When it was first announced that the CW was going to have a Black Lightning TV show, it didn’t seem to have a great deal of enthusiasm going for it. Many hard-core fans thought that if you were going to have a DC superhero with electricity powers, it should be the well-known Static Shock, not black Lightning. Plus having the main character play an over 40-year-old father of two, doesn’t exactly sell in a world where most heroes are youthful and energetic. However, power couple Mara Brock and Salim Akil managed to capture lightning in a bottle with this show, which is vastly different than all the other DC CW shows. For one, this show is authentically and aggressively black. Such issues like police brutality/corruption, drug use, government ignoring and flooding black communities with drugs, gangs, crime, black families, black LGBT issues, and had a killer soundtrack. Black Lightning was the CW’s answer to Marvel/Netflix’s Luke Cage. It’s a no-brainer that we’re getting a second season of the show as it was a mega-hit.
But before, we get to the second season, we gotta close this one strong…..
Jefferson, having battled both Tobias and Khali last week had his heart stop after Khalil gave him a strong punch. While his youngest daughter Jennifer used her (still undefined) powers to revive him, he’s not out of the woods yet. Jefferson spends most of the episode circling the drain. While he’s laid up in Gambi’s cabin in the woods with his family, from his perspective, he’s in some sort of limbo. He relives many of his lessons with his father as you find out that many of the things he says to his students as what his father said to him when he was younger. He also gets the chance to have a heart to heart with his father where he apologizes to him for what he believes are failures: from hiding under the bed while Tobias killed his father, to all the people her hurt as Black Lightning. His father tells him that he did as he was told and what he did as Black Lightning was necessary. He also tells Jefferson that now is not the time for him to leave. With that Jefferson comes back to the land of the living.
And just in time too. Proctor and the ASA have been looking for him as he’s the only original test subject that survived the process and in order to continue, he needs Jefferson’s DNA. Actor Gregg Henry is really hamming it up, especially this episode as he even mentions that he wants to “Make America Great Again” and being as racist as he possibly can short of saying the n-word. He deploys his ASA soldiers to the cabin to capture Jefferson. They even have weapons built to repeal both Black Lightning and Thunder.
Although Gambi cloaked this area from their radar, they know where he is. Jefferson and his family need to prepare for an assault. Gambi, loyal to the family opts to remain behind so until they can escape. However, Jefferson opts to remain behind as well. The only problem, his powers aren’t working. Wearing a bulletproof suit may help, but not if he gets shot in the head. Jennifer is feeling emotional and starts to power up. She then goes to hug her father while’s she’s charged up and in doing so, recharges Jefferson’s powers. The rest of the family (and Gambi) decide to remain behind.
While most of the action centered on the ASA against the Jefferson family, Tobias was also in the mix as well. He reveals to La La that he killed him on purpose as he invested a pretty penny into the “resurrection program,” which brings him back to life and be triggered by various words Tobias’s sends as well as visions from his past which haunt him. Tobias has one last mission for La La, he sends La La to meet with Proctor, but he has a bomb inside of him. While he doesn’t kill Proctor, it sets the stage for Tobias to lead an assault on ASA headquarters.
At the same time, the ASA troops are launching an assault on the Jefferson family. Playing “Timmy Turner” (once again, kickass soundtrack), the family defends their turf. Lynn even gets a shotgun and gets into action. Jennifer, who didn’t want to be a superhero willing uses her powers to stop one of the soldiers. Something tells me, she’s not going to want to go back to being a normal girl after this. Anissa gets trapped by some weapon built specifically for her, but thanks to Jefferson, she’s gets broken out of the containment field quickly. While the Jeffersons are dealing with the soldiers, Tobias, Khalil, and Syonide (she finally gets to talk this week) attack the ASA. Proctor manages to weasel his way out and escape, but his briefcase is now in Tobias’ possession, which makes him confident that he now will be able to rule Freeland with ease. The Pierce family catches up with Proctor, who tries to con his way out of punishment, saying all the Green Light children will die without him, but Gambi has heard enough and shoots him dead. While the ASA threat has been dealt with, Black Lightning will now have to deal with Tobias for another day.
One hell of a first season!
