Red Stewart reviews the season 1 finale of Black Lightning…
I didn’t have much hope going into the season finale of Black Lightning, and that luckily proved to be a wise decision. The last episode, “The Book of Pain,” was not only one of the worst episodes of the show, it also ruined any chance of the final entry being a tour-de-force cap-off in the vein of other superhero TV finales.
Instead, I sat back and chose to enjoy the narrative for whatever popcorn thrills the writers could wring out of this plot, but even then I was denied that. Instead, the episode begins with a long flashback scene to Jefferson’s past where we see more of his relationship with his father. This could, theoretically, have been an emotional revelation into Jefferson’s past, but considering how horribly his father’s death was revealed to viewers (and considering further that they wasted the Jefferson/Whale confrontation in “The Book of Pain”), this memory ultimately did nothing for me. It also didn’t help that it was far too reminiscent of similar scenes from Black Panther earlier this year.
This memory is brought about by Jefferson being in a coma as a result of him flat-lining at the hands of Khalil in the school. Though the cast does their best to give these scenes emotional weight, it’s all for nothing because we already know there’s no chance of Jefferson dying in his debut season. So after more pointless flashbacks he finally awakens, just as Proctor and his rogue ASA agents find the safe house and plan to breach it.
As I said last time, Gregg Henry is a terrible actor and his performance as Proctor has only degraded further since his last appearance. To make matters worse for him, the writers decided to include forced allusions between his character and President Trump, with the execution of these scenes quickly dropping their quality from topical to comical.
So far, we have the hero being in a coma and the hero’s complex getting besieged, but the cliches don’t end there. Jefferson wakes up and, surprise surprise, he has lost his superpowers. This happens just as the ASA agents are about to breach, giving some genuine tension….that is, until Akil decided to stick a drawn-out “love thy family” moment during this action beat that ends with Jennifer restoring Jefferson’s powers. It was admittedly expected, but during it all a part of me couldn’t help but wish that the creators had actually gone through with zapping Jefferson of his abilities (pun not intended). Not only would it have made Jefferson more heroic, but it would have also forced him to act smart during the battle with the paramilitary force.
Not everything about the “The Book of War’s” plot is bad, though. Elsewhere is Tobias Whale, who is initiating his own plans to seize control of Freeland after Proctor moves forward without him. Through turning Lala into a suicide bomb, he is able to infiltrate the ASA’s headquarters with Syonide and gain a briefcase containing the next season’s MacGuffin. The whole subplot is full of nonsensical decisions like quickly killing off Lala when past episodes had spent time not only dwelling on his resurrection, but also on his plans to retake Freeland’s drug market, but at the very least I could enjoy it for the smooth dialogue and shootouts.
Overall, Black Lightning’s finale left a lot to be desired. With the 13-episode count, I felt this could be the CW’s most-focused superhero show, but it ended up being all over the place, with “The Book of War” acting more like a typical Arrowverse midseason finale than a thematic end to an overarching story. Black Lightning was a case of a showrunner squeezing three to four seasons worth of content into one and hoping that the endgame would be an entertaining mishmash. Alas, with so many threads used, all we ended up with was a tangle. Black Lightning started off with a lot of promise, but ended up on a painfully disappointing note, and I can’t say that I’m looking forward to season 2 if they couldn’t even keep a singular focus with their first stab at the topic.
Notes:
-Tobias tells Lala that the tattoos aren’t hallucinations, but a side effect of whatever procedure they used to bring him back. Am I the only one wondering wtf is going on here? They did nothing to explain any of this magic science crap and yet expect viewers to just accept it? Even Arrow waited four seasons to try their hand at magic.
-The episode ends with a highly-embarrassing decision by the family to confront Proctor in their civilian guise. Why in the world would they do that? What exactly was their plan? It makes no sense, unless we assume that the Pierces went to Proctor knowing full-well that Gambi was going to murder him, in which case they would be accessories to the crime. And by doing that, doesn’t that undermine that whole morality spiel in episode 5’s “The Book of Greenlight?”
-One good thing I can say is that at least Whale and Syonide will be returning. They were one of the most intriguing aspects of the season.
Rating: 4/10
Red Stewart
