Season 2 Episode 1 “The board considers a motion to shut down the school, forcing Jefferson to go to Napier Frank to sway the vote; Jennifer struggles with her powers; Anissa finds a new way to give back to Freeland.”
The Good & The Bad
The Good
1. A recap of season 1? Well, who doesn’t a love a recap after a few months break!
2. The show kicks off with a bang showing the aftermath of Tobias in the season 1 finale. The beginning focuses on the police brutality within the Green Light drug scheme. Jefferson is questioned by the board on his “vacation”. Lynn is quizzed by the police, who understand she’s lying and is told she’s not allowed to skip town, speak to anybody or go near the pods. Jennifer is shown to not handle her powers as she floats when she’s sleeping.
Then, this sets the episode up beautifully very early on. Kara and Syonide end up in a fight in a parking lot which leaves Tobias’ sister, dead. A fully engaging beginning to the episode, especially the death of Syonide. You know Tobias is going to cause havoc, and this is just so exciting to see it eventually unfold after he almost kills Kara at the end of the episode.
3. We see Thunder go to a house, dressed in a mask and hoodie. We see money being counted and there’s a lot of it. Here we get a fantastic fight scene. It was amazing to see her go solo and fully handle herself during the entire fight. I loved this. The music playing just gets you hyped, but Anissa is setting up to be a very strong character. She was set up fairly slowly during season 1, but this entire scene was so good. She takes the money and hides it into her closet, knowing full well she will end up giving it to the church, who need $500,000 for legal aid so the families can see their loved ones trapped in the pods. This was after the government issued a warning that they will not be allowed to see them, due to a health warning.
We do then see Anissa walk into the church in the same clothing as she did with the fight scene and give the money to the church. The reaction from the church was priceless as she walked in with the money. See, for me, I love the fact Anissa has gone rogue from Black Lightning and trying to help. Robbing criminals for a cause is not something you see everyday with superheroes, so this was different a nice touch to Thunder’s ark.
4. This was very close to a Bad, I struggled to put this into Good if I’m being honest. Jefferson finally reveals his identity to Deputy Chief Bill Henderson, after Bill already figured out Jeff was Black Lightning. I love it when a hero unmasks to somebody you’re just dying for them to do so. However, the Deputy Chief’s reaction just, well, I don’t even know. It annoyed me. After he saw first hand how Black Lightning pretty much saved the day, that was the reaction Jeff got by one of his closest friends. I liked the reveal, I just did not like the reaction.
5. The Green Light babies refers to those with powers now. We get a few scenes with show a similar type of X-Men ark within The Gifted. At one point we see a man being literally dragged out in a bod bag, only to be alive shortly after. His mother seems remotely shocked, as of course, she thinks her son is dead, but now he’s alive…with powers. She pretty much disowns him, and he runs away. This was heart breaking, showing the in-depth emotions we see from the Green Light. You put yourself in his shoes and it would be awful see your mother not accept you, and hate what you are. Later in the episode we see the young man homeless and cold, I really do love how this is setting up the season.
6. We have saw through season 1, and it continues through the opening episode of season 2 that Jennifer is immensely struggling to contain her powers. Even at one point during the episode she hits her mother with them. Seeing her contain her power shows more than just the struggle, it shows how powerful Jennifer actually is, and it looks like Jefferson is the only one that can handle the powers, even if he is struggling. We know at some point she will control her powers, with Jeff’s help of course, but I am so excited to see them all suited up!
7. Near the end of the episode, Garfield school’s board has voted to close the school permanently. In a way, I preferred this route of this. Only because we get to see more Black Lightning, and less of the political school board stuff. I hope it stays closed for a while to be honest.
The Bad
Only one bad on this episode of Black Lightning, and this falls solely down to Lynn. Her character is just so weird, and has a massive split personality. She whinges at everything which really annoys me, then later on she’s fine, like really? At one point she says Jennifer “has a disease”, and she should see a therapist. Jeff said it himself that Jennifer is not dealing with normal teen issues, so, really, Lynn? Would I be a bit selfish if I said I enjoyed it when Jenn sent her flying?
Holy Shit Moment
At the end of the episode Kara goes for Tobias, only for Tobias to shoot an arrow into her stomach. His reaction was crazy, and knowing him and how good of a villain he is, this was enjoyable. He goes crazy, and I think after the death of Syonide we saw this coming.
Verdict
A solid start to season 2. Action, emotion, heartache, and family issues made this episode have an amazing start. After watching the episode it’s made me already want to watch the second episode immediately after. I enjoyed all aspects of the episode, with the exception of Lynn’s character. I hope that changes throughout the season, because she was badass in the season 1 finale.
Rating: 8.9/10
