TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Black Lightning Season 2 Episode 4 : Translucent Freak

A very interesting episode of Black Lightning tonight, and a lot to cover. Without a doubt, the family issues that the Pierce family is facing is what makes this show so compelling most of the time. Sure, Barry and Oliver each have their own families with their own issues, but this feels more honest, more complete. Such as when Pierce pulled the “under my house” move. And Anissa said, “ok, I’ll be gone by morning”. She could do that and do it believably because we’ve seen her in her own place last season.

And then with the Jennifer arc, of her still being stuck at home, and not being able to control her powers still, and being so crushed about being stuck there that she goes to Kalil. That was believable because she had no one else to go to in order to vent, not even Anissa.

It’s these moments that make Black Lightning a very good show. Not just a very good superhero show (which it had plenty of that tonight), but a good show in general.

Seeing Tobias’ plan come to fruition was also expertly done. I was wondering why he was doing things like killing off old friends and allies. But it was all to help him clear his name so that the could be a “pillar of the community”, as well as bring back the 100, which is something I honestly didn’t expect. Seeing Pierce devastated that the very methods used to protect him and his powers as a child were the very things that ensured Whale’s escape (more or less) was very heartbreaking. Sure, we know Tobias will go down eventually, but it won’t be soon.

Sadly, other aspects didn’t really jive. The death of Marissa should’ve been more meaningful because we knew her last season. Instead, she died on the floor at the EXACT moment she was going to tell Gambi everything. Really?

Also, Principal Lowry returned, and though his scenes with Pierce this time were much better than his inauguration last week, the results were exactly as I feared. He’s just a white guy who doesn’t care about the students like Jefferson did. And he even had the audacity to say that there would be no fights or shootings or drugs in the school because of his rules. Really? Could you be more overt? Not only is that wrong, that’s just stupid. And I hope he gets proven wrong in the biggest way possible. The only positive light from this thread is that Jefferson now has the motivation to try and take the school back, which I hope he does, and soon.

Finally, the new character of Dr. Jace is equally as annoying as Lowry, and her talk about a metahuman family (which was a big “wink wink” to the audience) was very eye-rolling. I hope she either goes full villain or Lynn straightens her out, because it’s unclear how she’s going to be a key to this season.

Still, with all that, “Translucent Freak” had more plusses than minuses, and that’s a good thing.