(Spoilers
ahead.)
One
thing I appreciate about Marvel’s TV properties is that there are often so many
female characters and characters of color that there’s room for a wider range
of roles within the story. In the films,
the ratio is drastic enough that all the women and PoC pretty much need to be
firmly on the side of the good guys, but on TV, we have a plentiful enough
selection that, in addition to the heroes running around being awesome, we’ve
also had female villains and villains of color.
And even, as here – gasp! – female villains of color.
Councilwoman
Mariah Dillard is all about reinvention.
She works tirelessly toward a new Harlem Renaissance, giving the
neighborhood a revamped image and showing the rest of New York what Harlem can
be. She wants people thinking about
urban development and community initiatives, not crime and violence. She’s about power, yes, but she’s also
really, genuinely about helping the people of her city.
But for
Mariah, that crime and violence is never far away. She was raised by the notorious crime boss
Mama Mabel, and her cousin Cottonmouth carries on the family business to this
day. Despite Mariah’s desire to be the
respectable face of Harlem, willing the public to forget about her ignoble
background, she’s also fiercely loyal to family and continually agrees to lend
Cottonmouth a hand in his criminal enterprises.
She lets him launder his money through her real estate projects, and
though she’s well aware that any carelessness on his part risks everything
she’s worked for in a major way, she can’t bring herself to cut ties with
him. Both because he’s family and
because she’s knows she’s gotten in deep enough that she can’t untangle her
fate from his, she can’t wash her hands of him.
Mariah
likes to think that she’s the responsible, ethical one cleaning up
Cottonmouth’s messes, but he’s not the only one who chooses to go down dark
roads. Mariah’s drive – to succeed for
the sake of Harlem’s residents, to seize the power she wants – leads her to
plenty of sketchy decisions on her own that Cottonmouth has nothing to do
with. Her actions get darker and darker
over the course of the series. Whether
she’s trying to cover the tracks of her past sins, create a rallying point to
make the people follow her, or hold her own against the family’s rivals, Mariah
proves ruthless in her ambition and ingenuity.
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