"The Book of Resistance: Chapter One: Knocking on Heaven's Door" – Black Lightning S03E06 Review

Well, that was fun while it lasted.

Don't get me wrong. We'll probably have a good episode down the road. If nothing else, the Crisis crossover promises to give Black Lightning something to do. But Black Lightning is wildly inconsistent. Some episodes are good, some episode are so-so. The show is never horrible: there's too much creative talent involved, both in front of and behind the camera, but it's hard for the show to keep up momentum when it's typically one step forward, two steps back.

What does this have to do with "Chapter One: Knocking on Heaven's Door"? Last week had some forward momentum: Jeff gets beat up by soldiers, Tavon dies, Painkiller and Thunder fight it out, Inspector Bill shows his true colors as the secret leader of the Insurgent, Tobias gets his immortality back and starts laying smack on Lynn.

This week, none of that seems to matter much as "Heaven's Door" mires itself in half-assed plotlines that start and then just... stop. Jennifer finds out Brandon is a meta earthbender, he makes her a diamond, and cut. Odell comes into Jeff's house, threatens him, Jeff threatens Odell back, and cut. The Insurgent lose Truthteller Johnson, who was never given much character in the first place, and we have a side plot of Bill recruiting Jamilah Olsen (Adetinpo Thomas) to be the new Voice of the Insurgents.

Anissa is dying from Painkiller's toxin he hit her with last week. So Anissa and Gambi have their own little "Save Anissa Pierce!" side plot, with Grace there to shiver and lose control of her shapeshifting powers, whatever the hell they are. Grace talks about how she can turn into a leopard, and yes, they've mentioned that before, but then how does she turn into an elderly Asian man and a younger version of herself? And we saw last week she shapeshifted into Anissa. So can she shapeshift into any form she wants? If so, why the focus on her being a leopard so often?

None of this matters, though, because Grace sits around and breaks into tears a lot. And occasionally loses control of her spots. I hope Chantal Thuy is being paid a lot, because her role as Grace is a pretty thankless one. I don't expect Grace to start becoming super shapeshifter and joining the resistance, but she seems to exist mainly to give Anissa a lesbian interest and that's it.

As noted, Jennifer breaks into Brandon's (Jhaking Guillory)'s apartment and finds out it's a greenhouse with bags of coal, and he has a computer with photos of Lynn on it. When Brandon comes in, there's a confusing fight and eventually Brandon uses dirt to repel Jennifer's lightning blasts. He explains he's an earthbender (we just had one show up on Supergirl last night, and Guillory is no Mitch Pileggi), and he came to Freeland to kill Jace because Jace killed his parents.

Oh, yes, Jace is back. In a role so small and insignificant it isn't necessary. She's working for the Markovian soldiers who are invading Freeland, and Instant (Tosin Morohunfola) is along with her helping the Marikovians in return for a big payday. I have a soft spot for on-screen teleporters, and credit to director Jeff Byrd: he makes the fight between Instant and a truck full of ASA soldiers dynamically interesting.

Odell somehow knows Instant uses neutrinos to teleport, tracks him to the former Club 100 that's now the ASA command center, and uses neutrino generators or suppressors to stop Instant from teleporting away. Instant is in the command center with the Markovian soldiers, and despite the fact they're surrounded by armed soldiers, they somehow manage to defeat their opponents who have the drop on them. Black Lightning responds to the gunfire, breaks in, knocks out the generators, and Instant teleports away with the Markovian commander, Mosin.

Mosin pays off Instant and Jace figures out Lynn must have the metagene suppressor. And Mosin goes all bwah-hah-hah and says they'll take it from Lynn to stabilize their army of metas. What army?

Gambi recognizes Khalil's poison, and confirms Khalil's coffin is empty.

Lynn and Jeff's marriage has slowly been breaking up. After Jeff does his Black Lightning shtick, Lynn gets all up in his grill about it because he didn't consult her first. At the end of the episode, she packs, complains Jeff doesn't listen to her while not listening to Jeff, and walks out. I have mixed feelings about their break-up. Having them together brings a family atmosphere to the show, but I've never thought they made a particularly well-matched couple. I can see why they broke up originally, and I'm not surprised they're breaking up again. Granted, Lynn taking Green Light isn't helping, but she's always been judgmental and aloof. And Jeff is a big doofus when it comes to sharing things with his wife.

We also get an opening sequence where Jeff, Lynn, and Anissa attend Tavon's funeral. This seems like it was left over from last week, and it's a bit more interesting and exciting than the rest of the episode. Tavon gets dropped down the memory hole after they wrap that scene.

Overall, "Heaven's Door" is a so-so episode. It seems to be setting a lot of pieces into place, but we've just had five episodes of the creative team setting a lot of pieces into place. As my SO noted, it feels like they're just treading water until Crisis occurs in early December. Most of the main characters are spread apart: Jeff and Lynn are separating, Jennifer is off with Brandon, Inspector Bill is running the Insurgents. Khalil is nowhere to be seen this week. Anissa spends a lot of her time with Gambi, and credit to James Remar: he's both the glue that holds a lot of the show together, and often is the only character on the show who gets things done. He's the one who saves Anissa and confirms Khalil is alive. Who knew Raiden Mk. II had it in him?

Credit also to Marvin "Krondon" Jones III. He's back in fine racist form this week, insulting black women in general, and Lynn in particular, but at least Tobias provides some flat-out villainy and actually appears to be doing something. He blackmails Lynn into providing him with a list of metas at the Pit. Which is ironic, since Tobias threatens to tell Odell Jeff is BL again. But Odell already knows it, even if he doesn't do anything about it except make a few vague threats against Jeff. Jeff is still using Odell's spiffy new BL suit, so presumably Odell can shut down BL with a button on a remote.

My point is Tobias is a slimy villain, and revels in it. The creative team also seem to revel in it when they do something with Tobias, and I'm waiting for Tobias and a horde of metas to break out of the Pit, spreading death and destruction, and giving Odell what he deserves. Odell, on the other hand, is presented as doing whatever the script requires. Does he need to be mean and threatening? That he is. Does he need to be more acceptable and claim he marched with MLK? Then he's that. Either make Odell the Big Bad, or get him out of the way and let Tobias do it.

Or here's a thought: bring in another Big Bad. Not minor-league one-offs like Looker from last season. And not the on-again/off-again Markovians. But an actual meta Big Bad that can give Tobias a run for his money. Tobias has been in the Pit for months: hasn't there been someone out there wanting to take his throne?

And I don’t mean the one-in-a-while Lala. Or Instant. One of Black Lightning's problems is it often it doesn't commit to secondary characters. Two-Bits was recruited into the Insurgents last week: there's no sign of him this week. Lala has made some minor efforts to pull The 100 back together, but he's been absent for four episodes. A guy who can't be killed and can use the spirits of the people he's killed as his army could make a decent Big Bad and a rival to Tobias. But Lala shows up, the creative team flirts with him trying to put The 100 back together, and then he disappears.

A lack of a Big Bad also means BL suffers by comparison. Like they say, a hero is defined by his enemies. With Tobias locked away, BL's only real enemy is Odell. And Odell is a 76-year-old guy who looks threatening. Granted, Bill Duke is great at looking threatening. But at the end of the day, that's all he can do. Yes, he has a lot of government soldiers and tech, because government = bad in superhero shows. Unless Lynda Carter is the President. As much as I like Tobias, having him as the Big Bad for season after season is a bit tiresome. Give him a break: have someone usurp his throne while he's on an enforced vacation with the ASA, and have it be someone villainous. Lala will do in a pinch, but the creative team has to commit to making Lala a major contender. Right now he's just one of several characters (Instant, Jace, Khalil are others) who drift in and out of the show when a subplot is necessary to fill some time.

That's a symptom of what's off with Black Lightning this year. There's too many subplots. At least when it was Black Lightning versus Tobias, there was some focus. Now it seems like everyone is scattered to the four winds, and some cohesion is what is necessary. Instead, they bring in more characters like Brandon.

Quit bringing in more characters, creative team, and do more with what you've already got.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?