A whole new chapter kicked off tonight on Black Lightning with Freeland reaching its tipping point last week with the death of Tavon and the beat down of Jefferson Pierce. Now, with a newly unified resistance in place, choices must be made in the fight for Freeland — and as things come together it may mean that others fall apart especially when it comes to the Pierce family.
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Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Black Lightning, “The Book of Resistance: Chapter One: Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” below.
We open with Anissa filming what could be a final message to her family as she continues to struggle with Painkiller’s toxin in her system, claiming that even if she dies it will have all been worth it because she stood up to fight. Cut to 30 hours earlier at the church. It’s Tavon’s service with the Pierce family in attendance. Lynn is proud Jefferson didn’t suit up to avenge him, upsetting both Jefferson and Anissa in the process. Jamila then shows up and disrespectfully attempts to interview Jefferson at the service. He chooses to answer one question, what he’d say to Tavon. He’d tell him he’s proud of him and that his death will not be in vain.
The next day, Lynn confronts Jefferson about some of his activities as Black Lightning and they fight as they fundamentally disagree about how to handle not only the Agent Odell situation but his role as Black Lightning. Elsewhere, Gambi is working on Anissa’s injury and while she’s not handling Tavon’s death well, Gambi’s news is even more bleak. The poison would have already killed her if she wasn’t a metahuman but now it’s suppressing her meta gene entirely. Gambi is working on an anti-venom and there may not be enough time.
Henderson meets with the resistance and complains about the ASA’s fake news campaign twisting the truth about them and Truthteller has been killed so they need to go wider with their message. The plan now is to somehow broadcast to all of Freeland and Henderson now has to find a new voice for the movement. At the ASA, Tobias is fully restored, and he tries to convince Lynn that he’s a “true friend” who would cross her to her face rather than Odell, who would use her. He also reveals he knows about Black Lightning’s latest adventures. Lynn asks what he wants. He wants a list of the metas and their powers.
Anissa continues to weaken, and Jefferson pays her a visit to check in on her as well as apologize for pressuring her to bring Tavon back to Freeland. He blames himself for Tavon’s death, though Anissa argues it is still all on her for going ahead and doing it. She makes Jefferson leave and then collapses. Anissa wakes up with Grace taking care of her, having found her on the floor. Anissa plays things off, but Grace tells her that Anissa smells of death. Anissa continues to play things off but the poison is spreading. Elsewhere, Jennifer breaks into Brandon’s apartment and finds plants, a lab, a bunch of other things and discovers that he’s got a bunch of research on her mother on his computer. They meta fight.
Odell pays Jefferson a visit and says he has a team of neurologist ready to give him an examination, threatening consequences of breaking their deal. Jefferson says the deal is over and threatens him. Meanwhile some presumably ASA soldiers are in a transport truck when a man — a Markovian — teleports in and kills them all, gaining access to Freeland.
At the police station, Henderson interrogates Jamila and threatens to jail her if she doesn’t stop her reporting, but it’s all a ruse. Henderson wants her to be the voice of the people and the resistance movement. In the lab, Lynn collects the information Tobias asked for and continues to dose with her Green Light-based drug though she selectively removes the files of two of the kids. Brandon reveals to Jennifer that he’s looking for Dr. Jace because Jace killed his mother and he also shows off his powers by turning coal into diamond as his powers let him manipulate the earth. While Gambi works on something to help Anissa, he realizes the poison is similar to Painkiller’s.
Lynn gives Tobias the file and he taunts her about Odell and slyly suggests that Odell killed Isa. Grace comes home and finds Anissa seizing and calls for help from Gambi. His antidote works and then he leaves. Odell is alerted about the teleporter and confronts the Markovian. A gunfight breaks out with Odell gravely injured when Black Lightning shows up. The Markovian flees and Odell dies, calling Black Lightning “pathetic” for not killing.
Henderson introduces the resistance to Jamila, and she does her first city wide broadcast. Back at the Markovian base, the teleporter gets paid for his work and mentions Black Lightning, getting the attention of Dr. Jace. They want Lynn’s stabilization work for their own purposes. At the cemetery, Gambi discovers Khali’s grave is empty and back at home, Lynn packs her bags, claiming she and Jefferson are done.
Black Lightning airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.
