Black Lightning season 3, episode 10, showed us that while the Crisis on Infinite Earths might be over, the crisis within Freeland’s city limits still remains.

It’s been over a month, but Black Lightning is finally back — and within a universe that is forever changed, but a city that remains sadly, frustratingly the same.

The Arrow-verse wide “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event collapsed all the different Earths into one Earth, meaning that Black Lightning — which remained apart from all the Arrow-verse shenanigans over the last two years of its existence — now exists in the same plane of reality as all the other superheroes of the Arrow-verse.

Of course, there are likely other minor and major changes to the Black Lightning universe, but given that the show needs to get going on its own established storylines rather than delving deeply into the ramifications of the crossover event, Jefferson and Gambi kind of just shrug off what exactly those changes might be.

It’s a clever way to allow the show to let the changes be a surprise, but it also brings up why — as I mentioned in my episode 9 review — I don’t really like crossover events as a rule. I think they can be exciting when done well, but most of the time they aren’t — resulting in storylines being forced to adapt or shift or be thrown out wack altogether in order to accommodate whatever wider universe-spanning crossover storylines need to be shoehorned-in.

Credit where credit is due though, as the Black Lightning writers managed to loop in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” as well as could be expected with episode 9, using the wider Crisis to tackle Jen’s personal crisis of whether her loyalties would remain with Odell (as we see clearly in this episode — they do not).

However, the smoothness of writing didn’t land as well on the other side of the Arrow-verse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” leaving us with an episode that was the choppiest and unevenly paced as we’ve seen this season, and making me more than a little frustrated with crossover events as a whole.

Still, this is Black Lightning, and even its less than stellar episodes give us something to chew on, and this one finally provided us forward movement on both Lynn’s addiction storyline and gave us the confrontation between Jen and Odell that I’ve been hoping for.

‘Black Lightning’ season 3, episode 10 review

I really like Lynn as a character, and I think the show has done a great job including her in exciting and organic ways despite the fact that she isn’t superpowered like the rest of her family.

However, her storyline this season has simultaneously been the best and worst parts of the show for me: best when she’s interacting with Tobias because their weird dynamic is oddly entrancing to me (perhaps I have a thing for great villains, don’t judge me!); worst because I think the show has really handled her addiction storyline poorly.

Part of this is because I’m especially sensitive to fictional storylines about addiction, as it’s something that I’ve lived through in my own life with people who are close to me, and I don’t think it gets treated with the seriousness and gravity that it deserves. But part of this, too, is because addiction stories are generally so poorly written — a quick and easy way for writers to include “drama” into the storyline and throw conflict into interpersonal relationships, but something that never really gets dealt with in any real way and has lasting consequences.

Black Lightning ‘s Green Light addiction storyline with Lynn follows along these same lines — it’s caused conflict between her and her loved ones, turned her character into someone who is near unrecognizable and has become, week by week, increasingly difficult to watch, mostly because everyone seems to know something is wrong but no one is doing anything about it.

So I was glad when finally, finally she was found out by both Jen and Jefferson in this episode, who saw her at her absolute worst. All the credit to Christine Adams for her performance in this episode, as her addiction tipped into the wild desperation of the most afflicted junkies. It was, honestly, a little hard to watch as someone who’s watched it happen in real life to a loved one — which is how I also know that it was an absolutely pitch perfect performance.

However, as glad as I am that Lynn’s addiction has finally been brought to light, I am rather upset, close to furious, that it didn’t really get addressed — it’s far too big a problem to be resolved right now — within the course of the episode. Jen realizes what’s going on with her mother, then leaves to stop Brandon from bringing down the entire city with his earthquakes. Lynn has this heartbreaking confrontation with Jefferson, who sees clearly for the first time what his wife has become…and then gets called away by Henderson to help the resistance.

I hope that where this storyline goes is the Pierce family recognizing the toll of ignoring your loved ones in order to be a savior, of this push and pull between private relationships and public good, because otherwise this addiction storyline is going to wind up being one of the worst things Black Lightning has done on the show and to one of its best characters.

I mentioned in my last review that Jen is one of my favorite characters on the show, and that I’ve felt a bit dissatisfied with the way that her character has been the one whose gotten the shortest end of the stick in terms of development in season 3.

However, it looks like Black Lightning heard my misgivings and gave me two back-to-back Jen-centric episodes, which allowed her to work through her internal conflicts that she’s been struggling through the entire season and come out on the other side, firmly on the right side.

Well, on the right side but just a tad too murder-y, if we’re being honest, but I appreciate the decisiveness we see from Jen here, even if I think she ought to dial it back a bit.

Jen’s time in the multiverse really shook her up, making her see that no matter what universe she might find herself in, it is Odell who is the worst person to trust and ally herself with. She comes back from her multiverse field trip fired up and ready to murder Odell, dodging his calls and having to be told over and over again by Jefferson that she cannot, under no circumstances, just straight up murder Odell, no matter what bad shit he’s done, could do, has done in some alternate universe, and is probably currently doing in this one.

Jen being Jen does not listen to him, and in the process of saving Brandon from himself and then from the ASA, confronts Odell even as he tries to continue to recruit her, even going so far as to send a blast of energy his way that would surely kill him…if the Odell she was confronting wasn’t actually a hologram.

This probably isn’t the best route for Jen, because other than the fact that murder is morally wrong, it now takes away a tactical advantage for Jen. Had she thought it through and kept her cool, she could’ve acted as a sort of double agent for Odell, carrying about whatever tasks he asked of her in a non-lethal way for as long as possible while relaying information back to Gambi and the Black Lightning team.

Now that route is taken away, and Odell still holds all the cards while Jen holds none.

This seems, on its face, a bit of regression for Jen in terms of her personality and character growth, as we’ve really seen her react in a more measured and careful way in recent episodes. However, I’m willing to chalk it up to the trauma of seeing who she was in these alternate universes that she visited and wanting to make sure she didn’t become that person. Watching evil you murder your own family would make anyone a little bit reckless.

Stray thoughts and lingering questions

What did you think of ‘Black Lightning’ season 3, episode 10 ‘Blessings and Curses Reborn’ ?