Black Lightning “The Book of Resurrection: Chapter One: Crossroads” Review

Season 4 Episode 12 “Jefferson realizes that sometimes, an admission of weakness can be a show of strength; Tobias is focusing on an end game.”

What I Liked?

1. Jennifer is still feeling sad about the death of Uriah, she obviously blames herself, so Jefferson being the caring father, speaks to her about it, telling her that it’s not her fault, he also tells her that she is the only thing in between Tobias and Freeland, he then mentions that he was there the night Tobias killed his father, he couldn’t do anything except hiding under the bed. He truly motivated Jennifer and I think this pays off later in the episode.

2. We find out that if Jefferson does actually go through with signing over his father’s house, Tobias will actually own it. The council which Tobias is on get in touch and basically tell Tobias that he’s failed and no longer has a seat at the board, so Tobias enacts his plan, has an invisible meta kill a council member and takes control.

3. Blackbird and Grace blow up the place in which Anissa and Lynn work because of what they did with the mothers and babies and splicing their DNA to get meta powers. This was a great scene because it actually showed that Anissa actually cared for people other than fame.

4. Lightning goes and finds Tobias’s right-hand man, Red. They get into a little fight with Lightning tricking Red into a move where she can get her lightning off, she does, and breaks the bracelet on Red making him lose his powers, she then takes him to the Police Chief who goes on a live-stream saying that “you metas deserve to be wiped off the face of the Earth”, with her now exposed, the Police Chief takes a meta booster, what powers she gets hasn’t been revealed yet.

5. Tobias and Jefferson meet at Jefferson’s fathers home, Jefferson tries to mindwipe Tobias but Tobias gives him a beatdown and then brutally calls Jennifer and sends her a picture of a “dead” Jefferson, who is all beaten and bloody. I loved this scene, I’ve wanted this to happen all season.

What I Disliked?

My only gripe with this episode was the way Jefferson handled his meeting with Tobias. Spent the morning speaking with Jennifer telling her they’re a family, they’ll protect each other, then leaves his entire family out of the meeting with Tobias and ends up getting his behind beat? I didn’t get this idea fully.

Favorite Moment

My favorite moment was something that was teased last week. The showdown between Painkiller and Ishmael was a fight which I expected to be back and forth, it went like that with the two fighters getting some hard hits onto each other but with Ishmael overplaying his hand and not expecting to fall into the trap set by Painkiller, fakes getting beat, Ishmael going to deliver the killing blow and Painkiller catching the bleed with his hand, forcing blood to drip onto Ishmael delivering the poison.

Standout Character

Tobias, he outsmarted the council, lured Jefferson into his trap and beat him down.

The Verdict

Another really solid episode with delivered great fight scenes and dialogue. The episode executed the characters’ stories well from Jefferson/Tobias, Khalil/Looker, Anissa/Grace, and Lightning and Red. The back half of this season has been really great.

Rating: 8.8/10

Photo: Black Lightning Season 4 Episode 12.