Black Lightning season 3, episode 4 review: Lynn’s Ouroboros

Black Lightning is at odds with his family and Lynn’s taking drugs to get smarter. That’s just the some of what happens in this emotional episode.

Previously, on Black Lightning, Agent Odell showed us who he truly is.

Sure, we already knew about him killing a kid because he knew too much, but we didn’t know he was okay with torture… or that he was okay with letting a criminal like Tobias out of lockup if he helped him.

We also saw Khalil, pardon, Painkiller in action. He’s become a killing machine of the highest order. Watching him on his first real mission was brutal. The old Khalil may be gone for good. There’s also a virus going around that’s killing metas. Things are crazy in Freeland. What’s going to happen now? Let’s find out.

Lynn experiments on herself

The show starts with Lynn frantically talking about how she hasn’t been able to find a cure to the virus killing metas. We see one of the patients die on the table as they’re bleeding out of their eyes. A graphic scene to say the least. Lynn is disappointed in herself for not finding a cure yet. She does something foolish that will come back and bite her: She decides to experiment on herself. Lynn found a way to take Green Light to make herself smarter. It worked. But at what cost?

If you haven’t been keeping up with Black Lightning, you won’t know why this is a bad idea. Last season, Lynn spent a lot of time getting drunk by herself to deal with killing someone. Lynn is probably going to overuse the Green Light she changed to try and find a cure. After she finds a cure, she may become addicted to it. There could also be side affects she doesn’t know about.

At odds with his daughters

Next, Jefferson (Black Lightning) and Jennifer (Lightning) are on their way to Garfield High. They get stopped at a meta-human checkpoint. Odell issued them identification that says they’re non-metas. While they’re getting checked out, some of the Freeland citizens attack the A.S.A. agents. Jefferson is ready to fight, but Jennifer tells him he’s overreacting. Jefferson calms down. When it’s over, Jefferson asks Jennifer if she’s okay. She nonchalantly confirms that she is alright and says, “Welcome to occupation.” We later see her crying as she sees the news reports of what’s going on in Freeland. People are dying and she can’t do anything about it.

Jennifer has gone through a lot. Her boyfriend killed some of her peers, she gets powers she can barely contain, her boyfriend is killed, and she held her boyfriend’s hand as he died. Even the toughest of people would break. Imagine what’s going to happen when she finds out Khalil is alive.

Later, Jefferson is shown a video of Black Bird (his daughter Anissa) throwing a tank at a helicopter. He looks at it and puts on a forced smile and tells the kids thank you. He meets Anissa at her loft and he yells at her. He thinks she’s being reckless and adding fuel to the Freeland fire. He gets furious when he finds out that Grace knows Anissa is Black Bird and Thunder. While Anissa trusts her, Jefferson doesn’t. He doesn’t believe that she will keep Grace around and this puts their family at risk. After Grace has a “meltdown” Anissa angrily kicks her father out of her house.

Jefferson and Anissa have been butting heads for a while and this won’t be the worst of it. Who’s going to hit first? Will Black Bird attack Black Lightning? He may get in her way and she may just lash out and hit him. Will Black Lightning be forced to attack Black Bird? If he does, he’s going to lose his family and the people who believe in him.

High Voltage stakes

This was a terrific episode. It was difficult to watch as well. Jefferson slowly losing his family, respect from his city, and being helpless while Agent Odell threatened his family was hard. It doesn’t help that he probably feels like he’s losing his wife as well.

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These episodes are becoming more about the story than the action. Some people may not like it, but this is a good thing. Especially since, when we do get fight scenes, they’re great.

The addition of Painkiller helps too. Jordan Calloway took a giant leap this season. His new persona fits him. He’s been a believable villain. The scene when he interrogated the two A.S.A. agents about the stolen trucks was hilarious. Hopefully this will last longer than a season. He’s too  good not to stick around. It would be great to see him in a comic book movie.

Lightning Round

Will Principal Lowry find out that Jefferson is Black Lightning? He already knows something is up after his time with A.S.A. resulted with him getting a demotion and more money.

Jefferson is at odds with his entire family. What can happen to bring them together again?

It was cool seeing Principal Lowry stand up for his kids again the A.S.A. He isn’t the terrible person we thought he was.

Jennifer seeing the A.S.A. remove a kid and attack Principal Lowry may have been her wakeup call.

Detective Henderson is losing all power. When will he step up and take his city back?

Agent Odell got worse. You’ll have to see the ending to understand.

What did you think of this week’s Black Lightning? Are you excited for what comes next? Let us know in the comments below!