Just like my Supergirl final season coverage, this one is going to be a lot shorter and reactionary compared to my previous coverage of CW/DC shows. Again, this review was written over a rather long period of time as I go through the season slowly and write my comments and notes after watching each episode.
S04E01: Collateral Damage
It is always a bit difficult to come back to a TV show you haven't watched for... god, time flies, half a decade since the last season. The recap doesn't really fill up all the gaps, but this episode is a neat one to set up the new status quo. After the Markovian invasion that happened in season 3's climax, Jefferson Pierce has hung up his mantle as Black Lightning, but has gone on a bit of a self-destructive vigilantism -- combining fights with his wife, still not getting over Chief Henderson's death, explosively attacking drug dealers and aggressive policemen. It's nice to go back to the more intimate setting of Freeland instead of the international metahuman weapons war that they did in the previous season.
It's an interesting bit of realignment even if I'm not the most invested in the family wangst. There are also things moving along in the background. The newly-introduced police characters are suspicious of Jeff's attack on two policemen, and may be on to his secret identity. Tobias Whale has resurfaced and is now a major player as Lynn's boss -- and there's an argument that the Pierce family has about killing him preemptively. Lynn's been going around testing the metahuman serum as a vigilante. while being in denial about her addiction or something? Gambi's been going around helping clean up Jeff's mess. And lastly, Thunder and Lightning, whose confidence and wings are growing, are taking over as superheroes in the city but find themselves close to being outmaneuvered by La-La's gang. It's an all right season premiere, and hopefully the show will be able to capture some of its original magic before its end.
S04E02: Unacceptable Losses
We continue with the storylines established in the first episode, with Freeland getting caught up in all the chaos as the police are importing anti-metahuman DEG guns, the 100 and Kobra Kartel are warring in the streets, and Tobias Whale literally being untouchable as he makes it clear to Jefferson that his revenge for all of the previous seasons' conflicts are coming. All of this is going on as the Pierce family is falling apart. Jeff is split between 'I can't be Black Lightning again' while also going rogue and beating up gangsters that are evading justice; Lynn gets into a fight with her daughters when they find out that she's been recklessly following them around while shooting up with metahuman serums... and Gambi's just kind of caught between being a 'guy in a chair' and meeting up with his ex Lauren. The show does make it kind of obvious that he's never going to betray the Pierces for an ex-lover, since Lauren is working for the company producing the DEG's, but it's nice to see Gambi having a side-plot for once.
Things are going quite slowly, although I do appreciate the death of a kid living in a car (his family was displaced by the war last season) ended up tying together the Jeffreson and Anissa plots -- Jeff ends up arguing with Gambi about his brand of vigilantism as he hunts down for the punk that shot the kid, and breaks his legs. Anissa, meanwhile, dons her Blackbird alter-ego to force Lala and Destiny to honour some neutral grounds. Meanwhile, there is a bit of a quasi-framing story of Jeff and Lynn's couples' therapy, but neither Jefferson nor Lynn are behaving particularly logically in this episode, both of them being erratic around Anissa, Jennifer and Gambi. There's also a bit of a side-plot about Anissa making a new friend while struggling with accepting Grace's condition. Seeing the Pierces fall apart as a team and family is an interesting hook to take the show, but it's not exactly the most fun to see over and over again.
S04E03: Despite All My Rage
We're exploring more of Jefferson's... moping? Coping? He keeps insisting throughout the four-part "The Book of Reconstruction" arc that he is no longer Black Lightning, but as Gambi and other people points out, it's one thing to hang up the superhero suit. It's another to go around and beat up gangsters with his superpowers.. and in this episode, Jeff finds that Marcel -- the father of the boy killed in the previous episode -- is fighting in Lala's illegal fight club, Jeff ends up going in and fights anonymously to give Marcel the earnings. It's helping Marcel, sure, but it's also a surprising bit of brutality as Jefferson Pierce engages in something a bit darker than what a good principal is supposed to do.
It's also a bit odd since the rest of the Pierce family is still active fighting crime... and each other. After the previous episode, Lynn confides in a therapy session that she has never felt like she belonged in her background as the only person in a military family that didn't fit in, and now as the only non-metahuman and a burden, a significant part of why she's doing so much is also a desire to fit in. The episode's cliffhanger has Tobias Whale manipulate events so that Lynn has dinner with him, ostensibly to discuss a research-funding project but with some creepy undertones as well. Not the biggest fan of the overly soap-opera-y bit of Jefferson arriving, eavesdropping and leaving without saying anything, which predictably ends up being a rather bland B-plot in the next episode. Tech-meta TC joins the supporting cast and continue to appear throughout the season, but he does really just feel like a plot device character and maybe bounces off some dialogue from Jen.
And after two episode of Anissa's weird floundering around the comatose Grace, she's awake without much fanfare, and gets married with Anissa... also without much fanfare. It feels like this is just tying in last season's unresolved sub-plot, but ultimately isn't that interesting. Jennifer, meanwhile, ropes in T.C. to help her do a bit of a social media war against a reporter, going around to try and show the world 'the truth' about her. It's all right and something new for these characters, I suppose. Jen's bit of trying to get her own identity is understandable, at least. (All the while, there are subplots brewing about the minor gangsters, Chief Lopez and her increasingly anti-meta stance, and whatever Tobias is cooking in the background).
S04E04: A Light in the Darkness
In the last episode of the first arc, 'The Book of Reconstruction', we get a lot of yelling and family drama about secrets. Through different ways, Jeff and Lynn end up finding out about each other's secrets and are at each other's throat about this. Jeff having going out (and enjoying way more than he should) Lala's cage matches, and Lynn's little meeting with Tobias. Having this take place four episodes in, however, and building up on Jeff and Lynn's own struggles with their respective traumas -- Jeff dealing with Henderson's death and Lynn's superhero drug addiction -- ends up with both Jeff and Lynn letting out some ugly things at each other in the confrontations. Jeff gets an actual good scene where he wanders into a bar and starts shit-talking Black Lightning, but we get other people in the bar (including detective Shakur, a minor recurring character) talking up all the good that Black Lightning's done. Lynn... doesn't really get a huge scene that changes her mind, a bit of a shame.
Tobias continues to be fun with how much he's stringing Jeff along, setting up a meeting in a restaurant and clearly having fun trying to get a rise out of him. There's something going on with the DEG, with al parties trying to get to them. All of this culminates in Lala's gang attacking the buyback event. Lightning, Thunder and Grace intervene, but the mayor dies -- which ends up enforcing angry police Chief Lopez's hatred towards metahumans. All of this is later revealed to be part of Tobias's plan, who snuck in a metal-manipulating metahuman called 'Red' to kill the mayor in all the chaos.
The C-plots in this episode isn't interesting. Gambi also has a rather bland continuation of the side-plot to delay the DEG production with his girlfriend... which mostly leads to Gambi discovering another sci-fi doohickey that's rather telegraphed to be commissioned by Tobias. Anissa also gets into a bit of a post-coma-recovery argument with his new wife Grace over... uh... wanting to cohabitate but not wanting Grace's stuff around because of the 'vibes' of their house? Anissa's a jerk, I'm sorry, and this C-plot was essentially handwaved very quickly.
Oh, and Jennifer has been going to the ionosphere to draw energy, but in this episode after Jeff's attempted apology, she... blows up! Whoops!
S04E05: Picking Up The Pieces
So this whole episode deals with an attempt to get the blown-up Jennifer back. Of course the show's not going to kill Jennifer, not in such an anticlimactic way. But there are some really great acting -- particularly from Cress Williams -- as the family struggles with the hectic race to gather all the ionosphere sci-fi-comic-book-y whatsits and reconstruct Jennifer Pierce. We get an oddly off-screen cameo from the Flash, who delivers the sci-fi plot device... and for most of the episode, we wait. Jeff and Lynn explode at each other again -- very understandably considering that their youngest daughter might be dead. Jefferson gets a really sad moment of confiding to Gambi how the most scared he had been in his life was when he thought he lost his daughter when she was younger. Lynn also gets a great moment when she calms down later on and bonds with Jeff over being two scared parents desperate on the hope that the sci-fi plot device works... but Lynn's brain tells her that it's impossible, and it's hurting her particularly because of that.
Thanks to comic book magic, of course the STAR labs device works at the end of the episode, and Jennifer is back... but with a different actress! Dun dun dunn, I suppose.
While all of this is going on, other stuff is going on. Anissa and Grace get a completely unnecessary and frankly very distracting sub-plot about boundaries (both of them come off as assholes this time) for very minimal payoff as Grace's integration to the family is essentially brushed under the rug. Jefferson suits up as Black Lightning to get Jen back, but keeps the suit and identity to confront Lala with the gangster stuff. Lala's role as the 'lesser evil' amongst all the criminals is an interesting one, for sure, especially considering what happens to him at the end of the episode.
Oh, and Chief Lopez finally dips into the 'unreasonable police chief' role in full gusto, which isn't a surprise. She decides to pin the death of the 100 gangster that Jeff crippled (and Lala killed) on Lightning, without any real evidence and out of the vibes of the vigilantes interfering in her protecting the mayor. This makes Lightning Public Enemy #1. Sure. She also cracks down hard on the gangsters. Destiny and Lala appear to make a truce, but it ends up to be a Tobias-sponsored trap, and Lala's entire inner circle (no, Devonte!!!) gets arrested. Lala manages to escape with his Tattoo-Man powers, which continues the whole gang war storyline.
S04E06: Theseus's Ship
So we get this whole episode devoted to the recasting of Jennifer Pierce/Lightning, as she gets magically aged up, Gotham Poison Ivy / Batwoman style, after being reconstructed through the magic electric 3D printer machine. It's an all right episode for what it is, which I felt kiiiinda tied into Jen's newfound identity-searching crisis? It does feel forced, not going to lie, although at least Jennifer (or 'JJ') being a relative unknown that gets caught in Tobias Whale and his minions' web relatively early promises to be something interesting.
The main one who can't accept that this is Jennifer is surprisingly enough Jefferson, while Gambi, Anissa and Grace are all more quick to accept Jennifer's new form. Grace gets a nice bit of bonding by explaining her own shapeshifting powers, while Jennifer herself also goes through a whirlwind of emotions as she tries to figure her new body out. I don't necessarily feel that there's one huge big moment that shows off Jefferson and Jennifer's reconciliation, Jefferson just gets pressured (rightfully) by the rest of his family until the two of them team up and fight some dirty cops. That's all right, although I did feel like having a fake-out flash-forward to see what would happen if the civilian was caught in the crossfire was awkwardly handled.
Oh, while all of this is going on, the C-plot of the 100 versus the Kobra Kartel kind of gets into a bit of a conclusion. With Lala's entire organization arrested by the police, he goes in and tries to kill Destiny, only for Destiny to sic an anti-metahuman assassin (from Arrow-native League of Shadows!) Ishmael who beats up Lala and then turns him into a Han Solo carbonite decoration to get past his quasi-immortality. Okay.
S04E07: Painkiller
Right, Khalil Payne and Painkiller got split into two personalities or something in the last season. Thanks, helpful recap! 'Painkiller' is a bit of a weird episode in that it very abruptly goes off and takes a side-quest from most of the cast in Freeland, taking Grace and Anissa on a rather random honeymoon to the Akashic Valley. I must say that the Anissa/Grace 'secret marriage' thing felt very flat and unengaging, particularly since Grace is already interacting with the rest of the Pierces. But anyway, they go to a honeymoon and end up coming across a group of... they were originally presented (and mistaken by Khalil and Anissa) as human traffickers, but turns out they're a weird brain-mind cult or whatever.
None of these is really explained as we're built to some vague villain, Maya (who turns out to be Odell's daughter -- a fact that has no bearing on the rest of the season), and most of this episode just revolves around Anissa being incapacitated while Khalil fights with his split personality Painkiller to go off and rescue Grace. There's a nice enough spotlight and conflict between the two personalities, and there's some nice discussion about the Painkiller split personality who is compulsively 'programmed' to kill the Pierces. Is it enough to carry the whole spotlight episode? Eh. We're introduced to Khalil's little support staff... who aren't colourful or memorable enough to mention. Khalil's arguments against his own dark side is a simple trope, but an effective one thanks to the backstory and to the conclusion of 'Painkiller' being able to befriend Khalil.
and it's not until I finished and sat down that I realized (and confirmed after a quick search) that this is a random attempt at making a Painkiller spinoff. Just like the 'future Arrow babies' episode in their final season... it really didn't pan out all that well, with so many of the CW superhero shows going into a much-needed conclusion. 'Painkiller' doesn't even follow 'The Book of X' prefix that the rest of the series' episodes have, setting it apart as an episode.
With Tobias Whale clearly being saved for the final arc, and Lala being reduced to a distraction, it is nice to focus on a former antagonist, particularly one who's actually developing as a character after all the trauma he's been through. Granted, I find it... questionable to think that Khalil somehow managed to set up a Mission Impossible team in the one year between season 3 and 4, but I suppose this is comic-book land. It is a bit of a shame that Jennifer doesn't get to participate in this episode, or even Jefferson, but it's a nice spotlight for Khalil. Other than the format, I don't have any real complaints.
