Black Lightning: Principle of Entanglement

Black Lightning | Season 4 | Episode 2 : “Unacceptable Losses“
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For a quick read, go to Review. For a complete summary, go to Recap.

KBear Recap [Read time: 5-7 min]

The Therapist: “The entanglement aspect of feelings, it can bring up old wounds to bear, and at times be overwhelming.”

Chief Ana Lopez (Melissa De Sousa) is addressing the police department online. She tells them they are going to take back the streets from the gangs and the metas. The Chief tells them that Lala (William Catlett) heads the 100, while Lady Eve is the head of the Kobra Cartel. Lady Eve has been missing since the battle with Markovia, so her lieutenant, Destiny (Teesha Renee) is in charge. Peter Gambi (James Remar) eavesdrops on the webcast. He finds out Lopez has ordered advanced DEGs for the department to fight the metas. He does some quick research and finds out that Monovista International is the manufacturer. A card game is going on in a Kobra Cartel club, the 100 shows up and there is a gunfight. Lala is worried about Thunder and Lightning. He orders Devonte Jones (Rafael Castillo) to steal some of the DEGs from the police. Lala plans on killing Destiny and the metas, giving him all the power in Freeland.

<span style="color: #993300;">DC TV Black Lightning Statue</span> — DC TV Black Lightning Statue

Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning (Cress Williams) can’t sleep, he wakes up a worried Lynn (Christine Adams). He gets out of bed and goes downstairs to the porch and screams in pain, shooting electricity in the sky, he promptly faints. Jennifer/Lightning (China Anne McClain) ignores the mail from the college board exam. Lynn thinks she’s being irresponsible, but Jennifer names all the events they’ve just been through and says she isn’t ready. At the hospital, Anissa/Thunder (Nafessa Williams) is making rounds with a new doctor, Darius Morgan (Todd Anthony). He tries to slyly ask her out but she informs him she’s gay. Tobias Whale (Marvin ‘Krondon’ Jones III) injects himself with a serum. His assistant Val (Helen Joo Lee) brings him a contract to buy some property. She doesn’t understand why he’s buying it if he doesn’t plan to develop it. As she leaves, he tells his bald-headed henchman Red (Matt Roszak) that he’s doing it to create more chaos in Freeland. Lynn is having a solo session with her and Jefferson’s therapist (Bethann Hardison). Lynn admits to her that she doesn’t have many friends. [I don’t think I’ve seen Lynn interact with anyone who isn’t a family member, villain, or someone she works with.] She tells the therapist she doesn’t have any hobbies, only family and work. The therapist asks Lynn if that’s enough, Lynn can’t answer. Tobias goes to Garfield High to annoy and threaten Jefferson. In the school parking lot, Jefferson strikes Tobias with lightning but he just shrugs it out. [I wonder if the serum he took earlier has given him the power to not be hurt by Jefferson’s lightning?] He tells Jefferson not to let people see him using his power. Tobias tells Jefferson he is going to take everything he loves away piece by piece.

Darius asks Anissa out for a drink after work. She goes to check on Grace, she’s shapeshifted into her leopard form. This is too much for Anissa and she accepts Darius’s offer. She admits to him she misses going out. Jennifer tells her mother she’s not taking her SATs. Before they can discuss this, Jennifer is alerted about a shootout, so she flies off. It is a shootout between the 100 and the Kobra Cartel. When Lightning arrives, she orders them to put down their weapons. Everyone does except one guy who plans on shooting her in the back, Lynn followed Jennifer to the shootout and uses wind power to knock the shooter down. He tries to shoot Lynn, but Lightning fries him. A big chunk of glass sticks into her arm, she flies off. Lynn tries to get in touch with Gambi, but like Jennifer earlier he doesn’t respond. Jennifer goes up to the ionosphere and the energy heals her and fixes her uniform. The reason they couldn’t get hold of Gambi is because he’s having dinner with Lauren Caruso (Elena Varela). She used to be in the CIA and she had hoped when he was in the ASA that he would join her there. She’s still trying to recruit him to join Monovista. Anissa also receives an alert about the shootout but since she is with Darius she can’t leave as Thunder. Since they are both doctors, they leave to administer medical aid. When they arrive, a boy was shot in the crossfire. He is the son of a Garfield High teacher. They can’t save him. Lynn arrives home and Jefferson asks where has she been. She tells him about using the meta booster to go out in the streets to protect their daughters. Jefferson tells her she’s traded one drug for another. Lynn doesn’t want to hear it and goes upstairs.

Anissa tries to comfort Darius about not being able to save the child. Both are hurt and frustrated about it. Marcel Payton (Kedrick Brown), the boy’s father goes to Jefferson’s office. His family were in the area because they are homeless, due to the Markovian battle. Due to all the destruction, the rents are too high for his salary. Jefferson is shocked to hear this. To make matters worse, child services are taking away his other children because he can’t provide for them. Jefferson has a solo session with the therapist. He tells her how helpless he feels about all the deaths. [Does she know he’s Black Lightning? Probably not.] She brings up the Principle of Entanglements, which is about how our feelings from the past are entangled with our present feelings. Jefferson is still feeling the pain of his father’s death, along with everything going on today. After his session Jefferson confronts Gambi about not being there for Jennifer last night. Gambi tells him about the more advanced DEGs the police department are getting. More bad news for Jefferson to deal with. He asks Gambi for the identity of the person who shot Marcel Payton’s son. Gambi won’t give it to him, he knows what he plans to do, and using his powers without the Black Lightning suit is hurting him. Jefferson blames Black Lightning for getting Henderson killed. Jefferson feels like Freeland is lost and Black Lightning can’t save it. Gambi goes on a solo mission to Monovista to break into their mainframe for info.

Anissa and Jennifer go to the lab to talk to Lynn. They tell her to stay in her lane, she isn’t a meta nor is she trained to go out on these missions. Their request offends Lynn. Gambi meets with Lauren and tells her he’s interested in working with Monovista, but not in security. She agrees, she knows his background in tech and asks him to work in the R&D department. With the assists of some of the former members of the resistance, Lala and Destiny are brought to the parking lot where the homeless stay, to meet with Blackbird [I guess people don’t know Thunder and Blackbird are the same person]. She declares this parking lot a Blackbird Zone, and the two gangs won’t fight here. Both Lala and Destiny agree for their own selfish reasons that it’s a good idea and commit to the truce. Back in the sanctum, Gambi has the schematic he stole from Monovista of the new DGEs. Lynn injects herself with a new meta-ability, telekinesis. Going by the expression on her face, her serum is her new drug. Jefferson calls TC and tricks him into giving him the address of the killer. Jefferson goes to the man’s place and beats him, demanding he turn himself in to the police, and he breaks the man’s leg for good measure.

KBear Review [Read time: 1-3 minutes]

The Pierce family continues their descent. I don’t think Jefferson does one rational thing this episode. He tries to fight Tobias in front of his school. He complained about his daughters not listening to him last episode, but he keeps proving why they should ignore him. He blames Black Lightning for all his problems. Jefferson continues to wallow in his despair. Lynn continues her addictive personality by getting off on her meta human booster serum. She wants to help her daughters out in the street, which is good, but she has no training, and it feels like she’s doing some of it to make herself feel better. It looks like Jennifer has given up on her future, with her thinking about not going to college. Not everyone should go to college, but it seems like she doesn’t have any enthusiasm for anything except mixing it up with criminals and flying. Jennifer seems addicted to the energy she absorbs from the ionosphere. The only Pierce who is keeping it together is Anissa. Even though she has to worry about Grace being in a coma, she is still able to operate as Thunder/Blackbird. She makes Lala and Destiny accept a truce, and is providing leadership in the community. She’s having it rough like everyone else but is keeping her head above water.

It was an okay episode, not bad, but nothing really stood out. Jefferson wallows, he and Lynn fight, Jennifer is checked out. Rinse, repeat. I don’t remember any humor in the episode. Usually someone says something funny or there is a humorous situation. Everything was pretty dire. All hope is lost. Not my favorite story telling technique. The shootouts were pretty good, but no cool fight scenes, or action pieces.

Here’s the music this week. It begins with “Why Can’t We Be Friends” War.