Black Lightning | Equinox: The Book of Fate (S1 E7)

by Christian Holub | via Entertainment Weekly

Well that was a big one, huh? Last week finally brought Anissa face to face with her father in his superhero costume, but it turns out Black Lightning was just getting started.

We begin with two warnings. First up is Lynn, who is trying to calm Anissa down from the ecstatic high of discovering that her MLK-quoting no-nonsense father is Freeland’s hard-fighting vigilante. Lynn is trying to warn her from taking a path that has caused herself and Jefferson much hardship, but Anissa is too excited, too full of the possibility to help other people at a meaningful level, to heed her. A similar story is unfolding not far away, where Gambi is warning Jefferson not to attack Tobias with lethal force. Something we know that Jefferson doesn’t is that Gambi has likely killed a lot of people, so he truly is warning Jefferson away from his own path. But Jefferson is too passionate about punishing Tobias, and too distrustful of Gambi by now, to listen.

For his part, Tobias is in a cage fight with a muscular opponent when the man suddenly falls dead. Searching his belongings, Tobias and Toledo find a packet of Green Light. As much money as this new drug has been making him, Tobias realizes it’s no good if it kills the customers. Addicts can’t keep buying drugs and putting money in his pockets if they’re dead, after all. Tobias sees this as a problem with his boss Lady Eve, and he resolves to fix it — and not by talking, either. If you’re like me, you may have started to get some serious Kylo Ren/Snoke vibes right about now…

In fact, both ends of this relationship are fraying. Gambi comes to Lady Eve and tells her that Tobias is getting out of control. He’s even opening a new jazz club and making too big a name for himself, drawing the kind of attention that might eventually bring down their whole villainous operation. Tobias is a moneymaker for Eve so she’s loath to get rid of him, but she does want to send a message. She orders Gambi to take out Toledo and hopes that Tobias finally gets the message.

When Jefferson learns that Anissa took some of his father’s research to Lynn’s lab shortly before the break-in, he realizes that must be the cause. He tells her to warn the newspaper editor David Poe (who gave it to her) about the possible danger he’s in, but they’re too late. Poe is dead already, and the burglars themselves get “cleaned up” shortly after.

Click HERE to read the rest of the recap, “Equinox: The Book of Fate.”