipulated one part of himself so much – his physical strength and resilience – the rest of Bushmaster, including his mind, may be unraveling around him. Tilda’s notes suggest that the nightshade is highly toxic and the more you use, the less effective if its. Unfortunately all of their theories hinge on Tilda’s knowledge, and the only way to find her, is through her mother.
Mariah is just starting a conversation with Anansi (Sahr Ngaujah) when Danny and Luke show up to say hello and to keep them out of her office, she goes down to her VIP area, to greet them. Danny is nervous about it going wrong and getting violent, but Luke isn’t worried at all. He just walked in with a billionaire. Danny tries to refuse that his money has anything to do with the way that people respond to him and resents that Luke always makes it about his money, but Luke tells him that’s a part of his power, at least here. When Mariah arrives and Luke asks about Tilda, she just shrugs and tells him that Tilda isn’t there, that she’s gone her own way. She tells him he should find Bushmaster before she does. They go to leave, but Danny has an idea.
Back at the police station Bailey is reviewing security footage from the back door of Harlem’s Paradise, where they find Nandi making her exit after informing Bushmaster. Bailey feels betrayed, but Misty isn’t surprised. They catch her at the airport and Nandi takes a swing at Misty which gives Misty an excuse to get a few hits in before Bailey steps in to arrest Nandi. Once they get in to the interrogation room, Misty and Nandi rehash the past, and the anger about Misty offering immunity and blaming Misty for what happened to Candace comes to the surface quickly. Nandi thinks that Bushmaster’s justice for Mariah is what she deserves, and she is fine with picking up whatever loose money is left over afterwards.
Back in Mariah’s office, she and Anansi get to talk. He’s not interested in her intimidation tactics. He sees both of their fates as being sealed, and refuses to give away information about Bushmaster. Mariah tells Shades to untie Anansi, if he was going to run, he would have done it or tried to call Luke and Danny up when they had arrived. She tries to argue with him about the history of Harlem’s Paradise and of Bushmaster rum, but even that doesn’t work. Anansi is resigned. He used to feel sorry for Mariah, but now that he’s seen her, he sees the same darkness in her that he sees in Bushmaster, so much so that he thinks she deserves everything Bushmaster is going to bring down on her.
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After an annoyed conversation and short sparring session on a rooftop at Columbia, Luke realizes the next place they need to go to get information on Bushmaster. The clerk of the underground head shop he takes them to guesses pretty immediately what he’s looking for and after some less than diplomatic persuasion, the clerk tells Luke and Danny that the Jamaicans have taken over one of the biggest grow houses in the cit and where to find it. Once they get in to the warehouse in Rucker Park, the expected fight with all the general chaos and property destruction ensues. After blowing down the door to a specialized room, they find what Bushmaster – or rather what a very scared grower whose instincts to run serve him well – has been working on: a carefully grown and cared for Nightshade, an original, not one of the ones they’ve been trying to grow out in the rest of the warehouse. The Jamaican soil and sunshine is so specific that the plant will quickly wither and die without it. Bushmaster needs the supply to keep powering himself up, and they leave the warehouse on fire, destroying the entirety of his supply. Luke asks if it isn’t a bit much, but Danny says that he got Rand to buy the building and the land, so nobody will have to look in to it. As he says it, he admits that his money is power.
At police headquarters, the Deputy Chief expresses that she is impressed with Misty’s composure and how she has handled herself. Misty very politely asks her to cut to the point. Ridley offers her the position of Deputy Chief.
Shades and Mariah have found out about the grow house while walking Anansi down to Gwen’s Cafe. Sugar’s (Sean Ringgold) morals finally kick him hard enough and he refuses to keep going. Mariah, Shades and all of her men walk Anansi in to the cafe. On Mariah’s commands, her men execute everyone, Shades seeming acting purely on reflex, which quickly changes in to a mask of stunned confusion. When Anansi is the only one left alive she has them pour two bottles of Bushmaster rum over his head. She lights the match, and burns him alive.
RELATED: Catch up on all the recaps of Luke Cage here!
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