Marvel's Luke Cage S02E11 "The Creator" Recap

Luke is shaken by the aftermath at the Jamaican restaurant. He and Misty look over the scene with the numerous victims but discover a blood trail which implies that there may have been a survivor from the scene whom they'll need to find quickly or they'll be found and killed by the parties involved.

A flashback shows Bushmaster as a boy working at a resort. He hears a meeting between Mariah and his mother Gwen. They are arguing over a business deal that took place between his father, Quincy McIver, and Samuel "Buggy" Stokes. The deal they struck soured in the 1980s and lead to both of their deaths. Following these events, Gwen is trying to use the Stokes family for what she believes is her rightful ownership of a portion of Harlem's Paradise.

In the present day, Mariah is having a secure, high-tech panic room installed in Harlem's Paradise. Shades is skeptical that this will be an effective protective measure against Bushmaster after what she did in the Jamaican restaurant.

Misty and Luke learn that Paul Mackintosh was the owner of the restaurant, which was named after the restaurant's co-owner, Ingrid who was also Mackintosh's wife. Ingrid is Bushmaster's sister and was shown to have checked in at the restaurant with her work card but wasn't found among the bodies which means she is likely the witness they are looking for. Luke heads out to strong-arm various criminals around the city to try to find information about the attack on the restaurant and hopefully find the location of Ingrid, too. His investigation leads him to believe that it was indeed Mariah responsible for the attack. Misty calls him to say that Ingrid was spotted on security cameras near the restaurant close to the time of the killing, and asks Luke to back off and not do anything to mess up the case. Unfortunately, the press get word of Ingrid being alive and the news gets back to Mariah who demands to Shade that she be hunt down and killed. She scolds Shades for the growing doubts he has in him about her actions.

Further flashbacks reveal that in his youth, Bushmaster had been the only child to survive a bad vaccination dose. Then when the conflict escalated between his mother Gwen and Mabel, Mabel ordered Gwen's house to be burned down. Mabel forced Bushmaster to get out of the house first and ended up dying in the house. Tilda learns about these details and the coldness with which Mabel acted from Bushmaster's associate that is forcing her to continue tending to his wounds.

Mariah disregards an old Stokes family rule and strikes a deal with an Asian gangster to begin selling heroin in Harlem.

Luke finds Ingrid and saves her from being killed by some mobsters. He tries to escape with her into a parade but she is pulled by Shades, who holds her at gunpoint but is unable to go through with it due to his ongoing moral conflicts. He leaves her alone before Luke returns to find Ingrid once more. She won't testify against Mariah and only begs to be able to see her husband's body. Luke helps her get out safely through the parade.

Two years after Bushmaster survived the attack on his family home, Pete Stokes tracked him down and shot him twice. Paul Mackintosh who was known as Anansi back in Jamaica brought Bushmaster back to his mother who healed him using nightshade. In the present, Bushmaster's associate orders Tilda to use nightshade to save him again. It's implied that the nightshade amplified an already existing strength within him. Ingrid shares this story with Luke, claiming that the two of them are similar. But Luke sees Bushmaster as evil despite Ingrid's insistence that Bushmaster also tries to fight evil. Ingrid begs Luke to get her to see her husband's body while Luke texts Misty to let her know that he has found Ingrid.

Tilda warns Bushmaster that the excessive use of nightshade is causing his organs to fail. Regardless of this revelation along with that of the brutal murder of his close friends and associates at the restaurant, Bushmaster allows Tilda to leave.

Mariah is beginning to unravel psychologically, as she gets drunk and has visions of her dead mother and uncle who patronize her for her various decisions and actions.

Shades returns to Mariah and confronts her once more about her recent actions. The two argue and the fight escalates until their relationship ends. Following this, he decides to turn himself in to Misty so that he can help her take down Mariah, whom he feels has gone too far. Tilda also visits Mariah to learn whether or not she was responsible for the attack on the restaurant. She admits to doing all of it herself and Tilda says goodbye to her for good.

Luke brings Ingrid to see her husband's body and they find Bushmaster is already there looking at the body himself. Ingrid orders the men not to fight in her presence since she has experienced enough violence. The two step outside of the room. Bushmaster thanks Luke for looking after Ingrid. The two then agree that their next fight will be their last.

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