BLACK LIGHTNING - SEASON 3.5

REVIEW:  BLACK LIGHTNING - SEASON 3, EP. 5:  "The Book Of Occupation - Chapter 5:  Requiem For Tavon"

It's safe to say that this season of Black Lightning as been getting better and better.  We're really beginning to see the story pick up, our characters facing new threats, and even a couple of more twists and turns to keep us on our toes.  Most of all---watching Agent Odell of the ASA pull everyone's strings like the puppeteer that he is.  

This week's episode (which was delayed from last week), starts off with Tavon, who's been squirreled away with the Perdi, seeking refuge from the ASA because they think he's a meta.  He's making a video blog to his parents about where he is, and how he's been treated.  But he misses them and wants to go home.  

Odell is on the hunt for Blackbird, as she has been a thorn in his side long enough.  He's been trying to figure out just HOW she is getting the metas OUT of his custody.  He goes over surveillance cameras to try and get facial recognition.  He uses her height and weight to come up with possible candidates.  Turns out.. Anissa is one of them.

Painkiller is awaiting two new sparring partners.  They enter and spar, and he handles them easily, using his poison powers on one of them.  Odell interrupts the exercise to inform Painkiller of his new mission:  take care of Blackbird.  

We see Lynn working with a female meta who appears bulletproof with her powers.  They stop the test for a minute, then start up again, with Lynn increasing the intensity.  The young girl, however, can't handle the pressure, and her body incinerates, killing her.  Lynn wakes up, to notice it's a nightmare.  She gets up and reaches in her purse for the Green Light pills she's now hooked on.  Jefferson wakes up when he finds out she's out of bed.  He asks what's wrong, and she says she has to go back to the lab.  He's not pleased that she's constantly gone, but eventually goes back to sleep.  She takes her pill, and off to the lab she goes.

Anissa is at home in her secret room, listening to a man named Truth Teller Johnson lay down what's been going on in the streets of Freeland, and Blackbird's activities.  

Jefferson is making breakfast for Jen, when she says she isn't feeling good.  Her powers are wigging out, and it's making her ill and weak.  She insists that she needs a sick day, but Jefferson feels her head, and forces her to school.

Lynn is hard a work in the lab, when Odell interrupts.  She explains to him how she has found a way to stablize the meta gene, but she needs a marrow sample from Patient 49.  Odell says he can make that happen.  

Inspector Henderson, meanwhile, is calling for the arrest for Blackbird.  Asks the crowd that if they see something, SAY something.  One of the citizens throws a tomato at him, and laughs.  Henderson just takes it in stride, and ends the press conference.

Tavon's parents go to Jefferson, and appeal for his help.  They are worried about him, and Jefferson explains that Tavon was tagged as a meta.  But that's impossible, according to his parents, because he took the test, and he passed.  So, it appears someone set him up.  Jefferson promises he will do all he can to bring Tavon home.

Anissa gives the meta vaccine to Grace to keep her safe.  She still is uneasy about everything, and Anissa puts her at ease again.  She knows what's been going on with the ASA, her activities as Blackbird, and even her father have made Grace scared, but she's going to protect her.  She calls Gambi to sit with Grace, while she delivers more of the vaccine.  

Jennifer is in class when her powers start acting up against her will.  She asks the new kid Brandon for his coat to mask her powers, but she ends up shorting out the lab.  She is deeply concerned.

Odell brings in Patient 49 for Lynn---it's Tobias!  As she preps him to get his bone marrow sample, he does his best to goad her.  She injects him with the serum that gave him his powers, because he needs to be at optimum health to get his bone marrow.  He still promises to kill Black Lightning AND Jefferson Pierce...but swears that he'll never harm Lynn or her daughters.  Lynn is disgusted with him regardless, an injects the needle to extract the bone marrow sample without a numbing agent...just to show Tobias she isn't intimidated.

Blackbird is making the rounds, giving some of the vaccine to Reverent Holt, as he says he's not sure how much longer he can do this.  She tells him patience.  She then delivers more of the vaccine to the Perdi, whose leader still doesn't like Anissa.  Anissa then gets a call from her dad about taking Tavon back to his parents.  He informs her of the set up, and says his parents are worried sick.  She doesn't like the idea, and feels it's too risky, but she agrees to do it.  She informs Tavon, and off they go.

While Blackbird and Tavon make their way back to Freeland, Painkiller is on stakeout, figuring out where she's getting in and out of the perimeter.  Once they have an idea how she does it...he lays in wait for her to arrive.  She does get back in with Tavon, but is met by Painkiller.  She urges Tavon to run, and her and Painkiller battle, with him getting the upper hand.  Tavon hits him from behind, and pays for it, by getting nailed with Painkiller's poison.  Blackbird calls out to Gambi and her dad that she's in trouble, and Jefferson is on the way.  She manages to take down Painkiller briefly, so that her and Tavon can escape, but he's in bad shape.

Odell pays a visit to Anissa's where he inquires about her activities.  She responds sheepishly that she's been at home during curfew.  He tries to go upstairs, looking for anything unusual.  Meanwhile, in Anissa's secret room, Gambi waits with a gun, while watch the conversation on her security cameras.  Anissa convinces Odell that she's been home, as he realizes that Blackbird is being confronted right now.  He excuses himself, and--once gone---Anissa shapeshifts to Grace, who covered for her.  

Inspector Henderson, at this time, pays a visit to the man who tossed the tomato at him...a bar owner named Two-Bits.  He arrests him, and also goes to pay a visit to the Reverend Hold as well---and arrests him when he feels he's been harboring refugees.

Once Tobias is done taunting Lynn...he's escorted away, and Lynn is visibly pissed off at Odell that he did not inform her who Patient 49 was.  She says that once she gets what she needs...she wants Tobias dealt with.

Black Lightning and Gambi meet Blackbird and Tavon in the tunnels.  He's dying, and there isn't anything Jefferson can do to save him.  Jefferson then later takes his parents to see him, and they're distraught that they lost their son.  Jefferson apologizes, saying the ASA had attacked him and were responsible.

The next school day, word of Tavon's death reaches his classmates, and they begin to protest against the ASA guards, who then get rough with one of the kids standing up to them.  Jefferson steps in and chastises them for their behavior towards a kid.  They belt him for his supposed insubordination, and continue to beat on him, as the students watch in horror.  Jennifer goes to see what's wrong, and sees her dad about ready to use his powers, but holds back and takes the beating.  She begins to power up, but Brandon pulls her aside and absorbs her power.  HE is the metahuman that set up Tavon it looks like.  She then goes and has a talk with Odell, ticked off at HIS guards for their behavior.  He says they acted of their own accord.  She puts it on him, still.  He then asks her if she wants to go for a ride.  We then see those same guards hanging out, and playing cards, when the door gets busted open, and there's Jennifer, in full costume, with a big grin on her face.

We see the police van holding Two-Bits and the Reverend Holt come to a stop out in the middle of the woods.  When they get out, they see Henderson, who reveals he's been part of the resistance against the ASA for awhile.  Blackbird shows up with the others, and Henderson shows them the incident at the school involving Jefferson's beatdown, and says that NOW that they have the city ready to fight...it's time to work together to take down the ASA, and get their city back.  Two-Bits and Henderson shake hands, sealing the pact.  

Another stellar episode!  This one had some emotional feels in it, tragedy, some action, and certainly paints a picture of power gone awry.  Odell has kept his cards close to the vest, and almost got to Anissa.  He's inching closer to her secret ID as Blackbird, and she took one on the chin against Painkiller.  He is Odell's perfect soldier...no moral code or humanity whatsoever.  Just a killing machine looking to complete a mission.  As much philosophy as he reads and disperses out before battle...he's become utterly heartless...much like Odell.  To Odell...EVERYONE is a means to an end.  And he continues to string the Pierce family along for his own machinations, though only Jefferson appears to really be somewhat immune to it, and Anissa is using the Blackbird ID to her own agenda.  

Getting Tobias back to 100% will create another problem down the road for Black Lightning and family, but for Odell himself once he gets free---and trust me---Tobias WILL get free.  He's got A LOT of payback he feels he's due, and he's going to do all he can to get his pound of flesh. He pushes Lynn's buttons a lot this episode, trying to find her breaking point....but to her credit, she holds her own.  Even as the Green Light is beginning to effect her greatly, she's still a strong woman.   She also managed to finally see what Dr. Jace had been up to in order to get to the results needed to create a serum to stablize the metas.  

Anissa now has an even bigger target on her back, what with Painkiller on her tail now.  Odell is still suspicious of Anissa, but thankfully, Grace managed to fool him this time.  Not sure how much longer before Grace gets pulled into this war, probably against her wishes.  But her and Anissa have a good thing going, and I would hate to see it destroyed because of Odell.  Jennifer, on the other hand...her powers are starting to rule her again, and is having a hard time containing them.  Not sure if this is the work of Odell, or just something happening with her naturally.  But had it not been for Brandon--whom I had suspected as the metahuman, but set up Tavon to cover his ass--she wouldn't have been able to contain herself.  Now HE has A LOT of explaining to do.

The heartbreak this episode was Tavon---and innocent kid who became the victim of Odell's war on metas and (supposedly) the Markovians.  Mistaken as a meta, all he did was believe that IF the humans and metas worked TOGETHER, they could restore Freeland to they way it was...or even better.  He saw the good in ALL of them, and paid the ultimate price for that.  However, because of his death...and Jefferson's beatdown to spare the students from the ASA guards....Tavon has become the martyr the town needed to rise up.  With Henderson actually working on the inside, the troops will rally, so-to-speak, and the REAL war will begin.

There was nothing on the Markovian front this week---and sadly, that's the ONE part of this story we're not getting enough of.  Where is Dr. Jace, what is going on with them, and what's their interest with the meatahumans outside of creating an army?  

This show just keeps improving, and the story is solid.  They're telling it at a wonderful pace, and there's not much down time.  It's keeping you on your toes, and looking forward to what happens next.  They're building to the crescendo, and it's going to be great once we get there.  Let's not also forget, kids....CRISIS is coming, and Jefferson will be sucked right into it.  

That does it for this edition.  Thanks for reading, and please subscribe, inform everyone else I'm here, and leave a comment!

Until next time...the power is OUT!