Black Lightning 2×04, “Translucent Freak,” puts Anissa and Jefferson at odds and keeps Jen locked up in her own house. So it’s a pretty tough episode all around for the Pierce family.

Last week ended with the arrest of Tobias Whale in the most extra, over the top way possible — Tobias lit by candlelight, kneeling over what I will assume is Syonide’s tomb in a white marble mausoleum.

And while Henderson and Jefferson got to end that episode with at least a brief moment of triumph, I immediately found the entire setup to be just that — a set up.

Looks like I was right.

Tobias’ to-do list over the past few episodes was so thorough that his arrest essentially means nothing. Actually, it’s worse than nothing, since the lack of hard evidence and any sort of credible proof means that he’s officially exonerated and can step back into the forefront of Freeland as a respectable community member.

Which makes this episode a particularly tough one for Jefferson Pierce, who has to watch not only his replacement at Garfield do exactly what he feared would happen once he stepped down, but see the man who murdered his father walk as a free man in his community.

Add onto that the fact that he and Anissa butt heads so badly that she moves out, Jen is forced to withdraw from school completely, and Lynn is working with a literal mad scientist, and you have a pretty rough week for the Jefferson-Stewart household.

Let’s dig into the episode!

What makes us good?

I’ve been waiting for the fallout between Jefferson and Anissa since she started her freelancing job as Robbin’ for the Hood in Black Lightning 2×01.

I was also afraid that Gambi, who helped out Anissa in the last episode, would get caught in the fallout, which I was dreading because I hate when those two are at odds with one another.

Luckily, Gambi immediately told Jefferson about Anissa’s extracurricular superhero-ing, and Jefferson, of course, immediately confronted Anissa about it. This leads to Anissa’s decision to leave the Pierce family abode (farewell, all that money she’s saved on not paying rent!), but also a very short rift between Jefferson and Anissa.

Honestly, I was expecting a bit more conflict between the two regarding her activities — but the two of them patch it up in time to make sure that the newly saved clinic isn’t bombed by the mob.

Which means that in a season titled “The Book of Consequences,” Anissa still has had very few consequences to deal with. While Jen is locked up in her own home, Lynn is working with a sociopathic doctor while sacrificing her ethics little by little to work for a shady government agency, and Jefferson has lost his standing in the community, Anissa has had almost next to no fallout for her heroics.

Which makes me wonder if some pretty big ass consequences are ahead of her this season. One of the things that I find really interesting about Anissa is how readily she jumped into her role of the superhero, and how strong her convictions are that what she’s doing is the right thing. And, right now, I do think she’s doing the right thing.

But I also think that being a good hero means also reflecting on and understanding the long-term consequences and weight of your actions, which I don’t think Anissa is doing right now. She thinks that everything she’s doing must be good, because she’s a good person.

And she is a good person.

But regular good people like you and I hurt the people around us all the time. Not because we’re bad and certainly not because we want to or mean to — but because we are thoughtless or careless or take our goodness for granted. We simply fail to weigh the consequences of our actions.

Multiply that out and apply that to someone with superhuman abilities, whose actions impact a greater amount of people, and the consequences became that much greater.

So I’m curious to see the long-term effects of her short term fixes and heroism, and what she — and we — will learn from them.

The continued fall of Jefferson Pierce

In my review of Black Lightning’s season premiere, I wrote about how much I appreciated the fact that the show was willing to bear out the real world consequences of what being a hero.

And I want to reiterate how much I continue to appreciate that.

For a while, it seemed like Jefferson was going to have it all — he was going to have a wife who finally supported and understood his superhero lifestyle, a community that supported him and loved him in and out of the costume, and a career that would change the lives that he wouldn’t be able to reach as Black Lightning.

But what we’ve seen this season so far is that being a superhero takes its toll on an individual and is oftentimes a heavy burden to bear.

With Lowry, we continue to see the decimation of all of Jefferson’s hard work out of the Black Lightning costume. The students whom he has worked so hard to help succeed, the school that was going to be more than another piece of the school-to-prison pipeline — all of that is beginning to crumble around him.

As a teacher of color who has worked in low-income schools, I’ve seen principals like Jefferson and I’ve seen principals (unfortunately) like Lowry, and watching these dynamics of race, education and equity all play out so honestly on the screen is another reason I love this show so much.

With Lowry, we see someone who isn’t the same level of evil as, perhaps, members of The 100, the ASA or Tobias Whale — but someone who is a villain all the same. But whereas Jefferson can always don the Black Lightning suit and persona to combat those villains, there is nothing he can do with his superpowers to combat the sort of institutionalized racism of which Lowry is the face.

It’s heartbreaking to watch because of how real it is, but I’m also so thankful that Black Lightning is willing to have these sort of conversations, and I’m really curious to see where this storyline goes.

Jennifer’s permanent house arrest

As always, Jen’s storyline affected me the most, because I work with teens on a daily basis and seeing how much pain and hurt she’s going through brings up a lot different emotions connected to being a teacher.

And while I understand Jefferson and Lynn’s need to protect Jen, the question I kept thinking was — but at what cost?

What will be the consequences of their continued fear of the unknown and of Jen’s continued fear of her powers?

In fact, we’ve already seen one effect of her parent’s treatment of her when, at the episode’s end, she reconnects with Khalil despite everyone in her life telling her that doing so would be a terrible idea.

But as poet Czeslaw Miłosz once said, “When it hurts we return to the banks of certain rivers” — and Khalil, as different as he looks and is now, is a familiar presence who feels stabilizing.

Which just goes to show how incredibly adrift Jen must feel, to seek comfort from an ex-boyfriend who shoots poison darts from his hands and nearly succeeded in killing her father.

I feel for Jen and I worry for her, and I hope for her sake that Khalil’s continued desire to want to reconnect with her is a genuine one, not driven by any ulterior motives related to his employer.

C’mon Black Lightning, let me have this one optimistic hope, please.

Notable moments and lingering questions