Black Lightning: Legacy

Black Lightning | Season 4 | Episode 8 : “Things Fall Apart“
Feature image

Kbear Rating

2 out of 5 Koalas

For a quick read, go to Review. For a complete summary, go to Recap.

KBear Recap [Read time: 5-7 min]

“It has to be Tobias. Think about it. He’s trying to destroy your legacy.” Lynn Pierce

Grace Choi (Chantal Thuy) and Anissa Pierce/Thunder (Nafessa Williams) are outside the Pierce domicile to announce that they are married. Grace is nervous because she thinks Anissa’s family will be upset with her and Anissa for not telling them in advance. Anissa tells her they’ll see what will happen. They walk in and the family screams, “Welcome to the family!” Anissa had already told them. The living room is decorated and everyone is happy for the newlyweds. Since this is season four of Black Lightning, this mood can’t last. The FBI is knocking at the door, Special Agent Kevin Mason (Jamal Akakpo) tells Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning (Cress Williams) he has a warrant to search their home. He asks what this is about. Agent Mason is hostile and won’t tell him. Instead of fighting Mason and endangering his family, Jefferson lets them in. Before they entered the house, Mason’s eyes flashed, is he a meta?

After the FBI has ransacked the house, Jefferson reads the warrant, he is accused of embezzling funds from Garfield High. Lynn (Christine Adams) can’t believe it, they’ll fight this accusation. Jefferson apologizes for asking her to jeopardize her sobriety by testing out Val’s (Helen Joo Lee) meta gene on herself. Lynn accepts his apology. Jefferson is still not 100% about JJ being Jennifer. Jennifer (JJ)/Lightning (Laura Kariuki) isn’t used to her new face either. She doesn’t want to go to school, her classmates are already talking about the embezzlement. Tobias Whale (Marvin ‘Krondon’ Jones III) is enjoying watching a recording of the Pierce home being torn apart by the FBI. Red (Matt Roszak) tells him that Monovista is behind on the emitter order. He volunteers to ‘talk’ to the CEO about it. Tobias loves his initiative. Val reports Lynn has finished her work on her ALS diagnosis. Tobias brags how they used Lynn’s propensity for not leaving any stone unturned against her.

Jefferson and Jennifer discuss her cover story, Jennifer left suddenly to study aboard, she’s JJ Stewart, Lynn’s niece. Peter Gambi (James Remar) is in his lab working on how to steal promethium to make new superhero suits for the family. Lynn walks in, they discuss her sobriety. Since she can’t try out Val’s meta power on herself, she asks if she can inject Gambi with it. He’s glad to do it; she injects him and he doesn’t feel any differences. Marcel Payton (Kedrick Brown) meets with Jefferson, they are building a new hospital in Jefferson father’s neighborhood, the city is trying to take the house. Marcel is okay though; Tobias has established a fund to house people who are dislocated from their homes. JJ and TC (Christopher Ammanuel) are at school, a student named Montel (Jemarcus Kilgore) is being recorded by other students complaining about Jefferson embezzling the school. Another student named Uriah (McKalin) challenges Montel and stands up for Jefferson. JJ is impressed, TC mocks her for being thirsty.

“It’s the principal of the thing. Your grandfather, a Black man managed to own something that he wanted to hand down.” Jefferson Pierce

Jennifer is back from school; Jefferson tells her that the city is using eminent domain to take his father’s house. Jennifer is okay with it since they have to pay Jefferson for it. She reasons that they aren’t using the house, and she and Anissa don’t want it. Jefferson is upset by her callousness and explains how his father as a black man worked hard so that he could pass his house down to his family, creating generational wealth. Jennifer is sorry and calls Jefferson ‘daddy’. Jefferson remarks that’s the first time she has called him daddy since she was a little girl.

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

Anissa is doing her rounds at the hospital when she runs into Dr. Darius Morgan (Todd Anthony) and his pregnant patient, an old friend of Anissa’s Kiki (Morgan Alexandria). Her baby was flagged for cystic fibrosis, but Darius tells Anissa that Monovista has a new gene therapy that can fix it. This is the first that Anissa has heard of this treatment. Gambi is at the Monovista lab with Lauren Caruso (Elena Varela). He secretly sets off an alarm, Lauren leaves to check on it, giving him time to steal some promethium. Ishmael (Rico Ball) is trying to track down Blackbird, he is killing members of the resistance to smoke her out, he kills Kyrie (Renell Gibbs).

Jennifer is at Anissa and Grace’s loft; Grace asks Jennifer how her first day at school was. Jennifer says it was great, but Grace can sense she’s lying, Jennifer admits she was upset over how some in the student body have turned on Jefferson and are protesting against him. The only good thing to come out of this was Uriah standing up for Jefferson. Grace can tell Jennifer likes him but advises her not to trust him too quickly. Tobias appears on TV at his campaign rally, he talks about Jefferson’s legal problems and introduces Marcel to brag about the fund he established to house people dislocated from their homes. Jefferson is watching this at the Sanctum with TC, who traces the embezzled funds. Tobias has made it look like Jefferson deposited it to two offshore accounts in Anissa and Jennifer’s names. When Gambi walks in the room, both Jefferson and TC become powerless, now they know what Val’s meta powers are, she is a nullifier. She can nullify the powers of other metas.

“I think we’ve got company… and this company is not the friendly kind.” Grace Choi

Uriah and JJ are in the band room, because of ‘Jefferson’s embezzlement’, they are cutting the school’s music program. JJ believes she knows a way to raise funds. Lynn is at her lab doing tests, JJ’s genetic makeup is unstable. She calls Jefferson to tell him but changes her mind, she instead tells him she called to tell him she has to work late. Wylde/Thunder break into Monovista looking for the chart on Kiki’s cystic fibrosis diagnosis. Ishmael shows up to fight them, he quickly gains the upper hand. They are only able to beat him when Grace turns into a leopard and knocks him off Anissa. They barely escape.

Red roughs up the CEO of Monovista, Marshall Bates (Paden Fallis), he’s on Tobias’s payroll. He promises to get them the energy field emitter soon. Jefferson and Gambi watch it on their monitor and see Red use his magnetic powers, they now know that he killed the Mayor. TC is on a video call with Philky (Alexander Hodge) and Khalil Payne/Painkiller (Jordan Calloway). He tells them what is happening to Jefferson. Khalil tells TC he used to collect for Tobias, he’ll find out how Tobias framed Jefferson. Grace and Anissa make it to the Sanctum. They tell Gambi about Ishmael’s attack. He tells them Ishmael is a meta hunter. Anissa is afraid he could be tracking their entire family.

KBear Review [Read time: 1-3 minutes]

Anissa and Grace arrive back from their honeymoon and are greeted by the family to celebrate their marriage. It’s festive until the FBI arrive with a search warrant to search the Pierce home. Jefferson is accused of embezzlement of Garfield High funds. Of course, this was orchestrated by Tobias. In his campaign against the Pierce family, he has decided to destroy their legacy. Not only is he framing Jefferson, but he’s using the ruse of building a hospital to take away Jefferson father’s home away from them. He has the Pierce family on the ropes and can take them out whenever he wants. Monovista says it has a new gene therapy to cure cystic fibrosis in fetuses, Anissa doesn’t believe it and she and Grace go to investigate. They are attacked by Ishmael who is hunting them down. They are just barely able to get away from him. JJ goes to school and meets Uriah, a student who stands up for Jefferson. She immediately likes him. Tobias is behind the energy field emitter project Lauren is developing, and her boss is in Tobias’s pocket. I don’t know what his plan is for the emitter, but I’m sure it means trouble for the Pierce’s. JJ’s genetic makeup is unstable, Lynn’s worried but she keeps it to herself. Again, they keep secrets from each other, when will they learn.

This was a dark episode, even dark for this season. Everything is falling apart for the Pierce family. The episode was dense and not very exciting. The episode was mostly setting up everything for the final episodes of the series. A thankless job. There was only one big action scene between Ishmael and the duo of Thunder and Wylde. It wasn’t much of a fight. There wasn’t much humor and some parts of the episode dragged. Generally, a forgettable episode.

There wasn’t as much music as usual, but what we got was good.

A Night to Remember Shalamar