Jefferson has so much happening in his life, and he’s not sure where to start or how to process some of it. Here’s our recap of “The Book of Little Black Lies”!
Jefferson is taking out all his anger on a punching bag while Gambi’s voice runs through his head and his eyes glow. It’s safe to say that he’s not going to be over this for awhile.
While he’s still angry, he calls Henderson and calls him out asks why someone destroyed evidence instead of collected it. Jefferson calls him out on that shit.
“Man, I thought you and I were supposed to shoot straight with each other.”
“When have I ever shot crooked?”
“Yeah, I gave you a lead that would help find Lady Eve’s real killer.”
“And I passed that lead along.”
“Then why did some fool destroy the evidence instead of collecting it?”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
It’s not easy being the good guy, but they have to be the good guy. Green Light has to be stopped and Jefferson says that Black Lightning isn’t going to sit around and wait for Green Light to be the crack of this generation.
Jefferson then says that Henderson can help him. He needs him to follow up on the leads he has. Henderson tells him that he has to make him a promise in return for his investigating.
“I’ve got some vacation days stored up. I’ll use them to do some investigating. Just do me one favor.”
“And, what’s that?”
“If I end up dead in some alley somewhere, and they say I was dirty, make sure my wife and my family know the truth.”
—-
Anissa and Jennifer have a heart-to-heart about Jennifer’s newly shown powers. Jennifer thinks she’s just smoked too much weed and that she’s crazy, but Anissa assures her that she’s not…that Anissa has powers, too.
When Jennifer doesn’t listen, she lifts up the bed to prove her strength.
Jennifer doesn’t take it well and runs out of the room and straight into her dad. When she confronts him with that Anissa said, Jennifer snaps:
“Look, honey, honey, let me explain.”
“”Explain”? How you’ve been lying to me my whole life? You said I could trust you.”
“And you can.”
“Is that supposed to be a joke? Why should I believe anything you say?”
Jennifer leaves and Anissa walks upstairs while Jefferson is left to deal with way too much drama in life currently.
—-
Jefferson and Lynn go after Anissa for being extremely disrespectful in talking to Jennifer first before they had a chance to tell her what was going on.
Anissa says that Jennifer is going to be okay, but Lynn lays it all out for Anissa:
Jennifer is not the only one I am worried about, here, Anissa. Have you forgotten your father, Black Lightning, is being framed for a crime he didn’t commit? And that there are people out there looking to kill him? And both of you are in danger, and now this?
Jefferson assure Lynn that he won’t let anything happen to their girls, and Lynn asks if that’s a promise he can really make. When he says that he’d die to protect them, it doesn’t help.
Then Lynn starts to think Anissa is right.
When Jefferson says that he’s not going to let these people who are trying to frame him detract from his mission as Black Lightning. That’s when Anissa comes in and asks how they do that. He lays out a plan but then Anissa asks about Gambi, and Jefferson puts a stop to that convo quickly.
Lynn explains that research was also in the case about a politician…Tobias Whale. When he benches Anissa, she says either she can help him outright or she’ll go behind his back. Lynn tells them both to be safe and puts the arguement to rest.
—
Lynn goes to speak to Jennifer and tells her that she knows what she’s going through. Jennifer asks if she’s Vixen, and Lynn jokes, then tells her that she’s not a superhero. She’s just mom, and she’s there for her if she wants to talk.
—
Anissa and Jefferson go through the court documents and find a link to a company called BendsCORP. Anissa said she saw that name in some documents of her grandfather’s. He wrote a big check and GTC on it.
It turns out that Papa Pierce used to say that as “Gotcha!” and he was using that check to incriminate the corporation.
“Okay, so, BendsCORP, whatever it is…”
“Right.”
“Tried to bribe your grandfather to kill the story about what they were doing to the people of Freeland, but the check was the corroboration he wanted to run his story.”
“All right. So, what now?”
“Well, we need to find out about who was behind incorporating BendsCORP. Those records are public. Should be filed here with the state.”
“All right. I’ll be back.”
“We’re close.”
—
Gambi stabs some guy with Black Mamba venom and tells this person he can have the antivenom, if he gives him the name and how to find him. The guy writes it down and Gambi gives him the name of the guy who made the weapon that framed Black Lightning.
—
It’s nighttime in Freeland, and Anissa and Jefferson are doing some invesitigating of their own. They’re dressed up as Barack and Michelle Obama, and Jefferson isn’t too sure this is the best way to handle things.
The lawyer does offer to help after Jefferson reveals his powers. Then in a true Get Out reference, the lawyer tells Jefferson that he voted for Obama, both times.
—
When they get home, Anissa goes to Jennifer and tells her that it was weird when she found out about her powers and that she got into a fight with Dad. A legit fight.
“Look, do you know how I found out the truth about our special family? Girl, Dad and I got into a fight. Or rather, Black Lightning and Thunder got into a fight.”
“Who won?”
“That’s not important, okay.”
“Okay, obviously, you didn’t.”
Jennifer goes on to say that she just wants to be normal. She doesn’t want special powers, and Anissa tells her she can look at it differently while Jennifer argues they never had a choice.
“God, I just want to be normal.”
“Yeah, well, “normal” is overrated.”
“That’s something you hear in an after-school special. I’m serious. Anissa, I don’t want to be like this.”
“This is who you are, Jennifer. This is who we are. And, listen, you can think of this as a burden, or you can think of it as a gift, a blessing from God. Choice is yours. We are who we are.”
“But that’s the point. The choice is not ours. We don’t have a choice.”
Anissa notices something on Jennifer’s laptop and takes it from her. What she finds is some guy talking about her ass…and then she finds out that she has more online fans than dad.
—-
In the cave of deception, Gambi reaches out to the guy who made the weapon via Skype or Facetime or something. In about ten seconds, Gambi breaks though his encryptions and sees a young guy who is freaked beyond belief, and then immediately tells him what he wants to know.
—
Henderson is at an unofficial stakeout and catches the guns that will kill Black Lightning being sold…to another cop.
—
In a move straight out of Fred and George’s trick book, Gambi lowers a small spy camera into a room from an air vent to find the body on a table.
He flashes back to when he saw a kid playing basketball for the first time, and his huge half court small dunk. He reports that he’s found another one into a walkie-talkie.
He removes the camera and leaves.
—
That night, Anissa shows up at Gambi’s and wants to know what went down between him and her dad. Gambi tells her that he needs to fix this because he caused a lot of people pain and there’s so much danger.
“I used to work as a sort of a scout.”
“A scout? A scout for who?”
“For some people I now know are very bad. I helped them find young people with abilities.”
“You mean, young people like me with powers?”
“Yes, and I just saw the body of one of the boys that I helped find 30 years ago.”
“Oh, my God!”
“Along with several others.”
Then he has the gall to tell her not to tell her dad. I SWEAR, GAMBI.
Before Anissa leaves, Gambi says that he wants her and her family to know that he cares about all of them, and he’ll do anything to protect them. Then he gives her a bag, shows her out, and tells her to be safe.
It’s her official Thunder suit!
When Jefferson sees her, he knows she went to Gambi. Anissa tries to get her dad to understand that Gambi wants to help them, and she tries to compare that to Jefferson lying to her, but he changes the subject to the people they are fighting.
—-
Back at the Pierce home, Lynn tries to talk to Jennifer who starts to walk away. Lynn puts a stop to that immediately.
Then she goes on to tell her that they couldn’t tell her when she was little because she might blurt it out at the wrong time then he stopped and there was no reason to. Since Jefferson didn’t inherit his powers, there was no reason to expect she’d get some.
In a seriously emotional moment, Jennifer breaks down:
“Mom, I’m not Anissa. I don’t want to save the world. I want to go to prom, and college, and get married, and have babies. Can I even have kids?”
“I don’t…”
“You don’t know. Do you?”
“Oh, baby, no. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
—
Black Lightning and Thunder are waiting for the criminal to show up. He does, but they can’t tell what he says. It turns out that Anissa can lip-read and knows EXACTLY what was said:
“Something’s wrong. I can’t reach Teddy. We need to move the lab tonight. Get the last batch out.”
As they walk away, Henderson calls them and tells them that he’s following the dirty cop because he knows something bad is about to go down, and he has to try and stop it. Jefferson tries to get him to stop but Henderson hangs up on him.
—-
The guy that Thunder and Black Lightning were following arrives at the warehouse, and so do they. They destroy the place and Green Light within.
It’s awesome to see them in action! There powers are different and both seriously awesome.
The leader, holds a gun to the doctor’s head, and the doctor begs him not to shoot. Someone comes up from behind Jefferson with a gun, but Henderson shows up at the right moment and kills him then takes the doctor into custody.
The SWAT team is making their way through the warehouse, too, as Black Lightning continues to ruin it all. That’s when Jefferson gets hit by one of those guns that takes away his powers. Before they can take a shot at him, Anissa shows up and distracts him.
Then they blow up the building as they walk away. Like complete badasses.
—
When Jefferson gets home, he tries to talk to Jennifer and promises to be honest with her.
“Powers aren’t always a blessing, they can be a burden. I don’t want that for you, but I understand you’re not a little girl anymore, and I can’t treat you like one. And that means bein’ honest with you, and I will. Okay? From here on out.”
Jennifer invites him to watch a movie with her, and he asks when the last time they did that was and it was a while ago when she had the flu…and she got him sick.
It’s such a beautiful father/daughter bonding moment, and what Jennifer needs to make her feel safe again.
Black Lightning airs on Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
