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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Black Lightning Season 3 Episode 12: Motherless ID

February 4th, 2020 by Todd Black Comments

After last weeks interesting cliffhanger ending, the latest episode of Black Lightning set something in motions that’s been building for awhile now, the invasion of Markovia. But while originally it would’ve been just to stop the madness of the war between them and the ASA, now the mission was simply to save Lynn.

For the most part, the setup for the invasion was good. From how Jefferson and Anissa found out, to them going to Major Grey to figure out how to get Lynn back, to “assembling” a team to get her out (“I have many stories my friend”), it was all really cool. And we’re getting the Black Lightning version of the Justice League and I totally dig it.

And while it may have been totally awkward last week, the fight to save Kalil was really well done here. From the visuals of the inside of his brain via the chip, to TC having to fight Painkiller and putting him behind a firewall with Jen’s help, to Jen connecting with Kalil, it was really tight, and the visuals are still awesome. I swear they get more and more creative with TC’s eyes and I really dig it.

Lynn’s reunion with Dr. Jace did NOT disappoint. From their epic smackdown, to Lynn doing the “recipe” bit, to her facing the cold hard truth about her addiction (finally…) and more, they set the stage for a dramatic rescue next week. And Dr. Jace sticking it to Tobias after he thought he was bulletproof was another great moment. You’d think he’d know not to mess with doctors by now…

But…there were some bad moments here and deep logic flaws that did hinder things. For example, how in the heck did the Markovians just leave that sergeant guy to go back and tell everyone that Lynn was kidnapped? They’ve shown no capacity for restraint in the past, so why let him live?

Also, I don’t know what was going on with scheduling and wardrobe, but in three scenes with Anissa that were supposedly done in the course of an hour or so she had a total of three different outfits and hairstyle (while some of the other characters still had their previous outfits on…) and one outfit in particular was REALLY lowcut in the front and it wasn’t even funny how eye candy it made Anissa look.

Not to mention Jennifer and some of the other characters continue to have really cheesy and eye-rolling lines that this show usually is good about NOT doing.

Still, the episode was good overall, and next week’s looks to be really sweet…hopefully.

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!