Marvel's Luke Cage S01E13 "You Know My Steez" Recap

The season nears its end and Luke and Stryker must have their final confrontation. But first, we get the deeper insight into the origins of their conflict. In a series of flashbacks, their early relationship is presented. A young Luke (still 'Carl' at this time) is trained by Stryker to become a boxer. Stryker continued to coach Luke until he won an important boxing match.

In the present, Luke and Stryker are still in the barbershop fighting in an even match due to Stryker donning this superset that enhances his strength and invulnerability by a considerable amount. Mariah and Shades have fled the shop and Mariah is determined to not be caught by Misty, whom she knows is determined to bring her in. The fight between Luke and Stryker spills into the streets and some of the locals come out to cheer Luke on, from a safe distance of course. Stryker resents Luke for the fact that Luke's father was going to leave Luke's mother for Stryker's mother but didn't. Law enforcement arrives and work to intervene in the fight while Misty watches everything unfolding and Mariah addresses the gathered media.

Claire coaches Luke from afar to remember who he is, when Luke is struggling to fair well in the fight. The neighborhood begins to chant Luke's name and encourage him on. He is encouraged to fight on and manages to knock Stryker out after the suit's power system fails. Misty proceeds to arrest Mariah for the murder of Stokes. In the commotion, Misty has lost her phone. Shades had retrieved the phone and uses it to lure Candace out from hiding at Soledad's place. Shades kills Candace in order to prevent her from testifying against Mariah. Nothing else is left to prove Mariah's guilt and so she has to be released from custody. Misty is reprimanded by Inspector Ridley for keeping Candace at a private location instead of in official protective custody.

Luke brings himself to the station to give his statement and clarify things about his true identity and past. They can prove that Luke didn't kill the people he was framed of. But federal marshals still arrive and arrest him for escaping from Seagate. Luke and Claire share a passionate kiss before he is taken away, and she promises to call a skilled lawyer she knows in order to help get him released.

Mariah had lost the files she had that would exonerate Luke by proving that Stryker had orchestrated the original crime he was framed for. But when Fish returns to the barbershop, he finds the files there. Mariah reopens Harlem's Paradise with Shades working closely by her side. Misty resumes her undercover work to try to bring Mariah down. Claire contemplates taking up self-defense lessons, seeing them as important to her survival in the battles to come. Stryker is still being treated in the hospital, and Burstein enters him room, perhaps to run some more experiments with the recovered research.

Marvel's Luke Cage is available for streaming on Netflix.