The way they move the pieces to get to the final showdowns in these last episodes is a fail. The show is saved by the great acting from everyone who isn't Diamondback, and all he work they did world-building and character-building int he earlier episodes. Plus I still love this view of Harlem and the music.

It might be the only way I'd be cool with Agents of SHIELD and Netflix crossing over. Theo takes fish oil and becomes an inhuman.

The actor is not up to par at all. Not when you have Mahershala and Alfre and Theo killing it in all their scenes with him.

True. The root cause of instability in general was Stokes' death and Shades/Mariah's coverup, but the stop and frisk was bc the cop got killed. But after the stop and frisk AND THEN the cop beating up a teenager, no way the community asks to give the cops more powerful weapons. No way.

Agreed, it's unlikely now. But man, I reaaaaally hope they do it anyway. Bc the whole shades thing is ridiculous when you think about it for more than 5 seconds. And I really liked what the actor did with him, and how the show used him outside of that.

His best moments are when he shows his humanity- crying for Pop, playing the piano, struggling to understand that Luke Cage actually doesn't want power, the constant laughing when he is feeling most threatened. The performance is fantastic and the writing is great.

I am hoping he has powers that make the Shades a necessity, and he isn't just some asshole wearing sunglasses at night to look cool.

I just can't see it. The show was too good at establishing that in this world, despite the Avengers existing, the racial dynamics are the same as in ours. The community claims Luke Cage as one of their own in Episode 4, and they go on and on about how amazing it is to see a bulletproof black man. Method Man is writing…

She does, very effectively. But it's too hard to imagine folks agitating for MORE police powers in a realistic world. It's mind-boggling.

Trying to imagine a BLM rally protesting the police's need to have bigger and more powerful weapons all because a gangster who did gangster shit got taken out and the cops decide stop and frisk on the whole neighborhood just isn't effective enough.

I must have missed it too. I'm assuming that how he get his money is related to Seagate/Reva/Kilgrave getting JJ to kill Reva. I'm hoping that it will be a focal point for the Defenders, but it's still be a big hole in Luke Cage.

I can't decide if the problem with Diamondback is more in the performance or writing, but he just doesn't work. It's like they teleported him in from Thor 2's land of bland, disposable villains.

This episode was my least favorite of the series, hands down. Also explains a big part of why Diamondback doesn't work for me. The performance doesn't relate to what backstory he got (he might as well go BWAHAHA YOU'LL NEVER DEFEAT ME LUKE CAGE for all the nuance the performer displays, which in a show where the…

Mahershala's charisma is mesmerizing. He brings something to the character that is totally absent in Diamondback. Mariah has charisma too, but not the same way (which is a good thing, she is her own person) so she can't really replace what he brought to the show.

This show is as much about Black America in 2016 as it is about Luke Cage. No way that happens with no mention of Obama somehow, some way, continuity be damned.

90% of this list is totally unwatchable. Huh.

One of the very few times I've ever seen a performance on the Tony's that made me not want to see the show. See also: She Loves Me

This. It's the only awards show where the bulk of the show focuses on entertaining viewers instead of acting the industry on the back (although there's plenty of that too)

I love him despite those horrifying sleeves. See also: Cynthia Erivo. I love her for that amazing talent. I do not love whatever the hell that was she wore.

I'm a black female. Put me back in time and I don't have any of those options, bc these are the men who took them all away.