Black Lightning returns after finally being pulled into the wider DC Universe during “Crisis on Infinite Earths” (where the old man finally seemed to be having some fun), so is it back to the daily grind after that Christmas party? Or does being folded into the Beeboverse finally bring some sunshine to Freeland?
1. The More Things Change
The episode opens with Black Lightning doing something we’ve only seen Jen do before, namely soaring through the skies Superman-style, while trying to contact Gambi and inform him the Man of Steel is real. His enthusiasm is tempered though by his messages being unable to get through the barrier over Freeland, and after forcing his way through and some (rather awkward) exposition with Gambi, it’s pretty much business as usual. After all the recapping of what he got up to with Flash, Supergirl and friends, this otherwise plays out the way you’d expect the show to have done before it was interrupted.
2. Ecstasy and Agony
Jennifer and Jefferson discover Lynn’s become addicted to Green Light, leading to a heartbreaking sequence where the good doctor, who’s been reduced to searching his bedroom for something to satisfy her cravings, smacks him and crams her fist down a toilet to recover some drugs he’s flushed. It’s very distressing, aided by how sweaty and pale Lynn looks (well done to the make-up and lighting departments there). Jefferson pursues her as she flees the house, but he slips on the staircase – it may sound comical on the page, but it was a great contrast to him doing his Superman thing earlier, reminding us superheroes are still people who have to deal with regrettably human problems.
3. Blackbird Breaking Free
Jefferson has to leave that thread hanging because the resistance are staging a rescue of the kids the ASA have interned. The point of this corner of the episode is to emphasize Anissa wants to break free of her father’s shadow, which seems now to be the main reason she’s still wearing the Blackbird outfit instead of the Thunder costume (Thunder is Black Lightning’s sidekick, after all). During the rescue, Jefferson respectfully defers to Anissa’s judgment, demonstrating the two’s fractious relationship is starting to heal (which Henderson comments he finds sweet, the cornball).
4. Zombie
Gardner Grayle (Boone Platt), the doubting ASA soldier who knowingly let Lynn escape the Pit, grows in prominence here. He’s very wary after seeing his injured second-in-command suddenly good as new, and eerily quiet: he soon realizes a Green Light incision in the back of his neck (courtesy of the fiendish Dr. Blair) is the only thing keeping him up. When Jennifer and Brandon are captured, Grayle aids in their escape by tackling his zombified sidekick, after he repeatedly and absent mindedly kept shooting at her. That whole sequence is set to “Zombie” by Fela Kuti:
It’s an apt choice, as the song is a blistering attack on a murderous police state, one which Grayle is realizing he’s a mindless instrument of.
5. Jen Needs a Talk
We gotta talk about how homicidal Jen is now, right? Following her encounter with her alternate selves in “Crisis,” she’s resolved now to kill Odell as soon as possible – it sets a bad example for Brandon, who similarly wants to kill Dr. Jace, and keeps putting her danger as she keeps leaving her family. (Let’s hope Jefferson and Anissa find the time to remind her that’s not what heroes do, before she’s blindsided by another Odell hologram.)
Bonus thoughts:
– Jefferson calls Flash a kid, heh.
– It’s weird Jen is thankful Gambi is tracking all the Pierces’ locations, but surveillance is only evil when it’s used by bad folks I guess.
– Yes, I wrote fiendish earlier, because I apparently really want a Black Dynamite/Black Lightning crossover.
See you for more Black Lightning next week folks – but do stick around tomorrow for my thoughts on the return of Legends of Tomorrow.
