As footage of his fight with Bushmaster goes viral, Luke struggles with the aftereffects and follows a trail of clues to Tilda's shop, while his social environment shrinks. Misty digs into Bushmaster's past, while the man himself meets with Mariah, the woman he plans to overthrow.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Action Prologue: We have one where Luke and Bushmaster fight each other and Bushmaster comes out on top.
- Berserk Button: Mariah, despite knowing what Bushmaster is capable of, (implicitly) threatens to kill him if he ever calls her 'Stokes' instead of 'Dillard' again.
- Crucified Hero Shot: When Luke is KO'd by Bushmaster, he takes this pose on the sidewalk.
- Expecting Someone Taller: When Mariah meets Bushmaster face-to-face, she tells him she thought he'd be taller.
- Fair-Weather Friend: D.W selling footage of Luke's Curb-Stomp Battle with Bushmaster to make a profit doesn’t help Luke at all. Although D.W insists that the people of Harlem need to see the video, it’s benefitting himself over anyone else.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: D.W. Griffith's footage of the fight is plastered on YouTube and even sold off to ESPN.
- Internal Reveal:
- Shades reveals Nigel's death to Mariah in light of the viral footage hitting the Internet.
- Luke and Misty uncover the rest of Nigel's body in a locked room of the warehouse where Luke fought Bushmaster's men.
- Match Cut: From Luke staring up at the revolving ceiling fans in the barbershop to a desk fan in Misty's work station.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As much as D.W. rationalizes that they people need to see this, he is ultimately undermining Luke's popularity and consequently ruining his business.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Luke has one when he throws a punch at Bushmaster's chest, and rather than being knocked down, Bushmaster simply stumbles back and gets a second wind.
- Shades when he sees the viral video footage of the fight, as he realizes Bushmaster killed Nigel not as a result of an internal Stylers leadership dispute, but because he wants to use the Stylers against Mariah.
- Once More, with Clarity: The lead-in to Bushmaster ambushing Luke on the streets is shown again, but this time from D.W. Griffith's perspective.
- P.O.V. Cam: The camera briefly takes on Bushmaster's POV as he enters Mariah's private box at Harlem's Paradise.
- Pull the Thread: Shades realizes that Bushmaster is here for Mariah because there's no other reason why he'd want Mariah's guns when he's capable of fighting Luke Cage by himself.
- Put on a Bus:
- Claire leaves town after her breakup with Luke.
- Bobby Fish leaves for San Diego to donate a kidney for his daughter.
- Running Gag: The Jamaicans still believe Luke boasted of being faster than Usain Bolt. Bushmaster jokes this was the reason for him attacking Luke.
- Skewed Priorities: Bushmaster pwns Luke's ass, and Bailey and Nandi find it outright hilarious that someone won a fight with Luke Cage. Misty takes issue with them not taking concern about there's a new criminal in Harlem who can defeat Luke barehandedly.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Mariah is so appalled by being associated with her family name that she sees as poisonous to herself (and desperately striving to be have the moral high ground from) that she is almost apoplectic with rage, leading to the Berserk Button moment above."Dillard, BITCH! Call me 'Stokes' one more goddamn time..."
- The Stool Pigeon: Comanche is working for Captain Ridenhour as an informant.
- Ungrateful Townsfolk: The people of Harlem treat Luke Cage getting assaulted by Bushmaster like an undefeated champion getting his ass kicked, despite Luke being nothing but a nice person that stopped Cottonmouth's racket a few years ago and the video showing Bushmaster as a random aggressor.
- Worf Effect: Luke gets his butt thoroughly handed to him by Bushmaster at the beginning of the episode.
