Black Lightning Recap With Spoilers: Red Skies Come to Freeland in “The Book of Resistance: Chapter Four: Earth Crisis”

Previously on Black Lightning this season we’ve watched as the people of Freeland and the Pierce family have dealt with the ASA occupation and oppression while, nearby, the threat of the Markovians lurked. It’s given rise to a Resistance effort that has driven wedges between the various members of the Pierce family with no real end in sight. But tonight’s episode takes the Pierce family into a crisis far greater than occupation or Markovians as the skies over Freeland turn red.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Black Lightning, “The Book of Resistance: Chapter Four: Earth Crisis,” below.

We open in regular Black Lightning reality with Jennifer waking up at 3:33 for the third night in a row and making a video for Anissa about it as well as reveals she’s been working with Agent Odell among other things and she decides to just go see Anissa. It also turns out that Jamila’s message did get out, but that news didn’t go over particularly well and the information is still being warped. Odell lives and calls Jennifer. He is still trying to get her to remain on his side.

The resistance tries to come up with a plan. Anissa tells her father that they may have to kill, and she also reveals that the ASA has Khalil and he’s the one who attacked her. Killing may be their only option now that things have changed, and Jefferson doesn’t like it. At Anissa’s house, Jennifer is in costume and waits for her sister while, outside, the skies turn red. The lightning messes with her powers and she collapses.

Jennifer ends up in some weird alternate dimension where she encounters two other versions of herself: one who was in ASA custody, regular Jennifer, and then a dark Jennifer. Yep, different Earths. First up, we visit Gen from Earth-1. It’s Christmas and this is the version where Jennifer is in the collar and used the water of Freeland to cure metahumans. Anissa is not out but met a girl and tells her sister about it. Khalil got a full ride to UCLA. The peace is disrupted when soldiers show up at the door and take the Pierce family having been sold out by the reverend. Odell kills Jefferson in front of his family.

Back to “reality”. Anissa finds Jen unconscious and calls for Gambi. Jennifer wakes up briefly to say that their dad is dead and then we plunge back into Earth-1. Gen is in the pit, crying and blaming herself when Anissa arrives to visit with a message from their mom that she is on her way to visit. This Freeland experienced the war with the Markovians, apparently. In reality, Gambi and Anissa try to figure out what is going on. Jefferson is on his way, but Lynn is cooking drugs in an in-home lab trying because of her Green Light addiction when she gets a call from Anissa.

Earth-1. Lynn visits Jennifer in the pit and tells her that her father was proud of her and that everything she did was worth it. In reality both Lynn and Jefferson show up and see what’s happening with Jennifer. She’s being impacted by the anti-matter and is, thus in two places at once. Henderson calls. The resistance is in trouble and needs help. Lynn blames Jefferson for things and tells him he needs to go.

Now we visit Jinn of Earth-2. This is the dark Jennifer universe. Jefferson is a teacher and Jennifer comes into his classroom. She works with the ASA and Jefferson tries to tell her that she’s being used. She disagrees with him and his methods and leaves. She meets with Odell, having fully leaned into his manipulation. She also killed all the metas and appears to be this universe’s Painkiller analog.

In reality things worsen. Jennifer keeps phasing and Anissa thinks the ASA is behind the red skies. Lynn and Anissa disagree about Khalil. Gambi finds out that Odell is trying to weaponize kids with Green Light. They have to handle this situation.

In Jinn world, Jennifer confronts Jefferson. Her whole family tries to stand up to Jennifer. They want her to turn herself in. She’s not interested, and Jennifer attacks her family. She fights Jefferson, overwhelming him and killing him. She’s killed her whole family.

In reality, Gambi still has no idea what is going on and then suddenly Jennifer disappears again and is back in the weird space and slaps Jinn. Jennifer and Jinn fight, Gen tries to stop them. They stop fighting for a moment and the three of them realize that they are all from different worlds and the storm is pulling those worlds together with only one of them set to survive. Jennifer confronts these two other versions of herself — one super powered and one without powers — and comes to peace with herself. While they discuss, a white wave hits them and they vanish and then, in reality as we know, so does that entire world – save for Black Lightning who is breached away at the last moment before everything he knows is gone.