The CW has released the synopsis for “The Book of Ruin: Chapter Three”, the upcoming eighth episode of Black Lightning‘s fourth and final season. The episode is set to air on April 19th. As has been the case with most of the episode synopses this season, there isn’t a lot to go on. It appears that Jefferson (Cress Williams) will find himself dealing with the FBI while Anissa (Nafessa Williams) has something in store for Grace (Chantal Thuy). You can check it out below.
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“TROUBLE – The FBI pays Jefferson (Cress Williams) a visit. Meanwhile, Anissa (Nafessa Williams) surprises Grace (Chantal Thuy). Christine Adams, James Remar, Marvin Jones III, and Jordan Calloway also star. The episode was written by Andre Edmonds and directed by Bille Woodruff.”
The episode comes after the backdoor pilot for Painkiller, which is set to air on Monday, April 12th. That episode will see Khalil Payne/Painkiller (Jordan Calloway) encounter Grace and Anissa on their honeymoon trip to Akashic Valley — as was seen briefly in the preview for the episode. While Painkiller appears to be determined to kill the Pierce family in a bid to ease his own suffering, it sounds like whatever goes down, the Pierces live to fight another day. And the family is still fighting a particular “big bad” for the season: trauma.
“I think I just wanted to go back to dealing with the family. We had ended on such a broad note of ending the Markovian war,” showrunner Salim Akil said previously. “I wanted to then go back to the family and see what trauma looks like and how do you go about healing yourself. If you remember, Jefferson is depressed because his daughters have killed people, his wife has killed in people in this war, and he feels like he’s let them down and it’s his responsibility.”
Akil continued, “Trauma changes people. So I wanted to explore the idea of trauma, especially in African American families, because not all of us but far too many of us live in areas where gun violence and crime is prevalent on a daily basis, and nobody is really doing anything to try and solve it or report it anymore. So there’s a lot of trauma out there, and I just wanted to say to the people watching, ‘Hey, in order to heal, you have to talk about things. You have to deal with them and you have to seek help.’ I think if there’s a theme this year, someone said that ‘trauma is sort of the big bad this season.’”
Black Lightning airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW. “The Book of Ruin: Chapter Three” airs April 19th.
