- "You're going to lose your temper. Every man struggles with that."
"But I'm not every man."
"Precisely my point. You're a grown-ass man, yes. But you're also a grown-ass man who can throw a Volkswagen. So you have to be more careful than your average man, 'cause if you lose your shit, people's lives could be at stake." - ―Bobby Fish and Luke Cage
I Get Physical is the fourth episode of the second season of the television series Luke Cage.
Synopsis[]
As footage of his fight with Bushmaster goes viral, Luke struggles with the aftereffects and follows a trail of clues to Tilda's shop.
Plot[]
Luke Cage walks the streets of Harlem after an argument with Claire Temple. D.W. Griffith notices Cage is on the move via a phone app, and travels to Cage's location, ready to film whatever the hero is up to. When Griffith arrives, Cage is ambushed by Bushmaster, and the two brawl it out, all the while Griffith is gaining footage and a crowd gathers. Despite his efforts, Cage is eventually knocked out by Bushmaster. Bushmaster then introduces himself vaguely to Griffith before leaving the scene. Griffith rushes to Cage's aid soon after.
Cage awakens to a crowd gathered around him, staring at and taking photos of his sprawled out body. He asks if Griffith got a name of his attacker, getting the answer of Bushmaster. Cage then gets off the ground, hurt, and makes his way to Pop's Barber Shop. Disoriented, Cage coughs up spits of blood into a barber sink. He calls Temple to help heal his injuries, but the line goes to voice mail. Bobby Fish then enters the stores, and asks if Cage is okay. Cage explains that Bushmaster attacked him, and without any super suit. Fish tries to call Temple himself, but Cage wards him from doing so. He then leans back in a barber chair to rest, while Fish leaves to fetch him some ice.
In the 29th Precinct Police Station, Nandi Tyler and Mark Bailey make banter at their desk and Misty Knight continues her work at her desk when Bailey find Griffith's video of Bushmaster on the internet. While Tyler and Bailey make light of it, Knight becomes concerned. Tyler and Bailey then argue with Knight about "lightening up" when captain Tom Ridenhour enters the room and has everyone return to their work. Knight asks Ridenhour if he had seen the Bushmaster video, to which he had. However, Ridenhour sees Cage's role as a vigilante makes the video irrelevant to the NYPD. Knight then switches to the topic of Arturo Rey III's murderer and how Tyler and Bailey seem to be slacking off. Ridenhour replies that the two's case on a double homicide allowed them to blow off steam and work Rey's case. He then retorts that Knight may as well not come in if she was working on Rey's case freelance. Knight ignores the captain's words, and leaves to go to rehab for her arm.
At Harlem's Paradise, Piranha Jones converses with Mariah Dillard about her successful Atreus Plastics investment, while Shades sits in the back, worrying about the topic. Dillard then reveals to Jones that she put Harlem's Paradise up for sale, Shades questioning her actions. Before any further comments can be made, Comanche enters the room and shows the Bushmaster footage to everyone on a ESPN channel.
Back at Pop's Barber Shop, Cage watches as Stephen A. Smith commentates on the footage on the same ESPN channel. He then finds Griffith selling copies of his footage out on Harlem's streets, and expresses his disappointment in Griffith for doing so. As Griffith creates excuses for his actions, he asks if Cage is leaving town, as Temple was packing her things outside of her mother's apartment. Not giving Griffith an answer, Cage heads towards the apartment.
After Dillard threatens Comanche to leave her and Shades alone to talk, Shades reveals to her that Bushmaster was the one who took over the Yardies, and gave them Nigel Garrison's head with the money the Yardies sent. He then goes on to say he believes Bushmaster is in Harlem to get back at Dillard, saying Bushmaster meant Harlem when he said "his yard", as well as weakening them by buying their guns. While Dillard confirms she has heard of Bushmaster before, she believes he only has beef with her grandfather, and that Shades and her should continue with the gun sale and focus on the future.
Cage enters Temple's apartment, and only finds a handyman renovating the abandoned space. As he walks even more into the apartment, Hansen appears from another room, and stops him, telling him he is not allowed in the home as he was not on the lease. She then tells Cage that Temple only left Cage a backpack sitting on a windowsill with a letter on top. Cage reads it, takes the backpack, and apologizes to Hansen for his damage to the apartment before leaving.
Meanwhile, at Harlem's Paradise, Shades puts Comanche in charge of guarding the club and Dillard while he finishes the gun deal with Bushmaster.
Knight meets with Cage outside of Temple's apartment building. She asks Cage if he wants anything done by her against Bushmaster, with Cage responding he will handle himself, exactly how Knight thought he would answer the question. She then gives Cage police intel over Bushmaster, and, after Cage explains that Bushmaster is involved in the Nigel case, she gives him a ride to the Yardies' Hideout. The two briefly talk about Cage's breakup with Temple before investigating the warehouse, only to find no one inside. Cage notices an empty medicine packet from Mother's Touch and takes a photo of it. They eventually find a locked door and, after Cage crushes the lock, find Garrison's headless corpse inside. Knight insists she needs to call this in, with Cage allowing her to tell the NYPD she was following him to the crime scene.
As Comanche gives Dillard a coffee inside her office at Harlem's Paradise, he asks if he can help with the deal she and Shades made with Jones. However, Dillard rejects his help, and has him leave.
At the Yardie's hideout, detective Tomas Ciancio greets Knight, who introduces Ciancio to Cage. As the two walk about the crime scene, Cinacio breaks the history of the Yardies down for the two of them, explaining that, under Bushmaster's leadership, they now go by the Stylers. After a brief check for info, Ciancio returns to Cage and Knight with the info that Gideon Shaw was the owner of the warehouse, and was in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at a facility in Kearny Point. Knight asks if they can talk with him, and Ciancio tells her that she can, but not Cage. After Knight relayed the information to him, Cage understands, walks away from the crime scene, almost forgetting his bag before doing so, and gets on the closest bus.
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram and his band play a soundcheck of "The Thrill is Gone" while Dillard looks through an old scrapbook.
Meanwhile, at Mother's Touch, Tilda Johnson combines various ingredients together, wondering how Bushmaster beat Luke Cage. Eventually, in one of her medicine books, she discovers that Bushmaster uses Nightshade. Not so long afterwards, Cage walks into the store, and asks Johnson if she had sold anything lately in the packet he had found at the Yardies' hideout. Johnson explains that any dry herbs sold goes in the packets, meaning she sells them many times a day. Cage asks if she sold any to a large Jamaican man, but Johnson merely responds that that accounts for half of her customers. Johnson then flips the situation, asking Cage where his powers come from. Cage, at first weary, explains his backstory to the storeowner. In return, Johnson gives Cage a medicine that would help him heal from Bushmaster's attack, and recommends he get a MRI. After Cage explains he has no one to contact for one, Johnson diagnoses Cage with a concussion, due to his sensitivity to light. Cage thanks Johnson, and tells her to call him if a Yardie were to return.
Knight enters an interrogation room at the Kearny Point ICE Facility, where Shaw is sitting at a table. She asks Shaw about Bushmaster and gives Shaw some of the NYPD's collected intel on him. Shaw responds with an anecdote about two men, one on top of a hill, and the other on the bottom. He then compares Bushmaster to the man at the bottom, coming back for what he thinks is his.
Ingram now plays "I Put A Spell On You" with his band in a life performance at Harlem's Paradise. Bushmaster enters the club, with Dillard and Shades observing from a balcony. He arrives where the two are, and Dillard pours him a drink. Bushmaster observes the renovations made to the club, and Dillard explains that they were an inevitability from their previous encounters with Cage. Bushmaster nods in acknowledgment, and asks who designed the place. Dillard responds that her family had, that being Buggy Stokes and his partners, Mama Mabel and Pistol Pete. Bushmaster then asks if they had heard the name of Quincy McIver. Dillard tries to brush it off as if McIver was a "flunkie", but Bushmaster enforces his question by saying the blues song playing was an example that history does not always forget. Again, Dillard tries to ignore Bushmaster's intentions, but he subtly ensures Dillard that it was the truth, telling her to listen to the music. After some brief comments over the rum Dillard served him, Bushmaster begins to leave. However, as he does so, he addresses her as Ms. Stokes, something Dillard takes great offense too, as she crudely reminds him that it is Dillard. Bushmaster, keeping a straight face, tells her to enjoy her time on the top of the hill before finally leaving. As Ingram's song ends, Shades checks in with Ray Ray to tell him to guard Dillard. Shades then asks Ray Ray if he had seen Comanche, Ray Ray replying he had left because his mother was in need of something.
After a car ride, Bushmaster arrives at Gwen's and is greeted with cheers from the patrons. He briefly greets some of them, has a brief conversation with Jerome about beating Cage, and hugs Ingrid Mackintosh. He then sits with Anansi, who relates Bushmaster's rise in popularity as moving up the hill from his stories. Bushmaster adds on to that, saying that going to Harlem's Paradise helped strengthen his past and see his future. He then reveals to Anansi a portion of the money he received from Dillard. While Anansi denies it, Ingrid takes it right off Bushmaster's hand and stores it in her shirt. The two laugh, and Anasi orders two drinks, all the while Shades sits the restaurant from a parked vehicle and attempts calling Comanche.
In a parking garage, Comanche meets with Ridenhour in a black SUV and relays his situation with him, telling Ridenhour that Shades and Dillard are not trusting him enough. Nonetheless, Ridenhour ensures Comanche that the sooner he properly infiltrates the connection between Dillard and Shades, the sooner he will be let loose from this position.
At the precinct, Knight receives a letter from Danny Rand and Colleen Wing that is packaged with blueprints for a prosthetic arm. Knight, marveled by the sight of it, decides to try it out.
Cage arrives at Pop's Barber Shop, the one home he has left. He sits back in a barber chair and stares at the mirror in front of him, when he notices Bobby Fish enter the room from behind him. Fish sits in a barber chair next to his, and reveals that his daughter has kidney problems and is all the way in San Diego. However, despite him not being there for her a majority of her life, Fish is called a hero by his daughter, as he will by flying to her so he can donate one of his kidneys for her. Cage congrats Fish for doing so. Fish then asks Cage if he had talked with Temple. Cage responds that he hadn't to give her some space, and Fish comments that she is not the one that needs that space. Cage says that he feels like he's two different Luke Cages. Fish responds that he should, since the situations Cage has been put in lately have started to toll on him. He continues that holding back that anger from those situations would make anyone angry. But, an angry Cage is so much more destructive than just any angry citizen. The two then lighten the situation by reminiscing on Pop, and how he would react to Cage sleeping in his shop. After a brief moment of silence, the two then embrace, and Fish leaves to fly to San Diego.
As Cage takes a moment to reflect on the situation, a process server from the Superior Court of New York county arrives with court summons for Cage, and tells Cage that he just got served before leaving.
Cast[]
Main Cast:
- Mike Colter as Luke Cage
- Simone Missick as Misty Knight
- Theo Rossi as Hernan Alvarez/Shades
- Gabrielle Dennis as Tilda Johnson
- Mustafa Shakir as John McIver/Bushmaster
- Alfre Woodard as Mariah Dillard
Guest Stars:
- Ron Cephas Jones as Bobby Fish
- Peter Jay Fernandez as Captain Tom Ridenhour
- Sahr Ngaujah as Paul Mackintosh/Anansi
- Thomas Q. Jones as Darius Jones/Comanche
- Chaz Lamar Shepherd as Piranha Jones
- Antonique Smith as Detective Nandi Tyler
- Justin Swain as Detective Mark Bailey
- Rey Lucas as Detective Tomas Ciancio
- Jeremiah Richard Craft as D.W. Griffith
- Heather Alicia Simms as Ingrid Mackintosh
- R.A. Guirand as Gideon Shaw
- Erika Rolfsrud as Hansen
- Michael Fearon as Jerome
- Los Jones as Andre Jackson/Ray Ray
- Harlin C. Kearsley as Handyman
- Mike Cabellon as Young Man
- Christone "Kingfish" Ingram as Himself (uncredited)
- Stephen A. Smith as Himself (uncredited)
- Derrick Reuben as Harlem Helpful Resident (uncredited)
- Smokey Sims as Spectator (uncredited)
- Marie Smalley as Harlem Investments Founder (uncredited)
- Amanda Anthony as Club Goer (uncredited)
Appearances[]
Locations[]
- New York City, New York
- New Jersey
- Seagate Penitentiary, Georgia (mentioned)
- San Diego, California (mentioned)
- Jamaica (mentioned)
- Cayman Islands (mentioned)
- Monte Carlo, Monaco (mentioned)
- Dubrovnik, Croatia (mentioned)
- Johannesburg, South Africa (mentioned)
Events[]
- War for Harlem
- Murder of Arturo Rey III (mentioned)
- Assassination of Nigel Garrison (mentioned)
- Attack on Yardies' Hideout (mentioned)
- Chase of Cockroach Hamilton (mentioned)
Items[]
- Harlem's Hero
- Bushmaster Rum
- Nightshade (picture)
- Misty Knight's Prosthetic Arm (blueprints)
- Diamondback's Battle Suit (mentioned)
Vehicles[]
- Volkswagen (mentioned)
Organizations[]
- New York City Police Department
- Stokes Crime Family
- Stylers
- New York Bulletin
- ESPN
- Atreus Plastics (mentioned)
- Glenn Industries (mentioned)
- Yardies (mentioned)
- ISIS (mentioned)
- United States Department of Homeland Security (mentioned)
- Macoute (mentioned)
- Korean Mob (mentioned)
- Dominican Mob (mentioned)
- ATF (mentioned)
- Rand Enterprises (mentioned)
- Shower Posse (mentioned)
- Al-Qaeda (mentioned)
- Securities and Exchange Commission (mentioned)
- Internal Revenue Service (mentioned)
Mentioned[]
- Claire Temple
- Diamondback
- Arturo Rey III
- Mark Higgins
- Mama Mabel (picture)
- Nigel Garrison (corpse)
- Cornell Stokes
- Buggy Stokes
- Soledad Temple
- Cockroach Hamilton
- Alex Wesley
- James Lucas
- Gwen McIver
- Quincy McIver
- Pistol Pete
- Janis Jones
- Danny Rand
- Colleen Wing
- Bobby Fish's Daughter
- Bobby Fish's Ex-Wife
- Pop
- Shabba Ranks
- Eric Benét
- Mike Tyson
- Ronda Rousey
- Jennifer Holliday
- Muhammad Ali
- Joe Frazier
- Oscar De La Hoya
- Ben Carson
- Howard Bingham
- Iyanla Vanzant
- Bernard Madoff
- Usain Bolt
- Alien
- Sarah Connor
Trivia[]
- I Get Physical is a song from the album The Main Ingredient of the hip-pop duo Pete Rock & CL Smooth.
- Luke Cage mentioned Ellen Ripley who was portrayed by Sigourney Weaver.
Music[]
| Song title | Artist | Location(s) |
|---|---|---|
| The Sure Shot, Pts. 1 & 2 (feat. Ghostface Killah) | Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad |
|
| And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going | Antonique Smith |
|
| Luke Misty Body | Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad |
|
| The Thrill Is Gone (Screamin' Jay Hawkins cover) |
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram |
|
| I Put a Spell On You (Royy Hawkins cover) |
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram |
|
| Hypocrites | Bob Marley |
|
| Comanche Officer | Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad |
|
| Golden Time of Day | Maze |
|
