Black Lightning on the CW

[Immortal Weapon]

The question I had watching the episode was: where is Freeland located? Is it in the South?

The show is filmed in Atlania. I like to think Freeland is somewhere in Georgia.

[alton]

What you say makes sense, though a Confederate statue outside of the South would be kind of weird.

There should have been a map showing the location of all the statues but where you get one I have no idea. The Daughters of the Confederacy and their supporters were pretty sly on how they grandfathered them in. Found out recently that at least 2 streets in NYC are named after Confederate Generals. Not sure if any statues or memorials exist in NYC. The current mini Cold Dead Hands calls the city Cleveland but on the show it looks like Oakland/Compton to me.

[Jim Kelly]

Far be it from me as a Canadian to try and talk about the U.S. Civil War, but I remember my surprise when I realized that the Mason-Dixon line was quite irregular and there were states to the south that were part of the north and there were states to the north that were part of the south. With Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, they're all pretty close together. So I could see a Robert E. Lee statue being in that region of the country.

Anyway, given they film in Atlanta, I've assumed Freeland is supposed to be in that area.

If they were going to deal with that subject then they should have dedicated more time to the story and maybe played it out over a couple episodes. Just touching on it for the sake of Thunder's story seemed exploitive. They even have a woman killed in a situation exactly the same as Charllottesville--which seems cheap if they aren't going to address the tragedy in depth.

[The Darknight Detective]

From what some of you posted here, Georgia-ish sounds bout right.

[Immortal Weapon]

Do you think if Khalil does become a supervillian, it will based off of one from the comic books or created just for the show?

Created for the show. I don't know which pre-existing identity they can give him if he decides to go supervillain.

[vitruvian]

I mean I get Tobias has to stay alive for the show. I just think they should have handled it differently. I'm thinking big brother is just watching the computer research in those labs and some kind of red flag goes off, when they touch on a hot topic.

You didn't notice the research assistant making that suspicious call?

[alton]

Far be it from me as a Canadian to try and talk about the U.S. Civil War, but I remember my surprise when I realized that the Mason-Dixon line was quite irregular and there were states to the south that were part of the north and there were states to the north that were part of the south. With Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, they're all pretty close together. So I could see a Robert E. Lee statue being in that region of the country.

Anyway, given they film in Atlanta, I've assumed Freeland is supposed to be in that area.

If they were going to deal with that subject then they should have dedicated more time to the story and maybe played it out over a couple episodes. Just touching on it for the sake of Thunder's story seemed exploitive. They even have a woman killed in a situation exactly the same as Charllottesville--which seems cheap if they aren't going to address the tragedy in depth.

What's cheap is leaving a young Canadian military member guarding a Canadian monument with an unloaded or replica weapon and unable to defend his own life or the Parliament building from an attacker. An attacker that was on the radar and refused an exit visa but not arrested before his act of violence. Or was that a fake news report? My understanding of the episodes at hand is that producers were initially given only the first 6 to establish themselves. This may have led to them throwing everything in at once and to everyone's surprise had from episode 1 a huge hit. The fact that the statues and Heathers death became a part of this show makes me proud of everybody involved because since Charlottesville there has been almost no coverage on what if any followup is going on down there. The horrors of the Parkland shooting and Syrian gas attacks are very understandable incidents that have captured our attentions at this time.So it goes I guess.

[Nate Grey]

Do wha? Tobias killed his like dad last episode.

right the same way on Arrow how Thea Queen's father was Robert Queen. I forgot once its established on screen who someone's father is its never changed. My bad.

If Gambi is anyone's dad I thought that it would be the lady that's always with Tobias...

...despite having zero scenes with her and how Gambi interacts exclusively with Tobias and never even looks at her, has a photo, etc.?

...I can see it.

[protege]

So now that i have seen it;
1) i’m really getting tired of lynn and how she doesn’t want to be mixed up with black lightning. And she’s not happy that anissa has powers as well. She needs to suck it up, or get out for good.
2) speaking of anissa, that was a cool fight, but i think she needs a better way to trigger her powers than taking a deep breath. I keep waiting for her to exhale.
3) i’m hoping we get an origin story sometime this season; does jefferson know how he got his powers? How long has gambi been mentoring him? A lot of gaps need filling. I hope gambi isn’t as bad as he seems to be. The way he arranged for the pierce family to be off limits from lady eve- wouldn’t that make her suspicous? Why would he even need to do that?

[The Darknight Detective]

So now that i have seen it;
1) i’m really getting tired of lynn and how she doesn’t want to be mixed up with black lightning. And she’s not happy that anissa has powers as well. She needs to suck it up, or get out for good.

Didn't she say she was on board the BL train this episode? At any rate, I find her to be very sexy, so she gets a pass from me regardless.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

right the same way on Arrow how Thea Queen's father was Robert Queen. I forgot once its established on screen who someone's father is its never changed. My bad.



...despite having zero scenes with her and how Gambi interacts exclusively with Tobias and never even looks at her, has a photo, etc.?

...I can see it.

Just saying that maybe they don't want to tip their hand just yet, and the lady did say that she'd taken that drug or whatever and liked its effects, I'm just saying...and maybe he hasn't seen her in years or something like that...

[CliffHanger2]

You didn't notice the research assistant making that suspicious call?

Must've happened on my trip to the fridge lol.

[Jim Kelly]

Lynn doesn't need any knives in her kitchen. She just uses her cheekbones.

[Frontier]

How high up the pecking order is Henderson in the Freeland PD? I thought he was top cop but now we're seeing him take orders from someone (the captain? Commissioner?).

Why did Gambi call Jefferson "Man?" What kind of surrogate father calls their surrogate son "Man?" Especially someone Gambi's age? It just felt a little out-of-character.

Lynn is like the Leslie Tompkins of Black Lightning. She'll patch you up, but she'll also complain and doubt your crusade against crime until she eventually begrudgingly comes around. Now with added romantic context.

Gambi lecturing Jefferson on morality and not killing Whale would hold more weight if he wasn't also secretly working with Tobias or involved with him in some way. It comes across as 50% genuine and 50% Gambi trying to cover for himself.

So if Jefferson's powers are neurological, is it his vengeful and violent thoughts about killing Tobias what's effecting him? Not that I can blame him after seeing Alvin's death. Jeez, that was brutal.

It feels like this show and Supergirl are trying to outdo each other on referencing topical issues, though I feel like this show handles it better because it feels a little more "real" or down-to-Earth.

Y'know, it would be kind of funny if at some point Jennifer gets arrested and it's Anissa and Jefferson who come bail her out so it feels full-circle. Though I guess we also have to thank Henderson for probably keeping the Pierce women from ending up with criminal records.

Poor Khalil. I understand why he feels so bitter about everything, and it's hard watching a good kid spiral into something that's not him.

Seems like Lynn might be the one who cracks the Metagene, if that's what Alvin's research was about.

What was Anissa so worried over after she destroyed the statue? Isn't that what she planned on doing? It seemed too precise to be just an accident, though it did look like she did it in a rage.

I'm kind of worried about that doctor Jefferson left behind to go save Lynn. I keep imagining him scrambling to keep Tobias there because he keeps expecting Black Lightning to show up to save him .

Black Lightning vs. Thunder was a pretty dynamic and brutal fight, especially given we had a father and daughter unkowingly beating the tar out of each other. I guess it's nice that Jeff wasn't beaten by his daughter, even if the end result wasn't pretty .

It'll be interesting to see where things go from here now that Jefferson and Lynn have learned about Anissa's powers and she's learned Jeff is Black Lightning. And that means Jennifer is now the only one not in the loop.

Just to clarify I meant on this show. I don't think they've said when Jeff first got his powers, and Anissa's have just manifested in her 20s. I think it goes without saying they won't wait until Jennifer is in her 20s to give her powers. The show might not last that long.

I'd be surprised if Jennifer doesn't have her powers by the end of the season, or at least early season 2.

From the sounds of it, Khalil will be given the same serum that gave Tobias his powers. He might end up being a supervillain after all.

It also sounds like Tobias's female enforcer took the same serum.

I'm wondering if Gambi is Tobia's father. He knows what kind of man he is (hence why he was strapped when Tobias paid him a visit) but at the same time doesn't want him dead, least of all by his son surrogate Jefferson.

It sounds like Gambi might have had some involvement or role in making Tobias the man he is (probably back when he was a politician and Gambi was still in the Agency).

I think it would take away from Tobias' situation and what he and his sister went through if the man he killed in the previous episodes wasn't his real father.

[Nate Grey]

Just saying that maybe they don't want to tip their hand just yet

A CW super hero show not "tipping their hand"? Really?

and the lady did say that she'd taken that drug or whatever and liked its effects, I'm just saying...and maybe he hasn't seen her in years or something like that...

My theory was to explain Gambi's behavior in what appears to be him playing both sides. If she's his daughter but he DOESN'T know that's her then why else is he doing it? If she's his daughter and he does know, zero hints have been given whatsoever. When he saw Tobias AND HER get out of the car after shooting Khalil but Gambi zoomed in on Tobias, not her. When she came with Tobias to visit Gambi at his shop, no knowing glance or anything at her even as she was leaving.

Nothing onscreen supports this woman being his daughter yet oddly folks (at least here) are in love with the idea.

Tobias called his "father" Eldridge instead of dad, daddy, etc. It could be out of disrespect, it could be because he knew he wasn't really his father biologically (but still the father of his sister). Maybe that won't be the case, but at least I based it on SOMETHING shown onscreen. This woman's relevance might not go any further than for Thunder to have someone to fight in the finale of the season.