Black Lightning 3×5:”The Book of Occupation: Chapter Five: Requiem for Tavon,” Recap & Review

For a recap of last weeks episode, “The Book of Occupation: Chapter Four: Lynn’s Ouroboros,” click here

***This post contains major spoilers for episode 3×5: “The Book of Occupation: Chapter Five: Requiem for Tavon.”

The episode opens up with Tavon, taken from Garfield by the ASA and subsequently saved by Blackbird & Black Lightning, recording messages for his family inside the Perdi hideout. Meanwhile Agent O’Dell is rummaging through his database trying to put a name and a face to Blackbird. He gets a bunch of possible matches and one of them is Anissa, which puts her on his radar.

Kalil is sparring with some ASA agents and uses the exploding heart technique on one of the men, poisoning him and nearly killing him. Kalil becomes fascinated at the man’s last thoughts before he dies. Agent O’Dell intervenes with the anti-venom for the man, and to give him his new assignment, find Blackbird.

Lynn is in the lab, running tests on a meta named Erica, who is absorbing kinetically absorbing bullets, but eventually Lynn pushes her too far and she combusts. It’s a dream, however, as she wakes up next to Jefferson. It’s never implied if this actually happened or it’s the green light giving her these nightmares, but Lynn is definitely spooked and tells Jeff she needs to go to the lab.

In the morning, Jennifer’s powers are on the fritz and everything is in slow-motion for her. Jenn tell her dad she doesn’t feel normal and Jeff starts going on about “you shouldn’t feel normal going through an occupation,” blah blah blah and Jenn doesn’t want a history lesson this early in the morning. For someone who has the same powers, Jeff is really bad at deciphering that maybe she’s not talking about the dang occupation and she’s talking about how she really feels. Anyway, despite asking for a day off of school, Jefferson makes her go.

Henderson is holding a press conference in junction with looking for information to find Blackbird. The people of Freeland, including Two Bits, aren’t happy that they are after Blackbird since she’s the only hero out there standing up to the ASA right now.

At school, Tavon’s parents meet with Jefferson and ask them to find their baby boy. Tavon’s dad has proof that Tavon was not a meta and Jefferson reluctantly decides to help.

At Anissa’s, Anissa administers the anti-virus vaccine to Grace before she gets a visitor, it’s Gambi. He’s brought fettuccine alfredo, how thoughtful Uncle Gambi! Blackbird heads out for the night until she gets a call from Jefferson who tells her she needs to find Tavon. Blackbird heads to South Freeland with anti-vaccine and Anaya is less than accepting of Blackbird bringing the meta-virus there. Blackbird finds Tavon and they head out.

In the woods outside the border, Painkiller is there waiting for Blackbird and Tavon. Painkiller gets the upper-hand on Blackbird as Tavon runs. Eventually Painkiller gets Tavon with the poison and Blackbird punches Painkiller back through the border. Tavon is badly poisoned however.

While Anissa is still stuck in South Freeland, Agent O’Dell stops by Anissa’s smart home, but Anissa is there. O’Dell comes in asking questions about Blackbird. Agent O’Dell says that Blackbird shares her same height and weight but assumes she can’t be in two places at once. After O’Dell leaves, Anissa transforms into Grace who was using her abilities to pose as Anissa. Gambi heads out to help Blackbird.

Later, Black Lightning and Gambi meet up with Blackbird and Tavon, however, Tavon dies from the poison before they could save him.

At school, Jennifer’s powers start acting up and she asks her new friend Brandon for his jacket. Jenn is typing on the computer when she sparks up and shuts the power off at school. Jenn blames it on a bad come down. Brandon has a worried look on his face.

Henderson heads to Two Bits bar looking for answers but all he finds is stolen goods that Two-Bits has been profiting off of. Two-Bits definitely is not a fan of Henderson since he been working with the ASA and Henderson arrests him. How you gonna arrest Two-Bits, Henderson?

At the ASA, Agent O’Dell brings out the one patient who survived the virus, none of other than Tobias Whale. Tobias goes down memory lane asking her how many metas died in her care. An annoyed Lynn is not having it today and gives him the large needle but it heals him from his old age and burns.

After healing, Tobias wants to know where Lynn’s super hero suit is? He’s had a lot of time to think and he realized that Black Lightning always shows up when his girls are in trouble. Later, O’Dell comes in to ask how his patient is doing. Lynn is fed up and questions what they are going to with Tobias after all this. O’Dell tells her not to concern herself with this but the man threatened to murder her husband, she’s got a point.

Henderson makes his way to the church where “all his leads end.” Reverend Holt tries to tell him that there’s no human trafficking going on here and that god see’s all but Henderson tells him that “god’s seen worse,” and arrests Holt.

Garfield is evacuated after the spark that shut down the power at the school. During this time, students are starting to find out that their classmate Tavon is dead and that its because of the ASA. As they make their way outside students start chanting Tavon’s name and chastising the ASA guards for killing their friend. One of the guards hit’s one of the kids, ending the demonstration. Jefferson comes out to diffuse the situation before the guards start telling him to stand down. The guards knock Jefferson down and start beating him while Jennifer runs out of the school and see’s her father being beaten. Brandon, comes over to her and tries to stop her from going over there and grabs her hand, As he’s grabbing her hand, Jennifer starts lighting up and fire starts coming from her hands, Brandon absorbs Jennifer’s energy, like Jenn did for Jefferson back in season 2.

Jennifer goes to O’Dells truck and asks him why they let him do that to her father. O’Dell was not happy of the situation and informs her he never wants to see a black man down like that. He tells her that those guards will be punished. Seconds later, the guards are back at the ASA playing cards when Jennifer docked in her full suit comes in to presumably light them up (we aren’t shown).

At the end, Henderson free’s Reverend Holt and Two-Bits. He tells them he’s the one in charge of the insurgence and now Freeland is ready to fight. He asks them to be part of the team (including Blackbird) that is going to save Freeland.

Thoughts:

Over the first 4 episodes, Black Lightning slowly plodded the trajectory of the season. It was slow but usually that means it’s building towards something. “Requiem for Tavon,” is that something, giving us the best episode of season 3 and a top 5 episode overall. Setting the tone at the beginning with Painkiller brutally assaulting his sparring partners, you knew that eventually there was going to be a showdown. With Tavon being murdered by Painkiller, now the whole city has something to band them together.

There were many twists in this episode, such as Grace’s switcheroo with Anissa, Henderson being the truth-teller, and Brandon’s coming out party as a meta (however unsurprisingly). The final chapter of The Book of Occupation closes as the newest chapter The Book of Resistance, opens.

I’ve said it before, I really like how Black Lightning does these chapters every season, it makes it seem like its more of a comic book, and gives little mini arcs in each chapter. Where other comic book shows do one big arc over 13-22 episodes, the chapters are something a little different done on super hero tv shows these days.

It will definitely be interesting to see who Brandon is playing, if he’s playing an already established DC hero such as Static-Shock or he’s playing a new meta created for the show. Also, whats going to happen with Tobias, now that he’s back to normal, you have to assume he’s either going to break out or start working for the ASA eventually, count me intrigued after the revelations of the episode.