TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Black Lightning Season 01 Finale!

As great as a season can be, if it doesn’t stick the landing, it will suffer. Sadly, Black Lightning didn’t stick its landing with “Shadow of Death: The Book Of War”. It was fine, don’t get me wrong, but the over-the-top acting and dialogue of certain characters, plus the rushed death of two key characters made it feel very wonky.

It started out fine enough with Jefferson still laid out from his near death experience. And his flashbacks were an interesting look into this past before things got real. But then, when he woke up, he had no powers. Which we knew wouldn’t last long, and sure enough, Jennifer got angry and then used her powers to charge him back up. This act was cool, but the leadup to it was very dull.

Speaking of dull, Proctor. I noted last episode or the one before that that Black Lightning as a series tends to be a bit heavy-handed with its racism moments. And when Proctor said “Make America Great Again” not once, but twice, you knew it wasn’t just a dig at President Trump, but at white people who voted for him. And yes, I’m sure Proctor did vote for him, but still. I’m really disappointed in him as a villain, because he started out calm and cunning, and then went so over-the-top that when Gambi shot him dead (another point I’m not so sure about), I literally felt nothing.

The same goes for Lala, who we FINALLY got an explanation for in terms of what happened to him. Apparently, Tobias paid to have him “brought to life again”, and because of “side effects”, he sees the people he’s killed, and they will cover him in tattoos because of it…WHAT??!?! If he just saw who he killed, that would be one thing, that’s understandable. But the tattoos as a side effect? Really? I don’t think so.

Once we got to the good stuff, things did got better. Jefferson as an adult getting to talk to his father was very touching. And the fight outside the cabin was epic on many levels, including Jennifer using her powers offensively for the first time. Even Lynn got in on the action, it was cool! And then confronting Proctor together was another great moment.

However, there were questions that were unresolved. First, who did Lynn call to “get the kids out of the tubes”? And how did that lead to the media finding out about everything? Second, the lab tech said that to help the kids he needed the briefcase. Yet, Tobias reacted like he found a new weapon in the case, so what was in it that could do both?

Thankfully for us all, Black Lightning has been renewed for Season 02. So we’ll get these answers and more, and hopefully, we’ll get a less rushed ending to the next season.