Black Lightning 4×12 Review: “The Book of Resurrection: Chapter One”

The stage is set for the final showdown in Black Lightning’s penultimate episode “The Book of Resurrection: Chapter One”

The penultimate episode of Black Lightning, “Book of Resurrection: Chapter One” features many emotional moments as the series makes its way towards its finale. Picking up where “The Book of Reunification: Chapter Two” left off, the episode opens with a touching conversation between Jefferson (Cress Williams) and Jennifer (Laura Kariuki). Seeing Jefferson comfort Jennifer after Uriah’s murder, telling her the truth about the murder of his father, and declaring that Freeland needs Lightning is an emotional moment for their relationship and shows how far they’ve come since the beginning of the series.

Jefferson’s plan to wipe Tobias’ (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III) memories is an interesting and clever tactic, and it’s always great to see Jefferson and Gambi (James Remar) working together. Gambi also helps Lynn (Christine Adams) and it’s also enjoyable to see the two of them working together as they figure out how to find the emitter. In addition, seeing Lynn admit that her family needs their powers shows growth after so many instances of Lynn wanting her family’s powers removed.

Gambi introduces Lynn to Caruso (Elena Varela), who is working with Anissa (Nafessa Williams) and Grace (Chantal Thuy) to hack into Monovista’s system and locate the stolen metahuman genes. Caruso has been a good and unexpected ally the last two episodes and hopefully, Gambi and Lynn are right in trusting her, especially after Lynn tells her of her family’s metahuman abilities. Using the information Caruso recovers, Anissa, Grace, and TC (Christopher Ammanuel) break into Monovista’s new facility and destroy it. Seeing the three of them teaming up is fun, and it’s great to see that Anissa and Grace have seemingly made up after their previous fight. Unfortunately, the development is yet another instance of significant development between Anissa and Grace happening off-screen.

As Khalil (Jordan Calloway) transports Looker (Sofia Vassillieva) so she can testify against Tobias, Ishmael (Rico Ball), who has orders to kill both of them, stops them. Khalil lets Painkiller take over and another exciting fight sequence ends with Ishmael dead. It’s satisfying to see Ishmael taken care of and knowing that the Pierce family will have one less obstacle in their way. Despite the progress the Pierce family makes in this episode, Tobias continues to gain power by taking control over the mysterious shadow board. It’s unclear what Tobias and this board’s agenda is, but the Pierce family will hopefully find a way to stop him once and for all.

Jennifer, despite TC’s protests, gains more power up in the ionosphere before confronting Red (Matt Roszak) about Uriah’s murder. The recurring instances of going up to the ionosphere remain nerve-wracking given all of the harm that it has already caused for Jennifer. Unfortunately, Jennifer continues to ignore all warnings and hopefully, her recklessness doesn’t cost her in the end.

As Jennifer has Red to the police, a confrontation between Lightning and Chief Lopez (Melissa De Souza) occurs, where Lopez threatens Lightning and every other metahuman. In a smart move, Lightning reveals that she’s livestreaming the confrontation. Lopez ends up spiraling as the rest of the police department sees the video and decides to take the meta booster herself. Despite learning why Lopez hates metahumans earlier in this episode, it’s hard to feel much sympathy for her after her confrontation with Lightning. Her injection of the meta booster will no doubt be another difficult obstacle to overcome in the finale.

Before Jefferson goes to confront Tobias at his father’s house, he shares a moment with Lynn where they declare their love for each other, and Lynn admits that she wouldn’t change their family’s story. The moment is very emotional and satisfying after all they have been through together and hopefully signals an end to their frequent arguments throughout the series.

Unfortunately, Tobias stops Jefferson from using the memory wiping device and beats Jefferson up as he details how he killed his father in this house. Seeing Jefferson unable to put up much of a fight against Tobias without his powers and his confession that he witnessed the murder of his father is heartbreaking. Watching Tobias gloat about his victory and promising to kill Jefferson in the same way he killed his father will make his demise more satisfying.

The episode ends with Tobias declaring to Jennifer over the phone that he has killed Jefferson, showing her the body. Jennifer’s devastated reaction is especially heartbreaking after her conversation with Jefferson at the beginning of the episode. While it remains to be seen if Jefferson stays dead or his family finds a way to bring him back in next week’s series finale, the Pierces and their allies have their work cut out for them.

While victory is not guaranteed, I hope the series can end with a much-deserved satisfying conclusion for the Pierce family.

Author: Jessica Wolff

Jessica Wolff is a graduate of Drexel University with a BS in Film/Video. She has a passion for entertainment and representation in entertainment. She currently resides outside of Washington, DC.

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