After carving out a unique space for itself in The CW‘s Arrowverse of shows, Black Lightning is set to officially come to a close later this month. While there’s no telling exactly where things will end up for the Pierce family and those in their orbit, The CW has released a brief synopsis that teases exactly what fans can expect. The synopsis is for “The Book of Resurrection: Chapter Two: Closure”, the thirteenth episode of the show’s fourth season.
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“BLACK LIGHTNING” SERIES FINALE – After four seasons, the game-changing, relevant and electrifying series comes to an end. Cress Williams, Nafessa Williams, Christine Adams, China Anne McClain, James Remar, Marvin Jones III, Jordan Calloway and Chantal Thuy star. The episode was written by Charles D. Holland and directed by Salim Akil.”
This season has already brought some major status quo changes for the series’ ensemble, including a fair share of plot twists and a shocking recasting. At the center of it, this season of Black Lightning has tried to unpack the trauma that many of its characters have been carrying.
“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 in an interview earlier this year. “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.”
“Trauma changes people,” Akil continued. “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.’”
And while the flagship series might be drawing to a close, there’s still potential for it to stretch on in Painkiller, a spinoff that aired its backdoor pilot in the middle of Black Lightning‘s final season.
“I’m excited about the whole world that Salim has created and how he wants to show different cultures,” Jordan Calloway, who stars as Khalil Payne/Painkiller, said in a previous interview. “He also wants to show different ethnic backgrounds. Also, different colors of Black, not just that Black is all the same, but all of the different, other aspects of what makes Black.”
Black Lightning airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW. “The Book of Resurrection: Chapter Two: Closure” will air on Monday, May 24th.
