Black Lightning Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 16 - The Book of the Apocalypse: Chapter Two: The Omega

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Tobias Whale is on the run and desperate to launch an attack that will cripple Freeland and kill Black Lightning once and for all. With a power outage, a riot and the Masters of Disaster threatening Freeland as Jennifer loses control of her powers, can Black Lightning and Thunder hope to save the city and bring Tobias to justice before the resurrected Lala puts him in the ground?


Influences

The Batman and the Outsiders comics of the 1980s.


Artistry

You can tell the budget for special effects was saved for this episode and the fight with the Masters of Disaster.


Trivia

Anissa makes reference to Batman existing when Jennifer asks her if she thinks Gambi will be all right, saying with everything Gambi has done she wouldn't be surprised if he told them he was Batman.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Jennifer and Anissa are looking down at the injured Gambi.)
Jennifer: You think he's gonna be okay?
Anissa: Shoot. I wouldn't be surprised if he told us he was Batman! He'll be fine, all right?
Jennifer: You know, this is another one I owe Tobias for.
Anissa: Look, you're right, baby sis, but I need you to calm down, all right?
Jennifer: No, I'm fine. I'm... Seeing him out of the blue like that kind of caught me off guard. But it's cool. I'm not gonna blow us up.
Anissa: Good, 'cause I got stuff to do.
Jennifer: Yeah, I know, Harriet. Or should I say Blackbird?
Anissa: Well, I kind of like Blackbird. She cool, right?
Jennifer: You're such an overachiever. It's not enough you're in medical school, you gotta be two superheroes. Or maybe just one now, 'cause of Dad's code?
Anissa: Nah, Blackbird is needed. But I will start planning better and stop lone-wolfing it.
Jennifer: You know, I can roll with you.

Jennifer: If I can float in my sleep, then I can probably fly while I'm awake.

(Tobias is in his office, talking to the painting of Tori. He is quite clearly insane now, laughing nearly constantly.)
Tobias: I know, right? As soon as I kill Black Lightning, I'm gonna scoop up all those poor, lost little meta-humans.
(Lala enters, gun drawn.)
Lala: Damn. You talkin' to paintings now? It's about time I killed your ass.
Tobias: Latavious? Please. The devil deals the cards.
Lala: (grunting) That don't work on me anymore.
(Lala steadies his gun and Tobias laughs.)
Tobias: You think I never caught any lead?
(Lala fires as Tobias keeps laughing. The bullet bounces right off of him.)
Lala: The next one's goin' right between your eyes.
Tobias: I don't think so. E pluribus unum.
(Lala collapses on the ground as his body begins smoking and Tobias laughs again.)
Tobias: Yeah, that one worked. Yeah. Do you feel that bubbling up inside?
Lala: (weakly) What did you do?
Tobias: Lazarus Prime only brought you back. I'm the one who brainwashed you. First level was about control. You clearly passed that. Second level, way deeper. That passphrase was Latin for, "From many, one."  Bringin' out all the tattoos, all the people you killed, at once. And your black ass certainly killed a lot, directly and indirectly.
(Lala's skin continues to smoke. He screams as Tobias continues laughing until Lala passes out.)
Tobias: Yeah, Tattoo-man. Go to sleep. The next time your ass wakes up, you're gonna be buried in some concrete on the East Side.
(Tobias laughs and claps, before looking to the painting of Tori.)
Tobias: What? I know. He actually thought that he had me.
(Tobias keeps laughing... until Jennifer flies through his window in a hail of glass.)
Tobias:Who the hell are you?
Jennifer: Call me Lightning. And this is payback.
(Jennifer blasts Tobias with a lightning lasso and lifts him off the ground as he is electrocuted.)

(Black Lightning arrives to find Jennifer electrocuting Tobias.)
Black Lightning: Stop!
Jennifer: He deserves it!
Black Lightning: But you don't!'Cause you don't deserve to become a cold-blooded killer.

Agent Odell: Let's skip the prelims. I know exactly who and what you all are.
Lynn: You need to leave.
Agent Odell: There's something you need to know. The Markovians have a stockpile of meta-humans in pods. The largest on Earth.
Jefferson: You've been asked to leave. Nicely.
Agent Odell: (nodding in polite acknowledgement) Not yet, Mr. Pierce. Thanks to you, the Markovians have Dr. Jace. And here is the best part. The concentration of meta-humans in Freeland from the vaccines and the Green Light experiment make it the greatest threat to Markovia. It's only a matter of time before they launch a lethal first strike. I'm swearing in Black Lightning, Thunder, and (looking to Jennifer) whatever you're calling yourself, young lady. The Markovian War is coming. And Freeland... Freeland is ground zero.


Continuity

Gambi finds Jennifer and tries to bring her under control while wearing his insulated gloves.

Lala finds Jennifer and Gambi and is ready to shoot her because she looks like she's dangerous.

Gambi persuades Lala to leave her alone after he confirms he is not with Tobias.

Jennifer is able to get control of herself but Gambi develops severe radiation burns in the process.

Jennifer and Anissa take Gambi back to the sanctum, while Jefferson checks out Tobias' hideout.

Jefferson finds the kidnapped Green Light Babies in the pods.

Tobias plans to use The 100 to start a riot after the Freeland D.A. announces that no charges will be filed against the police who killed Cape Guy in 215.

Tobias also has Coldsnap freeze the Freeland power plant to cause a power outage, thinking this will depower Black Lightning if he doesn't have a power grid to draw off of.

Anissa says she doesn't plan to stop being Blackbird anytime soon.

Jennifer says she can help Anissa with her robbing-the-rich act as Blackbird.

Lynn finds Dr. Jace hiding with the pods on Tobias' hide-out and beats her up.

Dr. Jace bargains for protection and asks to be turned over to the police rather than the ASA. In exchange for that, she tells Black Lightning about the Masters of Disaster.

The teleporting assassin from 209 finally arrives in Freeland. It is revealed that he was hired by the Markovians to capture Dr. Jace.

The teleporting assassin kills several cops at the Freeland jail. He refuses to renegotiate a deal with Dr. Jace when she offers him more money, saying that when he gets bought, he stays bought.

Reverend Holt is revealed to not be dead and that he has made his church into a shelter during the riot.

Lala saves Black Lightning and Thunder from the Master of Disasters after they get ambushed.

Jennifer uses her powers to thaw out the power plant and restart the city's electrical grid under Gambi's direction.

Cutter abandons Tobias after he tries to release the Green Light Babies thinking they'll automatically go out and start fighting for him.

The Green Light Babies awaken as Lynn is in the middle of asking Agent Odell for a few minutes to administer a serum to stabilize them before they try moving them.

Lynn is able to use the information Dr. Jace gave her to trace the signal that opened the pods. This enables her to find Tobias' office and the briefcase.

Jennifer goes after Tobias hideout, using her powers to fly for the first time after she sees the location on the comm system in Gambi's van.

Tobias is revealed to be bulletproof.

Tobias implanted Lala with a second code that would awaken all the tattoos of everyone he ever killed all at once. Tobias believes this wouldn't kill Lala outright and plans to have him dropped into a concrete building foundation where he can keep resurrecting over and over inside the rock.

Jennifer takes up the superhero name of lightning and electrocutes Tobias.

Jefferson arrives and stops Jennifer from killing Tobias. He does help bring him down, however, and they turn him in to the police.

Rev. Holt delivers an address to the people of Freeland across the radio and Internet, thanking God for Black Lightning and Thunder and urging people not to lose hope, because love will stop what evil has started.

Tobias is sent to a secret metahuman prison called The Pit. He is informed that he's been classified as a metahuman weapon of mass destruction and, as such, has no right to a lawyer and no reason to hope for escape or rescue.

It is said that most of the Green Light Babies released from the pods were recovered and returned to their families.

It is revealed that Agent Odell has three teens in pods - Wendy Hernandez, an apparently not dead Khalil Payne and Issa Williams (a.k.a. Body Bag Boy from 202.)

Jefferson apparently makes terrible peach cobbler, which is more bread than peaches.

Agent Odell reveals that he knows Jefferson, Anissa and Jennifer have powers.

Agent Odell says he needs to deputize them for a coming war with the Markovian govenment, who are certain to attack Freeland as the place with the highest population of metahumans outside of Markovia, which is building a metahuman army and has captured Dr. Jace.


The Bottom Line

An odd conclusion to an odd season. Lala's resurrection ultimately serves no purpose, other than turning him into a deus ex machina that can save Black Lighting and Thunder only to "die" again with no apparent answer as to if he'll return from Season 3. The teleporter who was introduced and forgotten half a season ago suddenly returns.The whole Green Light Baby storyline fizzles out as the only named characters are still in the government's custody and every honest bit of drama from the season is negated as it is revealed that Khalil is still alive. The worst part of all is Tobias "going crazy," turning the character into a giggling fool out of nowhere. Tobias shouldn't go mad with power - he can become overconfident, but not crazy. And this was crazy. And not the good kind of crazy. It's not bad enough to make me stop watching but I'm starting to wonder if this series is worth profiling given how few connections it has to the comics at this point which would necessitate a guide like this.

Black Lightning Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 15 - The Book of the Apocalypse: Chapter One: The Alpha

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

Jefferson begins trying to instill his superhero code into Jennifer, but his youngest daughter refuses to give up on the idea of revenge on Tobias for killing Khalil. Meanwhile, Lala continues his own plans for revenge as Anissa continues the search for Grace and Lynn attempts to acclimate Wendy Hernandez to the modern world.


Influences

Batman and the Outsiders (Tobias Whale trying to become a metahuman soldier trafficker, the Masters of Disaster)


Performances

Honestly, the whole ensemble is doing so well here it's hard to single anyone out this week.


Trivia

The final three members of the Masters of Disaster are introduced in this episode, after Shakedown was previously introduced. They are Joe a.k.a. Heatstroke (fire controller), Rebecca"Becky" Jones a.k.a. New Wave (water controller who can also become pure water) and Darryl Robinson a.k.a. Coldsnap (ice controller).

In the original comics. Joe was a woman named Joanne and New Wave was the team leader, but the powers and names are otherwise the same.


Technobabble

Gambi theorizes that the radioactive signal he found at the free clinic came from the power supply sustaining the pods. The signal is very low level and can't be tracked by satellite, however Gambi installed Geiger counters around Freeland, hoping to triangulate a location by detecting radiation on the wind.

The material making up Jennifer's costume absorbs and disperses electrical charges, so as not to add to her natural bio electricity. Gambi hopes this will keep others from overloading her.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Jennifer is trying to justify killing Tobias.)
Jennifer: Freeland would be better off if he were permanently gone.
Jefferson: You don't mean "permanently gone," you mean "dead. " And, it's not about whether he deserves it, though the Good Book says it is not our decision to make.
Jennifer: It also says "an eye for an eye."
Jefferson: Which is an idea older than the Bible, Jen. Hammurabi's Code. It was meant to limit vengeance, not justify it.
Jennifer: Khalil died because you put him out front. Doesn't that matter?
Jefferson (sighing): You know, I have had a long time to think about my powers, Jennifer. Some days I feel like I have it all figured out, but most of the time, I have no idea No idea why God saw fit to put this burden on me. The only thing I know for sure is that those with the greatest power should not be able to decide who lives or dies. No, that is a path that can only lead to darkness.

Cutter: So, who should we choose?
Dr. Jace: Marcus is too weak, thanks to you.
Cutter: He's an ass anyway. I like Rebecca, but I don't think sending a woman would appeal to your target audience.
Tobias: Hmm. Men can be stupid that way.
Cutter: I vote for Joe.
Dr. Jace: His powers will look good on camera, that's for sure.
Tobias: Joe it is.


Continuity

A Green Light user known as Cape Guy is gunned down by the Freeland Police after he accidentally generates a magnetic storm  He was a former solider who turned to Green Light to cope with his PTSD and then became a superhero after he developed powers.

Jefferson comes up with a code of three rules for himself and his daughters to follow in costume. Rule #1 is no revealing who they are to anyone outside the family. Rule #2 is no hero business without back-up. (Gambi does count as back-up.)  Rule #3 is no killing. Both Anissa and Jennifer agree to the rules.

Dr. Jace revives the rest of the Masters of Disaster - Coldsnap, Heatstroke and New Wave.

Agent Odell is still spying on the Pierce family.

Agent Odell tells Lynn that the trail on finding the missing Green Light Babies has gone cold.

Lynn says she has no way of knowing if the Green Light Babies are still alive after having been moved.

Dr. Jace says it will be two weeks before the Green Light Babies are ready to be revived.

Lazarus - the man who resurrected Lala - tells him that Tobias killed Lady Eve.

Anissa talks to Gambi about Grace and says it sounds like she might be a shape-shifter.

Lynn makes arrangements for Wendy Hernandez to speak with Perenna and Jennifer about their powers as a form of therapy.

Lazarus gets Lala a gun.

Tobias unleashes Heatstroke on Freeland to demonstrate the power of his product in a live video on the dark web.

Heatstroke attacks Councilman Parker and super-heats a set of gas pipers, sparking fires around Freeland.

Black Lightning and Thunder are able to stop Heatstroke.

Gambi tracks down Tobias location and goes to watch it until Jefferson is freed up.

Lala shows up at Tobias' lair and shrugs off Cutter's attacks.

Jennifer hacks Gambi's computer and goes to the location in her new costume.

Cutter and Tobias flee their hideout just before Jennifer arrives.

The episode ends with Jennifer overheating after landing outside Tobias's lair.


The Bottom Line

This doesn't feel like the next to last episode of the season. Most of the subplots are touched upon but nothing really moves forward at all.  The cliffhanger more than makes up for it, though.

Black Lightning Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 14 - The Book of Secrets: Chapter Four: Original Sin

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

As Anissa continues the search for Grace and Gambi works with Jennifer to make her a super-suit, Lynn runs into another roadblock when it comes to treating the Green Light Babies. Meanwhile, Jefferson is confronted by a resurrected Lala and a mysterious death from their past.


Influences

Black Lightning #1 (character of Earl is taken from this story)


Performances

William Catlett and Cress Williams have great chemistry together in their scenes as Lala and Jefferson.


Artistry

The scenes where Lala sees the ghosts of the people haunting him are well-edited and intercut with the scenes where he's shouting at nobody, from Jefferson's perspective. The effect is dizzying and disorienting, which adds to the power of these moments and helps to subtlely convey Lala's mental state.


Trivia

In the first Black Lightning comic, Earl Clifford was a star athlete at Garfield High, who helped Jefferson Pierce with running a group of drug dealers off the campus. He was later killed and hung through the basketball hoop in the school gym by The 100 as an example. Earl's murder inspired Jefferson to create his Black Lightning persona to fight crime.

In this episode, Earl Clifford was Lala's best friend growing up, but he was trying to go straight and get out of the drug-trade a lot of the poor kids were forced into by The 100. He was persuaded to go to the police by Jefferson Pierce and killed by Lala, who decided to take care of it so he could make sure his friend didn't suffer. He also stuffed Earl's body through a basketball hoop to send a message to the public.


Technobabble

Gambi says he may be able to identify what was stolen from the secret room in the free clinic by isolating the radioactive residue and then track it.


Dialogue Triumphs

Jefferson: Why are you here?
Lala: That's a good question. I came to see you. "Those who can't remember their past are condemned to repeat it. "
Jefferson: You know, most people think that's Winston Churchill. It's George Santayana. "What's past is prologue..."
Lala: Shakespeare! A tribute to Shakespeare. I ain't forgot what you taught me, Mr. Pierce. It's just the streets taught me, too.
(Lala shoots Jefferson in the shoulder, sending him falling to the floor.  Lala moves forward as Jefferson kneels on the ground in shock.)
Lala: I'm having a hard time reconciling my past. When I die, I come back, and what I've done comes back on me! And this time I heard a voice that said... I have unfinished business. Which brought you to me.
Jefferson: You gonna kill me?
Lala: I need answers. I need answers to my past. Why am I here? And that voice... that voice said it's about you and Earl.
(Cut to: an image of the past - a young man shoved through a basketball hoop in the Garfield High gym.)
Lala: Earl was like a brother to me. And that voice sent me to you. So you must've killed him. And you're gonna tell me why.

Agent Odell: She's not your kid. She doesn't need to be coddled.
Lynn: I'm not coddling her. I'm treating her like a human being, which is something you've clearly forgotten how to do.
Agent Odell: See, some people have dogs that they treat like members of their family. They dress them up in silly costumes and insist that the rest of us treat them like relevant members ofsociety. But they're not. They can, however, be useful tools. Dogs can sniff out drugs and landmines, but their relevance is solely dependent on their ability to be of service.
Lynn: Why are you telling me this?
Agent Odell: Because I'm not here to waste my sentiments on Wendy.
Lynn: (aghast) Waste?!
Agent Odell: She can't sniff out landmines, but she can do other things... for her government and her country, to keep its citizens safe. That's why she's here.
Lynn: (intensely) She's here to get stronger, healthier.
Agent Odell: She's here to realize her full potential for the benefit of all of us. Wendy could prove to be more revolutionary than the tank or the machine gun. But we absolutely have no time to waste. Do you understand what I am saying?
Lynn: That you don't like dogs?

Lala: I mean, looking to move up, make more money. He was supposed to be helping me out.
Jefferson: And?
Lala: He wasn't with it. So I looked out for him, got him a free pass.
Jefferson: Wait. If Earl had a free pass, then why'd they go after him?
Lala: You know why.
Jefferson: (sighs) I told Earl to tell the police about the One Hundred's business.
Lala:  And Tobias had some guys on the force. And when he found out about it, he put a hit out on Earl.
Jefferson: Did you warn him?
Lala: Nah, it was a wrap. Wasn't no stopping it. If Tobias want you got, it was a done deal. And I wasn't gonna let anyone kill Earl.
Jefferson: Then what happened?
Lala: (breathing heavily) I killed him myself. He was caught up. I mean, he was gonna get got.
Jefferson: Why'd you hang him in the hoop?
Lala: Because I ain't wanna be poor no more. I had to show Tobias that I was serious, and that I could send a message.
Jefferson: You need to turn yourself in.
Lala: There you go. No. I'm gonna make Tobias pay. And after that, it don't matter. "The past is always tense, but the future perfect."
Jefferson: Who said that?
Lala: Zadie Smith. She also said, "Every moment happens twice: inside and out, and there's two different histories." I'm sorry, Mr. Pierce. Thank you for everything.


Continuity

Lala returns, having been resurrected again after his apparent death in 113. He claims that this time when he came back he heard a voice that told him to find out what happened to Earl.

Gambi is making Jennifer a supersuit. Lynn is worried about the whole process, particularly since Jennifer wants to sacrifice protection for style. Gambi is trying to achieve both.

Lala is still being haunted by the ghosts of his cousin Will and Lawanda White, who argue with each other. Nobody else can see the ghosts but Lala.

Agent Odell tells Lynn to stop coddling Wendy Hernandez and start pushing her to develop her powers. Lynn refuses. Later, when Lynn returns to her lab, she's been locked out and Agent Odell is pushing Wendy to create more and more intense wind, though she's clearly in pain.

Gambi is able to identify Todd Green from a partial image from the security footage at the free clinic. Unfortunately, his dead body is found just as Henderson is about to go pick him up.

Jefferson is able to use his powers to magnetically remove a bullet from his body and cauterize his own bullet wound.

Gambi says he may be able to identify what was stolen from the secret room in the free clinic by isolating the radioactive residue and then track it.

Jefferson shows Lala a picture of Earl from an old yearbook. This restores Lala's memory and causes him to realize he was the one who killed Earl in a bid to make sure he died painlessly.

Gambi finds an address for a foster brother of Grace Choi's. Anissa goes there and meets an older Asian man, who tells her to leave before bad things happen.

Grace Choi is revealed to be the older man and to have shape-shifting powers.

Lala remembers that he was the one who killed Earl after he went to the police. As he leaves Garfield High, he develops a new tattoo of Earl.

Jennifer is satisfied with the first rough design of her costume.

Jennifer tries on the costume in the protective sphere in Gambi's basement. It fails to work properly and soon starts smoking.

Anissa returns to the apartment in her Thunder costume. She finds several dead, rotten bodies (including what appears to be a horse) and fights Grace in her form as the older man.

Lala is revealed to have come back from the dead two months earlier.

Lala is told that in order to stop being reborn, he must untie the knot of his pain and find redemption. Only then will he know peace. He takes this to mean that he must kill Tobias Whale, to make up for all the bad things he did in the service of The 100.

Lala was a straight-A student before he joined The 100.

Agent Odell is revealed to have been spying on The Pierces with a special satellite. He kills all the ASA technicians who know about the spying besides himself.


The Bottom Line

An amazing episode, despite most of the subplots going nowhere and Lala's return coming out of left field. Still, it's a welcome surprise and his scenes are the strongest in the episode. It will be interesting to see how Lala's return changes the story of the rest of the season, though it's still unclear what to make of Grace and Agent Odell.

Black Lightning Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 13 - The Book of Secrets: Chapter Three: Pillar of Fire

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Lynn begins working on the Green Light Babies in a new secure location, as Jennifer begins plotting her revenge on Tobias Whale. Meanwhile, Anissa makes a startling discovery about her girlfriend, Grace Choi, and Jefferson receives some interesting news regarding the possibility of his becoming Principal again.


Influences

Batman and the Outsiders (character of Shakedown) and Judd Winick's Outsiders (Grace Choi's background as a child sex slave.)


Performances

Again, this is China Anne McClain's show to steal.


Artistry

The direction and pacing of the story by Robert Townsend is top-notch.


Trivia

The episode title - Pillar of Fire - is a Biblical reference to one of the forms taken by God to be a guiding light to the Children of Israel.

The first of the super soldiers Tobias wakes up is a man named Marcus Bishop aka Shakedown, who it is said can control and emit vibrations. In the original Batman and the Outsiders comics, Marcus Bishop had the same code name and powers and was part of the mercenary group known as The Masters of Disaster.

Rather than just generating earthquakes, this version of Shakedown is able to use his powers in a manner similar to Count Vertigo, causing intense pain in people's heads.

This episode reveals that Grace Choi was the victim of human trafficking and sold into a prostitution ring when she was 16. In the original Outsiders series, Grace was kidnapped and sold into sex slavery at a much younger age, escaping when her powers manifested at puberty. Her father's identity was never confirmed, but her mother was revealed to be a part of the Bana Amazons who exiled themselves from Themyscira.


Technobabble

The power grid of Gambi's sanctum is built to withstand the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear explosion, yet Jennifer is able to short it out while outputting half of her total power.

Gambi has a Geiger counter built into his watch. He uses it to determine that the pods kept in the secret room of the clinic were slightly radioactive and left behind a residue.

The super-soldiers are awoken by use of a special serum and controlled through an implant in their heads that corresponds to a watch worn by their handler.

Lynn says that she's discovered a way to jump-start the neurotransmitters in the pod kids' brains, speeding up their recovery and reviving them permanently.The treatment involves using a derivative of Looker's silver element, which can supercharge deteriorating nerve cells in metahumans.

Dr. Jace says she has some new theories on how to tackle the pod kids' cellular matrix deficiencies.

The drug Grace was taking is a custom compound in a mega dose of a medication used to treat schizophrenia.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Jennifer has just shorted out the computers in Gambi's sanctum while testing her powers in a sound-proof shield-zone.)
Jefferson: So my hot-headed 16-year-old daughter is a walking nuclear bomb?
Gambi: Not nuclear, Jeff, but like Perenna said, she is powerful. Extremely powerful.
Jefferson: After all she's been through... I'm not sure she's stable enough to keep her abilities in check.
Jennifer: Dad?
Jefferson: (walking over to the microphone) Yeah?
Jennifer: You know Anissa taught me how to read lips, right?
(Jefferson's face drops.)
Jennifer: (sarcastic) So thanks for your vote of confidence. I appreciate it.

(Tobias inspects the tech used to manage the super soldiers.)
Tobias: I'll give those evil child-snatchin' bastards one thing. They've got great taste in watches.

Tavon: You know, it's not right what Lowry's doing. Garfield is your school. All he cares about is making rules and making himself look better in front of his bosses, and that's not right. I mean, all the students think so. The teachers, too.
Jefferson: Okay, look, Tavon, I was the one who wasn't here for Garfield when it needed me most. Not Lowry.
(Tavon nods and starts to walk away but then turns around.)
Tavon: You always say that Garfield is a place for second chances. Where's your second chance, Principal Pierce?
(Jefferson stands there, stunned and gratified.)
Napier: (from behind Jefferson) If you wanna bask in this "Lean on Me" moment a little longer, I can come back a little later.

Anissa: I know you're frustrated-
Jennifer: Please. Don't do that. I already know what you'll say. You'll side with Dad and say I need to be responsible.
Anissa: Hell no!
(Jennifer is surprised.)
Anissa: Look, Tobias has to go. But what I do agree with Dad is, is that Tobias is dangerous. And we can't be running around half-cocked with no plan. We cannot take Tobias down if he kills us first. Jennifer: Wait, did you just say "we"?
Anissa: You thought I'd let you go out there alone?


Continuity

50% of Jennifer's power out-put is more energy than Jefferson was able to handle in his prime as Black Lightning.

Anissa taught Jennifer how to read lips.

Agent Odell offers Lynn a lab at Bowman College and a $1 million grant in exchange for her help in moving the Green Light Babies. Lynn refuses until she is given straight answers about what the ASA is up to.

Agent Odell tells Lynn about Markovia's metahuman weapons program and how the instability of the metahumans they created resulted in them being put in stasis. With Lynn close to stabilizing the Green Light Babies, Lynn has become a target of the Markovian government, which could use her research to make their army viable in the long-term.

Lynn agrees to help move the pod kids on the condition that Dr. Jace be kept away from her.

Anissa searches Grace's abandoned apartment and finds a photo of her with a couple she assumes are Grace's parents. She also finds one of Grace's pills. She eventually asks Gambi for help analyzing the drugs.

Henderson and Gambi investigate the hidden room in the free clinic. Gambi is unable to say if the four large objects removed from it are a different design of suspension pod, but he does confirm they are radioactive but only in the degree to be a power source - not a weapon.

Dr. Jace gives Tobias a syringe full of a serum that awakens the soldier-metahumans and several of the watches that control them.

The first soldier Tobias awakens is a man named Marcus Bishop who was called Shakedown who has vibration control and emission powers. His powers are such that he can overpower Cutter's telekinesis and he is able to match her in pure hand-to-hand fighting.

Jefferson is apparently teaching English Literature now.

Dr. Napier Frank, last seen in 201, shows up to tell Jefferson that he thinks he can get Jefferson reinstated as Principal after the footage of Lowry's racist response to a student protest in 212 was posted on-line by students and went viral.

Tobias and Cutter have entered into a sexual relationship.

Lynn is using a derivative of Looker's silver "element" to treat the pod kids. Looker was last seen in 207.

Gambi is making a supersuit for Jennifer.

Tobias offers to make Shakedown a partner in his organization rather than a puppet.

Jennifer crashes at Anissa's house for a few days just to get away from her parents' home for a bit.

Anissa agrees to help Jennifer get revenge on Tobias, but says they have to come up with a solid plan of attack first

Lynn wants to take Wendy Hernandez (last seen in 202) and move her into the isolation wing of the hospital.

Jennifer attacks some of Tobias' men at Club 100 trying to find where he is.

Gambi discovers that Grace Choi's real name is Shay Li Wylde and that she was a foster child until she was abducted and forced into prostitution at the age of 16, where she was until she was freed by ICE. She disappeared until she emerged in Freeland as Grace Choi.

Jefferson advises the school-board to let Lowry keep his job and be given more time to implement his program.

Grace is apparently schizophrenic.

Anissa saves Jennifer after she goes after one of Tobias' runners at the Seahorse Motel.

Shakedown and Cutter try to take over the ASA lab where the Green Light Babies are.

Dr. Jace acts to seal the base when she sees Cutter and Shakedown on the security camera.

Shakedown recognizes Dr. Jace.

Dr. Jace has one of the watches that lets her control the four super soldiers.

Dr. Jace agrees to help Cutter and Shakedown collect the rest of the Green Light Babies.

Dr. Napier tells Jefferson not to expect any more favors from here after he wasted all the capital he had on a chance for Jefferson to get his job back, only for Jefferson to speak in favor of Lowry.

All of the Green Light Babies except Wendy Hernandez are abducted by the time Black Lightning and Thunder get to the ASA base.

Perrena says that Jennifer is full of anger and she may literally explode if she doesn't find a way to cleanse herself of it.

Dr. Jace says she can get the Green Light Babies fully healed in two weeks to a month.

Todd Green is given a new car (which explodes) now that the's outlived his usefulness, with the Proctor Briefcase hacked and Dr. Jace now overseeing all the Metahuman Pods for Tobias.


The Fridge Factor

Grace's entire background is based around rape and trauma, with the added bonus of it being used to give Anissa angst.


The Winick Factor

Grace was one of Judd Winick's pet characters who was entirely defined by a laundry list of traits (Chinese, ex-child sex slave, lesbian) rather than an actual personality. Thankfully, the show has taken steps to mitigate this, but it is still saddening they went back to her shock-based origin story.


The Bottom Line

A well-directed, well-acted episode which managed to get all of its subplots moving along a little bit. A fine episode to end with before going into a three week break.

Black Lightning Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 12 - The Book of Secrets: Chapter Two: Just and Unjust

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

In the wake of Khalil's deathl, Jennifer struggles with her anger and desire for revenge against Tobias. Anissa returns to work at the clinic, only to be inspired to an act of vigilantism outside of her Thunder suit when she treats a survivor of domestic abuse. Meanwhile, Gambi makes a starting discovery, after a group of men try to abduct Lynn.


Influences

Batman and the Outsiders (mention of Markovia, character of Dr. Helga Jace)


Performances

P.J. Byrne perfectly plays Principal Lowry as the kind of clueless, casually racist idiot you can't help but want to see smacked around even if you wouldn't punch him yourself on general principal.


Artistry

The funeral sequence is beautifully shot with fantastic music and blocking.


Trivia

Most of the comics in Grace's apartment are real world DC Comics titles. We can even see an advertisement for the 1984 Supergirl movie on Blu-Ray on the back of the issue that Grace is holding while asleep. The Black Lightning and Thunder comics we see, however, are not real.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Anissa and Lynn are arguing about the best way to handle Jennifer right now.)
Anissa: I think she wants time to be alone, to be alone.
Lynn: Well, alone is good until it's not good. Isolation feeds depression and addiction. I just think she needs her family right now.
Anissa: You and Dad always think you know what's best for us. But what if it's not true? What if, every once in a while, we know what's best for us?

Anissa: How you doing?
Jennifer: (scoffs) How am I doing? I don't know how I can be in so much pain and not bleed.

Jefferson: Jennifer, the power to do amazing things comes with the responsibility to do the right thing. Revenge is not the right thing, justice is.

(Principal Lowry has threatened to have Jennifer taken away if she doesn't destroy the Khalil memorial.)
Jennifer: You can't remove him from us. You can't make us not remember him. Every single person standing here is just one bad break away from becoming somebody they never meant to be.
(The other students mutter agreement.) 
Principal Lowry:  This is your last chance!
Jennifer: Can anyone here say that if they were crippled and you had the opportunity to walk again, you wouldn't take it?
(The other students say "No." and similar.)
Jennifer: We're all in pods. You know that, right? Just like the kids on the news, right? Trapped by a system that doesn't give a damn about us, run by people like you.
(The students cheer.)
Principal Lowry: Take her. All right, come on. Clear a path. Let's go.
(The security guards grab Jennifer and take her away through the crowd of students.)
Jennifer: No, it's okay. Stay strong, everyone.
(In unison, the students all kneel down. Those who have their smart phones filming the display aim their phones directly at Principal Lowery. Others begin raising their fists as Lowry begins to break down at this organized display of non-violent rebellion.)
Principal Lowry: No, no, no, no, no. No kneeling down. And let's put the cell phones away. Put the phones away. You know this is an illegal assembly, right? You are in violation of your student handbook!
(In the middle of all this, Jefferson walks up. Lowry turns to him, desperate for an ally.)
Principal Lowry: Will you tell them to get off their butts and back to class?
Jefferson: Sounds like the principal's job.
(Jefferson quietly raises his fist in imitation of the students.)


Continuity

Lynn knows that Jennifer smokes. Anissa says she's cut back since starting therapy.

Anissa warns Lynn against smothering Jennifer and suggests they give her space as she copes with Khalil's death.

Anissa is shot and Lynn nearly abducted by a group of men in the grocery store parking lot. The agents are scared off by ASA Agent Odell.

Khalil's mother can't afford to bury him.

Gambi thinks that Odell is having Lynn tailed as that's the only way he could have been there to save her. He doesn't think this means that Odell knows Jefferson is Black Lightning.

Gambi is also uncertain if someone honestly was trying to abduct Lynn or if Odell was just trying to make Lynn feel gratified to him by his thwarting the abduction attempt.

Gambi doesn't find any bugs in the Pierce house, suggesting that Lynn is being followed by the ASA.

When confronted about why Odell is having her followed, Odell repeats his line about how he doesn't have time for Lynn not to be honest with him after she lies about Anissa not being shot.

Todd reports that the metas they recovered from the clinic are stable and that the crew which moved them "took a one-way trip with Cutter." Tobias is pleased by this news.

Lynn and Jefferson discuss the possibility of Jennifer returning to regular high school, since she was able to control her powers well enough to hide from them and Tobias.

Jennifer asks Jefferson to start training her so they can take out Tobias. Jefferson tells her that justice, not revenge, is why he does what he does.

Odell identifies the men who tried to abduct Lynn as Markovians. He believes they wanted her for her expertise in dealing with metahumans.

Odell offers to let Dr. Jace go free if she can move the Green Light Babies safely to a new location and keep them alive. Dr. Jace says she'll need Lynn's help to do it.

Anissa treats a woman named Monique at the free clinic who looks like she was beaten. When Anissa asks how she was injured, she says she probably fell down the stairs or blacked out but she insists that nobody hurt her. A nurse later tells Anissa that the woman's boyfriend is a capo in The 100 named Rayvon and that so long as they look the other way and don't log her treatment, they all get to live.

The Markovians try to abduct Perrena. She forces them to let go of her by psychically making them imagine they are freezing to death.

Jennifer returns to school at Freeland High.

Grace is now working in a comic book store.

There are comics based on Black Lighting and Thunder.

Anissa's black-clad persona who robs criminals and gives to the poor has become known as The Black Bird on the street.

Anissa attacks Rayvon. She barely gets away, however, as she once again has the wind knocked out of her, which stops her from using her powers.

Jennifer almost loses control of her powers when she finds the janitors tearing down a student made memorial to Khalil.

Jennifer rebuilds the memorial to Khalil and leads a student protest when Principal Lowry tries to have it torn down. Jefferson backs the students when Lowry demands he tell them to get back to class.

Anissa gives the last bit of money she stole to a funeral home to pay for Khalil's funeral.

Dr. Jace is brought in to help facilitate the Pod Kids being moved, over Lynn's objections.

Yuri Bakonov is a Markovian Intelligence Service agent who was the driver of the team that tried to kidnap Lynn.

Jefferson attacks the Markovian agents and reports them to Deputy Chief Handerson.

We are told that Monique has left Rayvon and is trying to rebuild her life.

Principal Lowry complains to Jefferson that the real racism in America is everyone assuming he has it easy because he's white. He says that his parents were heroin addicts and that his mom overdosed while his dad watched, and that he was homeless and ate dog food to survive.

Grace does not like action movies.

Anissa loves action movies, particularly ones with a woman in the lead.

Grace says she loves Anissa's lust for life and spontaneous nature.

Grace's eyes suddenly change color while she's talking with Anissa on a walk through the park.

Grace runs off as her tattoos shift again, like they did before in 205.

Todd determines that a metahuman research program at Leavenworth occurred at the same time as the ASA Green Light Vaccine experiment. The ASA took the Leavenworth successes and turned them into black-out operatives for a time but they committed atrocities which were covered up.Todd confirms these covert agents are the same people they book out of the secret room in the Freeland Free Clinic.

Yuri Bakonov had diplomatic immunity and was sent back to Markovia.

Anissa goes to Grace's apartment after the funal, but she isn't there.

Todd says the technology used to keep the metahuman black-out operatives on ice is so ancient he has no idea what to do with it. Tobias tells him to cancel the kill order on Dr. Jace and make arrangements for her to be employed in a more permanent capacity.

Jennifer promises as Khalil is lowered into the ground that Tobias will be joining him there soon.

Agent Odell is watching Jennifer as she leaves the funeral.


The Bottom Line

A solid episode which revives a lot of subplots long dead. (Seriously, when was the last time we saw Jefferson in the school?) We still have no idea what is going on with Grace but at least this week gave the whole cast something to do even if it was light on action.

Black Lightning Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 11 - The Book of Secrets: Chapter One: Prodigal Son

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 

Plot

With Khalil having barely survived Tobias' brutal attack, Jefferson is on the warpath but finds little help from Deputy Chief Harrison. Meanwhile, Lynn is confronted by her own dark past. 

Influences.

Batman and the Outsiders (Dr. Helga Jace's background in Markovia, working with metahumans)

Performances

Jordan Calloway gets a fantastic final turn as Khalil.

Artistry

As is usual for this show, the music for this episode is fantastic and the music for Khalil and Reverend Holt's deaths scenes are perfectly chosen.

Trivia

Dr. Jace says that she spent some time in the nation of Markovia, working on their metahuman program. In the Batman and the Outsiders comics where she first appeared, Dr. Jace was the Royal Scientist of the Markovian Royal Family and responsible for activating the metagene of Brion Markov, who became the hero GeoForce.

Technobabble

The anesthesia Khalil's body produces naturally has gone into overdrive trying to deal with his injuries, making it toxic.

Regarding Khalil's treatment, Lynn suggests removing the glands that produce the toxins and trying a different class of anesthesia during the operation.

Replacing Khalil's spinal implant, is revealed to be impossible to replace as the techniques used to heal Khalil's spine are far beyond anything the doctor knows modern science to be capable of.

Gambi gets a toxin screening done on Reverend Holt's body. It determines he was poisoned.

Jennifer's powers allow her to see the electrical impulses inside a person's body.  According to her a healthy person's impulses move at a steady, rapid pace. The impulses inside Khalil are dimming and slowing.

Todd uses a device to remove the tracking implant from Dr. Jace's ankle and creates a hologram of her reading with a single device.

Dialogue Triumphs

(Jefferson is sitting with Khalil in his hospital room. Suddenly, Khalil moans.)

Khalil: Mr. P? 

(Jefferson moves to get hit the call button for the nurse.)

Khalil: Wait... No...I need you to do something for me. 

Jefferson: Yeah, okay. Anything. 

(Khalil starts coughing, his throat too dry to speak.)
Jefferson: Easy. Easy. 
(Jefferson gets a water bottle and raises it to Khalil's lips. He sucks the water through a straw frantically. Finally, he speaks after a long pause.)

Khalil: I need Black Lightning to kill Tobias. 

Jefferson: ...I can't do that.

Khalil: I'll give you everything that you need to take down his operations. I know his routes, his contacts, everything. 

Jefferson: I won't do that. We have to let the judicial system handle Tobias. 

Khalil: The system? (breathing heavier, more desperately) You mean the system that let Tobias get away with shooting me and Reverend Holt? The same system that let him rip my spine out of my back? You mean the system that let him get away with murdering your father? Mr. P, is that the system that you're talking about? Huh? 

(There is a long pause as Jefferson ponders his words and the odds that Tobias will defy the system yet again.)

Khalil: You promise me...can you make him suffer like me? 

Jefferson: Yes. (pauses) I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you when you needed me. 

Khalil: You were always there I just couldn't see you.

Woman: Hey, what are you doing on my car? Are you trying to steal it?
Jennifer: (scoffs) What? No.
Woman: You're trying to steal my car!
Jennifer: Ma'am, I wasn't -
Woman: (turning away, pointedly ignoring Jennifer, using her phone) Hello, 911? Yes, I caught a woman breaking into my car. She's African-American. She threatened me. And she's, like, 5'6".
(Jennifer scoffs again, looks around, and after making sure no one is watching, lets loose with an electrical blast that sets the car on fire. She starts walking away as the woman turns around.)
Woman: Oh, my... Oh, my God! What did you do?
Jennifer: Me?
Woman: Yes!
Jennifer: Your car got hit by lightning. You want to call the police on God?

(Gambi reveals himself to Henderson.)
Henderson: What the hell? You got any other dead people around here? Lady Eve? Joey Toledo? Jimmy Hoffa?
Jefferson: No, just Gambi.
Henderson: Is this it, man? Anything else?
Jefferson: This is everything.
Gambi: Deputy Chief Henderson I faked my death because there were some very serious people after me. And I needed to smoke them out. I asked Jefferson to keep my secret.
Henderson: Do you know who tried to kill you?
Gambi: No, sir. Not yet.
Henderson: And I'm guessing you're not really a tailor, huh?
Gambi: No, I am a tailor That's just not all that I do.
Henderson: Well, bully for you.

Tobias: (gesturing to the minion he just killed) Take care of that for me.
Cutter: I don't dispose of bodies.
Tobias: Well, I'm expanding your job description.

(As Henderson is leaving Tobias' loft.)
Tobias: Aww, don't go away mad, Deputy Chief. Just go away.


Continuity

Jefferson, Lynn and Jennifer go with Khalil's mother to visit him in the hospital.

Khalil asks Jefferson to kill Tobias Whale. He refuses.

Khalil offers to give Jefferson his routes and contacts so he can shut down Tobias' operation. Again, Jefferson refuses.

Khalil finally asks if Jefferson can make Tobias suffer as much as Khalil has. This, Jefferson agrees to do.

Jennifer uses her powers to destroy a racist woman's car after the woman tries to call the cops because Jennifer was standing next to her car while trying to recover from the sight of Khalil.

Jefferson puts two and two together later when he hears the woman describing to the skeptical police  how her car just got struck by lightning at random.

Cutter kills Reverend Holt in the middle of his sermon, without being noticed, using a contact poison through his handkerchief that makes it look like he had a heart attack.

Jennifer is unable to stop her hands from glowing after destroying the car. The glow starts spreading up her body as Jefferson finds her and covers her with his jacket.

Jefferson tries to drain the extra power out of Jennifer but there is too much.

Perrena sensed that Jennifer might need help and shows up at the hospital before Jefferson can call her.

Todd finds the video of Lynn slapping Dr. Helga Jace in 205 among the contents of the briefcase.

Tobias recognizes Dr. Jace and knows about the scandal that put her in prison. He also notes that she hasn't aged in the 30 years since he first met her.

The doctor in charge of Khalil's treatment refuses to let Lynn work with him.

Jefferson now knows where Tobias lives. He asks Henderson if they can use Khalil's testimony as the basis for building a case against him. Henderson is agreeable to the idea, but says it has to be air-tight given that happened the last time they tried to arrest Tobias in 204.

Jefferson reveals Gambi's secret lair under his shop and the fact that Gambi isn't really dead to Henderson.

Henderson agrees to work with Gambi and Jefferson on building a RICO case against Tobias.

Jennifer's powers reveal to her that Khalil is dying.

Grace shows up at the hospital to bring Anissa some food.

Tobias apologizes to Cutter for ending things with her the way he did. She accepts the apology, saying it led to her becoming who she was meant to be.

Lynn pulls ran on Khalil's doctor, getting the ASA to help her claim authority to run tests to see if Khalil might be a candidate for being put in a cryo-pod like one of the Green Light Babies until a treatment can be found.

Henderson goes to Tobias' loft with a hidden scanner on his tie-pin. This allows Gambi to find a hidden safe.

Dr. Jace is revealed to have created the anti-aging serum that keeps Tobias Whale young.

Tobias is revealed as one of Dr. Jace's former guinea pigs.

Dr. Jace was the original architect behind creating the Green Light vaccine program for the ASA. When it folded, she went to the nation of Markovia to lead their metahuman development program. She later defected with the ASA's help but was jailed shortly after that.

Dr. Jace' makes a bargain with Tobias - she'll tell him where to find the ASA's sleeping super soldiers. We don't find out what she wants in return, but it's likely her freedom is part of it.

Gambi determines that the briefcase isn't in Tobias' safe.

Lynn says they can't use the pods to save Khalil.

Using her powers (presumably to manipulate his brain impulses) Jennifer is able to be with Khalil as he dies, bringing him into her safe mental space, which she has reimagined to look like the prom they never got to go to. They get to dance and tell each other they love each other before he fades away.

The episode ends with Tobias, Todd, Cutter and Dr. Jace hammering through a wall and into the secret ASA Lab.

The Bottom Line

A powerful episode which kills not one but two long-time supporting characters to tremendous effect. Again, one wonders why this wasn't the mid-season opener given all the sudden shifts to the story and major changes to the status quo. Apart from that oddity, however, this is Black Lightning at its best.

Black Lightning Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 10 - The Book of Rebellion: Chapter 3 - Angelitos Negros

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

Still on the run from Tobias, Jennifer and Khalil start to ponder their future together. Meanwhile, Jefferson approaches Henderson about a favor.


Influences

Romeo and Juliet (Tobias makes reference to it when discussing Khalil and Jennifer's romance)  and Mortal Kombat (Khalil's injury at Tobias' hands)


Goofs

What are the odds that Lynn would give her little "Come home" monologue in the same train-yard Khalil and Jennifer were hiding in?  Or was she giving that speech in every abandoned building in her territory?


Performances

China Anne McClain is pretty much carrying the show at this point, at least so far as all the scenes involving The Pierce Family go.

Again, Marvin "Krondon" Jones III is a marvel, capable of playing charming one moment and sadistic the next.


Artistry

Even by the standards of this show, the soundtrack for this episode is top-notch.


Trivia

Near the end of the episode, Tobias discovers that the ASA had four metahumans cryogenically frozen that they dubbed the Masters of Disasters.  This is the name of a super-villain group with elemental themed powers which first appeared in Batman and the Outsiders #9 (April 1984).  Their membership consisted of water manipulator New Wave, earth manipulator Shakedown, fire manipulator Heatstroke, cold manipulator Coldsnap and wind manipulator Windfall.


Technobabble

Gambi is able to track Khalil's phone usage and pinpoints a two mile area he might be hiding in after eliminating all his usual hang-outs and places Tobias controls.

Todd Green is an encryption specialist and an expert on the internal workings of algorithms.

Jefferson's super-suit has the ability to display holograms through a projector in the gauntlet.


Dialogue Triumphs

Khalil: You remember that time I asked you to be my girl?
Jennifer: Yeah. How could I forget? (chuckles) You said that if anything had happened to me, the thought of not being able to ask me out would mess with you. Yeah, I remember. You was all shy and cute.
Khalil: Wait.. was?
Jennifer: Don't worry!  You're still cute now that we cut off those promoter dreads.

Jennifer: Khalil... I can't. I can't do this. I'm sorry, but I'm not ready. I didn't leave home to lose my virginity in a train car like this. I left home to keep you safe. To keep you alive. And I don't regret that. Because you are alive. But I don't... I don't want it to be like this. We're on the run and in a train car and... you know? (sobs) I'm worried. I'm worried about what's going to happen to you. I'm worried about what's going to happen to me. I'm worried about what my family's thinking about-
Khalil: Hey. It's okay.  I'll wait.
(Khalil just pulls her closer.) 

Jefferson: Khalil knows too much to risk Tobias getting his hands on him.
Khalil: You mean about Jen having powers? Or you being Black Lightning?
(There is a pregnant pause as Jefferson and Lynn both look at Jennifer.)
Jennifer: Uh-
Khalil: She didn't tell me. (shrugs) I'm not stupid. I mean, she's electric and you and Thunder came after us.

Henderson: I can't believe you're trying to save this kid's life after all he put you through.
Jefferson: I know, man. I know. But... I guess I'm just glad that he's.. he's the person I thought he was.

(After having rippfed out Khalil's spine.)
Tobias: I told you I'd always have your back.


Continuity

Khalil created an apartment for himself in an abandoned train car.

Khalil is a talented artist and drew several sketches of Jennifer.

Lynn tells Jefferson about her talk with Khalil's dad in 209 and how he had an apartment somewhere.

Khalil gives Jennifer back the necklace he got for her when they were dating.

Tobias Whale is an expert on the history of jazz music.

Todd Green is a vegan.

Todd Green is an encryption specialist.

Tobias wants Todd Green to fully hack Proctor's briefcase.

It is revealed that Tobias has managed to partly hack the computer inside Proctor's briefcase. He discovered some information, mostly about crooked politicians in Freeland, corrupt agencies of law enforcement, judges and some very interesting real estate purchases made under an alias that does not exist.

Tobias bought all the land the ASA was interested in except for Reverend Holt's free clinic.

Tobias has no idea why the ASA wanted the land and wants Todd Green to figure that out along with what this has to do with metahumans.

Jefferson is able to speak Spanish.

Jennifer and Khalil return to the Pierce house.

Todd Green comes up with a list of the three places Khalil went to most frequently for Cutter.

Todd Green determines that there's some holes in Cutter's resume while researching her. This doesn't make her happy but Tobias praises his initiative.

Cutter finds Khalil's train-car apartment.

Khalil decides to turn himself in, at Jefferson's prompting.

Jefferson tries to make a case for leniency to Henderson. He eventually persuades him to go to the FBI to make a plea bargain and to let Khalil see his mother before he turns himself in.

Tobias has Assistant District Attorney Montez in his pocket and arranges to have a blue .450 sent to them after they give him the information on where Khalil is turning himself in to the FBI.

Khalil says that none of what happened to him is Jennifer's fault and he didn't mean what he said about her making him go to the march in 103 ruining his life. He says that Jennifer is the best thing that happened to him. 

Cutter captures Khalil from the FBI convory.

Tobias rips out Khalil's spine, leaving him in the middle of the road in front of Rev. Holt's church.

Todd Green hacks the computer and gains access to something called Project M.O.D.

Project M.O.D. gives Tobias access to the information on the Pod kids.

Todd Green also discovers that the free clinic was the first place the ASA bought when they came to Freeland and started handing out the Green Light vaccine.  Reverend Holt took the clinic over after the vaccine project was abandoned.

M.O.D. stands for Masters of Disaster - four super metahumans in cryogenic suspension contained with the old ASA facility.


Untelevised Adventures

We don't see the fight between Cutter and the various FBI agents.


The Winick Factor

Again, it's unbelievable that Jennifer and Khalil are able to evade all the people they do who are trained hunters.

Telekinetic bullet-dodging powers aside, it still beggars belief that Cutter is able to taken on a dozen FBI agents and police officers by herself and kill them all.


The Bottom Line

By all rights, this should have been the mid-season finale.  The cliffhanger ending is great and hints at big things coming. Unfortunately, the story still suffers from making the villains unbelievably invincible and the heroes incredibly incompetent, except when the story dictates otherwise. Still, China Anne McClain and Marvin "Krondon" Jones III manage to carry their scenes through sheer charisma.

Black Lightning Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 9 - The Book of Rebellion: Chapter 2 - Gift of the Magi

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

With Khalil fatally wounded by one of Cutter's poisoned blades, Jennifer must work quickly to save his life while dodging her family and Cutter. Meanwhile, Tobias works to secure the services of a young doctor who feels abused by the system, as part of his plans.


Influences

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry (title, theme of sacrifice) and the Black Lightning comics of Tony Isabella.


Goofs

As Tobias himself points out, Cutter is kind of an idiot. He specifically said he wanted Khalil brought in alive in the last episode and she used a poisoned blade to attack him. Now she's defending her decision to kill Khalil outright and telling Tobias he'd better be ready to pay her for his body. Ignoring that this is not a smart way to treat a client in a gig economy, she is saying this to a man she knows for a fact has no issue with killing underlings who fail to follow orders... given that's the whole reason she sent her after Khalil in the first place!

Lynn's storyline in this episode is completely pointless. Apart from freaking out and playing the hysterical mom, all she does is talk to one man who gives her no new information. It's almost as if the writers have no idea what to do with Lynn now that the Green Light Baby storyline is apparently played out.


Performances

Again, China Anne McClain delivers a powerful performance as Jennifer Pierce and sells the fact that Jennifer is capable of doing everything she does in this episode.

Marvin "Krondon" Jones III continues to be a delight to watch as Tobias.  You wish we got to see more of him in this episode, even though nearly everything he does here - apart from talk to Cutter - is a total non-sequiter to the rest of the plot.


Artistry

The music in the Club 100 scenes is good.

The special effects for the teleporting assassin are good.


Trivia

The episode title comes from a story by O. Henry, which tells the tale of a young couple who each sacrifice what is most important to them to get a Christmas present for the other. This is probably a reference to how Jennifer gives up her family to try and save Khalil and Khalil tries to get Jennifer to abandon him because he doesn't want her to abandon her life for him.


Technobabble

Khalil's system is so full of toxins that it gave him a degree of immunity to Cutter's poison. While he is still sickened, she says that if it weren't for his powers he would have died in minutes.

Most large appliances and generators operate at 240 volts. Since Jennifer runs hotter than that, by increasing the voltage threshold of Jefferson's goggles, that will narrow down the "hot spots" he can see using his electro-vision.


Dialogue Triumphs

Khalil: I remember when I first saw you.
Jennifer: Are you seriously getting all corny on me right now?
Khalil: (coughs) No. No. No, this This is a memory I'll keep for myself. But... (breathing heavier) I knew then that you were special.
Jennifer:Well I remember all the girls at Garfield going on and on about Khalil this and Khalil that. And I'm like, "What the hell is the big deal? Who is Khalil?" And, um, then I saw you standing at your locker. And I can't lie. First thing that popped into my head was "Well, damn!"
(They both laugh.)

Tobias: Must be tough, smart kid like you, good family, good private schools, always getting passed over despite his superior talents. Why do you think that is, Todd, that you keep getting passed over? It's because it's the black man's burden to carry the weight of white privilege. Without the benefits of being rich or white, you'll never be better than second best. Well, unless of course you change the game.

Khalil: You know Tobias is never gonna stop, right? My family, either.
Jennifer:I know.
Khalil: J, we're never gonna be able to run fast enough. You know that, right?
Jennifer: Then we'll find a place to hide, you know? Get 'em off our scent for a while.
Khalil: I think you should go home.
Jennifer: I'm not going anywhere.
Khalil: J, come on. Look, you deserve better than this. Look, just because my life is jacked, doesn't mean that yours has to be.
Jennifer:  I'm not hearing you right now. I'm the ride or die type, you already know that.
Khalil: Yeah, and it's the dying part that I'm afraid of.

Jennifer:Well, I'm not. We're in this together, okay? And after everything we've been through, what should we even be afraid of?


Continuity

Jennifer gets Khalil to a barn.

Jennifer determines that Khalil has a fever.  She thinks his wound got infected and that there was some kind of poison that even his body can't cope with.

Gambi perfected the anti-venom to neutralize Painkiller's venom, which he started trying to make in 203. He uses this to treat Khalil's aunt.

Lynn visits Khalil's mother and looks around his room.

Khalil had a brother, Keenan, who was part of The 100 gang, working as a drug dealer. He died when he was 15.

Khalil's mother has no idea if Khalil knows how to contact his father or not. She describes her ex husband as being no good.

Todd Green is a young teacher who is denied a gran for an advanced encryption class. The grant is instead given to Garret Tortolani - a rich white teacher whose dad donated the money to have a new wing built on the local research center.  When he is escorted off the campus, he finds a card in his car from Tobias Whale, asking him to meet him that night at Club 100 because "he deserves better."

Jennifer uses her powers to break an electronic medicine dispenser to get the drugs she needs to treat Khalil's injuries.

Jennifer barely dodges Jefferson and Anissa at the hospital an doesn't notice Cutter tailing her.

Gambi is able to hack the hospital security footage to identify Jennifer and see which way she went after she left wit h the drugs she stole.  He also gets a shot of Cutter's face.

Jefferson has to be talked down from going off flying to look for Jennifer without his costume.

Khalil claims to be on fire inside even after he's been given antibiotics.

Khalil says she knew Jennifer was something special when he first saw her.

Jennifer says that she didn't think much of Khalil until she heard other girls fawning over him and then she looked at him and had second thoughts.

Todd Green graduated college at 17, and earned a Masters and PhD before he was 21. Tobias Whale says he has been keeping an eye on him for sometime.

Todd Green does not like being touched, though he does like women.

Cutter's real name is Giselle Cutter.

Tobias reminds Cutter that he was paying for Khalil to be brought in alive - no exceptions or excuses.

Gambi thinks Cutter is a low-level telekinetic, as it's been said that bullets don't touch her even at point-blank range and she can throw knives around corners.

Lynn searches for any information she can find on Khalil's father, Kito Payne, on Gambi's workstation.

Jennifer connects with a part of her self in the psychic landscape she formed in her head that intuits how to use her powers and recalls old science lessons. This gives her a version of her father's electro-vision that lets her see Cutter in the darkness using a pair of night-vision binoculars, though she can see her bio-electricity as well.

Jennifer is able to taser Cutter to bring her down.

Jennifer reasons that Cutter must keep an antidote in case she cuts herself by accident.

Cutter keeps an antidote to her poison in her necklace.

Kito Payne is working at a diner He tells Lynn that he did keep in touch with Khalil by phone. He told him to stay away from Tobias, but Khalil felt he owed Tobias for the surgery that let him walk again. He said Khalil had told him he had a place of his own now and that he wasn't staying with Tobias.

Jennifer and Khalil tell each other they love each other.

Jennifer and Khalil leave Cutter tied up in the barn.

By the time Gambi, Jefferson and Anissa get to the barn, Cutter has escaped.

Tobias transfers $100,000 into Todd Green's account. He agrees to work for Tobias.

Jennifer and Khalil continue driving off somewhere together.

The final scene shows a teleporter killing several people in a bar. He then takes a phone-call from someone who asks him to come to Freeland.


Location

An unknown location with a bar full of dead rednecks, after the teleporter kills everyone.


The Winick Factor

Granting that Jennifer is supposed to be smart for her age, it's embarrassing that she is able to outwit and evade a professional assassin, her medical doctor sister, her professional educator father and "Uncle Gambi" whose job description in his previous life was "tracker of teenagers with super powers for secret government program."


The Bottom Line

A failure as an episode. An enigma as a mid-season finale. None of the major subplots of the season are settled. Then again, most of them haven't been refereed to in about a month, like Jefferson's job status, where The Green Light babies still alive are standing and whatever is going on with Grace Choi. And then Tobias' scenes are all focused on introducing a new scientist character who - based on how quickly Body Bag Boy and Looker were removed from the show - will be gone in three episodes as well, along with the new teleporting assassin.

The hell of it is the best things about the show right now - the Khalil/Jennifer romance and Tobias' plan - are the only things this episode pays attention to. And yet nothing is done to advance those storylines. All in all, I'm one more lackluster episode away from abandoning this episode guide.

Black Lightning Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 8 - The Book of Rebellion: Chapter 1 - Exodus

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

Jennifer and Khalil hit the road, but Tobias has put a bounty on the head of his protege. As they lay low at Khalil's aunt's house, Black Lightning and Thunder hit the streets looking for the runaways. Will they get to them before Tobias' problem-solver Cutter does?


Influences

The Black Lighting comics of Tony Isabella.


Goofs

The sequence of a drunk Lynn tearing apart Jennifer's room is a little too over-the-top.


Performances

Marvin "Krondon" Jones III steals the episode. He usually gets the best speeches as Tobias Whale, but his performance here is a high-water mark even for his usual high standards. He perfectly achieves what the tropers call Affably Evil, putting on a kind face and pleasant tone even as you can sense the menacing undercurrent implied by his body language.

China Anne McClain continues to impress as Jennifer. Despite being far out of her element in this episode, McClain perfectly captures Jennifer's confidence and intelligence as she stands up to Khalil when he starts to overstep his bounds in stressful moments.


Artistry

The first sequence in which Khalil tries to rob Club 100 to get some cash for his and Jennifer's escape is a fantastic bit of work all around. Great music. Wonderful lighting design inside the club. Good fight choreography.

The effects work for Jennifer's ball-lighting is fantastic.


Trivia

This episode introduces a mercenary named Cutter who Tobias hires to track Khalil.  There is a villain called Cutter in DC Comics, but he is a man named Austin Phelps who is a master knife-fighter who appeared in one story in Detective Comics.

The show's version of Cutter is a black woman who is a master knife thrower and fighter. She has no metahuman powers - just skill and training..

One of the Zip Codes for Freeland, GA is 31148. This is not a real Zip Code in the USA, though the 300XX to 311XX are reserved for Atlanta, GA.


Technobabble

The best Gambi can do in tracking Jennifer's cell phone is to determine the tower she was using. Since each tower had a broadcast range of 40 miles, this is not helpful.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Nichelle Payne enters into her apartment. Tobias Whale is sitting in a chair in her living room, reading Moby Dick.)
Tobias: Late night?
(Nichelle turns, sees Tobias and shivers.)
Tobias:  (cheerfully) Perhaps what you need is a good read. Always puts me right to sleep. (holds up his book)  Moby Dick? One of my favorites.
Nichelle: I guess you're here to put me to sleep?
Tobias: (chuckling) Actually, I have a strict "no mama" rule. I believe a man has to have principles. But I do need you to contact your son. Tell him to keep his thick lips shut.
Nichelle: I thought he was with you.
Tobias: Hmm. He left town with that Pierce girl. Boy knows a lot about my business. I have plans. I'd surely hate to have to change those plans.
Nichelle: (determined) I don't have no way to reach him. Even if I did, you'd have to kill me first.
Tobias: (nodding and smiling) I respect that. You're a strong black woman, I can tell.
(Tobias heads for the front door but stops and turns around as he gets to it.)
Tobias: How did you wind up with such a weak-ass son?

Khalil: I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have yelled at you like that before.
Jennifer: Yeah, you should be sorry. What the hell was that?!
Khalil: Something just came over me. Okay? Jen, the things Tobias did to me, hitting me, burning me... I just didn't want him to find us. I snapped.
Jennifer: Well, you snap at me like that again, and Tobias is gonna be the last person you're gonna have to worry about. I will light your ass up. You need to remember that.
Khalil: I know.

(Tobias is sitting at a table in his office, playing chess against himself. He turns to a painting of his sister and begins speaking to it.)
Tobias: Our plan failed, Tori. That boy... he was supposed to make Black Lightning his enemy. But he's weak. He ran away. Now he's our enemy. (pauses) I should've known. Can't trust a Negro as far as you can throw him. I knew his ass wasn't a killer but I kept giving him chances.
(Tobias pauses as if pondering this and nods.)
Tobias: You're right. That is my problem, isn't it? I get stubborn and try things over and over again. Well, not anymore. From now on, if something ain't working, I'm gonna change it. (nodding to himself) Yeah, I'mma change it.
(Tobias stands and regards the painting of Tori.)
Tobias: You were the best person in my life.

Jefferson: You should have said something.
Anissa: What?
Jefferson: Khalil's text, you should've told us. We could've talked to her before it was too late.
Anissa: Are you blaming this on me?
Jefferson: What? No. But if you had told us, then maybe we-
Anissa: Wow, wow! Okay. (pauses) Did you ever stop and think why she was talking to Khalil in the first place? Hmm? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that, I don't know you and Mom never let her out the house? That you treated her like she was some kinda prisoner?
Jefferson:  Wait, we didn't treat her like a prisoner. We were trying to protect her.
Anissa: No, you were just trying to control her. You acted like she was some kind of freak or a monster! All your rules, your quotes, and all of your phone check-ins - It was too much, Dad. Too damn much! You drove her away just like you did me.

(Cutter enters Tobias' office.)

Tobias: I see you found the place. I also see your price has gone up.

Cutter: You get what you pay for. I thought you were against hiring black folks.

Tobias: No. Just thick-lipped, incompetent darkies like the one I want you to find. Thought I'd get a discount, considering our past.

Cutter: Hmm. If I factored in our past, I wouldn't be here.

Tobias: (chuckling) Yet here you are.

Cutter: Sorry to hear about Tori. I know what she meant to you.

Tobias: It was just yesterday she was telling me I'm too stubborn. Need to try new things.

Cutter: I thought she was dead.

Tobias: So, history or not I better get my money's worth.

Cutter: (scoffing) Okay. All right, here we go with the threats. I see you haven't changed. Ain't nobody scared of your pale ass, Tobias, so you can stop right now with your bad guy act. Just tell me who this person is you want found.

(Tobias pulls out a tablet with a tracking app on it.)

Tobias: Him. But I want him alive.

Cutter: If you have a tracker, what do you need me for? You can nab him yourself.

Tobias: Have you not seen the news lately? I'm an upstanding citizen now. I can't risk doing it. But it's got to get done. Besides, my people tried already. Sometimes it's best to leave things to the professionals.

Cutter: Okay.

Continuity

Khalil robs Club 100 to get some quick cash for his escape. Jennifer covers his escape by blowing the power in the club with a ball of lightning.

Lynn and Anissa discover that Gambi is alive.

Gambi determines that Jennifer is trying to get away by car or on foot since there's no sign of her at the bus stations or airport.

Anissa tells Lynn and Jefferson that she saw that Jennifer had gotten a text from Khalil but she didn't think anything of it since she said she wasn't responding.

Inspector Henderson files a missing person's report for Jennifer despite her not having been gone that long. He confirms they already have an arrest warrant and APB for Khalil.

In his haste, Jefferson blows out the front windshield of a young couple he mistakes for Khalil and Jennifer.

Khalil has an aunt in Henley Heights he thinks will let them stay the night with her. Henley Heights is a rural neighborhood near the peach farms.

Khalil yells at Jennifer when she asks about calling her parents, saying that Tobias will be watching them.

Gambi notices the power outage that Jennifer caused as he's checking the security cam footage from around town.

Tobias goes to Khalil's mother and asks her to get a hold of him. She says she has no way to call him and no idea where she is.

The news is reporting that Khalil kidnapped Jennifer.

Khalil's aunt agrees to let them stay the night after Jennifer confirms she hasn't been kidnapped.

Khalil apologizes for snapping at Jennifer. She accepts the apology but says if he ever uses that tone again, she will shock him. He agrees and gives her a burner cell phone as a peace offering.

Jennifer calls Anissa to tell her she is okay and wasn't kidnapped but she hangs up before Gambi can trace the call.

Jennifer cuts Khalil's dreadlocks off. While she is doing that, she finds a bump on his neck when she thinks is a tracking chip.

Khalil's mom tells Lynn about her sister's house where she thinks Khalil might be hiding. The address is 5038 Franklin Avenue, Freeland, GA 31148.

Gambi got Anissa her own vehicle for traveling as Thunder - a motorcycle.

Cutter gets to Jennifer and Khalil first. They make a break for it when Black Lightning and Thunder show up. Cutter stabs Khalil deep enough that he won't be able to get far on foot.

Jennifer shorts out the drone Gambi is using to track them.

Jennifer is able to short out the tracking chip in Khail's neck.

Jefferson and Anissa, in costume, go into the woods after Khalil and Jennifer.

Cutter calls Tobias and complains that Black Lightning showed up and that she doesn't fight metahumans without warning. Tobias then recalls how Black Lightning came back into action at the same time "The Pierce Girl" was in Club 100 with one of his men and later when she was being held hostage at The Seashorse Motel in 101.

It seems that Tobias Whale may have guessed that Jefferson Pierce is Black Lightning.


Location

Henley Heights


The Bottom Line

A rather nice chase episode that resets the players after last week's rather lackluster offering. Still, while most of the cast spend this hour spinning their wheels (particularly Jefferson Pierce, shockingly enough), all the scenes focused on Tobias Whale and Jennifer Pierce make it worth watching. And that cliffhanger... next week will be a shocker, one way or another.

Black Lightning Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 7 - The Book Of Blood: Chapter 3 - The Sange

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.





Plot

As Anissa and Jefferson continue their battle against Looker and work to rescue Amaya's second baby, Khalil and Jennifer begin to rekindle their relationship and Jennifer reveals her powers to him.


Influences

The Black Lightning comics of Tony Isabella.


Performances

China Anne McClain does a fantastic job in this episode, showing Jennifer Pierce to be a young lady of great strength and compassion while simultaneously acting very much like a typical teenager in regards to thinking she can't trust her parents.


Technobabble

Jefferson's suit has a camouflage mode that allows him to blend in with his surroundings.

Looker was controlling The Sange with theta waves.

The neocortex is the part of the brain involved in sensory perception, motor skills and language.

There are theories about how theta waves help animals navigate in the wild and effect behavior when people are asleep.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Jefferson discovers several of the Perdi strung up, upside down, along the forest path he was following.)
Jefferson: Damn.
Anissa: What?
Jefferson: Let's just say... someone clearly drew a line in the sand.

Jennifer: I miss the way things used to be when I felt like me. And my family. I miss the way we used to be. And I know that... things are never going to be the same again. And there's nothing I can do about it and I hate that.

Looker: I've tried to model myself after you. I always felt like you and I had a lot in common.
Black Lightning: Yeah, I doubt that.
Looker:  No, really. We both want the drugs and crime off the street. We both make sacrifices for people that we don't even know. And the thing that I like about you the most is that you fight for your people. I fight for mine. You are a proud African American. I am a proud White American.
Black Lightning: (deadpan) You're a racist.
(There is a pregnant pause.)
Looker: Now how did you jump to racist so quick?
(Black Lightning gives her a look as if to say "You can't possibly think I'm that stupid.")
Black Lightning: (looking to his left) Nice flag.
(POV shot revealing a Confederate flag is hung on the wall.)

(Jefferson is tied up on an improvised electric rack. Looker's henchmen, thinking he is dead, cut the power and start to leave the room. A baby's cry is heard nearby. Suddenly, Jefferson laughs. The two henchmen spin around stunned.)
Black Lightning: (eyes still closed) There she is.
(Jefferson opens his eyes which glow blue.)
Black Lightning: My power doesn't come from the suit. Thanks for the charge, though.
(Jefferson breaks the ropes binding his wrists and starts fighting the henchmen.)

Khalil: Jen? I can't... I can't see nothing.
(An orange light flares up as Jennifer makes an orange ball of lightning in her hand. Khalil spins around and sees her, stunned. )
Jennifer: Can you see now?

(Anissa is trying to explain how she thinks Looker's powers work.)
Jefferson: Please stop.
Anissa: Dad, this is really... Listen, you gotta listen to me.
Jefferson: No. No. I will pay you to stop.

Gambi: Someone tried to assassinate me. I still don't know who. It's better that they still think that I'm dead. It's safer for your family that I stay dead.
Jefferson: You gotta know by now... you ARE my family.
(Jefferson hugs Gambi forcefully.)


Continuity

It is revealed that Looker's control over The Sange is not telepathic and she still needs to speak to her followers to make her intentions known. She can, however, sense the presence of her "element" and is able to track Amaya's babies through it.

Jennifer tells Perenna that she has been seeing Khalil. She also says she feels trapped by her parents' efforts to keep her safe.

Gambi is revealed to be monitoring local phone calls for any mention of the name Pierce.

Gambi is a decent artist and is seen sketching a motorcycle.

Khalil and Jennifer meet at the Garfield High Stadium.

Jennifer refuses to abandon Khalil and advises him to try and scare Reverend Holt away again to buy time with Tobias as they figure out what to do next.

Reverend Holt says he isn't scared of Tobias.

Tobias intercepts Khalil leaving the church. Khalil runs.

Jefferson leaves the baby he rescued with Inspector Henderson.

Jennifer saves Khalil from a mob of Tobias' men, using her powers to create a blackout and short out the tracker they are using to find him.

Jennifer reveals her powers to Khalil.

Looker can elongate her nails, turning them into claws.

Looker loses control of her followers after being impaled on a clothes rack in the abandoned mall.

Jefferson decides to hand Looker over to the ASA, despite them experimenting on metahumans.

Anaya's father is revealed to be alive. Her mother died in the battle with The Sange.

Anaya's father takes her and her babies back into the fold.

Grace is continuing to have the weird issues with her skin she had in 205. She once again calms it with her medication.

Jefferson tracks Gambi to his hotel room.

Jefferson shows Gambi the transmitter he found in the South Freeland woods that tipped him off that he was alive.

Gambi says someone tried to assassinate him but he still doesn't know who.

Lynn returns home to find Jennifer missing.

Perenna tells Jefferson and Lynn she doesn't know where Jennifer is and can't tell them without violating the rules of her profession. She does tell them that she's with a boy and that she has never worked with a metahuman as powerful as Jennifer before. She cautions them that causing her to push away from them now could have dire consequences for everyone.

The episode ends with Khalil and Jennifer driving off together, leaving Freeland.


Location

South Freeland.


The Winick Factor

The revamp of Looker from the comics is just strange. It's like the show was afraid to introduce vampires into the mythology of the show, so they create a metahuman that is essential a vampire but they give her some weird metal thing instead of blood for some reason. It's all strange and confusing and barely touched upon in the episode.


The Bottom Line

Not a bad episode and not as strange as last week but it's hard to say if this one evens out to "good." The Looker storyline ends with a whimper and little explanation for the weirdness from last week. Thankfully, it's the smallest part of the episode and the largest part - Jennifer and Khalil - is more than wonderful enough to make up for the rest. It's still unclear what's going on with Grace and everything involving John and Lynn's work lives seems to have vanished completely. But the trailer promises more Jennifer and Khalil next week, so that's something.