Black Lightning’s Explosive Season 2 Premiere Came Out Swinging

Black Lightning’s Explosive Season 2 Premiere Came Out Swinging

Tuning in to Black Lightning’s second season premiere today was equal parts thrilling and stressful. Thrilling because the show’s first season was one of the CW’s strongest offerings in years — and stressful because, well, how do you top a damn near perfect season of television?

The answer is that you don’t, exactly. While “The Book of Consequences: Chapter One: Rise of the Green Light Babies” is the start of a new season, the episode feels like a continuation of the story Black Lightning has been telling from the very beginning. It’s a story about how the people of Freeland are caught in the crossfire of a larger conflict they can’t handle on their own, and what Jefferson Pierce and his family are doing to keep their community safe.

“Rise of the Green Light Babies” immediately makes clear that Black Lightning isn’t at all finished with its exploration of the different ways that anti-black institutional racism harms people, despite being incorporated into systems that are presumably meant to support and protect the public.

In the wake of team Black Lightning exposing the government program that was disappearing young black children from Freeland in order to experiment on them and turn them into metahuman bioweapons, the city is devastated and angry — but the trauma manifests itself in a variety of forms that ultimately ends up causing even more pain.

When Issa Williams, a young teen, suddenly manifests metahuman abilities as a result of using the drug Green Light, police officers swarm the boy and put him in a chokehold that kills him — all the while people look on and record in horror, begging for the officers to let him go.

It’s a moment reminiscent of Eric Garner’s death at the hands of Daniel Pantaleo, a New York police officer who was similarly recorded choking the father of six to death in 2014.

Issa’s death sparks a number of different reactions that all reflect the broken state Freeland is in.

There’s a justified anger and distrust of the city’s police force, who have a long history of being disproportionately brutal with the city’s population even before Green Light became a problem. Added to that, the families of the people who were disappeared and experimented on have no method of recourse to actually get their loved ones back or hold those who tortured them accountable.

But there’s also a kind of complicated fear of Issa himself. As a “Green Light baby” — a term for new metas who develop abilities — Issa’s an outcast in a society of people who are already second-class citizens. Not only is he different because of the presence of his undefined abilities, but he’s also a kind of symbol for the way that Green Light swept its way through Freeland and triggered a wave of a new kind of superpowered violence that people rightfully fear.

That fear becomes something that shapes how many of Freeland’s citizens think of all the city’s new meta population, and it also puts a strain on the Pierce family that brings out each of their own personal dramas.

As Anissa sets out to rob local criminals of their ill-gotten money in order to help the families of those who were experimented on pay for legal representation, Jennifer is struggling to come to terms with the fact that she has powers she can’t control.

While Jefferson is obviously proud that both of his daughters take after him in the metahuman sense (and in the sense that they’re both inclined to fight for justice), Lynn is understandably scared for her daughters’ mental and physical well being.

Unlike Anissa’s density manipulation, Jennifer’s energy generation is a powerset that the Pierces scarcely understand and are ill-equipped to help her deal with, which in turn contributes to her feelings of isolation. At a time in her life where Jennifer’s already trying to figure out what kind of person she wants to be, she’s grappling with the fact that abilities like hers are exactly what’s turned the public against metahumans.

But for all of the heady turmoil the Pierce family is going through, they’re still tightly-bound to one another as a cohesive unit; it feels like an upgrade of sorts compared to the first season, when they were all still learning truths about one another.

Black Lightning’s villains, on the other hand, are even more disjointed than when we last saw them, and it’ll be interesting to see what their being on uneven footing will mean for their plans of attack this season. Tobias Whale and Syonide feel as though they’re on the defensive or in a mode of planning throughout most of the episode.

If anything, “Rise of the Green Light Babies” feels like a particularly strong mid-season episode that’s designed to remind you who Black Lightning’s characters are and what’s pushing them forward, and the fact that this is only the season’s premiere promises that we’re in for a wild ride.

Assorted Musings

  • I was legitimately shocked to see Benjamin Crump make a guest appearance on a show like this, or that Black Lightning would very literally reference our real-world political struggles like this.
  • Kara Fowdy’s fight against Syonide in the car park has some of the best stunt choreography on television this year. When she whipped out the weapon stilettos, I got chills.
  • The families of Freeland who are fighting to get their children back clearly call to mind all of the undocumented children who’ve been separated from their families, are being held in detention centres, and may very well never see their loved ones again.
  • The scene where Jennifer’s powers flare up and she hurts Lynn was fine on its own, but the fear in Lynn’s face when Jennifer tries to go and help her is what really punches the moment up. Both China Anne McClain and Christine Adams were phenomenal.

  • Don’t tell Daredevil, but Anissa’s storming the drug house has one of the best hallway fight scenes on television. Again, the choreography is absolutely fantastic and it gave you a real sense that Anissa’s coming into her powers in a really interesting way beyond simply clapping her hands to create seismic shocks.
  • The moment when Issa Williams wakes up in his body bag, seemingly back from the dead, and his mother rejects him when she realises that he’s a metahuman, is heartbreaking and such a smart narrative decision. It’s illustrating the kinds of pain that Freeland’s people are all dealing with and it’s the perfect kind of origin story for a new generation of meta outcasts with the potential to become heroes or villains.

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