Spoiler Note: Do not read this article if you have not finished the series.
Luke Cage and Claire Temple are the most promising couple in the Marvel-Netflix universe right now. Heading into the second season, the duo is on a positive trajectory, perhaps even on track for "happily ever after" situation. Luke and Claire have been dating since the second half of Luke Cage Season 1, but three episodes into Season 2, series creator Cheo Hodari Coker swept that happy ending right off the table. The paths Luke and Claire choose to walk in life start to diverge, and it's bad news for their relationship. It all goes down in one of Season 2's standout scenes, one of Coker's favorites.
"That argument Luke has with Claire in episode 3 is one of my favorite things I've ever been involved with," Coker told Newsweek during an interview last month. "The acting between Rosario and Mike is on a whole other level, nothing to do with a 'superhero show.'"
Luke (Mike Colter) arrives home after a night of rough-and-tough vigilantism, and Claire (Rosario Dawson) questions him about his recent change in attitude. "If beating your chest around town is what you need to call yourself a hero, I question your understanding of the world. This shit is changing you, Luke. You're scaring me," she tells him.
Luke retorts, "It's making me more of who I am… I'm a Black man in a hoodie. People have always been afraid of me." Luke, who feels he's always been labeled as a threat, transforms that anger with a heightened sense of ferocity. He accuses Claire of not understanding his perspective, but Claire explains she experienced racism in a different way. She's Afrocubana and some of her family is so filled with shame and self-hatred they will "deny each other to the grave." That's how deep the institution of racism runs, Claire explains, urging Luke to rise above the labels.
Luke isn't having it. To his mind, a Black man only has the opportunity to navigate the world in one of two ways: "lean into the fear and be the n*gga that people already think you are, or play the big docile house cat with a smile."
The conversation does not end well, culminating in a full-blown tantrum, with Luke punching holes through the wall. Claire isn't only scared, she stunned, and because she's grew up with domestic violence, decides to leave to protect herself. We never see her again until the finale episode. One of Luke's final sentences to Claire encompasses the character's season-long trajectory. "If I can use that anger for fear and intimidation to do work, then so be it. If I have to speak the language of those who would do others harm to make them stop, then so be it... I am taking responsibility, by taking over."
Coker compares the state of their relationship to The Godfather. "Claire haunts Luke, the way that Kay haunted Michael Corleone and Apollonia," he says. "You really want people to care, and so ultimately if we are lucky enough to get a Season 3, I want people to think about that relationship and how it defines both of them. When you start at the beginning, Mariah threatens Claire and Luke walks into the club and says, 'If you even mention her name I'll kill you on sight.' Then at the end, he says, 'Tell Claire to go home.' I want people, the second they get to the end of episode 13, to say, 'Man, I don't even know if I know this dude. Let me watch all this over again.'"
As Season 2 concludes, Luke takes the gift Mariah left to him in her will — Harlem's Paradise. He stands on the balcony listening to Rakim perform, just like Cottonmouth once did, savoring the control and power with a ferocious swag about him. "When you see Luke on the balcony in the Cottonmouth perch, whoever is on that perch controls the club and controls Harlem," Coker says.
"That's who dictates who plays on stage. When Mariah was on that perch, the sound of the club is Blues and R&B. Whoever owns the club controls the portrait in the inside office, too. If Bushmaster ran the club, Marcus Garvey would go up and it would be a lot more Reggae. Finally, though, when Luke is in charge, we put Ali up and he has Rakim as his first guest. When Luke is in the suit on the perch and reveling in the attention he's getting from stage, he's enjoying it the same way Cottonmouth was enjoying Raphael Saadiq or Jidenna doing 'Long Live the Chief.' It was that twist, — maybe Mariah is right, the club will seduce him and change him in ways that he can't anticipate — that makes you as an audience member be like, 'Oh my god, what happened to this guy, maybe he's not ready for this.'"
The showrunner says Luke's arc is similar to Daredevil's in the "Shadowland" comic book storyline, in which Matt Murdock gets control of The Hand, and it changes him for the worse. "It goes to show that absolute power corrupts absolutely," Coker explains.
Luke Cage Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Autumn Noel Kelly started as a staff writer for Newsweek in 2015. She covers anything in the comic book world—TV ... Read more
