S03.E14: The Book of War: Chapter One: Homecoming

[Trini]

As the battle continues, old alliances are revisited and new alliances forged.

Benny Boom directed the episode written by Brusta Brown & John Mitchell Todd.

Airdate: 2/24/2020

Edited February 21, 2020 by Trini

[UNOSEZ]

I forget Jen is a teenager at times.. Her naive belief that Khalil wouldn't hurt her.. And with her kinda icy cold shoulder after he attacked.. Both positions seemed a little over the top... 

Shouldn't grace have had a mask or something.. Is it really suiting up if its a bad ass leather jacket and some jeans... 

I'm interested in the Brandon storyline.. But the actor and his facial expression ( no plural as it seems he has one)  are making it difficult

 

[Lantern7]

Okay. So, basically, Wayne Brady is the Big Bad for this season. I mean, he's commanding the Markovian forces, and he's very overpowered, so he would qualify. I'm sure Tobias, Lady Eve, Odell and poor La La would understand.

Gravedigger is an interesting hybrid . . . the name comes from DC Comics' Men at War book, where a black solider turned into a secret operative by the Pentagon, complete with a cross-shaped scar on his face. It looks like the writers have stolen been inspired by Truth: Red, White & Black, a miniseries where we learn of a black man who survived dubious experimentation, becoming the "black Captain America." Here on Black Lightning, Tyson Sykes is now apparently the first official metahuman, and his biology made the Greenlight experiments possible. That's a lot to take in. at one shot.

Of course, there's a lot of other plates spinning on this sticks. Painkiller gains control of Khalil long enough to almost kill Jen, breaking her trust. Brandon almost kills Dr. Jace again, and she reacts like the oddly-likable sociopath that she is. Lady Eve and La La stare each other down, and then she unleashes some Winter Solider-programs words on him, which means he's her pawn. And Markovia invades Freeland some more. So, yeah, par for the course for this series.

[Trini]

Oh thank goodness Lady Eve is back to top form. Loved that "Nah, you my puppet now!" scene. Just in case anyone forgot LaLa's a zombie. LOL at "Tobias killed me, but I got better." And looking fly as always.

It was pretty convenient that she just decides to hand over The Briefcase to Gambi, for nothing. I fully believe she'll call in for a favor a some point, though.

And now Gambi gets his turn to start the episode speaking into the camera. (Pretty sure Khalil did one; but Tobias I'm not sure.)

Was really glad to see the Pierce family together and in one place again. LOL at Jefferson's "BTW, I helped save the universe"!

Yeah, gonna need a better firewall for Khalil, TC. It was really abrupt that Jen shut out Khalil when she has been his biggest supporter, and supposedly still loves him. I'm sure we'll see him again, despite what he said.

Okay, if they're not going to kill Jace, they should just stop having people try (and fail) to kill her so many times. We didn't need that ineffective scene just to learn that Brandon's father is a metahuman.

A lot of exposition and action scenes for Gravedigger. He just got here, but definitely catching up fast in the race for Biggest Bad. Tobias has been weaksauce this season, but the ASA/Odell are still the worst, especially with the new revelations.

This episode was good, but it was kind of a not-entirely-cohesive mix of closure from the previous episode, and the setup of the next arcs. The fight at the Freeland border scenes felt a bit out of place.

[Trini]

1 hour ago, UNOSEZ said:

Shouldn't grace have had a mask or something.. Is it really suiting up if its a bad ass leather jacket and some jeans... 

Well, that's what Blackbird wears. Grace also needs a codename.

1 hour ago, UNOSEZ said:

I'm interested in the Brandon storyline.. But the actor and his facial expression ( no plural as it seems he has one)  are making it difficult

I like the characters, but the actors for Brandon and TC are the weakest ones on the show right now.  :-/

 

[Chyromaniac]

Khalil.  Eve.  Lala.  Every time I see a character that’s come back to life, it just makes me miss Syonide.  Can we figure out a way to get her back too, show?

I’m having an interesting reaction to Gravedigger.  On the one hand, yes- he’s legit scary.  The WWII battle scene was visceral and compelling and (IMO) a well executed version of the “Bam Cam” fight scene thing they used to do on Arrow, and really sold him as a murder machine.  On the other hand, it’s still Wayne Brady, b!tch.  It’ll be interesting to see if one side ultimately wins out.

[AnimeMania]

Did we really see Gambi pull somebody's eye out, I thought he was supposed to be a good guy?

[Trini]

2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Did we really see Gambi pull somebody's eye out, I thought he was supposed to be a good guy?

I guess you missed Season 1 Gambi? He's always kind of been in a grey area.

[Diapason Untuned]

12 hours ago, Trini said:

Oh thank goodness Lady Eve is back to top form. Loved that "Nah, you my puppet now!" scene. Just in case anyone forgot LaLa's a zombie. 

Everytime Lala thinks he's made it, someone comes out to put him down again. I'm almost starting to feel sorry for the guy.

 

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Was really glad to see the Pierce family together and in one place again. LOL at Jefferson's "BTW, I helped save the universe"!

I love when Jeff starts bragging 🙂

 

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Yeah, gonna need a better firewall for Khalil, TC. It was really abrupt that Jen shut out Khalil when she has been his biggest supporter, and supposedly still loves him. I'm sure we'll see him again, despite what he said.

I figured they were moving Khalil out of the way to set up Brandon and Jen.

Legends will be having an opening soon, maybe he could go over there. If anyone ever needed sometime on the Waverider, it's him.

Edited February 25, 2020 by Diapason Untuned

[UNOSEZ]

1 hour ago, Diapason Untuned said:

. If anyone ever needed sometime on the Waverider, it's him.

Ahh man I love that.. Maybe Jeff can put in a word with his new friend Sara.. The waverider will have room as Nora and ray will be gone.. And Sara knows how to deal with trauma and murder related guilt.. Plus she hasn't had a lil bro since Jax left.. And Khalil has a wealth of knowledge and skill from his painkiller side... So.. Prob won't happen 

[Perfect Xero]

22 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Did we really see Gambi pull somebody's eye out, I thought he was supposed to be a good guy?

Gambi might be a good guy but The Tailor isn't.

[thuganomics85]

Damn, so Gravedigger is actually the first ever recorded meta!  Apparently, he was a solider 70 years ago (obviously he has aged gracefully due to his powers.  And being Wayne Brady!), and basically got the Captain America "experimented on by the American government" treatment, only he decided to become evil instead.  And now he has that formula of Lynn's that will give him even more power!  Definitely seems to be a formidable baddie for the endgame.

Should have known Lady Eve had tricks up her sleeve.  Lala really never had a chance, huh?  And while she and Gambi have "made peace" for now, I suspect this their beef is far from over, and I can't wait for more of it, because the intensity was dialed to 100 when those two faced off against each other!

And if there wasn't enough villains messing things up, Odell is now back to slime it up some more.  Fun times!

Looks like Painkiller still is capable of causing some damage.  Poor Khalil.  And Jennifer.

I hope Anissa saying that she thinks Grace is truly the one isn't the start of something horrific happening to Grace.

I'm guessing Brandon's dad is going to end up factoring in at some point.

Loved the family dinner scene.  Also loved Jefferson bringing up Crisis and everyone all "Oh, quit boasting about it, Dad!"  I can just imagine all the unseen scenes where he excitedly talked about that time and everyone he met ("I saw two Supermans!  TWO!)  

[tennisgurl]

It was nice seeing Gambi trying to help Khalil, he is such a mess, understandably, its not his fault that he has an evil supersoldier stuck in his head trying to get out. Poor Jenn, that must have been so horrible, and poor Khalil.

Also, this episode really is Gambi in a nutshell. Supportive mentor, and also hard ass torturer. 

Now thats the Lady Eve I want to see! Lala really messed up underestimating her! That was awesome, like "haha you thought you were in charge here? Sit down kid and shut up!" She and Gambi might have made peace for now, but I dont think its over for now. 

Loved the family dinner scene, its been way too long since the whole Pierce family was together! Best part though? Jefferson humble bragging about helping to save the multiverse in Crisis, and everyone else being like "yeah yeah we get it dad!" 

So lots of backstory for Gravedigger, who was apparently the first meta (that the government knew about anyway) and has a massive ass grudge against the US! Dont fuck with Wayne Brady yall!

[janeta]

Ok, just getting around to this one—did/do they ever mention how Lady Eve magically came back from the dead?

[Trini]

2 hours ago, janeta said:

Ok, just getting around to this one—did/do they ever mention how Lady Eve magically came back from the dead?

Not in this one; but apparently she was resurrected by Lazurus Man(?) - even though there was no indication of that previously.

[immortalfrieza]

On 2/24/2020 at 9:53 PM, UNOSEZ said:

Shouldn't grace have had a mask or something.. Is it really suiting up if its a bad ass leather jacket and some jeans...

I've often thought about how a secret identity can ever work with a shapeshifter. I mean, Grace could just as easily shapeshift herself a bit when she's out in the field and if somebody finds out who she is she could just shapeshift to a whole new identity. The biggest threat for Grace would be putting the people she knows in danger, who are almost all superhumans anyway and thus can handle themselves. I wonder if Grace can even be hurt much by much of anything with her abilities.

 

On 2/28/2020 at 12:52 PM, tennisgurl said:

It was nice seeing Gambi trying to help Khalil, he is such a mess, understandably, its not his fault that he has an evil supersoldier stuck in his head trying to get out. Poor Jenn, that must have been so horrible, and poor Khalil.

I'm hoping that this is leading up to Khalil and Painkiller having an all out showdown. Painkiller was never going to stay locked up forever, Khalil needs to kick his ass and bring him down for good.
 

Though, knowing how the writers like to treat Khalil if that happens it'll be just minutes before Khalil sacrifices himself and dies... again. It's not like Khalil can actually be happy or anything.

Edited March 1, 2020 by immortalfrieza