A Hero Falls When Black Lightning Returns
by Erik Amaya
With the late winter hiatus upon us, Black Lighting will resume in early March. And when it returns, Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) finds himself in a dangerous situation. A gunman has made his way inside Garfield — despite the metal detectors — and his target appears to be Jeff. But with a metahuman aspect to the plot and a lot of strange imagery, this school shooting may be less clear cut than it seems. And while this preview of the next episode claims a hero will fall, we’re not so sure.
Unfortunately, the show is once again taking a break in the middle of one of its books. Which, will no doubt rob things of some momentum; just as it did in the early Winter hiatus. That said, last night’s episode was fairly contained with Jeff realizing he cannot be Garfield’s principle and Jennifer (China Ann McClain) learning her wrath could be lethal. Then again, there are several runners we may forget in the next month like the location of the pod kids, the one Lynn (Christine Adams) was able to save, and Cutter (Kearran Giovanni) killing Tobias’s (Marvin “Krondon” James III) tech wiz.
Which, honestly, is one fair criticism of the show. It is spinning a lot of plot threads and some ideas just get lost. The show is less focused than last year, though that seems to be in an attempt to keep James around. He’s a really great antagonist, but delaying the showdown between Tobias and Jeff leaves the show in a holding pattern while introducing threats like the ASA and Markovia. And, to be honest, it would be interesting to see those other antagonists become Team Lightning’s primary target, but it would mean removing Tobias from the game. If only there was a way to keep James and end Tobias …
Black Lightning returns March 4th on The CW.