BLACK LIGHTNING "LAWANDA: THE BOOK OF BURIAL" REVIEW

Season 1 Episode 3:

Hey everyone, we are back with a brand new review of Black Lightning and this episode we see Anisa manifest her powers and we see some meta references in the episode. So spoilers ahead for the episode, let's recap.

After the death of Lawanda White, the town of Freeland is planning to put together a march in honor of what she fought for, getting the 100 gang out of their community. Jefferson talks to the man who held the meeting, and he tells Jefferson that Black Lightning is a beacon of hope for the people of Freeland. Meanwhile, Anissa is discovering her newly found powers in a junkyard by testing her strength. While researching genetic mutation at the library, Anissa finds a girl named Grace Choi, who is reading the comic, "Outsiders". Grace invites Anissa to a superhero dress-up party where they can dress up as "Supergirl" or "Looker".

Meanwhile, Jeniffer is talking to her boyfriend, Khalil about getting it on. And in the most awkward family dinner on tv, Jenifer tells her parents that she is ready to get it on. Later on, Jenifer and Anissa have a talk, Anissa tells Jeniffer that she is going to a party and then she will go to the march. Meanwhile, Lynn tells Jefferson that if he is going to be Black Lightning, maybe it will be best if Jeniffer stays with her. The next day at school, Jefferson and Lynn have the same discussion, and then Jefferson talks to Khalil about him and his daughter. The night, Anissa is at the party where she is dressed up in a Cat woman-like costume. Chenoa comes to the party and breaks up with Anissa.

Later on, Peter diverts the route of the march to another route as he knows that the 100 gang is going to attack the march. Jefferson suits up as the Black Lightning and stands on the rooftop as people from the Freeland church march across of the street. Jefferson spots a suspicious looking man and drops down. Creating a lightning shield, Jefferson deflects all the bullets from the gang and knocks out the shooter and his partner. Saving the say, the people in the march, including his family, sing "Saving Grace" to Jefferson, however, a car pulls out and Tobias is in it, as well as Syonide; who pulls out a gun and attempts to shoot Black Lightning. The bullet misses and hits the leader of the march and the same bullet also hits Khalil.

At the hospital, Jenifer is worried about Khalil. Lynn apologizes to Jefferson for telling him that Jenifer should stay with her. Meanwhile, Peter discovers that Tobias is still alive, so he deletes the footage for Jefferson's sake. Back at the hospital, Jenifer learns that Khalil may never walk again, as the family has a group hug.


Overall, this episode of Black Lightning was an entertaining episode. The biggest complaint I had in the episode was the writing of Jenifer in the first half of the episode. It felt almost unnatural, but the character's arc turned around in the back half of the episode which was great. One thing to praise the episode for is the build from the light tone to the darker tone at the end of the episode. From the small events such as Anissa breaking up with her girlfriend, to the way that the episode was shot towards the end, emphasized the darker tone than the previous scenes. My favorite part of the episode was the Anisa storyline. I like how the character is building up to become a superhero, but we have to talk about the DC Comics stuff that happened.

So the Outsiders comic is a real title published by DC. It is a team of superheroes that were led by Batman. The outsiders in the comics had many members including Looker, who was name-dropped, as well as other characters such as Black Lightning himself, and Anissa herself, Thunder. At the party, Anissa was dressed up as Cat Woman who was a member of the Outsiders. The latest episode of Arrow also gave the Outsiders a shoutout, and the Green Arrow was also once a member of the Outsiders. Supergirl was name-dropped in the episode, she has not been in the Outsiders team, so it seems like Supergirl is a superhero character that Grace reads, as the show does not take place on the same Earth.

The cast of the episode was fabulous as always, delivery great performances. In the episode we had Cress Williams (Jefferson/ Black Lightning), Nafessa Williams (Anissa Pierce), China Ann McClain (Jenifer Pierce), Jordan Calloway (Khalil), Christine Adamas (Lynn Pierce), James Remar (Peter Gambi), Damon Gupton (Inspector Henderson), Chantal Thuy (Grace Choi), Charlbi Dean (Syonide), and Marvin Jones III (Tobias Whale).


In conclusion, this episode of Black Lightning was great in the way it handled the tone change from the beginning of the episode to the end. Although there was some weird writing for some of the characters and equally as awkward music cues, there was a great story with Anissa and equally as awesome music in other parts of the episode. I will give this episode of Black Lightning an 8 out of 10. I would like to hear your thoughts on this episode of Black Lightning down in the comments below. You can click on the left for the latest Flash review and click on the right for the Ant-Man and Wasp trailer. As always thanks for reading, take care.
                     

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