“Homecoming” was another great example of Black Lightning working in the best ways at times…but still succumbing to some of its worst flaws in others. But hey, at least we got one heck of a history lesson at the end!
After multiple seasons teasing what was in the briefcase, we finally got the truth. This briefcase holds the entire history of the meta genome that was born because of the government (which means obviously that this doesn’t include the ones before from the Particle Accelerator explosion). And low and behold, instead of making Captain America, they made…Gravedigger.
While somewhat out of place in the grand scale of the episode, finding out why Gravedigger is so important, what he means to the war that is coming, and how it ties in everything that’s going on in Freeland over the past three seasons is very impressive world-building. And I look forward to seeing it progress.
Also on the positive side was the rebuilding of the family Pierce. With Lynn’s addiction out in the open, it creates a lot of interesting moments. Including Lynn’s acknowledgement of what Jefferson has gone through as Black Lightning, Anissa trying to take care of her mother, and Lynn confessing that she still had some drugs left and letting Jennifer destroy them. Personally, that dinner scene was great television. Especially the nonchalant “reveal” of Crisis on Infinite Earths via Jefferson.
Other elements had potential too, like the confrontation with Lady Eve and Gambi, Gambi helping Kalil with his PTSD, and more. But then…
…like usual, Black Lightning has some really bad timing when it comes to jump cuts. One minute we’re watching the beginnings of a fight between the ASA and Freeland (“with a touch of grace”) and then commercial break and it’s over. Why? I don’t know. Then, there was Kalil relapsing via “glitching”, which has never happened before yet they’re acting like it has, and then a few jump cuts and Kalil is killing Jennifer and then…he’s not.
Oh, and Jennifer went from, “you’re not a monster” to, “I can’t love a monster” in one scene flat. What happened to never giving up on him?
And the Dr. Jace scene, while informative, didn’t help the rigidity of the scene between her and Geo-Force. Also, is his alive? We didn’t see him after the Kalil attack and no one seemed to care that Kalil almost killed Jennifer!
In the end, “Homecoming” did some really cool stuff, but it didn’t stick the landing on others, and that weighed it down.
Todd Black
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!
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