Look, this season's been, more or less, a complete train wreck from start to finish, but there's been little bits of quality in the midst of that train wreck. This is one of those rare moments.
Khalil was awesome this week. What a good fight it was between him and Ishmael. Khalil, or rather Painkiller, keeps finding new ways to use his powers. A few episodes ago, someone punched Khalil in the face and died for it. In this episode, he grabbed Ishmael's sword, then purposely got his butt kicked until Ishmael picked the sword back up, and then Ishmael died for it. That was amazing! Also, that shot of him and Painkiller at the end where they were debating going back to Freeland was a nice moment. Obviously, Painkiller just wants to kill the Pierce family so that his last mission can be complete, but Khalil wants to see Jen, but knows Painkiller will kill her. He's gonna go back to Freeland to get a piece of Tobias, we all know it, but it was still a nice moment in a relatively mixed bag of an episode.
It was actually cool finding out more about Lopez's backstory. I didn't think we'd see that. They actually explained her hating metas. I do like how New Jen manipulated and exposed her, and it's gonna be interesting to see how she uses the meta boosters Tobias gave her.
Jeff and Tobias square off where it all began. In Jeff's old house. Jeff died in the same way his dad did (or so it seems, because they wouldn't kill him off-screen), which, believe it or not, is somewhat of a poetic moment from Tobias's angle. It's messed up and weird, but also almost has a poetic feeling to it. Kinda like Icicle's death in Stargirl. The first person he killed on screen was Joey Zarrick, and he did it by freezing the ground underneath a car, which then drove into Joey. Icicle killed Joey, a kid, with a car, and then by the end of the series, Icicle dies to a kid, Mike Dugan, driving into him with a car. There's a poetic justice in that, and it's very similar to how Tobias "killed" Jeff in this scene.
On the topic of that poetic moment though, Jeff shouldn't have been the one to "die" here. I believe it should've been New Jen or Anissa. Not because I hate either of them, but because then Jeff would've seen his father *and* one of his children die the same way, which would only fuel his anger and make it worse for Tobias. Hell, even seeing Gambi die in that way could've been better than the moment itself, since then Jeff would've seen *two* father figures die like that. Thinking about it now, the moment is okay, but the potential it could've had makes it disappointing.
The fact that the writers have now "killed" Black Lightning *twice* just proves something I've been thinking about since season one. Jefferson Pierce isn't the main character of Black Lightning anymore. In season two, the main characters were Jen and Khalil, as was the case for season three, but it doesn't even seem like there is a main character in season four. I guess you could make the argument that Tobias is the main character, or even New Jen, but either way, it's clear that it's not Jefferson Pierce. Had the CW not *finally* advertised Black Lightning's next episode where we saw Jefferson Pierce alive and kicking (yeah, the CW hates this show so much that they refuse to advertise it), I'd be surprised if his death didn't stick. He's clearly not the main character of his own show anymore, and he hasn't been since the season one finale.
There's also the massive plothole that I have to call out. Why doesn't Gambi just look at places important to Tobias, and try to find the Anti-Power Emitter that way? Eventually, he'd work his way to Tori Whale's burial site and find the emitter there. It's really just an excuse to drag this plot out for a lot longer than it needs to be dragged out, and that's upsetting.
This show hasn't had a truly amazing episode since the season premiere (Painkiller was a backdoor pilot for another show, so it only half counts), and that's a real shame. This used to be, hands down, the CW's best show. Seeing what the CW did to this season though... It's just unfortunate. This season could've been a lot better than it was, and while I am looking forward to the finale next week, I don't know *why* I'm looking forward to it. Is it because I'm excited for the show to be over? Or is it because I don't want it to be over, but still want to see the ending? Or maybe it's just because I wanna see another cool fight scene with Khalil? Who really knows? All I know is, Black Lightning... Well, it certainly does exist this year, for better or worse.
Hey, it was better than Batwoman, right? I quit that show three episodes in this year!
6 / 10.
Khalil was awesome this week. What a good fight it was between him and Ishmael. Khalil, or rather Painkiller, keeps finding new ways to use his powers. A few episodes ago, someone punched Khalil in the face and died for it. In this episode, he grabbed Ishmael's sword, then purposely got his butt kicked until Ishmael picked the sword back up, and then Ishmael died for it. That was amazing! Also, that shot of him and Painkiller at the end where they were debating going back to Freeland was a nice moment. Obviously, Painkiller just wants to kill the Pierce family so that his last mission can be complete, but Khalil wants to see Jen, but knows Painkiller will kill her. He's gonna go back to Freeland to get a piece of Tobias, we all know it, but it was still a nice moment in a relatively mixed bag of an episode.
It was actually cool finding out more about Lopez's backstory. I didn't think we'd see that. They actually explained her hating metas. I do like how New Jen manipulated and exposed her, and it's gonna be interesting to see how she uses the meta boosters Tobias gave her.
Jeff and Tobias square off where it all began. In Jeff's old house. Jeff died in the same way his dad did (or so it seems, because they wouldn't kill him off-screen), which, believe it or not, is somewhat of a poetic moment from Tobias's angle. It's messed up and weird, but also almost has a poetic feeling to it. Kinda like Icicle's death in Stargirl. The first person he killed on screen was Joey Zarrick, and he did it by freezing the ground underneath a car, which then drove into Joey. Icicle killed Joey, a kid, with a car, and then by the end of the series, Icicle dies to a kid, Mike Dugan, driving into him with a car. There's a poetic justice in that, and it's very similar to how Tobias "killed" Jeff in this scene.
On the topic of that poetic moment though, Jeff shouldn't have been the one to "die" here. I believe it should've been New Jen or Anissa. Not because I hate either of them, but because then Jeff would've seen his father *and* one of his children die the same way, which would only fuel his anger and make it worse for Tobias. Hell, even seeing Gambi die in that way could've been better than the moment itself, since then Jeff would've seen *two* father figures die like that. Thinking about it now, the moment is okay, but the potential it could've had makes it disappointing.
The fact that the writers have now "killed" Black Lightning *twice* just proves something I've been thinking about since season one. Jefferson Pierce isn't the main character of Black Lightning anymore. In season two, the main characters were Jen and Khalil, as was the case for season three, but it doesn't even seem like there is a main character in season four. I guess you could make the argument that Tobias is the main character, or even New Jen, but either way, it's clear that it's not Jefferson Pierce. Had the CW not *finally* advertised Black Lightning's next episode where we saw Jefferson Pierce alive and kicking (yeah, the CW hates this show so much that they refuse to advertise it), I'd be surprised if his death didn't stick. He's clearly not the main character of his own show anymore, and he hasn't been since the season one finale.
There's also the massive plothole that I have to call out. Why doesn't Gambi just look at places important to Tobias, and try to find the Anti-Power Emitter that way? Eventually, he'd work his way to Tori Whale's burial site and find the emitter there. It's really just an excuse to drag this plot out for a lot longer than it needs to be dragged out, and that's upsetting.
This show hasn't had a truly amazing episode since the season premiere (Painkiller was a backdoor pilot for another show, so it only half counts), and that's a real shame. This used to be, hands down, the CW's best show. Seeing what the CW did to this season though... It's just unfortunate. This season could've been a lot better than it was, and while I am looking forward to the finale next week, I don't know *why* I'm looking forward to it. Is it because I'm excited for the show to be over? Or is it because I don't want it to be over, but still want to see the ending? Or maybe it's just because I wanna see another cool fight scene with Khalil? Who really knows? All I know is, Black Lightning... Well, it certainly does exist this year, for better or worse.
Hey, it was better than Batwoman, right? I quit that show three episodes in this year!
6 / 10.
