Black Lightning Review: Sins of the Father: The Book of Redemption (Season 1 Episode 10)

On Black Lightning Season 1 Episode 10, “Sins of the Father: The Book of Redemption,” Jefferson and Anissa attempt to rescue long-missing children, as Jennifer’s journey keeps evolving; Gambi gets another chance to prove his loyalty to Black Lightning while Lala stays entwined in his past.

It is amazing how music has the ability to explain the intricacies of a scene, which is what we see when this episode begins with “Drowning” by Mick Jenkins.

The song perfectly captures the events of the little girl kidnapped in Two-bit’s view, striking a parallel between some of the instances of police brutality against black people and the ASA in this case.

The story goes that the ASA is a government agency involved in clandestine operations, such as developing Green Light, which was meant to render black kids docile but instead, makes some of them develop superpowers. Those ‘special’ ones, they kidnap and keep in a suspended state in that facility that Anissa visits.

Note also how some parts of this same song, “Drowning,” go along with Anissa’s decision to control her impulse and avoid destroying that facility.

She probably rues that decision, especially following the ASA’s prompt response, but who knows what would have been the result of that? There really is no telling what to expect from humans who have been subjected to rigorous biological manipulations for over 30 years.

Interesting enough, Martin and the entire ASA are the villains at this time. Tobias has been out of sight, perhaps still mourning his late sister, Tori, and revamping his strategies. Then there’s Lala, who is slowly becoming prominent again. Seeing new sets of villains keeps the story fresh and gives the heroes challenges to overcome each time.

Speaking of, in addition to moving the narrative forward, this episode also takes a few steps backward, especially in relation to Lala’s story.

It is still surprising to me that Lala came back to life but his cousin, Will, and Lawanda didn’t. The story behind his return needs to be clarified, though he is apparently on a bumpy ride.

One would have thought that he came back to amend his past; rather, he is slowly embracing all the ills that got him killed. After being tormented by Lawanda, Will’s face has been added to his collection of body tattoos, still, he remains unfazed.

On that note, I must commend this show for doing the good job of having Will make appearances in the same ragged clothes he died in, with the holes and tears. Granted, the blood is gone but he looks almost exactly as he did at the point of his death, which is good continuity.

Lala’s return is being treated gradually and he hasn’t had any encounter with Black Lightning yet. When he learns that Black Lightning has destroyed the Green Light factory, unbelievably, he resorts to selling other less-effective drugs.

Old Lala would have waged war to restore his source of income and power but he is uncharacteristically chill. We don’t know if he is back to fight Tobias alone or Black Lightning as well. It would be such a treat if his reintroduction makes the conflict a three-way tussle, where all the players seek to cancel out one another. Let the games begin.

This episode’s theme of redemption rightfully applies to Gambi in his quest to reclaim Jefferson’s trust. This show is never in a rush: the plot lines are allowed to play out as realistically as possible. Jennifer is still trying to resist while slowly coming to terms with her powers, and Jefferson is still mad at Gambi, though that will definitely change after Gambi defies death to protect Black Lightning’s identity.

We know that Black Lightning has a bounty on his head and in as much as they mention it in fear, it is not that serious. This is evident in the scene where the woman throws microwave ovens at Black Lightning, the woman who hilariously gives her name as “Rent, Car note, Electric,” which leaves me wondering how she is able to destroy two whole microwave ovens, yet she is supposed to be in need of money.

Again, if the bounty was that serious, her reaction to seeing Black Lightning would have been different. This is the city’s most-wanted, so anybody that sees him would definitely alert the police immediately or take better proactive efforts at getting him arrested or subdued.

We have always known the show to infuse humor in every episode and clearly, that entire scene is designed for and achieves just that, but to fuel the anxiety and suspense, that subject should have been handled more seriously.

What has remained a mystery is how Black Lightning is still unrecognized as Jefferson, in plain sight. I just cannot look at Black Lightning without seeing Jefferson and I’m still not convinced that someone like Two-bits, who has known him for years, cannot recognize him in such a close interaction. I don’t know how the show intends to fix that but it leaves a lot of question marks.

This, however, does not neglect the fact that this show keeps getting better every episode, heightening anticipation and garnering more viewers; this episode, they throw in a huge shocker, reminiscent of the prominent movie trope whereby there are unexpected enemies and enemies within, a case study of Vice Principal, Kara Fowdy.

Now that Kara knows Jefferson’s true identity, his troubles have become hydra-headed. With Gambi’s current state unknown after the torture he endured, it has become imperative to equip everyone in Jefferson’s camp, and this goes by saying that Jennifer’s coming-of-age story should not be dragged out any further to avoid redundancy. We need to see her in action soon enough, the battle line is drawn.

What did you think of this episode of Black Lightning? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Black Lightning airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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