A familiar face sets off on on a mission of his own.

After the loss of his bar (Jessica Jones season one), Luke Cage heads back to Harlem, trying to keep his head down as he continues to grieve for his lost wife. He picks up two jobs to try to get by: working at a barbershop with Pops, and old friend of Reeva’s, and washing dishes at the night club Harlem’s Paradise, run by local criminal Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes and funded by his politician cousin Mariah Dillard. Pop’s wishes that Luke would get out there and use his powers to help people in the community, but he just wants to be left alone and make his rent money.

As Luke hooks up with a mysterious woman at the bar, Cottonmouth and Mariah are setting up an arms deal with a local drug lord. The deal goes south when three kids from the barbershop, including one that works as a bartender at the Paradise, drop in on the deal and shoot everyone. Worried that Cottonmouth will realize it was an inside job one of them, Dante, freaks out about the deaths, causing another, Shameek, to shoot him down. Shameek and the other kid, Chico, split the cash from the deal and run off.  The mysterious woman turns out to be local cop Misty Knight, and is called in on the case.

With the guns confiscated and the money missing, Cottonmouth is in a bind. Mariah needs the money back before anyone realizes it is missing, and his gun supplier, Diamondback, is keeping a close watch on the scenario, sending his man Shades, an old associate of Cottonmouth’s and an old rival of Luke’s, in to oversee.

Luke sees Cottonmouth’s men bring in Shameek, but is distracted when he sees that Shades is in town, and nearly leaves town himself. When Cottonmouth’s men shake down his landlord for extra cash, Luke steps up to defend her, throwing the thugs out the window, and promising to protect her. 

Meanwhile, Cottonmouth personally beats Shameek to death, and orders his men to hunt down Chico to find the rest of the cash.