Black Lightning, Season 1, Episode 2: Lawanda - The Book of Hope
Okay, going to try to catch up with multiple superhero shows this time around. These reviews are going to be fairly shorter, to allow me to work through my backlog a lot faster. This second episode of Black Lightning might not have particularly expensive special effects or fight scenes or an intricate backstory. Black Lightning himself has an okay costume, but the special effects are... acceptable. I guess I've just been spoiled by those fancy-schmancy big-movie shows? But what Black Lightning lacks in visual spectacle, it really makes up in storytelling. This episode feels slightly like a rehash of the first one, but here Pierce's big moment isn't whether to save his daughters or not. It's the hard question of whether he's ready to take up the mantle of Black Lightning to save other people and the community, with the knowledge that it might self-destruct his family. It's really, really easy to just paint Lynn as a whiny, nagging little anti-fun family member, but the acting and arguments given are stellar. Is it selfish? Yes. Would I do the same thing if it was someone I care about going out to play superhero and likely to get killed? Probably yes. It helps that Lynn herself is given some agency in her own acceptance of how necessary Black Lightning is to the community with a particularly great scene with Gambi.
The titular Lawanda is one of Pierce's old students, now a single mother, who is hell-bent to save her daughter from the clutches of the brothel where she's brainwashed to work for. She wants to do it the 'right' way, and Pierce tries to help her by going to the authorities, by confronting Lala in his civilian persona, but nothing works. Lawanda ends up getting herself killed at the hands of an increasingly violent Lala (who himself is pressured by Tobias Whale to spread fear), which in turn finally breaks Black Lightning and has him go on a one-man rampage through a hotel to bring down Lala into justice.
Jefferson Pierce, Lynn Stewart and the audience ends up getting to see just why Freeland needs a proper superhero, and how Black Lightning's entire existence gives the people hope. While some of the dialogue is a bit too on-the-nose, the execution ends up making Black Lightning a very believable symbol of hope, and his struggles with Lynn and whether to take up the mantle or not ends up feeling genuine, something that some of the other CW shows didn't manage to do that well. It's a different sort of origin story -- one that isn't the transformation of civilian Jefferson Pierce into superhero Black Lightning, but rather the realization of retired superhero Jefferson Pierce that sometimes, being the "Black Jesus" of the community isn't enough when faced with a corrupt police force and a gang that's set its roots way too deep into the community. "Black Lightning is back", Pierce announces to Lynn with confidence, but it's an announcement made after mourning the death of his student Lawanda -- a very preventable death -- and arguing with his ex-wife about whether to suit up or not. It's not a triumphant, orchestral-music-blazing moment of a superhero on a rooftop, because the camera focuses on Lynn's distraught face, at the same time realizing how much Freeland needs Black Lightning, but at the same time horrified that her beloved Jefferson is willingly putting himself in front of bullets.
There are other sub-threads with the other characters. Tobias continues to be awesome and ends up killing Lala in prison at the end of this. Jennifer is struggling with her life, but ends up finding a boyfriend in Khalil. Anissa's struggling with her newfound superpowers, but her girlfriend is dismissive and somewhat cold, and ends up stopping a robbery at the end of the episode. Gambi's supportive, and even manages to get a nice scene with Lynn telling her that the 'addiction' argument works both ways. Nice stuff, but it's clear that these characters are shoved aside somewhat with Lynn and Jeffreson being the main characters of the episode.
The scene where Black Lighting arrests Lala gets some special props for being insanely funny. From the hotel doorman going "Black Lightning, my man!" and opening the door and giving helpful directions, to some random dude holding open the elevator door and Black Lightning just wanting to take the stairs to get some exercise are comedic beats in an otherwise emotionally heavy episode.
Overall, it could've been really generic, but the writing and acting on both Jefferson and Lynn's parts are simply well-done that I was engaged throughout this episode, which, on a less-competent team's hands, could've easily been a bore. Good stuff.
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