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Luke Cage's Appearance In The Final 'Jessica Jones' Season Is Bittersweet

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David Lee/Netflix

Spoilers for Jessica Jones Season 3 ahead. While Jessica Jones may be the final show in Netflix's run of street level Marvel heroes, she's not the only Defender who gets a chance to say goodbye. Luke Cage is in Jessica Jones Season 3  and the two heroes got to check in with each other one last time. They've come a long way, as vigilantes and as people, and it was a nice way to add a little closure to the series finale.

From all the drinking and moping she does, you'd think Jessica was alone in the world. Unfortunately for her self-imposed brand, she has more than one superhero on her side. Back in Season 1, Luke was one of the first to truly understand what she was going through. Before you ask, their reunion in Jessica Jones Season 3 is not a romantic one. While the characters are married in Marvel comics, they've moved on in their respective Netflix series.

It was also nice to see that Luke is doing well, as the Hero of Harlem ended the second season of his series in kind of a dark place. He took over his nemesis' night club, and has essentially become a crime boss in shining armor. Based on his and Jessica's conversation, he seems to have control on his situation — but hopes that if he ever goes dark, Jessica will be there to literally knock some sense into him.

Luke shows up to talk to Jessica about Trish. He might not have guessed the identity of the masked vigilante "Hellcat" who keeps showing up in the news beside her name, but he can tell that Jess cares enough about her to protect her identity while people are getting hurt. He compares Jessica's adopted sister Trish to his half-brother Willis "Diamondback" Stryker. No matter how much Luke may have wanted to save Willis, he had to send him away to the Raft. At the end of the series, that presumably becomes Trish's fate as well.

If you recall, the Raft is an underwater prison for superpowered lawbreakers. Fun fact: it's where Team Cap was sent in Captain America: Civil War before Steve busted half of them out, and both Scott Lang and Clint Barton were put under house arrest for half a phase of the MCU. So at least Trish and Willis are part of a prestigious legacy.

Courtesy of Netflix

Is Luke making a fair comparison? Does being a murderer with superpowers make Trish a supervillain? As much as fans may have championed Trish's journey to becoming a superhero at first, it's a thin line, for sure. She certainly sees herself as the bad guy by the end of the series. There's a reason that Luke, Jessica, Danny Rand, and Matt Murdock avoid killing whenever possible. They're not fighting off an alien invasion. The people they fight are protected by the law. Trish, unfortunately, never learned how to bend it the way the others have.

Luke's visit gives Jessica the push she needs to confront Trish. As much as it sucks, Jessica has been covering her for at least two seasons. It takes a superhero to understand a superhero, and to know when one has gone too far.

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