I thought Big Belly Burger was the multi-universal franchise...
Spoilers Black Lightning - Season 1
- Thread starter dahj
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One other random thought... Anyone else think Jill Scott could have been a great Amanda Waller??
I was trying to think of something more gentrified.
hmmm, interesting thought
Never read it but apparently Anissa's costume is close to what she wore in the Outsiders comic.
I'm glad it didn't take too long for Jefferson and Lynn to arrive at the decision that BL needs to train Anissa. And I'm glad that Gambi's already working on her costume. It still bugs me that they're keeping Jennifer out of the loop, though. The whole "she already has too much to worry about" excuse is lame. It's unfair for three of the four family members to keep the remaining one in the dark, especially given that Jennifer may have powers of her own. They should all sit down together as a family and talk this all out. I hate arbitrary secrecy storylines, especially when everyone's in the loop except one person (e.g. Iris in The Flash season 1). And as we saw, trying to hide things from Jennifer will just make her more suspicious.
When Jeff admitted that he's been too emotional and out of control, I realized that having his daughter out there as the Robin to his Batman will be good for him, because it would keep him anchored. He'd have more incentive to set a better example as a superhero, and she could be a check on his judgment. (Although I hope they also have some cool superhero banter when they team up. Imagine -- superhero banter meets dad jokes.)
I don't know what the hell's going on with Gambi anymore. He seems so nice, but he's colluding with gangsters, even murdering one? I'm starting to wonder if Gambi is actually two different people. The comics' Peter Gambi is the brother of another Gambi who makes villains' gear. Could it be that this Gambi has an identical twin? Except, no, that doesn't work, since Lady Eve did call him Peter Gambi when he came to her last week. So I guess that, whatever the reason, he's playing both sides. I really don't want him to be a bad guy. And I have no idea what this "ecosystem" is that he's protecting.
Speaking of Lady Eve, I'm really surprised that they killed her off, since she was such an effective archvillain. But then, it looks like death may not be a permanent thing on this show...
When Jeff admitted that he's been too emotional and out of control, I realized that having his daughter out there as the Robin to his Batman will be good for him, because it would keep him anchored. He'd have more incentive to set a better example as a superhero, and she could be a check on his judgment. (Although I hope they also have some cool superhero banter when they team up. Imagine -- superhero banter meets dad jokes.)
I don't know what the hell's going on with Gambi anymore. He seems so nice, but he's colluding with gangsters, even murdering one? I'm starting to wonder if Gambi is actually two different people. The comics' Peter Gambi is the brother of another Gambi who makes villains' gear. Could it be that this Gambi has an identical twin? Except, no, that doesn't work, since Lady Eve did call him Peter Gambi when he came to her last week. So I guess that, whatever the reason, he's playing both sides. I really don't want him to be a bad guy. And I have no idea what this "ecosystem" is that he's protecting.
Speaking of Lady Eve, I'm really surprised that they killed her off, since she was such an effective archvillain. But then, it looks like death may not be a permanent thing on this show...
Black Lightning
Episode seven: "Equinox: The Book of Fate"
Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning: So, the rift with Gambi grows--for good reason.
Gambi: Receiving messages from Eve about the "Cleaners", and what is the "ecosystem" he's created with Eve?
He's murdering Toledo on Eve's orders--using the Cleaners and their lighting emitting weapons (on Toledo's men), only for the group to turn around and kill Eve....no clear cut loyalties between anyone. From the second Toledo's guards were attacked, I knew the weapons would frame BL. .
Anissa Pierce: Utterly disrespectful of her mother. One does not need superpowers to know what it means to want to do more for society (the point of their argument). Jefferson was right in admonishing her for failing to use her head, and risking her mother's life. She's hearing Jefferson, but not listening. Her being too hotheaded to hit the streets makes her putty in the hands of you-know-who.
Lynn: "everybody ends up with a happy ending--except you." Few superhero productions (aside from a couple of Batman & Spider-Man movies) ever address that in such a blunt way, and it was punctuated with "I just hope you're not making my baby a casket" (talking to Gambi). Hm.
Even if she believes BL did not kill Eve, a sensible writer would have her pull back on encouraging Anissa for obvious guilt-by-association reasons.
Tobias Whale: "Finally, a brother with some heart." & "Jazz. One of the only things brothers got right." Yet more disparaging remark about black people. The self hate is off the charts with Tobias. Being a metahuman, we see the only way his sparring partner could keep up was with the aid of Green Light.
Henderson: No longer an ally, Henderson has become the latest enemy in BL's life--a development that should make the second half of this 13 episode season memorable.....
NOTES:
Though it makes for good drama, Gambi being part of whatever Eve (and parties yet to be introduced) created cannot end up being a straight betrayal/corruption story. If he turned out to be tied to Eve because he had some long term plans to stop her (and others), fine, but it should not end with the only major white character being a villain who backstabbed BL. That would invite some unwanted attention to this series.
Jefferson reads A Brief History of Seven Killings. Anyone familiar with the book will understand the implied parallel to the events in Freeland.
LaLa lives? Probably thanks to Eve's creepy Green Light/embalming treatment.
GRADE: B+
Episode seven: "Equinox: The Book of Fate"
Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning: So, the rift with Gambi grows--for good reason.
Gambi: Receiving messages from Eve about the "Cleaners", and what is the "ecosystem" he's created with Eve?
He's murdering Toledo on Eve's orders--using the Cleaners and their lighting emitting weapons (on Toledo's men), only for the group to turn around and kill Eve....no clear cut loyalties between anyone. From the second Toledo's guards were attacked, I knew the weapons would frame BL. .
Anissa Pierce: Utterly disrespectful of her mother. One does not need superpowers to know what it means to want to do more for society (the point of their argument). Jefferson was right in admonishing her for failing to use her head, and risking her mother's life. She's hearing Jefferson, but not listening. Her being too hotheaded to hit the streets makes her putty in the hands of you-know-who.
Lynn: "everybody ends up with a happy ending--except you." Few superhero productions (aside from a couple of Batman & Spider-Man movies) ever address that in such a blunt way, and it was punctuated with "I just hope you're not making my baby a casket" (talking to Gambi). Hm.
Even if she believes BL did not kill Eve, a sensible writer would have her pull back on encouraging Anissa for obvious guilt-by-association reasons.
Tobias Whale: "Finally, a brother with some heart." & "Jazz. One of the only things brothers got right." Yet more disparaging remark about black people. The self hate is off the charts with Tobias. Being a metahuman, we see the only way his sparring partner could keep up was with the aid of Green Light.
Henderson: No longer an ally, Henderson has become the latest enemy in BL's life--a development that should make the second half of this 13 episode season memorable.....
NOTES:
Though it makes for good drama, Gambi being part of whatever Eve (and parties yet to be introduced) created cannot end up being a straight betrayal/corruption story. If he turned out to be tied to Eve because he had some long term plans to stop her (and others), fine, but it should not end with the only major white character being a villain who backstabbed BL. That would invite some unwanted attention to this series.
Jefferson reads A Brief History of Seven Killings. Anyone familiar with the book will understand the implied parallel to the events in Freeland.
LaLa lives? Probably thanks to Eve's creepy Green Light/embalming treatment.
GRADE: B+
Think you might be getting the various hitmen mixed up here. "The cleaners" were sent by Lady Eve to kill the men who attacked Lynn in her lab; those deaths happened offscreen and were revealed via a news report. I didn't see any evidence that anybody but Gambi was involved in taking out Joey Toledo, and I also didn't see any lightning weapons used in that scene. And Lady Eve's men didn't turn on her and kill her -- those attackers (and their electrical weapons, intended to frame BL) were sent by Tobias on his sister's suggestion.
I also still don't share your certainty that Tobias is a meta, not counting his serum-induced longevity. Certainly he's exceptionally strong, enough to lift and hold a man off the ground with one arm, but not sure yet if that's proof he's intended to be superhuman or just an exaggeratedly strong bad guy.
Anyway, it was another exciting hour. Really enjoying this show. Like Christopher, I was surprised they killed Lady Eve, but at least we got the return of Lala in exchange.
Toledo saw flashes as his men rounded the corner of his office and were attacked, immediately followed by the masked Gambi entering to carry out his end of the job. It cannot be a coincidence that Eve's killers were using weapons with similar effect.
In the LaLa death scene, Tobias' neck was glowing. Additionally,--as you point out--he's taken something to slow the aging process. Further, he was able to easily beat down a large man under the influence of the strength-enhancing Green Light. Tobias is anything other than your "exaggeratedly strong bad guy". His being a metahuman makes him more than just the random crime lord. His longevity and strength stands as a seemingly "immortal" evil BL (or anyone else) cannot defeat
^ Watched the episode where Tobias killed Lala twice, but never saw this fabled neck glow. Also didn't see anything identifiable as lightning gun flashes when Gambi attacked Joey Toledo. Either your eyes or your imagination are better than mine.
Forgot to mention, it does always throw me a bit when things like energy weapons and resurrected dead people suddenly pop up on this show. It seems so grounded in a lot of ways that the more fantastical elements sometimes feel jarring. Also not sure it serves the show's world and themes well to give death a reset button. But, Lala's return is welcome from a character perspective, and I guess we'll see how the whole resurrection thing plays out.
Forgot to mention, it does always throw me a bit when things like energy weapons and resurrected dead people suddenly pop up on this show. It seems so grounded in a lot of ways that the more fantastical elements sometimes feel jarring. Also not sure it serves the show's world and themes well to give death a reset button. But, Lala's return is welcome from a character perspective, and I guess we'll see how the whole resurrection thing plays out.
I've noticed the show tends to just quickly flick those scenes out with very little setup so you're like "Wait did that guys eyes just open?".
I'm wondering about the woman who greeted Lala upon his resurrection. She looked like LaWanda, but I don't want to believe that whole story about LaWanda and her daughter was just some evil trick. Maybe it's some metahuman who can take on the appearance of other people, which seems easily possible for someone who can turn into mist or (evidently) a tattoo.
^ That was definitely LaWanda. My tentative impression was that what we were seeing wasn't literal -- a visual metaphor, or a hallucination of the newly revived Lala -- but I guess we'll see.
Well, it definitely looked like LaWanda. But it might be an illusion. I hope it is.
^ Oh, I thought you meant you weren't sure if her appearance was that of LaWanda -- i.e., that you weren't certain you recognized the character/actor correctly. But yeah, whether or not she's the real LaWanda (or, as I suggest, whether she was literally there at all) is definitely an open question.
Those were just regular gunfire flashes.
There were definitely some big surprises in this one.
I'm not sure what to make of Gambi, it's starting to look like he might be a bad guy, but I'm hoping there's more to it than there appears to be.
The reference to an ecosystem they created, and a "Shadow Council" make me wonder if maybe it's more of a good guy who made a deal with the villains to get things under control type of situation.
I'm glad that Jefferson did decide to train Annisa, I was afraid it was going to take her doing something really convince him she needed his help.
Lady Eve's death was a big surprise, she was a cool villain, and it seemed like the was going playing a bigger role in the main story arc.
After all the build up, it was nice to finally get a face to face confrontation between Black Lightning and Tobias. Tobias's sister dying was another big surprise, I liked the way they used it to convince Jefferson to train Anissa.
They looked like light blue flashes (i.e. lightning) to me, but I'm sure who's who will be sorted out in the next couple of episodes.
That's what I was hoping in-series, and for its look in the eyes of viewers/reviewers. If Gambi had some long term plan to stop what he could not in the years BL was retired, something tells me there will be the requisite confusion and possible violence before the truth is revealed. His being involved with Anissa to any degree hints that her life will soon take a nasty turn.
On that note, I can easily see Tobias giving the metahuman treatment to Jennifer's boyfriend Khalil (Tobias' promise that Khalil will walk again), and using him to lure Anissa (through Jennifer) into a trap. Now, this requires Tobias learning who Thunder is behind the mask, and for drama's sake, that would be great--cranking up the tension level 1000%, not only for the Pierce daughters, but Lynn in her relationship with Jefferson, despite the fact she finally encouraged Jefferson to train Anissa.
Agreed, but now that we've seen LaLa's "resurrection", can Eve be next on the "return" list?
I hope so, but even in the best case, Gambi is still a morally ambiguous figure who's capable of outright murder.
It does seem that he and Lady Eve have a history in intelligence work, some kind of espionage or black-ops unit. I would guess that it was involved in the experiments that Alvin Pierce was killed for investigating. Maybe Gambi felt guilty about that and arranged to protect the Pierces as his condition for keeping their secrets under wraps, and helping Jefferson as Black Lightning is his way of trying to atone. Even so, he does seem to be playing both sides of the fence and has done things that are working against BL's crimefighting efforts.
So Gambi's secret alter ego is apparently The Shadow. 
Good episode, the plot thickens... and weirdens with that ending. Looking forward to the Dynamic Duo hitting the streets, hoping Lady Eve comes back somehow, her for Lala's return wasn't a fair exchange.
One thing though, I thought Henderson was a bit too quick to believe BL killed Lady Eve, since BL isn't known for killing people and especially since she's not a known criminal, so why would he attack her in the first place?
Good episode, the plot thickens... and weirdens with that ending. Looking forward to the Dynamic Duo hitting the streets, hoping Lady Eve comes back somehow, her for Lala's return wasn't a fair exchange.
One thing though, I thought Henderson was a bit too quick to believe BL killed Lady Eve, since BL isn't known for killing people and especially since she's not a known criminal, so why would he attack her in the first place?
The timeline on this show confuses me... i am wondering, is it possible that Gambi's deal with Eve came about when Jefferson decided to retire as Black Lightning 9 years ago.
Gambi was still trying to protect Jefferson when he came out of retirement, as it looked like Jefferson and BL were not conected by Eve and the council.
I think Christopher's theory might be right... ill be interesting to see. James Remar is doing a fabulous job in this role...i hope he feels proud of it. (Though i would love to have some kind of in-joke reference to him being a "Warrior" from an early movie)
Regarding The Realist's concern... i mean, if we are accepting someone who can shoot lightninig, and a woman who can stomp and cause destruction....it seems in line.
Eve's last name isn't Waller, is it?? i too hope she gets resurrected as well.. way too effective to be offed so quick.
Gambi was still trying to protect Jefferson when he came out of retirement, as it looked like Jefferson and BL were not conected by Eve and the council.
I think Christopher's theory might be right... ill be interesting to see. James Remar is doing a fabulous job in this role...i hope he feels proud of it. (Though i would love to have some kind of in-joke reference to him being a "Warrior" from an early movie)
Regarding The Realist's concern... i mean, if we are accepting someone who can shoot lightninig, and a woman who can stomp and cause destruction....it seems in line.
Eve's last name isn't Waller, is it?? i too hope she gets resurrected as well.. way too effective to be offed so quick.
I think it's ambiguous whether BL has killed before. When Tobias came to Gambi to ask if he knew who Black Lightning was, Gambi said that people who find that out tend to get killed. Maybe he was exaggerating, but the lie wouldn't be convincing if it diverged too far from BL's known behavior. It could be that he hasn't gone out of his way to do it, but has killed in situations where it was necessary.
Also, just because Lady Eve isn't known to the general public as a criminal, that doesn't mean she wasn't suspected to have criminal ties by the police. IIRC, the pilot implied that BL had tangled with Lady Eve in the past. In the reception after Jefferson gave his speech, someone pointed out that Lady Eve was in the crowd (we only saw her from the back, since she hadn't been cast yet), and Jefferson got tense and evasively said that he'd met her once or twice in the past. The implication was that he'd "met" her in his alter ego and knew she wasn't on the up-and-up. So maybe Henderson had reason to suspect her too.
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