The CW has released the synopsis for “The Book of Ruin: Chapter Four: Lyding”, the ninth episode of Black Lightning‘s fourth and final season. The episode is set to air on Monday, April 26th. On Black Lightning, things are often a challenge for the Pierce family. From the very first episode of the series, we’ve seen the Pierces — as well as the rest of the citizens of Freeland — deal not only racial and socioeconomic issues, but also violence, occupation, and even an actual war when the Markovians invaded in Season 3. This season, they’re dealing with the impacts of all of the above and from the sound of things, there’s still more to come. The synopsis warns of a looming crisis. You can check it out for yourself below.
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“WARNINGS – Gambi (James Remar) warns the Pierce family of a possible crisis looming. Cress Williams, Nafessa Williams, Christine Adams, James Remar, Marvin Jones III, Jordan Calloway, and Chantal Thuy also star. The episode was written by J. Allen Brown and directed by Keesha Sharp.”
As has been the case with most of the synopsis for the final season of Black Lightning, details are few and pretty vague, but if it’s Gambi warning of a potential crisis, it is possible that it has something to do with Monovista Industries, the company that is developing the directed-energy guns that can kill metahumans. Gambi has been working for Monovista this season as a way of being able to monitor that situation and has also been working with Lauren (Elena Varela) on an energy source project — something viewers haven’t seen much of just yet but that feels fairly significant.
Whatever the situation the Pierce’s face next, there’s a good chance it will tie into what showrunner Salim Akil has previously indicated is sort of a central issue 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 Four: Lyding” airs on April 26th.
