Hello everyone and welcome to another Black Lightning catchup post, this time looking at season 1 episode 5, And then the devil brought the plague: The Book of Green Light. We kicked things off with us seeing Jefferson suited up and practising his new flying ability around the building tops of the city. How many powers does he have now? Last episode some new goggles essentially gave him x-ray vision and now he can fly too! I like it! It came with a consequence though as Jefferson began to experience several headaches. This led to his first defeat we have seen at the hands of Joey Toledo. It made me so cross when he got beat up by that weasel of a man (who I didn’t realise we had already met as one of Tobias’ right hands) which shows you how invested I have already become in this show. I was so mad! You just wanted Jefferson to zap him but unfortunately Toledo got away. This isn’t going to help his already tenuous relationship with the police captain either.

I really liked a lot of what they did with Tobias this episode as we discovered multiple new layers to his character. It is clear that he is desperate for acceptance as it is something he never had growing up. His mum left and his dad was just genuinely awful to him. Killing Black Lightning all those years ago gave him that acceptance and respect from his peers but now Black Lightning returning is causing all of that to slip away. Him confronting his father and the genuine bond he has with his sister was all good work…they just need to stop dropping things in with clunky exposition dialogue. So apparently he has a serum in him that means he doesn’t age. Was it done as a big reveal? Did we see how it happened? Did we discover the mystery alongside our hero after realising something with Tobias didn’t add up? No. They just had Gambi drop it in mid conversation and never mentioning it again. If he got his powers at the same time as Jefferson which I presume is linked to what the grandpa was investigating then there would have been much better ways to reveal it.

I really do just love Anissa though. I think she is my favourite character. She got all suited up in a very nice design, even though I have to question what sort of shop she went to to try on all of those different things. Her talking herself up to not be scared of rats was endearing and she is just likeable. This is the type of character they can push too far and make pig headed, preachy and whiny but they have a perfect balance at the moment with her. Overall another fun outing with the wider plot starting to take shape. Good work DC!

DD Rating: 7.75/10