The third season finale of Black Lightning saw Freeland and the Pearce family finally fighting off the Markovian threat, securing their town against destruction from both a forieng entity and their own domestic government. The Markovian storyline had more than its fair share of ups and downs. It threw out a lot of what made Black Lightning so refreshing when it first aired, and the rather bloated storytelling meant much of last season felt sluggish. Still, the finale brought all of that to a close in a way that signaled necessary change, both for the show and the characters.
“The Book Of Reconstruction: Chapter One” picks up one year after the events of last season’s finale. Perhaps too on the nose, the premiere begins with an inverted shot of Jefferson standing over Chief Henderson’s grave, telling us that Jefferson’s world has been flipped upside down. Sure, the Markovians were dealt with, but he lost his friend at the same time, and he’s wondering whether it was worth it. As he sees it, Henderson’s death falls squarely on his shoulders. He tells Gambi, later in the episode, that he brought Henderson “into Black Lightning’s world,” and that’s what got him killed.
Immediately the premiere establishes that the Pearce family isn’t just about to put the past behind him, and that Black Lightning isn’t going to skip over what should be significant emotional fallout stemming from the war with the Markovians. So, the premiere ditches the larger scale of last season and instead gets smaller, more personal. This is an emotional reckoning, an exploration of trauma and all the different ways it manifests itself within the Pearce family.
It’s good to see the show scaling back and going for an interior focus, at least for now. After everything that’s happened, and before the final string of episodes rolls out, it’s nice to give these characters space to breathe, allowing us to assess where they’re at emotionally before we’re onto the next threat to Freeland. What the premiere does a good job of establishing is that everyone here is handling their emotional baggage differently. Anissa is her usual strong-headed self, moving forward and trying to control and thwart as much violence in Freeland as possible. Jennifer is feeling more confident and powerful than ever, but it means she’s also growing reckless. Lynn is still in denial about her addiction, lying to herself about how it’s all for beneficial “research.” Then there’s Jefferson, who seems cynical and exhausted. He refuses to be Black Lightning anymore because he sees the suit as bringing more bad than good to the city, but by the same token he’s not only leaving his family hanging as the threat of Tobias looms, he’s also getting reckless with his powers, coming close to revealing his identity as Black Lightning.
Those are all good storytelling decisions driven by an understanding of these characters, Everything we know about them from three previous seasons informs how they’re handling their current situation. And yet, it a lot of “The Book Of Reconstruction: Chapter One” feels overly familiar, not just within the superhero genre but Black Lightning specifically. The writers seem to know it too. When Gambi finds Jefferson drinking his sorrows away at a bar and tries to give him a pep talk, he lays it out plainly: “we’ve been here before.” “Here” is Jefferson’s struggle to balance the responsibility he feels as Black Lightning with the responsibility to keep his family, now fully immersed in the superhero world, safe as well.
When Jennifer and Anissa started showing signs that they had powers, Jefferson wasn’t sure how to handle it. Teach them how to be safe and use their powers for good? At the risk of them then going out to catch bad guys and end up in harm’s way?
We’ve been down this road with Jefferson before, and it’s less novel and impactful this time around, at least during the premiere. I don’t think the final season could sustain a bleak, downtrodden Jefferson for long without sacrificing narrative tension. What I mean is that the interior focus throughout the episode is more than welcome for a premiere, and Black Lightning has always been at its best when it’s leaning into moral contemplation instead of action, but I also see the show running the risk of sidelining Jefferson for too long, leading to a frustrating viewing experience where his comeback is delayed far too long for a final season. For now though, “The Book Of Reconstruction” Chapter One” is a solid setup for Black Lightning’s final stretch of episodes.
Stray observations
- Hey everyone! Welcome to the final season of Black Lightning. Along with the premiere review, I’ll be jumping coming back to check on the show midseason and then return with a series finale review.
- I like that the show is coming back to Tobias as the villain. That’s a good way to close out the show, even with Gravedigger still out there.
- Also digging the introduction of Henderson’s friend as a potential ally for Black Lightning, who just also happens to be a cop investigating Jefferson for attacking two cops.
- A good example of the familiar territory here is Jefferson, Lynn, and Anissa all debating whether killing the people coming after them counts as “murder.” I know this is just Jefferson reacting in the extreme to Henderson’s death, but it still feels like emotional territory that’s been sufficiently explored before.
19 Comments
They pull a gun, you throw a lightning bolt. They put one of yours in a pod, you put one of theirs in a grave.That’s the Freeland way.
I was planning to not watch this after getting fed up with some things that happened last season. However the fact that this is the last season changed my mind a bit so I’m just going to power through and hope that I don’t regret this.Fortunately this episode was pretty good. I did like that the show has addressed how bloodthirsty most of the Pierce’s are now and how much it bothers Jefferson and how he’s handling his grief in the wake of everything that’s happened. I am a bit confused about him having his old job again. What happened to his asshole replacement?
Lynn being a vigilante now is an interesting choice. Considering all her talk about Jefferson being addicted to superheroism I wonder what she thinks of herself now. Probably nothing because she’s a huge hypocrite.I’m taking bets at the moment for how long Grace is going to stay in her plot coma. I’m sure that was because Chantal Thuy had some plays coming up but hey, nobodies going to the Theater in the middle of the Pandemic. So why not become a main cast member since you’ve got nothing else to do. I hope she finally interacts with the rest of the Pierces, it is pretty sad that her and Anissa are married and Grace has never once spoken to Jenn or Lynn once. “I like her because you like her.” Yeah I guess if Jenn never spoke to her before that would be the best they were going to do.Lastly where are Branden & TJ? Like I’m not wondering about Khalil’s whereabout’s because he’s got a spinoff they want to set up but the other two were pretty major characters last season. That applies to the Gardner (The ASA Defector) and Erica too but I wouldn’t be surprised if they never come back.
Chantal Thuy got bumped to series regular according to recent reports so maybe you’ll get your wish.
She did, that was the big news right before they announced this would be the last season.
That and China McClain’s impending departure.
Well that ones kind of meaningless since you know, the shows ending.
Ah, the good old Arrowverse standard called “standing solemnly next to a grave scene”. It’s always lit exactly the same, it seems.
COVID may have messed with this show more than any other DC show. All that work to fold it into the Arrowverse — literally, in the context of the programs — but, because it shoots in Georgia as opposed to Vancouver, it basically has to act as if nothing has changed after CRISIS.
The Markovia “war” plotline was really hamstrung by insisting on the world’s merging (no way does Lex and his DEO let the ADA do what they were doing, for starters), so if they just decide it never happened and go from there, it’s probably best for all concerned.
I mean, he didn’t get rid of Argus either and neither one was interfering with his plans so he would have no need to get rid of them though. The Markovia stuff though was the big issue though, since there’s no way that the USA would hide that they were at open war with someone. Also there’s Metas everywhere in the world in Earth-1.
I think that Lex, being from the other Earth, wouldn’t know the government agencies in Ollie’s Earth well enough to mess with them. You have to know something exists in order to rewrite reality to eliminate it.
Thank you, this helped explain why this episode felt like a step backwards after seeing Jefferson enter a different type of community. Hell, The Flash later established — albeit briefly — that Freeland is pretty close to Metropolis. The Lane-Kents and the Pierces should be having Sunday get-togethers.
Yeah, Cisco’s map was weird. Freeland somehow being down in the Carolinas after all the work to set it in Ohio, where Tony Isabella grew up. I wonder if anyone even asked?
The thing that feels different about the familiar territory this time is that Jeff is clearly messed up by Henderson’s death. Frying some cops and blinding Lala’s guy in full view of others without the suit is so wildly divergent from his usual sense of justice that it lends some depth to scenes we think we’ve seen before. “We don’t murder” is the same stance we’ve seen him take before with Jenn, but before you got the sense that seriously maiming people was also beyond the permissible line – now, that’s off the table. Jeff not going out to help Jenn & Anissa feels like it’s not so much because he disapproves of them going out, but because he’s not capable of providing moral guidance.I really loved the way this episode set up the season. Tobias is now doing the Luthor philanthropy flip trying to become king of Freeland, Jeff is a mess and a loose cannon, I suspect either the new chief or Henderson’s friend (or both) is a meta, Lala is leading a Freeland gang takeover by The 100, Painkiller and Gravedigger are still out there somewhere – there are so many pieces heading for a huge collision that I think this is going to be a show that goes out with a bang.(Fanboy wish: the Pierces, Grace, Brandon, Gambi, Kara & Kate end up opening/operating the Bill Henderson Community Center in Freeland together).
I honestly thought the cop-frying scene was going to turn out to be a fantasy by Jeff as he stood with guns pointed at him. But no! Also, how is it that Whale is interviewed on TV as if he’s a well-known businessman, and the Pierces’ reaction is “I thought he was dead!” ?
I also though it was going to turn out to be a dream sequence. It’s a pretty bold move for the show to make it real.
So there will be only two more Black Lightning episode reviews? Why?
I really like this show, and I’m sorry that’s it’s ending, even if it did get a good run. I wonder if any of the cast will port over to Legends.
They finally incorporated Black Lightning into the Beeboverse just to cancel it?
Lynn & Anissa astutely concur that that albino bastard has to die.
Jeff tries to shut them down with morality, but they counter by
reminding him that his whole family has killed folks. It’s nice they
acknowledged that.
Will this series end with Black Lighting as a tragic hero? It’d be a
daring move by showrunner Salim Akil to end on this note, but it’d also
be a huge bummer. This series is part of the Beeboverse not Netflix’s
Defenders. I’d prefer to see Jeff opening a school for metahumans by the
finale instead of being laid low during a grief-rage rampage.
Lynn could also end up being the surprise big bad. That’d provide additional conflict beyond the standard Jeff vs. Tobias,
but it could also throw the semi-estranged couple under the bus.
https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2021/02/11/black-lightning-remains-better-than-riverdale/