Black Lightning - S1E6 - Three Sevens: The Book of Thunder

The Pierce family’s side projects converged this week to give us one of the reveals we’ve been waiting for.

Lynn’s research into the neurological effects of Green Light prompts Lady Eve to send goons to her lab for the data. Unfortunately, Lynn is still there when they arrive. She was in the process of talking Jefferson down from murdering Tobias Whale now that he knows his father’s killer is back in Freeland. When Black Lightning shows up to save Lynn, he finds a masked Anissa has beat him to it; but he mistakes her for a villain and the two trade blows before he manages to incapacitate and recognize her.

It’s hard to fault Jeff’s desire to see Tobias dead. As a boy, he watched Tobias murder his father, and it doesn’t help that he senses Gambi has been hiding what he knew about Tobias’ whereabouts. By the way, he’s not wrong; more on that in a bit. But the whole “you’re not a killer; you’re a hero” plot feels stale on a show that has been anything but.

Gambi’s secrets are tied to not just Tobias, but Lady Eve as well. He pays her a visit and it’s implied she was a former pupil of his within the secret agency mentioned in his conversation with Tobias. She admits to trying to obtain Lynn’s research even though they have a prior agreement to keep the Pierce family out of their dealings. Is this deal due to Jeff’s father’s involvement or Gambi’s relationship with Jeff? Either way, why hasn’t Lady Eve figured out Black Lightning’s identity by now?

Another big question rests on Lynn’s research. Jeff’s brain scan looks identical to one of someone on Green Light. Are they both linked to whatever serum that has given Tobias super strength and halted his aging? Now that Jeff and Lynn are in on Annisa’s secret and she’s aware her father is Black Lightning, hopefully we’ll get a few answers once they all start talking.

It’s Lit

The fight between Anissa and Black Lightning was fun, but it made little sense that Lynn apparently recognized their daughter and he didn’t. Also, this would have been the perfect time to finally show what Black Lightning looks like from someone else’s point of view.

Recharge 

Jennifer continues to be the teen whose paid just enough attention to remind her parents she exists, but without spending any real time or resources digging into her latest and numerous issues. This week, in an episode already super heavy handed with “messages,” Jennifer deals with being bullied for “acting White.” This charge is led by the same girl who Jennifer injured a few weeks ago. You would think she’d have learned a lesson, but here we are. Even though the bullying backfires and the girl’s Black peers drag her for promoting anti-Blackness, the real sting comes from Khalil participating in the online shade. We’ve not seen nearly enough of Tobias having any real influence on Khalil, so his attitude shift appears to be all on him and his current circumstances. Jefferson counsels that he’s probably just lashing out or this could just be who Khalil is when things don’t go his way. Whatever prompted his behavior, he and Jennifer seem to be done for good and he’s firmly in with Tobias.

This week tried to touch on too many hot topics and as a result, the episode felt like an after school special. We got student protest and vandalism of a Civil War statue, anti-Black bullying disguised as being pro-Black, and a “crabs in a barrel” lecture.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Leave your brief thoughts below, on our Facebook post for this review, or to feedback@projectfandom.com, and we’ll read them on tonight’s podcast.