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Five Thoughts on Black Lightning‘s “The Book of Secrets, Chapter Three: Pillar of Fire”

By | February 12th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

This week on Black Lightning, Jefferson got offered his old position as Principal of Garfield High back; Jennifer went hunting for Whale; and the old mob boss himself brought about his coup de grace.

1. Viral Lessons

It was great to see Jefferson teaching again at Garfield High, after all the weeks of personal drama – I do feel the show does underuse his civilian identity, I mean, you have to wonder how he finds time for preparing lessons. I feel the idea Jennifer’s protest going viral causing the school board to consider withdrawing Lowry from his job was a bit contrived – he didn’t do anything egregious enough, really – but it was cool to see Jefferson decide that his life was way too hectic and that the students need stability. Let’s be frank though: he made the right decision for his family, but the school is hardly stable under Lowry. He’ll definitely have to reconsider by the end of the season.

2. Shay Li Wylde

After Grace’s unannounced departure from her apartment last week, Anissa takes social media snooping on her partner to a whole new level by using Gambi’s tech to find out if she’s in trouble. Turns out she has a trouble past, and it is a lot: she’s a foster home kid, real name Shay Li Wylde. She was abducted and held by a rape gang aged just 16, until it was busted by ICE (those guys? That’s humiliating), and disappeared before resurfacing in Freeland under her new identity. Also, she’s taking medication for schizophrenia. Like I said, it’s a lot: could she be this show’s version of the Hulk? However, after this infodump, we’re only slightly closer to untangling this mystery, as Anissa gets caught up elsewhere: like her father, Anissa’s just too busy.

3. Rampage

Despite a heartwarming scene where Anissa advises her sister not to go on the offensive without a plan, Jennifer gets tired of waiting alone at home and goes busting the 100 at their club and the Seahorse Motel (where she was once held captive in the pilot), demanding Whale’s location. However, after confronting one defiant gang member, who cites Khalil’s death as the reason he won’t squeal, Jennifer literally short circuits. She’s clearly still processing her grief, and hopefully she’ll finally learn from this to calm down (or as much as a teenager can).

4. Shakedown

We learned the four men Dr. Jace experimented on that Whale has acquired were ASA subjects known as the Masters of Disaster. (Like Lynn quips, it’s hardly Shakespeare.) Whale and Cutter revive Marcus Bishop/Shakedown (Hosea Chanchez), whose every whim can be controlled by the dastardly duo thanks to Jace’s spinal implants. It’s pretty unsettling to realize Whale has his own slave, to put it simply.

So Cutter and Shakedown finally break into the ASA’s facility to kidnap the pod children with Jace. Interestingly, Jace protects Lynn and the one patient she was examining – Wendy Hernandez, the girl who briefly escaped last year – by locking down their room, indicating she’s not quite the monster you think she is. In any case, the not-so-good doctor makes off with the rest of the metas in cryo, and plans to sell them off with Whale to the highest bidder – it really is all about the Benjamins with this lot.

5. RIP Todd

Gotta say I did not see Whale and Cutter hooking up coming – guess him talking to his sister’s painting really appealed to her softer side. But mostly this week she came across as pretty callous, killing all those ASA guards Shakedown subdued, and finally by killing poor Todd, whom a besotted Whale agreed was now a loose end – she only killed him because she never liked him! Gotta say, killing him with a rigged car was pretty cheap, and not just because it was cowardly – that was clearly a double’s hand seen in the car, not RJ Cyler. Ah well, bye Todd, say hi to Khalil and Lala for us will ya?

Bonus thoughts:
– Jefferson giving Jennifer the thumbs up was too funny.
– Lynn using Looker’s silver to resolve the ASA’s vaccines problem was interesting – what did it have that Jefferson’s DNA didn’t though?

We’ll back on March 4 with the beginning of season 2’s final arc.


//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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