History NightmareFuel / LukeCage2016

* While in prison, Mariah orders anyone who could possibly testify against her executed: dozens of people are gone by the next day, and Alex refers to it as practically every person who's ever worked in Harlem's Paradise in any capacity (and we later find him as one of the victims). When she tells him to relay the order, Donovan practically shits himself in her presence until she clarifies that he happens to be exempt, and Sugar is only spared because his wife gave Mariah new clothes.

* Luke is really getting fed up with criminals testing him and starts showing it. Breaking every fingers on one of Carbone's henchman's hand to drive the point home.

* Misty breaks into Cockroach's apartment, intending to plant a Judas bullet in one of his drawers. Just as recalling how she consoled Scarfe after his son's death leads her to reconsider, she accidentally steps on something. She grimaces when she sees that it's the end of a blood trail, and follows the trail to Cockroach's body...''which is missing its entire head'', explaining the large amount of blood spilled.

With incest kids, heads on spikes, avenging long-dead family members, characters getting murdered all over the place, this season has the feel of a George R.R. Martin work.

* The first demonstration of Bushmaster's power, is him ''slicing Nigel Garrison across the face and through both eyes'', then soaking bullets as Garrison's men try to shoot him.

** For Shades, the realization of what Bushmaster wants: Mariah's territory, as there's no other reason why he'd continue Nigel's buyout of Mariah's guns unless he wanted to weaken them.

* Mariah is sent a message from Bushmaster, in the form of [[DecapitationPresentation the severed heads of Cockroach, Higgins, and Ray-Ray mounted on posts]] as she's opening her clinic.

* Thankfully, we are spared the gory images when Bushmaster lets off a small grenade to bust himself out of the police van, only cutting to an exterior shot of the van interior blowing out and then the van coasting forward, driverless. Luckily the officers transporting him ''survived'' (probably because of their Kevlar vests absorbing shrapnel), but still.

** It was wise of Sugar to decide to back out before the Massacre could unfold. Unlike the gunfights between gangsters throughout the series, most of these people are innocent civilians. There are a lot of flashing shots of innocent people trying to run before getting gunned down, until the whole thing cuts to the outside as the gunshots just keep going on... and on...
** And if you thought the most graphic gangster killing in the Netflix MCU to date was Fisk's decapitation of Anatoly by car door, you're wrong. That title actually goes to Anansi. After everyone else is killed, Mariah douses Anansi in the Bushmaster rum, and sets him aflame. As he's lying there, defiant and in pain, she eventually shouts "JUST DIE ALREADY!" and shoots him in the head to finish him off. This wasn't an act of mercy, but more annoyance that he was taking too long die.
** And no wonder Shades thinks Mariah is going too far. She could have just shot Stephanie and it would been enough to smoke out Bushmaster. She could have shot up the Stylers in one of their lairs instead of a restaurant full of innocent people, but instead, she pulls this. Then top that by calling all those innocent people "peasants" by proxy.

* After a whole season of appearing to be a regular, good-natured person who oddly shares the name of a Marvel supervillain, Tilda is driven over the edge by the full extent of her mother's evil into becoming Nightshade: [[spoiler:she murders Mariah with a kiss on the lips after coating them with a time-delayed poison, leaving no sign at all for what seems to be at least a couple hours before Mariah suddenly coughs up blood and realizes what happened, and dies moaning about how her insides are burning.]]

* It was wise of Sugar to decide to back out before the Rum Punch Massacre could unfold. Unlike the gunfights between gangsters throughout the series, most of these people are innocent civilians. There are a lot of flashing shots of innocent people trying to run before getting gunned down, until the whole thing cuts to the outside as the gunshots just keep going on... and on...
** And if you thought the most graphic gangster killing in the Netflix MCU to date was Fisk's decapitation of Anatoly by car door, you're wrong. That title actually goes to Anansi. After everyone else is killed, Mariah douses Anansi in the Bushmaster rum, and sets him aflame. As he's lying there, defiant and in pain, she eventually shouts "JUST DIE ALREADY!" and shoots him in the head to finish him off.

* After a whole season of appearing to be a regular, good-natured person who oddly shares the name of a Marvel supervillain, Tilda is driven over the edge by the full extent of her mother's evil into becoming Nightshade: [[spoiler:she murders Mariah with a kiss on the lips after coating them with poison, leaving no sign at all for what seems to be at least a couple hours before Mariah suddenly coughs up blood and realizes what happened, and dies moaning about how her insides are burning.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/TheGodfather It's a Sicilian message. It means "Piranha Jones sleeps with his bredren".]]]]

* The first demonstration of Bushmaster's power, is him ''slicing Nigel Garrison across the face and through both eyes'', then soaking bullets as Higgins' men try to shoot him.

** The worst bit is Anansi. After everyone else is killed, Mariah douses Anansi in the Bushmaster rum, and sets him aflame. As he's lying there, defiant and in pain, she eventually decides to just shoot him in the head to finish him off. Fisk's decapitation of Anatoly by car door looks mild by comparison.

** The worst bit is Anansi. After everyone else is killed, Mariah douses Anansi in the Bushmaster rum, and sets him aflame. As he's lying there, defiant and in pain, she eventually decides to just shoot him several times to finish him off.

* While in prison, Mariah orders anyone who could possibly testify against her executed: dozens of people are gone by the next day, and Alex refers to it as practically every person who's ever worked in Harlem's Paradise in any capacity (and we later find him as one of the victims). When she tells him to relay the order, her lawyer practically shits himself in her presence until she clarifies that he happens to be exempt.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/TheGodfather It's a Sicilian message. It says "Piranha Jones sleeps with his bredren".]]]]

* It was wise of Sugar to decide to back out before the Rum Punch Massacre could unfold. Unlike the gunfights between gangsters throughout the series, most of these people are innocent civilians. There are a lot of innocent people trying to run before getting gunned down, until the whole thing cuts to the outside as the gunshots just keep going on... and on...

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/luke_cage_season_1_9_dwyck_acid_bath_mike_colter_review_episode_guide_list.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: '''''[[FromBadToWorse Out of the frying pan...]]]]'''''

* It was wise of Sugar to decide to not go into the restaurant with Mariah's troupe, given how they shoot everyone dead, then set their prisoner on fire. Unlike the gunfights between gangsters throughout the series, most of these people are innocent civilians. There are a lot of shots of sobbing innocent people trying to run before getting gunned down, until the whole thing cuts to the outside as the gunshots just keep going on... and on...

* It was wise of Sugar to decide to not go into the restaurant with Mariah's troupe, given how they shoot everyone dead, then set their prisoner on fire.

* The first demonstration of Bushmaster's power, is him ''slicing Nigel Higgins across the face and through both eyes'', then soaking bullets as Higgins' men try to shoot him.

** The way Bushmaster merely ''walks'' up to Luke before decking him. Luke's invulnerability makes him comfortable enough to walk around in public without worry, and the trailer complements this up as a HesBack for him, until that moment when a [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse random pedestrian]] walks up to Luke and immediately lays him flat in two hits. Just to let him know that he can whenever he wants.
** For Mariah and Shades, Bushmaster is utterly ruthless. For the latter, we get a moment where he and his men simply march into Mariah's brownstone, tie her to a chair, then force her to watch as they douse her place with gasoline and set it on fire. She's already passed out by the time Luke rescues her.
** Special mention to a point where we see Bushmaster shrug off bullets as Shades tries to shoot him, or another point where we see him laying siege to Harlem's Paradise by brute force, while Shades is made to kneel before him when he tries to settle things through diplomacy. No wonder that after the gang war escalates out of control, Luke finds himself having to work with Mariah to gain any leeway against Bushmaster.

** Forget implications, let's talk results. Luke's first encounter with Bushmaster ends with Luke beaten to a pulp and later ''[[BloodFromTheMouth coughing up blood]]''. And then consider that Luke took punches from Jessica, Danny's [[KiManipulation Iron]] [[EnhancedPunch Fist]], and Elektra with suffering any noticeable damage. This makes Bushmaster more threatening than all of them put together.

* Bushmaster, who is capable of taking on Luke without the need for a powersuit. The implications are terrifying.

** For Mariah and Shades, Bushmaster is utterly ruthless. For the latter, we get a moment where he and his men simply march into Mariah's brownstone, tie her to a chair, then force her to watch as they douse her place with gasoline and set it on fire. Special mention to a point where we see Bushmaster shrug off bullets as Shades tries to shoot him, or another point where we see him laying siege to Harlem's Paradise by brute force and makes Shades kneel before him. No wonder that after the gang war escalates out of control, Luke finds himself having to work with Mariah to gain any leeway against Bushmaster.

** The second trailer sets Bushmaster up as the worst nightmare for Mariah and Shades. At one point, he and his men simply march into her brownstone, tie Mariah to a chair, then force her to watch as they douse her place with gasoline and set it on fire. Special mention of another point where we see Shades try to shoot Bushmaster, and he merely dodges the bullet. It gets so bad that Mariah is once again having to make a truce with Luke.
*** "Everything that belongs to Mariah should be mine."

** The second trailer sets Bushmaster up as the worst nightmare for Mariah and Shades. At one point, he and his men simply march into her brownstone like they own the place, douse the place with gasoline, then set it on fire with Mariah still inside, with Luke barely getting Mariah out in time. Special mention of another point where we see Shades try to shoot Bushmaster, and he merely dodges the bullet. It gets so bad that Mariah is once again having to make a truce with Luke.