Black Lightning Review: Painkiller (Season 4 Episode 7)

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I became familiar with the term backdoor pilot. It started with The Goldbergs introducing the concept of Schooled and continued with Arrow setting up a new hero with an entirely new team.

Neither of these episodes faired too well with setting up a spinoff series, but let’s hope that Black Lightning Season 4 Episode 7, “Painkiller,” ends that streak.

Khalil Payne has been a recurring character since Season 1. Every time his presence is required, he leaves an imprint on the Pierce family like no other character. While Tobias Whale may show up more often, Khalil’s inner struggle is more insightful. 

Tobias is a villain that we all love to hate — despicable yet the epitome of cool. But Khalil Payne is the one we can relate to. Whether we like to admit it or not, there is always a battle going on inside of us: a fight between our bright side and dark side.

Khalil came to know the Pierce family through Jennifer. Their puppy love romance held the excitement of teenage love, giving us all flashbacks of our first kiss and handhold. 

When tragedy struck, Khalil’s pain misguided him into the hands of Tobias to find healing. Tobias is a rich man with more than enough to offer some kid who is down on his luck. 

I can’t say that I wouldn’t have made the same decision Khalil made at the moment. A fully functioning body or a wheelchair for life — the question practically answers itself. After all, a few misdeeds and misdemeanors is a small price to pay to walk again.

We occasionally come across decisions like this throughout our lives. Maybe not as impactful in the moment, but they can come to haunt us later on down the road. 

Finding someone’s lost wallet, talking bad about your best friend, or telling off your neighbor for being nosy. All these things seem fine and dandy at the moment but can lead us down a slippery slope.

We have traveled with Khalil as he makes his way through choice after choice, constructing a massive maze in which Khalil becomes ultimately lost. These misadventures have led to Khalil living far away from the Pierce family in a town very different from Freeland.

As the episode takes off, we are introduced to a handful of new characters that have become Khalil’s adoptive family. Unfortunately, their names are mentioned so briefly they are difficult to keep track of, but that is just par for the course when it comes to a pilot.

Each one of Khalil’s new crew has a backstory, which is mentioned briefly to Anyssa as they are introduced. It is quickly revealed they all have battles with their demons, just like Khalil. It appears as though if the show gets picked up, that this will be a common theme. 

Throughout the episode, Khalil constantly battles and occasionally befriends his alter-ego to get out of tight places. These scenes are fairly well written but come off a little jarring in execution.

Flipping between reality and Khalil’s headspace gets a little confusing along the way, slightly taking away from Jordan Calloway’s acting chops.

It takes us a couple of seconds to fully understand what is going on, causing us to miss the first few lines of dialog. I’m not positive, but this could be done by design, giving us a taste of what Khalil is going through in real-time. 

These scenes go a long way in giving us all a taste of the mental battle that ensues every time Khalil has to make a life or death decision. They are similar to what we all go through daily, except to a lesser degree.

Our decisions aren’t typically to the extremes that are outlined in the episode, but the battle of good versus evil constantly plays in our heads leaving us with a conflict of conscience. 

Painkiller: There is no light without shadow. 

Even Anyssa goes through moments like these as she has to decide whether or not to go after Grace by herself or leave it up to Khalil. Luckily she chooses the latter, giving in to trust instead of well-earned skepticism.

The mental battles are nearly constant throughout the episode without becoming too overly prevalent, but I do fear that if this episode continues into a full-blown series that may not remain true.

It is good to state your views on a subject often, but one doesn’t want to sound like a broken record. After showing one too many examples of how things could play out, it can cause your friends to tune out completely. 

I don’t want to tune out this backdoor pilot completely because overall it is quite entertaining. 

The action scenes are much more intense than what we typically see on Black Lightning, showing off more physical feats than superpowers. Plus, the script gets more cerebral than a man past his prime continuing to fight crime.

Khalil in general is simply a more relatable character than Jefferson Pierce. Although we can all look towards Jefferson as a father figure, we can put ourselves in Khalil’s shoes. 

We have all been down a path where we had to battle with our demons to come out on the other side. We have all had to make some sort of peace with ourselves and our actions. Like Khalil, we make mistakes, we learn, and we grow.

That is what life is about — not staying in the same place too long. Refusing to become stagnant and making up for our mistakes along the way is the best way to live our lives, and this pilot shows us all a good way to do that. 

Find a purpose, a goal bigger than yourself. The shoes may not fit when we first step into them, but that is because we all have room to grow.

What did you think of this episode of Black Lightning? Are you hoping for a full season of Painkiller? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

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

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

10 Facts We Learned About ‘Black Lightning’ at Heroes and Villains Fan Fest: Chicago