Things are starting to fall apart in Freeland and Jefferson Pierce is at the heart of all the drama. Here’s our recap of Black Lightning, “Black Jesus.”
Mr. Pierce is having an extremely rough start to his day after he finds a student in the bathroom strung out on some new kind of drugs. He has to use his powers to subdue him, and it’s not a quick shot. It’s a whole lot of his powers.
When security arrives, he doesn’t tell him about the drugs.
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Meanwhile, Anissa’s driving to school and sees two of her students talking to drug dealers.
She tells the girls to get into her car and then tells the dealers to stay away from those girls. One pulls up his shirt and reveals a gun, asking her what she’s going to do about it. After the second calls her a bitch for the second time, Anissa looks at him and smiles before getting back into the car.
It’s obvious where she’s going later….
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Jeff goes to talk to Gambi about this new drug, “Greenlight”, and says that he needs to start hitting the 100 hard, but Gambi isn’t sure that it’s entirely the 100.
That night Black Lightning hits the streets and runs into a low level dealer, and after shocking the ever living shit out of him, he gives up the name of his dealer, Two-Bits.
He knocks the guy out and calls the cops.
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When we get back into things with Tobias, he’s with Lady Eve and it turns out she’s a mortician? It’s the most uncomfortable scene because she’s so calm as she sucks out the insides of this dead person and Tobias is just standing there watching as she berates him for failing her.
“I’ve literally made you millions of dollars and you’re on my back over one mistake.”
Lady Eve tells him that since Black Lightning is back, it’s like Tobias’ legacy is ruined since that was his calling card. It’s hardly one mistake.
When he says he’ll take out Black Lightning, she points out the tool toward him and tells him that his shit is falling out of control. They shot a Reverend and a talented kid that had a future.
She ends by telling him to use his “albino magic” to get the job done.
It’s during the end of this scene that we see the person she’s messing with isn’t actually dead. Instead, they’re alive and seemingly feel it all and can’t move.
Do. Not. Cross. This. Woman.
You can watch the scene here!
Hope is bad for their business. Stream #BlackLightning for FREE only on The CW App: https://t.co/VOJ8Ja85nw pic.twitter.com/KbBOb35bIP
— Black Lightning (@blacklightning) February 7, 2018
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Back at Garfield High, Mr. Pierce is talking to the student that was on drugs, Bernard, and his father. The father asks for a second chance since his son was just accepted into four colleges. Mr. Pierce promises that he won’t be suspended, but he has to tell him where he got the drugs.
“C’mon, Mr. Pierce, I ain’t no snitch.”
“Yes, you are! Tell him.”
His daddy isn’t playing around AT ALL.
Bernard tells Mr. Pierce that he got it from a guy named Ronald Wright and the first taste was free.
“Where’s the future?”
“It’s right here.”
“Who’s life is this?”
“Mine.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
“I’m going to live it by any means necessary.”
After the call and response, they shake hands and head out. Mr. Pierce takes some pain meds right as Kara comes in. She says the board won’t let the kid stay at Garfield, and Jefferson says that it’s his decision.
Once again, Kara tells him that she’ll be there for him no matter what and she leaves.
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When Jefferson calls Gambi, it turns out the Ronald Wright is already dead from an overdose. Jeff knows Two-Bit because they grew up together, so he plans on going to speak with him later.
“I think this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”
OBVIOUSLY, JEFF.
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At physical therapy, Khalil is doing well, but he and Jennifer overhear the nurses talking about how bad his injury is and that he’ll probably never walk again.
After she leaves, Jennifer breaks down in the hallway.
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Tobias is putting in work at the coroner’s office, by beating up the worker there and interrogating him about Black Lightning’s death.
“Was he dressed like Earth, Wind, and Fire?”
“What?”
“Was the body your boss put into the fire dressed like Maurice White?”
The man finally admits that they don’t know if it was or not. He never saw the body.
After he hits the guy again, Tobias says:
“Well, since Black Lightning ain’t dead, you owe me a death.”
That’s when his killer assistant takes care of the coroner.
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At the Pierce home, Jennifer arrives. Lynn and Jeff confront her about skipping practice and not answering her phone. They know she ditched practice to be with Khalil since his mom can’t be there. Her parents empathize with her wanting to help him, but she needs to take care of her own stuff, including her future in track.
“The only reason why I ran track in the first place was to make dad happy.”
Lynn asks her to take a couple of days, but Jennifer says she won’t change her mind. Jefferson doesn’t want her to leave for her room, but Lynn tells her she can go.
It seems that things with Jennifer are about to get more difficult now that she doesn’t have Khalil’s calming effect around like she did.
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At dinner that night, Anissa is defending Black Lightning and expressing support for his cause.
Henderson doesn’t agree with her and says Black Lightning is a vigilante that causes harm as well. The Reverend and Khalil being the most recent collateral damage.
Lynn tries to get them to see that it must be hard for Black Lightning’s family to know he’s gone fight every night and Anissa asks what that has to do with anything.
“What does that have to do with anything? I’m sure his family supports him, because what he’s doing is heroic.”
“Is it?”
“Yes! It is. Look, somebody has to do something, because all of this policing, and marching and praying, it hasn’t changed anything. I’m just saying.”
Honestly, just watch the video to see Cress Williams smile. It makes everything worth it!
Together, they can change the world. Stream #BlackLightning now on The CW: https://t.co/VOJ8Ja85nw pic.twitter.com/mln4qEZ8la
— Black Lightning (@blacklightning) February 8, 2018
Anissa leaves after that, and Jefferson goes after her asking if she’s okay. You can’t mistake the sly grin he’s been wearing as she defends Black Lightning. He’s super proud of his daughter.
Anissa goes in search of those two guys that were dealing to those girls. She knocks the hell out of them and asks:
“Who’s the bitch now?”
When she realizes she’s practically killed them, she calls 911 to come and get them.
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Jeff heads out to see Two-Bits, and they have a bit of small talk before Jeff lays it out for him. One of his students almost OD’ed on Greenlight, and they cops are coming for him. He tells him to get out of the game, but Two-Bits says he’s got a family to take care off.
“It is what it is.”
Two-Bits tells him to tell Lynn and everyone hi, and that’s just how it ends.
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Gambi tells him that the drug is seriously intense.
He even says that the 100 is operating like terrorists cells and not everyone knows everything. That’s when Jeff says that Black Lightning needs to pay Two-Bits a visit.
After he gets him talking, Two-Bits negotiates his way out of getting the cops called. The whole exchange is freaking hilarious! Two-Bits even asks for a selfie!
“I know your MO After I tell you what you wanna know, you just gonna knock me out and call the cops, and that’ll be my third strike. I get thirty years, man.”
“Really should’ve thought about that before you started dealing.”
“You think I deserve 30 years?”
“You deserve something.”
“Okay. But 30 years? I mean, come on, man. They throwing brothers in jail forever, like it ain’t nothing.”
“All right. I won’t call the cops if you tell me what I need to know, and you stop selling drugs. Now, I hear you dealing again, I’mma come find you.”
“Okay. Deal. So I leave the money at the drop spot. I go pick up the product at a warehouse on 389 Hart Avenue. Re-up is every Thursday at noon. Hey, hey, real, real quick. Before you knock me out, uh, you think I can get a pic? And can you make sure you light up.”
“What? No.”
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At the rehab facility, Khalil says that he’s going to get interviewed for T.V., and then Jennifer tells him that she quit the track team. He doesn’t really say much beside hmm.
He’s watching track on T.V. and tells her that he’s going to prove everyone wrong and walk again. Run again. And he wants her there with him.
“People should see that it takes more than a bullet to keep me down. Hey, we gonna do it together, right? You’re my ride or die, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, ride or die.”
She doesn’t seem really committed, though.
___
At Garfield, the board is recommending that Bernard be expelled. Mr. Pierce says he has the final say, but the board disagrees and wants to make an impartial decision.
Kara tells him that he can’t save them all. The students need to do their part, and if they don’t they can’t be there.
He can either expelled Bernard or the board will do it, and he’ll end up getting non-renewed when his contract is up, and they’ll bring in someone with no connection the community. He’s between a rock and hard place.
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Tobias’ sister, Tori, is driving around and shows up at his place. He’s playing with rats that I assume will end up eating someone.
And she asks him:
“So, how’re we going to kill Black Lightning?”
WELP!
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On top of a building, Black Lightning is super impressed with the upgrades to his suit that Gambi has made. He has x-ray vision almost, and he’s watching as people load Greenlight onto temperature controlled semi-trucks.
He knows this isn’t simply the 100 but goes much deeper because it’s so organized and well-funded.
#BlackLightning is always watching. Stream now for free on The CW App: https://t.co/VOJ8Ja85nw pic.twitter.com/59m6qqRgAa
— Black Lightning (@blacklightning) February 11, 2018
As he watches all that go down, Anissa and Grace leave the bar that Grace works at and Anissa asks why she feels like she still needs to run things by her parents. Grace tells her that there’s not a day that goes by that she wouldn’t want her parents advice.
They’re approached by a group of men that call the bar a “lesbian whorehouse” and say someone needs to shut it down. Grace holds out her phone and tells them to call. She has a restraining order against them, and they aren’t supposed to even be there.
One man comes forward and pushes her down, and that’s when Anissa loses it, and knocks the hell out of this guy. She covers her head up with her hood as the guys come up behind her.
Black Lightning hears the explosions and goes to see what’s up. He asks Gambi is the cameras show anything, and Gambi sees exactly what happened and lies to Jefferson AGAIN.
I’m starting to think he’s behaving pretty selfishly about Black Lightning being back, to be honest.
Black Lightning goes back to the docks to see if the trucks are still there, and Gambi goes to the scene of the destruction.
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Anissa is helping Grace with her head wound, and asks:
“Grace, if I could make people who did bad things pay for what they did, that’d be a good thing, right? Right?”
“Yeah.”
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At Tobias’, Tori is setting a plan to help get rid of their problem.
He needs to turn people against Black Lightning, and one way he can do that is by getting Khalil to blame his injuries on Black Lightning.
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Back the rehabilitation facility, Mr. Pierce delivers the horrific news that Khalil’s spinal cord is completely severed now and that he’ll never walk again.
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At Garfield, Kara comes in and tells him that Bernard can stay but he’d have to give up having the final say in all future votes. It’s a catch-22, and you can tell he’s torn between what to do.
In the end, he decides to expel Bernard.
After Kara leaves, Jefferson calls Lynn and expresses all the guilt he has over this collateral damage, but Lynn cuts him off short, saying she’s busy and she’ll talk to him later.
Just as he hangs up, Bernard’s dad calls Jefferson, and it turns out that Bernard turned to Greenlight again and when his dad went get to him, the 100 beat him up.
Black Lightning shows up at this house and wrecks shop, trying to find Bernard. He carries him out of the drug house.
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The next day, Bernard’s dad shows up at Garfield and talk to Mr. Pierce.
“I don’t understand how he got hooked so quick.”
“This new drug is bad like that, but Bernard is in the best treatment facility in Freeland, and when he’s straight, we’ll get him back on track and into college.”
“I’ve put everything I had into giving him a better life. I appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”
Mr. Lewis leaves but you know that everything is far from settled there.
So, while Mr. Pierce never had to expel Bernard, it did come with a price. As he sits back in his chair, he listens to Lynn’s message to him.
She says she’s mad about the Black Lightning stuff, but she still loves him.
All the while, Jeff is smiling.
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Back in Khalil’s room, Tobias is there when he wakes up. He starts filling Khalil’s head with all sorts nonsense about Black Lightning being the reason that he’s there, and since Tobias needs to turn the tables on Black Lightning, he lays it on thick.
“Black Lightning’s the reason you’re lying here paralyzed. There was many times when I was younger I needed help, but no one showed up. I don’t wanna have to see you go through the same thing.”
“Why?”
“Well, I’ve followed your athletic career a long time, and it hurt me to see you hurt, but what I’ve learned about pain is, pain makes you stronger. Pain makes you tougher, and eventually, you get to a point where you don’t even feel it. If you’d like, I can show you how to kill your pain.”
YEAAAAHHHHH, I’m sure this is going to end really well.
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What do you think is up next for the Pierce family? Will Anissa find out who her dad is? Will Gambi come clean? What’s up with him anyway? What about Jennifer? Is she about to go down a dark road, too, as she tries to find out who she is?
Tell us what you think and be sure to live tweet with us Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW!
Black Lightning airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
