Black Lightning S01E05 Review: Crime Tailor

Black Lightning, Season 1, Episode 5: And Then The Devil Brought the Plague: The Book of Green Light

Holy shit that episode title is long. Is it a reference to something? Regardless, though, this episode isn't as impressive as the previous one. While the previous four episodes tended to be self-contained while carrying an over-arching theme of responsibility and the role of an inspiring icon among the populace, episode 5 feels a bit more... detached. It feels unfocused, I guess, with the episode ending on a cliffhanger that I didn't feel was delivered that well. The episode theoretically builds up two things -- Black Lightning's aggression, as well as Anissa's solo act at becoming an investigative vigilante -- but it doesn't really have an episodic plot to anchor things down, instead throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. So we've got Tobias Whale confronting his past via some rather awkwardly-shoehorned flashbacks, we've got Jennifer breaking a bully's wrist, we've got the surprise revelation that Gambi and Tobias know each other, we get the revelation that Black Lightning (and the world at large) thinks that Tobias is dead, we get the whole bit about Black Lightning befriending Inspector Billy Henderson while on the hunt for the Green Light distributors...

And as a whole, it's not bad. It just could have been a lot better. The idea that Black Lightning's usage of his powers drives him to be far more aggressive is an interesting one, but the episode delivers it in such a muddled way that it doesn't quite click until writing this review that it's supposed to be an ironic parallel to his speech to Jennifer about how violence is not always the final solution. Similarly, while taken individually both Anissa and Tobias have great stories here, the execution feels shoehorned and inorganic, with way too many exposition dumps that, while exciting, doesn't feel like they were worked into the story as a whole particularly well. Kind of like Hunter x Hunter, actually.

Anissa basically discovers that her grandfather, Alvin Pierce, was looking into an outbreak of superpowered children, and that probably caused his death, Illuminati style, what with Alvin's colleague refusing to flat-out tell her anything initially and whispering about "them" going to kill her if she digs in too deep. It does lead us to Anissa dressing up in a non-slutty version of her 2000's Outsiders Thunder getup, which I can get behind.

Tobias's backstory about dealing with an abusive father is amazingly shot and executed by the very competent actor, but it does feel... weird to drop this on us quite literally out of nowhere. There's some great scenes, though, with how little Tobias had to deal with being ostracized for the huge amount of financial strain he put on his abusive father, as well as how he feels like a pariah and outsider -- both as a child, and now as an adult where he's not treated as anything but "the leader of a bunch of goons" by Lady Eve and her compatriots despite all he's done for them. Oh, speaking of revelations dropped out of nowhere is the fact that Tobias Whale is taking some weird anti-aging serum, and has some degree of super-strength, able to snap his asshole father's spine with a hug.

Another part of the episode that felt forced is the ambiguity surrounding Tobias and Gambi's deal, where they're apparently on speaking terms, and Tobias doesn't know that Gambi's working with Black Lightning... but Gambi's hiding Tobias from Jefferson... because? I dunno. We'll see if the final revelation actually makes sense or not, but it does leave a somewhat weird taste in the mouth.

Overall, it's not a bad episode, but the introduction of so many elements at once that doesn't seem to exist in this show feels rushed and shoehorned. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Joesph "Joey" Toledo is a minor villain from the original run of Black Lightning, a very memorable character to me because he was killed during a scuffle when Merlyn (yes, the Green Arrow villain) came to visit Black Lightning's romping grounds in the second issue of Black Lightning. 
• Alvin Pierce, Jefferson's father, does exist in the comics, and his role as an investigative journalist was explored in the pages of Black Lightning: Year One, a retcon/revisit of the character's backstory.
• The idea of some sort of mutagen causing multiple kids to sprout superpowers is more akin to the Static comic book/cartoon show, though, which is a superhero whose conception is inspired by Black Lightning. 
• Anissa's cobbled-together costume is inspired -- albeit loosely -- by the costume she wears as part of Nightwing's Avengers in the 2000-2010's, albeit missing the extremely low cleavage cut that the design has. She also puts on a blonde wig, a reference to how she dyed her hair blonde during that run. 
• Black Lightning talking and chuckling about the "Black Signal" and disappearing mid-conversation while talking to Inspector Hendersen, is, of course, a reference to the Bat-Signal and Batman's penchant of disappearing while talking to Commissioner Gordon.