Ali Shaheed Muhammad

Cage manages to escape from police custody, while Knight works hard to locate Stryker and clear Luke's name. Stryker has Alvarez released on bail, then orders Zip and his thugs to kill him, but Alvarez prevails and kills them. The tide of public opinion begins to turn back to Cage, although the NYPD is still determined to bring him down. Candace meets Knight and says that she will testify against Dillard if Knight protects her. Knight takes her to Soledad's. Alvarez approaches Dillard and suggests they get Cage on side by giving him evidence of Lucas's innocence, and that they all work together to defeat Stryker. Cage finds Barrett, who is working for Stryker, and forces him to reveal Stryker's location before locking him in a dumpster. Colon and his men attack Stryker and his mercenaries. Stryker manages to defeat them and escape. Cage arrives and saves a wounded Colon. As the parties converge on Pop's to parley, Stryker attacks, wearing a powered suit which allows him to match Cage's strength and invulnerability. Cage tasks Knight to go after Dillard and Alvarez while the former engages Stryker.

Cage escapes to the kitchen with Knight while Stryker takes Claire, Candace, the servant who testified against Cage, and the remaining civilians hostages. The police surround the club; but inspector Ridley does not authorize any assault. Cage and Knight escape to the basement using a secret entrance in the kitchen just before Stryker's men storm in. Claire tends to Candace's wound, with the latter revealing the truth to the former and telling about where Cage and Knight might be. Claire escapes and joins the pair, tending to Knight's wound. Stryker uses the loudspeakers to demand Cage to meet him by threatening to kill the hostages. Cage leaves to meet him. Alvarez finds the secret entrance and confronts Knight and Claire, who manage to overpower and lock him. Stryker kills Dillard's fellow party member Boone. Cage arrives and frees the hostages, excluding Candace, whom Stryker uses to cover his own escape just as the SWAT team storms in and forces Cage to surrender using the Judas bullets provided by Dillard. Cage, Alvarez and some other mercenaries are put in custody.

Scarfe attempts to blackmail Stokes, but is critically wounded instead and escapes to Pop's for help, where he gives Cage a ledger with incriminating evidence on Stokes. Cage contacts Claire, who treats Scarfe's injuries, while another of Stokes' men, Lieutenant Perez, is ordered to find and kill Scarfe. Knight finds out Perez is also on Stokes' payroll and tricks him into implicating himself, records his admission before arresting him. Cage, Claire and Scarfe are ambushed by mercenaries hired by Stokes on their way to 1 Police Plaza to turn over the evidence, and although Cage fends them off, Scarfe dies from his injuries. Meanwhile, Dillard has an interview with the media. The reporter exposes Dillard's possible involvement in Stokes' actions. Stokes is arrested with the evidence from Scarfe. Knight's supervisor expresses concerns about another disclosure of police corruption after Wilson Fisk's case.

Cottonmouth strikes back at Luke by taking his vengeance out on the people of Harlem, while detective Knight and Scarfe face an unexpected threat.

While trapped in the rubble, Cage reminisces about his past as Carl Lucas and his incarceration at Seagate Prison, a private detention facility run by C.O. Albert Rackham. He befriends fellow inmate Squabbles, develops an attraction to psychologist Dr. Reva Connors, and is forced to engage in illegal ring fights by Rackham, and crossed paths with inmates Alvarez and Comanche. Lucas and Connors plan to expose Rackham's activities, but Rackham learns of this by torturing Squabbles and has Lucas brutally beaten. Connors then convinces Dr. Noah Burstein, a scientist conducting experiments on the inmates, to perform the procedure on Lucas. Rackham sabotages the experiment, and the resulting accident gives Lucas his powers. He then escapes and adopts the identity of "Luke Cage". Cage manages to pull himself and Connie out of the rubble and reveals his abilities to the media.