Black Lightning
Season two / episode 10 --"The Book of Rebellion: Chapter Three: Angelitos Negros" - Mid-season premiere
Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning: His anger toward Khalil is understandable, but he seemed surprisingly calm about his secret identity no longer being secret. Still, with every reason to end Khalil away, his principal/dad mind understands that he's not responsible for his plight and the choices that forced him to make. Not the kind of understanding he would ever get from outsiders.
Lynn: Everyone seems a bit put off by her being so proactive--and armed--but she did protect the family in this way not long ago, so they should be used to how family will motivate her, so its no surprise that she was the one to find Jennifer & Khalil, almost as if by instinct rather than the cell phone trace.
Khalil & Jennifer: Thankfully, they were not only mature enough to not only understand what kind of danger they were facing, but avoid giving in to any physical desires.
Once again, we see the ridiculously mischaracterized Khalil doing the honorable thing and taking Jennifer back home, but the price he paid was gruesome, with the only way he was ever going to leave Tobias would be in the same condition at the point he met the criminal.
Even at the sight of Khalil's mutilated body, the reverend still comforts him with references from scripture. Nice to see and a reflection of real life.
Todd Green: Intelligent, but he's feeling himself a bit too much In how he addresses Cutter. In Green...so far...we see the opposite of Khalil; both had hope, but one is diving into a life of crime with no regrets. He feels rejected by the white establishment (as seen in his first appearance), when a kid of hi intellect would be embraced under other circumstances (a different race), so in a sense, one might understand--but not support his no-questions-asked acceptance of Tobias' hand.
Tobias: Ripping the artificial spine out of Khalil...absolutely vicious, especially for a regular network series.
So, it seems he's not working with the A.S.A., since he's using Green to uncover their interest in the clinic (which is now known). I suppose that makes sense, as he had his own interests in controlling Green Light, but his end-game with that is still a mystery.,, or perhaps its no longer a mystery, but an altered purpose, now that Green has uncovered the "Masters of Disaster"/ super-meta program--one that has information from 30 years ago. Who would doubt its going to lead back to a certain couple of men?.
...and of course, there's the weekly dose of...
"Americans and most negroes don't respect the impact jazz had on the culture..." - Tobias reveals a class / cultural bias harbored by some in the black community who lament--or are angered about the past couple of generations ignoring the magnitude of the cultural effect jazz had on the world, at a time when that was one of the most effective, barrier-crossing forms of social and artistic communication in the world.
"One of the transformed vegan negroes.." - He's a confused mess; on the one hand, he routinely blasts black people for playing into stereotypes of race, but mocks others for going their own way--one some see as an attempt to "be white." There's no winning with him.
"Open them thick lips and use your white voice.." - Acknowledging that in dealing with anyone in any professional way, they have the expectation of hearing a so-called "white voice", yet its still an insult to Green, who--in a perfect world--would not need a dominant cultural mask to get by.
"...but you got the heart of a sharecropper--happy to spend the days tending to massa's land" - again, another (self-hating) insult based on his false perception that brutality, manipulation and force is the only way to "get over" and in not adopting that ideology, one must suffer from the "slave mentality."
Giselle Cutter: Interesting how for such a confident, cold killer, she has zero tolerance for young Green mocking her. After singlehandedly killing an entire S.W.A.T. unit, she's just jumped to the top of the "what's her true story is" list.
Henderson: We see how from his law enforcement, pragmatic, black survivor's world view, he does not see Khalil's choices (in the wake of his crippling injury) as justifiable at all, since both he and Jefferson did not have a Brady Bunch childhood, but still made the right set of choices. Thankfully, Jefferson was coming around to know that life is never so easy as a simple choice for one who was as hopeless as post-injury Kahlil.
NOTES: Intense, powerful start to 2B, with the tease of the "Masters of Disasters" program, and just how Tobias might use it, and not just against the Pierce family. I don't see him using the "pod children" (or anyone else) for what amounts to a "turf war" between his organization and the A.S.A. There must be something bigger just around the corner.
Horrifying at times, this series--once again--proves that it is speaking a language unlike any of the Arrowverse shows..
As always, excellent cinematography, setting a strangely attractive, yet dangerous look for that world.
GRADE: A+
