Black Lightning - The Book of Occupation: Chapter Two

This is what I was hoping for the season premiere. We got some actual information on Odell’s plans and what he’s actually doing with the prisoners in the facility. Not sure why would couldn’t have gotten some of that information in the actual season premiere. But let’s not worry about that anymore.

We finally know for sure that the Markovian threat is real. They’ve infiltrated the U.S. in pretty large numbers. It was interesting to have those sequences use Markovian dialog.

I did wonder if they created a language for the Markovians (they’ve been around awhile in the comics), or if they were using a real (it sounded Slavic to me) language.

I couldn’t help it. I saw all of those Markovians get off that truck and thought it would be a nice touch if we were hearing something, perhaps background news footage in Odell’s office or one of Gambi’s monitors, about the American military and the fight against the Markovians.

For me, bringing in another country makes me wonder if the rest of the world has noticed a city being quarantined or a war being fought on American soil. I’d like to get more of a sense of the world in the Black Lightning universe.

Everything makes a lot more sense not that I understand that Odell isn’t in Freeland to fight this war. He’s here to build weapons. Disturbingly, the first one off the production line is Khalil. (Seriously, how much does that poor kid have to go through?)

I didn’t get the importance of Gambi’s admonition to the voice on the radio about disguising his guest’s voice. That woman was Khalil’s mother, and she was the focus of the test to prove that Odell’s process was successful.

Odell’s evil doings are worse than I’d imagined, but, with those two scenes we know who and what Black Lightning will be fighting this season.

I understand why Lynne is willing to work for Odell in trying to find a cure for the Green Light Babies. I can’t disagree with her. It makes complete sense to keep those kids alive first and worry about freeing them from Odell’s enslavement later.

How do you guys feel about the impression Lynn is naïve, gullible and headed for betrayal? It feels like they’re laying the groundwork for a major Lynne win later in the season, but I’m not looking forward to the conflict between her and Jefferson that seems to lay ahead.

I keep wondering why Jefferson was brought to this place and what, if anything, the testing was for. Though it does appear that it serves a purpose, from the ‘heroes perspective’. His presence in the facility affords him the opportunity to investigate what’s happening to the kids there.

I love the security team complaining about Jefferson circumventing the security. Really? The prisoner is supposed to care that his captors are inconvenienced? That led to my favorite scene in the episode.

Odell’s visit with Jennifer was fun. He seemed unprepared to face a teenager who wasn’t sick or afraid of him. When he bit his tongue and change the subject I lost it. “Forget surveillance.” Ha!

What I didn’t expect was to see the way the war has caused our heroes to change. We’re seeing it with Jefferson and Anissa.

Jefferson, who fought for the kids when he was a high school principal, is now willing to consider letting some of those kids die in an effort to stop Odell. And Anissa was pretty harsh with Thierry, Anaya and the Perdi.

Granted Anaya and her father tried to go back on their deal with Anissa after being paid. Anaya’s song changed when she realized that of the Metas helping out on the fond could increase their yield substantially.

There’s a part of me that doesn’t blame the Perdi for trying to get more out of that situation if they could, but wouldn’t it have made more sense to wait until negotiations for the next deal started?

LaLa has the briefcase. There is no reason for any other character on the canvas to think to look at LaLa . So, I guess it’s out of play until the end of the season.

But how awesome is it to have him back. This little voice in the back of my head is thinking he’s going to be on the side of the heroes by the end of the season, which just makes me laugh.

I’m also really enjoying Gambi’s resistance leader story. Last season I was happy to see he and Henderson meet up.

Their team up to get Gambi that hardware was fun. I’m hoping that this season we’ll see more of them as a team.

What do you think about the fact that Anissa’s attempt to keep the Markovians away from the Perdi farm proved to the Markovians that they are in the right place?

This episode felt a lot more like the show I’ve come to love. I enjoyed it more than the season premiere. One of the most unexpected benefits of The Book of Occupation is that we’re seeing some of the more underused characters get more screen time. I hope that continues.

What did you think of the episode?