Mike: Season 1/ Episode 8 “Phoenix” [Finale] – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

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We’ve come to the end of “Mike,” which gives you a wonderful send-off.

Aired (Hulu)	9/15/2022
Director(s)	Director X
Writer(s)	Anthony Sparks
Introduced This Episode
Kiki	Ash Santos

This content contains pertinent spoilers.

Summary

After the Holyfield fight, Mike just spiraled. He did fight a few more times for money, but his heart wasn’t into it, and after losing his next shot at the title, it was the beginning of the end. He got rid of Don King, had to file for bankruptcy, became closer to the only one thing that stayed, his coke habit, and for the first time in a long time, he just sat with himself.

Luckily for him, though, Kiki, legal name Lakiha Spicer, who he met when she was 18 in 1995, stuck by him through his past relationships and more. She was even there for him when he lost it all, and for that, he saw her love was true. She loved Mike Tyson, without the iron, without him being the baddest man in the world. In return, he loved her back, and honestly, because, unlike Robin, Monica, and many others, Kiki was imperfect, she was the best thing to come into his life.

Kiki had to go to prison because of a family scandal, and while Monica was no slouch when it came to holding Mike accountable, Kiki was different, and maybe, just maybe, after all everyone else did, Kiki was the one who broke through. Thus leading to Mike kicking his coke habit and gaining the kind of empathy the monster Cus built didn’t know he was capable of.

Mike even went to therapy to resolve the failings of his parental figures, even Cus, and gain a full understanding of them doing what they knew best, even if Mike didn’t experience the best results of that. Yet, after all, he has been through, there is no denying that he eventually picked up on the lessons he was meant to learn and became a better man because of it.

Things To Note

Episode Content

• Dialog: Usual cursing
• Violence: The usual violence expected from boxing
• Sexual Content: Subtle nudity – side of breast and hint of behind
• Miscellaneous: Coke use and drinking

What Could Happen Next

1. I believe this is the finale, but “Mike” could have gone into his career reinvention from a boxer to an entertainment figure

Review

Highlights

Kiki and Mike

Throughout “Mike,” we have seen Mike attract various women. However, one thing you rarely, if ever, saw Mike with was a girl with some edge to them. He liked them ultra femme, beauty queen types, and this isn’t to say Kiki isn’t portrayed to be a beautiful woman, but when Mike was turned on by her going to prison –  part of the attraction might have been seeing she wasn’t above him. More often than not, Mike dated people who couldn’t get it, who were on pedestals to look up at, but not someone who could look at him eye to eye and not make him feel looked down upon.

Kiki, who was a willing mistress at one time, beating up women and going to jail when her father committed fraud, it almost makes you wonder why didn’t Mike pursue hood girls more? Which isn’t to say Kiki fits that description, but it seems clear that by the point Mike’s career is over, he needed someone to remind him there was more to him and life than boxing. The drugs, Don King, thinking he had to be a monster to have a life, it consumed him.

But through Kiki, who understood him perhaps more than any woman Mike had been with before her, he finally knew what love was. With conditions and boundaries, but because of her faith in Mike and desire to be with him long term, it seemed Mike understood her love could be unconditional as long as he earned it. And with her following through, he manned up with her in ways he, for reasons not dove into, didn’t with the others.

Thus leading to Mike finally having what exes, and even having children couldn’t give him.

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