While I do love Black Lightning more than some of the other CW shows at times, there is a really curious trend that they like to do that honestly makes no sense to the larger plot. Mainly, they do these really weird scene jump cuts, and also weird spots for cuts to commercials. Such was the case with “The Battle Of Franklin Terrace”.
This should’ve been the episode that really ratcheted us forward to next weeks midseason finale (which apparently isn’t directly connected to Crisis on Infinite Earths) and instead took a few steps forward, yet also did some really weird things.
For example, seeing Jefferson take a stand against the ASA for a teacher who refused to leave her home was great. Having Thunder return to assist him was great. But right after her rematch with Kalil, suddenly she’s at the radio tower helping Gambi. Did Jefferson even know she left? And how did she get there so fast?
Furthermore, after uploading the video message, Gambi went from the radio tower, to his bunker and was looking up the kid he just met because…reasons? And then all of a sudden Lynn’s in trouble…despite William’s not being anywhere near the area. It was all really confusing.
And the subplot with Jennifer and Brendan was also odd. Jennifer was bad because he kicked her out…even though it was totally her fault that she pushed him over the edge like that? And her reactions to everything is to try and electrocute him…because she knows he can take it? Right… Oh, and did she really get no notifications on her phone that Black Lightning and Thunder were doing a mission in public?
It’s all just very weird to be honest, and that’s sad because there were some good things here. Like Tobias Whale further manipulating Lynn and teasing that he could get stronger. Also, Lynn not having her Green Light pills will lead to some fun things later on. And again, the Resistance getting Black Lightning is an important step for the season.
Oh, and the final battle with Williams? Yeah that was cheap and weird, “I see your point…” really?
So in the end, “The Battle of Franklin Terrace was good in some ways, but the way it was cut together just deluded some stuff at times.
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!
Nerd Comments