6) Shades Kills Zip And His Goons
Up until now, we hadn’t seen Shades do much beyond growl advice at Cottonmouth and encourage Mariah to embrace her inner criminal. Now, though, we get to see why Carl Lucas’ fellow inmate has the reputation he’s earned.
In a brief, brutal struggle, Shades manages to overwhelm and overpower Diamondback’s henchman, Zip, and the rest of the crew tasked with murdering him in an elevator. Zip attempts to strangle Shades with his belt, at which point Shades grabs a gun, shoots the other gangsters, and, after escorting the only survivor to the roof, guns him down with a ruthlessness of which I didn’t think he was capable.
Shades ends up surviving the events of Luke Cage, but after killing Zip, he goes back to whispering in Mariah’s ear and being the councilwoman’s willing lackey.