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Five Thoughts on Black Lightning‘s “The Book of Occupation: Chapter Two: Maryam’s Tasbih”

By | October 15th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

On Black Lightning season 3, part two, Jefferson and Lynn’s indefinite stay at the ASA metahuman facility continued, as did Anissa’s leading of the escaped prisoners, who found refuge on the Perdi farm (something the Perdi themselves had issues with). Also, Jennifer’s struggling on her own, one of Henderson’s own got arrested, Lala’s reclaiming his turf, and Khalil’s back – and absolutely brainwashed.

1. Poor Maryam

As the episode’s full title indicates, Black Lightning’s own story this week focuses a lot on Maryam, the Muslim girl introduced in last week’s montage whose drink was spiked with Green Light. She’s in a lot of pain and dying – Lynn reckons her body may not just be able to cope with her newly gained metahuman powers (namely the ability to camouflage), however, after using his powers to cut off the surveillance, Jefferson convinces Maryam to reveal the ASA have been forcing her to fight the other prisoners. However, the ASA are noticing Jefferson snooping around due to the power surges his abilities require: Lynn warns Jefferson to be careful, and to trust in her, indicating she is onto Odell after Issa’s death last week.

2. The Invasion is Real

Jefferson is so suspicious of Odell and the ASA, that like me last week, he’s wondering if the Markovians are even in Freeland, explicitly comparing it to the pretext of WMDs used to invade Iraq. However, they’re very real: we see a whole horde assembling at a warehouse under the command of Col. Yuri Mosin. I suppose Cry Wolf happens when your government is this abusive: you have no reason to trust them when they say another enemy has turned up. Also, isn’t it funny how all those white guys can show up near Freeland, and none of the authorities are at all concerned?

3. Power Corrupts

The Perdi family feels taken advantage of when Anissa shows up at their door with all those she helped escaped, feeling they’ve become a target and that they might run out of resources to make food. Eventually, Anissa snaps, grabbing Anaya’s father by the throat, and then beating up a guard who instinctively pointed his rifle at her in response. Desperate times and all that, and eventually the Perdi come around when they see one of the metas can accelerate crop growth, but still, it was disturbing to see Anissa do that – and it was made all the more alarming by how undramatically her violent behavior was filmed and scored, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

4. So Many Subplots

It’s like everyone’s on their own this week so everyone gets their own subplot: Jennifer gets into a fight at school, Lala regains his following after demonstrating his ability to come back from the dead, and one of Henderson’s colleagues, Det. Sergeant King, is interned after accusations she used Green Light and is a meta. That last one does have converge with the main storylines slightly, as Gambi convinces Henderson to march back into Commander Williams’s base-of-operations to demand King’s return, so the old man can sneak in and access the ASA’s network.

It’s weird how this dramatic and scary storyline is there just so Gambi can do that, but I’m sure it’ll be explored in more depth later. It leads into Gambi seeing via the ASA’s trackers that the Markovians are converging on the Perdi farm, and alerting Anissa, who stealthily dispatches them in the woods. It’s a refreshing fight scene: I can’t think of another action sequence set outdoors during the day on this show.

5. Matricide

Khalil’s storyline also pays off in a big – and terrible – way this week, as we learn he’s been given a brain implant as part of his resurrection, which renders him an entirely docile puppet for the ASA. First order of business: kill his mother for speaking out against the occupation on a Resistance broadcast. Even Commander Williams is perturbed by this, although he masks his concern by expressing fear that having Khalil do something so drastic, could already break their hold on his mind. Odell thinks otherwise, and Khalil carries out the terrible dead, strangling and poisoning his mother to death in her apartment – the consequences for this are going to be horrible, to say the least.

Continued below

Oh, and that last close-up for her disfigured corpse – I’m gonna have to wrestle that one out of my brain before bed, that was even worse than the graphic depiction of Maryam’s injuries.

Bonus thoughts:
– Think this is the first time we’ve seen Henderson in uniform, so that’s weird.
– We see Jennifer channeling her own energy back into herself to give her a boost of strength.
– Scary Odell moment of the week: greeting Jennifer in the kitchen unannounced.
– It’s ironic Jefferson can use his powers to turn off surveillance when his new powers enable him to spy.
– And finally, a tasbih for those unaware.

Alright, I’m depressed after seeing Khalil’s mom die like that, and am cheering myself up with stand-up specials – ’til next week folks!


//TAGS | Black Lightning

Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

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