Plot
Following up on Gambi's discovery, Black Lightning and Thunder investigate a mysterious lab which seems to be holding the cryogenically frozen first generation of Freeland's metahumans. Meanwhile, Lynn studies Jennifer in order to learn about her new powers.
Influences
The Black Lightning comics of Tony Isabella and the Milestone Comics Universe.
Artistry
The direction of the opening sequence with Thunder tracking an abducted kid and finding the lab Gambi spoke of is fantastic, well-shot and with a great musical accompaniment.
Trivia
While not referred to by name, thematically this episode seems to draw off of the general aesthetic of the Milestone Comics Universe. The idea of young people accidentally being given superpowers and then being quietly picked up by the government seems to mirror a similar plot thread in the comic book Static, in which teenagers gained superpowers when an experimental new tear gas proved to have unintended side effects.
Technobabble
Jefferson is able to use his powers to make a springboard of sorts that Anissa uses to jump and flip, so that she can deliver a more effective blow to the ground.
Jefferson can "feel" the presence of electrical currents with his powers. With the help of the goggles Gambi made for him, he can see them as well. He calls this "Electric Vision."
Jennifer's body chemistry disrupts an MRI.
Lynn compares Jefferson's powers to a battery - he takes energy in from the source, stores it and channels it. Jennifer's powers, by contrast, have turned her into a generator, with her cells creating pure energy.
Dialogue Triumphs
"Will": (whistles) Damn. You always mercing someone. Just like how you killed me.
Lala: I didn't do nothing to you but give you a job. Everything after that, you did to yourself.
(Jefferson has just told Lynn about his "Electric Vision".)
Lynn: Can you see through people's clothes?
(Jefferson just stares at her and then his gaze moves downward, as he smiles approvingly.)
Jefferson: Mmmmmaybe?
Lynn: Are you undressing me with your eyes?
(Jefferson just chuckles.)
Jefferson: Anissa told me what happened. Are you okay?
Jennifer: Yeah.
(Jefferson nods and watches her expectantly.)
Jennifer: (sighs) No.
(Jefferson sits on the foot of her bed.)
Jefferson: Look... I promise you, you will be. Ok? You will live the life that you want to live. Not the one Anissa or me or your mother or anyone else wants you to live. The life you want. But you have to learn to control your powers. Someone could get hurt.
Jennifer: I didn't ask for this.
Jefferson: I know (sighs) Believe me, I know. But you still have to deal with it.
(Two Bits is lighting up a marijuana cigarette. A bolt of electricity blasts it from his hand. He looks up to see Black Lighting.)
Two Bits: What-?
Black Lightning: We had a deal.
Two Bits: I'm following our deal! I said I wouldn't sell no more drugs and I'm not!
Black Lightning: You ain't supposed to smoke no drugs either.
Two Bits: It's legal, man! I got a card!
Black Lightning: Uh-uh. You ain't got a card from me.
Two Bits: (pauses) I hate you.
Black Lightning: No, you don't. I'm making you a better man.
Two Bits: I don't want to be a better man!
Black Lightning: Yeah, you do.
(Two Bits is telling Black Lightning about the military trucks he saw. Suddenly an air conditioning unit comes falling down above them, almost hitting them both. The look up to see a woman looking out the window at them.)
Two Bits: What the hell?!
Woman: Damn! I almost got you! I'm sorry, Black Lightning, but you're worth a lot of money.
Two Bits: They doubled the reward they put on you for killing Lady Eve. I'd take you in myself if I thought that I could... take you.
Black Lightning: I didn't kill her.
Two Bits: (laughing nervously) Okay. I believe you. But what I think don't matter. Man, you're doing too much. Maybe you should try keeping a low profile, you know?
Black Lightning: I don't do low profile.
Two Bits: Yeah. I see that.
Black Lightning: Stop smoking them drugs, all right? You need to do better.
(A microwave falls from the sky just barely missing Black Lightning and Two Bits again.)
Woman: Dammit!
Two-Bits: (to the woman) What is wrong with you?! (to Black Lighting) You've got people trying to drop microwaves on your head, and you're telling me to do better?!
Woman: He killed no one, but I've need my bills paid!
Malik: Where's everyone else at?
Jefferson: Behind that preposition?
Malik: What?
Jefferson: It is bad English to end a sentence with a preposition.
Malik: Oh. Where's everyone else at, brah?
Jefferson: Good. That's good.
Continuity
Two Bits is seen for the first time since 104. He witnesses a young girl who appears to be manifesting fire powers being grabbed off the street and put in a van.
Anissa tells Jefferson about the lab that Gambi discovered in 109. She determined that the bodies of the metahuman children were in suspended animation.
Lala is now talking to his dead cousin Will, who he killed in 102.
Will's mother doesn't know that he's dead.
Lala develops another tattoo that looks like Will.
Jefferson tells Anissa about what Gambi told him about his past in 108 and the ASA project that accidentally gave kids superpowers.
Anissa tells Jefferson what Gambi told her - that he leveraged his knowledge to end the ASA program in Freeland and has been trying to make amends for his role in things since.
Two Bits tells Jefferson about the abducted metahuman girl. He says the uniform looked like it was from Jefferson's school.
The abduction occurred on 34th and Oglethorpe.
The missing girl's name is Neema.
Jennifer's powers are determined to be just like Jefferson's, after she sets a couch cushion on fire after she loses her temper.
Two Bits has been tracking the comings and goings of every delivery truck in Freeland since he was a teenager.
Gambi is abducted by The ASA. Martin Proctor from 108 leads the team that does it.
Two Bits has a prescription for medical marijuana.
The warehouse where the metahuman kids were being kept was on 12th street. They were moved by large, military trucks that didn't leave Freeland, but nobody saw where they went.
Jefferson approaches Malik - the boy who works for Lala as a drug dealer - who was last seen in 102. He offers to help Malik by finding a place for him and his grandmother to live if he'll come to the mentoring program at Garfield High at 10 am the next day.
Jefferson give Malik a book of poems by Langston Hughes and instructs him to read one poem a day.
Gambi says the ASA must have another spotter working in Freeland who is tracking the new metahuman kids and arranging for them to be abducted.
Lala begins to push the local drug dealers working for The 100 to sell cocaine and weed instead of Green Light.
Jefferson moves Lynn, Jennifer and Anissa into the house he grew up in, which was held in trust for him until he was 21.
The ASA Spotter is revealed to be Kara Fowdy - the Vice Principal at Garfield High.
Martin Proctor now knows that Jefferson Pierce is Black Lightning. He orders Kara Fowdy to kill him.
The Bottom Line
Another great episode. Though it's unclear where the subplot with Lala is going, it is engaging. More, it's nice to see some scenes here in which we see Jefferson being a hero outside of costume trying to save a young drug dealer from the dark path he was put on. The main plot is moving along nicely as well.
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