Black Lightning Episode 3×8: “The Book of Resistance: Chapter Three: The Battle of Franklin Terrace,” Recap & Review

For a recap of last weeks episode, “The Book of Resistance: Chapter Two: Henderson’s Opus,” click here

***This post contains major spoilers for episode 3×8: “The Book of Resistance: Chapter Three: The Battle of Franklin Terrace.”***

Anissa is finally all healed from the poison Painkiller injected her with. She’s ready to get back out there and fight for her city. Speaking of Freeland, Gambi shows us a news clipping from the outside world showing us that the ASA have been covering it up as a SARS out-break and thats why the city has been quarantined. As part of the resistance its up to them to get the message out to the rest of the world. Gambi and Anissa come up with a plan to show the world exactly whats going on.

In the pit, Tobias is ranting to Lynn Stewart about fame and being jealous of her, once she saves Freeland. This is all part of his master to plan to get her to work for him, after he tries to convince her that these metas are just weapons to the ASA. Tobias actually agrees with Black Lightning and asks her if he’s a big fan of Earth, Wind & Fire. Tobias, asks Lynn if these metas actually have a “choice,” calling it the political correct term for slavery these days.

Brandon invites Jennifer over to apologize and Jennifer jokingly zaps him for kicking her out the last time and they both apologize. Jennifer just really wants to know whats the deal when both their powers combine. Since her powers are electrical and his are electrical they come up with the theory that he grounds her and she can hit him as hard as she wants and nothing will happen.

Blackbird goes to Jamila Olsen with the plan to get a message out of Freeland. Jamila has footage of all the camps and terrible things the ASA has done and Blackbird wants her to keep the camera rolling so they can get the best material possible.

Jefferson is at home when Henderson comes knocking. In another case in this episode, someone comes knocking on the door to apologize for their actions from last week. Anyway, Commander Williams is taking over Jefferson’s old apartment building and all the tenants have left except their 3rd grade teacher, Ms.Sheppard.

We get a little more backstory from Brandon as we find out that Dr.Jace was doing experiments on his mother while she was pregnant and thats basically how he got his powers. His mother died when he was 10 and he went to foster care after that. Since then he has been on his own with his ability to make diamonds, thats been his way to make it on his own as he searches for Jace.

Jefferson and Henderson go to Franklin Terrace where they find Commander Williams, the ASA is ready to bust down the building and kick Ms Sheppard out. Williams gives them 5 minutes to get Ms.Sheppard out of her apartment. Jefferson tries as hard as he can, but he realizes that Ms Sheppard is right and she’ll never leave the apartment and something really bad is going to happen to her if he doesn’t do anything. Ms.Sheppard tells him she saw the video when he chose not to fight back and this is her way of fighting back. Jefferson decides this is the time to make the stand. As the ASA attempts to take over the building Black Lightning comes out and defends Franklin Terrace.

Gambi finds a place where they can find a signal to get a message out, meanwhile him and Anissa hear the transmission over the radio of Black Lightning standing up to the ASA. Gambi presumes that Thunder would go best with Black Lightning as she finally makes her return as Thunder.

During the fight, a member of the ASA is questioning why they are doing this as the group tries to take Black Lightning down from his blind side. It’s here where Thunder comes in to save Black Lightnings back and she returns with the rest of the resistance. Commander Williams tells his squad to fall back as the resistance gets its first victory.

Gambi goes to the transmissions tower to send the message where he finds a young pod kid, a meta, who’s a techno-path (can speak to machines). The kid helps Gambi fix the machines so he can send a message out.

Inside the pit, Lynn finds a room filled with green light. She goes back to Tobias after this and tells him she’s needs his help to free the metas. Tobias is her golden goose, but the only way they can do this is if she free’s him. Tobias needs Miriram’s camouflage ability spliced into him for this to work.

Round 2 Fight! Painkiller goes to Franklin Terrace and finds Thunder there. During the fight Painkiller takes off his head gear, revealing himself to Thunder. Thunder takes out the asset as Khalil loses and jumps out the window.

Up in the tower, they send out Jamilah’s report but it’s being jammed by the ASA, before they are able to be found the techno-path, now known as TC, is able to successfully send out the message.

In the pit, Lynn is being locked in because Jefferson broke his deal as Black Lightning. Gambi helps Lynn as she attempts to break out of the facility. Before she leaves she grabs the vaccine. She makes it out of the facility, but she drops her bag before she gets in Gambi’s van. Gambi leaves without it.

Black Lightning and Commander Williams fight. Williams who has Black Lightning’s ability but doesn’t have his suit, is taken down easily as the resistance, Ms.Sheppard and the people of Freeland celebrate the win against the ASA.

Thoughts:

“The Battle of Franklin Terrace,” was an excellent episode this week as it made up for the short-comings of last weeks episode and delivered one of the most action packed episodes to date. Black Lightning is not known for it’s fight sequences as it uses them sparingly through out each episode, but this week we got 3. The highlight’s of the 3 fights were Thunder finally returning, Khalil finally being unmasked to Anissa, and Black Lightning taking down Commander Williams to score a victory for the resistance. While the resistance will take the win, you know there is going to be some push back from the ASA in the weeks to come.

Some people love him, some people hate him, but I’ve always been a big fan of Tobias Whale. It’s noticeable to me when he’s not in an episode because you can tell the writers love to write for him. That Earth, Wind & Fire line had me dying like he had me in season one. With Lynn breaking out of the pit, did she have time to give Tobias the formula to give him new powers? What will come of Tobias in the next coming weeks? Lynn is obviously feeling betrayed by the ASA, this war is about to get ugly.

Not much on the Brandon-Jennifer front this week, as we just get some backstory from Brandon’s perspective about Jace and the experiments she did on his mother. Jennifer did open up about Khalil for the first time to him, and with Anissa seeing Khalil, you know this storyline is about to pick up in the coming weeks.

With the resistance successfully getting the message out to the public of whats really going on in Freeland, things are about to change mightily. How is the ASA going to justify what they have done? Who is going to pay for getting the message out? Whats the plan for the Markovians? Is this the official start of the war for Freeland?

With Jefferson Pierce heading to Crisis on Infinite Earths, how will this change the Black Lightning universe as we know it? So many questions !

What are your thoughts, let us know in the comments.