As much as we may wish to consider that our favorite live - action TV shows are invariably breaking the mold , the accuracy of the matter is that we ’ve been making and take in broadcast TV for well over 70 yr and there are n’t that many stories that have yet to be done .
Black Lightning ’s “ Black Jesus : The Book of Crucifixion ” is not the first episode of its kind that the CW has produced across its wide credit line of TV shows based on DC ’s comic book . But it ’s hands - down one of the best - executed and most resonant case of a tried and true superhero figure of speech that the net ’s been doing for long time .
It ’s an ad-lib pattern that all comical Koran story ( and those based on them ) about masked vigilantes with secret indistinguishability must at some point bring in a patch in which the hero is wrongly accused of commit a crime they had no engagement in , usually after being framed by their arch - scourge . These story are intend to strip superheroes of their larger - than - life nobility and prompt us that beneath that pelt - tight Spandex and undue eyeshadow , cape are still multitude just like us who can be made vulnerable .
Because these picky kind of stories are so overdone , though , it ’s rare that they attain their intend burden . Instead , they cease up rehash a number of the same narrative beats over and over again , make dozen of episode from different shows across the years feel wildly derivative of one another . “ Black Jesus : The Book of Crucifixion ” is a perfectly fine hour of television all on its own , but what makes the installment really reflect is the context of use that Black Lightning puts it in by having established this particular world over the course of the preceding few calendar week .
Now that Black Lightning and Thunder are direct ASA labs and storage facilities all across Freeland , the vicious organization has redouble its efforts to take out the older bomber by going after him in his civilian identity .
As Jefferson and Anissa trammel over their vigilantism , Garfield high-pitched frailty principal / fresh - revealed ASA federal agent Kara Fowdy initially contend with her rescript to kill Jeff , who she refuse to believe is Black Lightning . But it is n’t long before she ’s coordinating with the Freeland PD to plant Green Light in Jeff ’s car and have him arrested , all as cover song to eliminate one of the only people who can economise the city — and potentially uncover him as Black Lightning in the cognitive process . Rather than leaving the scourge of Jefferson ’s collar looming in the backcloth , “ The Book of Crucifixion ” gets correct to the point and manifests the man ’s fears in the most annihilative mode .
Arrest warrants in hand , the Freeland police force swarm Garfield High in the middle of the school day , draw the attention of well-nigh the intact student body as they ransack the principal ’s elevator car , “ discover ” the drugs he ’d allegedly been sell to students , and frogmarch him out of the edifice in handcuffs .
For Jefferson , a pillar of Freeland ’s preponderantly black community , the stop is a traumatic event on multiple levels that “ The Book of Crucifixion ” is measured to slow down and highlight . There ’s the immediate shame of being accused of allegedly selling drugs , but it ’s the message of seeing their contraband principal being dragged from the schoolhouse in handcuffs by white constabulary officers that hits Jeff . Though his work as Black Lightning is part of his architectural plan to save Freeland , it ’s his work as an pedagog that Jeff discover as the most important part of his connexion to the community . It ’s the Leslie Townes Hope and inspiration he ’s campaign to instill in them that has the baron to keep them secure long after he ’s go and those are thing that the collar — even just the visuals of it — threatens .
There ’s a moment as Jeff ’s being led to a police patrol car when he communicate a shake Jennifer and he implores her to keep calm , a plea that ’s both for her own prophylactic and everyone else ’s who might get hurt in the event that her newfound powers suddenly flare out of ascendency . The scene echoesBlack Lightning ’s very first episodewhen Jennifer and Anissa watch as their father was pulled over and dab down by a policeman who knows that he has no business rag the Pierces .
Though the preferences and circumstances are different , both of these moments are about the insidious force of institutionalized racialism — like publicly humiliating a black leader as a mean of ensuring that those who believe in him lose their faith . But “ The Book of Crucifixion ” go further . We see in detail everything that come about to Jeff when the police bring him in for engagement . The lacing , the body - searching , the cavum inspection are all acts meant to dehumanize and shame him , and he ’s helpless to do anything but keep his powers in check for not in full expose himself .
Even though “ The Book of Crucifixion ” quickly sets about putting its Hero onto the ASA ’s plot and alliance connections to the corrupt police , the instalment very modishly play up that , for Black Lightning , a enceinte part of his connection to Freeland comes down to optics . Again , this in and of itself is n’t exactly a fresh concept for a cape show , but it ’s in moments like these that all of the crucial , rich groundwork that Black Lightning ’s been laying prove its value .
The chronicle of a superhero agitate to illuminate their name after being framed by the police is n’t a new one , but it aim on a particular plangency in Black Lightning , both because its titulary submarine is a disgraceful man and because we live in a prison term in which stories about the police kill barren unarmed dim hoi polloi are a damn - near daily occurrence . “ The Book of Crucifixion ” is about the danger posed when a Heron ’s identity is almost revealed , but it ’s also about the wholly - justified awe that many black people are confronted with just for being black in the comportment of the law . It ’s the form of story that not many superhero display have the catgut to do , but it ’s one that Black Lightning is severalise excellently .
Assorted Musings:
I am here for Kara Fowdy ’s villain vice chief chic looking . Also , more supervillains who have daytime jobs as public schooltime administrators , please .
It ’s particularly heavy that Kara , the Judas to Jeff ’s Jesus , is a black woman who sells him out to the crooked white constabulary detective Cayman , who leads Jeff ’s arrest .
Put “ you got ta bring ass to get roll in the hay ” on my tomb .
I ’ve never really been much of devotee of superheroes with themed vehicles , but Thunder and Black Lightning really require to get some sort of galvanizing elevator car to zip around the urban center in because they look goofy as blaze running around in the street .
So it turns out Black Lightning ’s world is in reality full of metahumans , they ’ve all just been in the ASA ’s stasis seedcase . This was one of the few unearthly quirks about the show that made you wonder how the 2d time of year was go to go about introducing even more metas into the premix , but … now we know .
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