Black Lightning: The Book of Little Black Lies – Recap with SPOILERS, so please don’t read on if you haven’t see the episode.

As usual, we start with the standard “Previously…”

Before I go in to the recap, please accept my apologies as this will be a shorter read than normal due to time constraints. I’m sure that you are all extremely disappointed in that!

TRAINING DAY

Anyway, Jefferson is training and he is still visibly upset after the revelations from Gambi. Due to the affects it has on him, the electricity in him rises and, the punch bag he is training on, is sent flying across the room. He makes a call to Henderson (as Black Lightning), he wants to know why a police officer visited the site where they found the gun that killed Lady Eve. He is worried that Henderson, a close friend of Jefferson’s is dirty, but is assured by Henderson that he isn’t. Henderson tells him he is going to look in to the murder of Lady Eve in his own time and, therefore, decides to take some holiday time off from work.

REVELATIONS

At home and Anissa wants to talk to Jennifer, especially after the revelations of last episode and Jennifer having powers, revealing them to Anissa. Anissa tells Jennifer that she also has powers, something that Jennifer can’t believe at first. Therefore, to prove it, Anissa, as you do, lifts Jennifer’s bed. Ok, so Jennifer believes now. What she didn’t expect though, was Anissa’s revelation that her dad, Jefferson is Black Lightning. On finding this out, she rushes downstairs to see him, not quite believing it. When he admits it, she accuses him of lying to her for so long. Not a happy bunny.

Lynn talks to Jefferson about Anissa, also telling Anissa that what she did, in telling Jennifer, was disrespectful and that things are kept secret to protect their children. Anissa makes her apologies as she realises what she didn’t wasn’t the right thing to do and she leaves the room so Jeff can talk to Lynn. He promises Lynn that he will not let anything happen to the girls. Lynn calms and Jefferson and Anissa start planning on how to take down Green Light. They start looking deeper in to Alvin’s research and believe that, because he was murdered, he must have been close to something big.

Lynn tries to talk to Jennifer, who isn’t up for talking just yet, but Lynn tells her that when she’s ready, she will be there to listen.

Jefferson and Anissa are at the courthouse, looking through various documents and come across the name BendsCORP, who had been making payments on a regular basis to Jefferson’s father, Alvin. Attempting to bribe him perhaps?

BLACK MAMBA

Gambi – yes, Gambi appears next, this time in the back seat of a car where he has been waiting for a Russian bloke to get in. As soon as the man gets in his seat, Gambi stabs a needle in his neck, injecting him with Black Mamba snake venom. Gambi does have the anti-venom, however, before he gives it to the fella, he wants the name of the person responsible for the creation of the weapons that killed Lady Eve, and putting the blame on BL.

THE MASK/S

Jeff and Anissa then visit the law firm company who are behind BendCORPS. They are wearing very fetching masks, Jeff wearing one of Barack Obama. To get the information from the lawyer they find, Jeff uses a little of his powers and gets what they want.

At home, Anissa wants to talk to Jennifer, to talk about recent discoveries. Anissa tells Jennifer that she knows how scary it can be as she herself was frightened when she first found out. Anissa notices Jennifer watching a video on her laptop and wants to know what it is, despite Jennifer trying to hide it away. She’s watching a video of someone talking about how good Thunder’s body looks in her, initial suit, and Anissa does take umbrage with that fact. However, Jennifer also shows her that Thunder has a massive fan base online, even bigger than that of Black Lightning. While not sure of the Thunder name, she likes that fact that she has that massive fan base.

Back at Gambi’s, he is trying to find the person who supplied the weapons that killed Lady Eve. He hacks in to the man’s systems and finds everything out about him, full identity, address etc. The man reveals all to Gambi.

POSE FOR THE CAMERA

Henderson has done what he said earlier, and is looking in to the death of Lady Eve. He is atop a building, with camera in hand, watching a deal go down. He notices that some of the police officers that he works alongside are in league with criminal and selling guns, dirty cops, never a good sign. One of the dirty cops is his boss, which we all knew anyway.

Gambi finds the place where these BL-alike guns are being kept. He uses a drone (how technically minded) to fly around the place. He notices bodies, being kept there, cryogenically frozen I guess, and realises the identity of one of them.

A GIFT

After returning to his tailor shop, Gambi has called Anissa to meet him, without Jefferson knowing of course. Anissa asks him what happened between himself and her dad and, fair play to Gambi, he tells her what he’s done. He also tells her that he used to be employed to find people with special abilities, such as hers. Going back to the body he recognised earlier, he mentions to Anissa that he realised it was one of the youngster with powers that he was asked to track down.

Before she leaves Gambi’s, he passes her a parcel. Now, we all know what’s in the parcel – The ThunderSuit.

THE STRUT

On the streets, Anissa goes to meet her dad, Black Lightning on the streets. BL is impressed with her new outfit and she tells him that “Uncle Gambi” gave it to her. He knew that.

Back at the Pierce family home, Jennifer decides she should talk to her mum. She says that she feels like a freak, that no one will like her if they knew. Thinking on, she comes to the realisation that the reason her mum and dad divorced was because of Black Lightning. She also tells her mum that she doesn’t want to save the world, she wants to go to prom, get married, have kids, and just have a normal life. She is distraught when it becomes clear that Lynn is unsure whether she would be able to have children.

STAKEOUT

Jeff and Anissa are staking out a location; the place where Martin Proctor, evil dude from the ASA, happens to be. In fact, while he isn’t there straight away, he does arrive but the deal he is making is being moved. Jeff receives a call from Henderson, who tells him about the gin deal that he had witnessed earlier and Jeff says he will be there shortly to provide backup. Anissa, thanks to all her protestations, has also learnt the ability to lipread. She’d learnt this to ensure she knew what the police may do during any protest she was attending. It also means that she is aware of the location switch.

The new location for the deal, and Proctor arrives. BL and Thunder are following close by. The warehouse where the deal is taking place is where massive amounts of Green Light are being produced. Thunder and Lightning crack in to action taking out all of Proctor’s men. Jeff goes downstairs to find Proctor himself. As he’s about to do his business though, the lights go out, meaning Proctor can make a hasty exit and escape. Luckily, Henderson arrives, making the arrest.

BOOM!

So nothing else can come from this lab, BL and Thunder do their thing, setting fire to the whole building and, as they walk away, the building explodes.

MOVIE NIGHT

Back at home, Jennifer is sat on the sofa. They talk and he tells her that he understands why she is so upset with him and that he kept his BL persona secret to protect her. She knows that, they both apologise and they sit together to watch a movie.


A cracking episode that gave us so much more story than other episodes have done. I know we are getting towards the end of the season but there is a lot of story development here, from the Green Light stuff, the dirty cops within the FCPD, Jennifer and her powers and how it affects her, and Gambi’s past.

The standout part/s of this episode have to be the performances from all involved, especially the Pierce family and Gambi. Cress Williams, Nafessa Williams, Christine Adams all play their parts perfectly and deserve all the plaudits they get. However, as much as the story progress and as much as the above actors were superb, the episode belonged to China Anne McClain who, despite her younger years, outshines all those around her. From discovering that she has these powers, to her reaction, her issues with her family, this really was one of the standout performances of any episode of any CW show. China Anne – take a bow!

Nice to get a bit more of the sleazeball that is Martin Proctor, although he is inept in his promise to kill Black Lightning and a typically, lucky so and so to be able to escape…ish.

Getting some of Gambi’s back story was excellent and really gave us a feel for what he did before. Loved the flashback scene and how good were the effects to make him look so young? He looked like he’d just stepped out of the 48 Hours movie…and that’s over 30 years old.

Dirty cops, with Henderson almost coming across as the James Gordon of Freeland. While we have seen this before, it is something I always enjoy on-screen and makes for some interesting interactions going forward. I also like that Henderson is now aware that BL is there to help, he isn’t a murderer and that he can be trusted. Again, good character development.

Some great action at the end in the lab, loved seeing a bit of a big explosion going on as BL and Thunder walk away from the building, in a very cool manner.

Speaking of “walks”, I’m sorry but I have to say that the strut we see from Nafessa Williams as Thunder when she arrives in that suit? Oh my! Not only the sexiest superhero on the CW but the one with the greatest strut seen in all superhero tv/movies.

Away from that, she is proving to be a great superhero and I love how she already seems to be “there”, her fighting skills, her mental attitude, brains, she is just about the complete package and you can see that Jefferson feels that same. He knows that if he isn’t around, then he has ample back up in his daughter. This shows a complete contrast between the two sisters as well, Anissa has obviously embraced her powers, where Jennifer will take time to come around, not even wanting them.  

No Ms Fowdy……again! What?


All in all a super episode of the show, I can’t wait to see what the next episode brings. An easy 9/10.

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Until next time.

Cheers, John