Change is everywhere in Freeland and the Pierce family is trying to find balance. Tobias is also testing out a new way of doing things, one that brings him more into the open. Here’s our review of “Master Lowry”!
“Master Lowry” opens with another Green Light victim being wheeled into the hospital, but she fights off the staff and the cops to run outside. She picks up a dumpster and aims it at the cops, telling them she needs to go home.
Black Lightning shows up at the right moment to zap away the dumpster and save the police. He also manages to calmly talk to the woman and get close enough to knock her out with his powers.
The remaining part of the episode follows the fallout for the Pierce family and how they’re struggling to regain their footing after all that has happened and what continues to happen. It’s like they don’t have a chance to breath before they’re forced along to the next issue.
Let’s see how the characters did in “Master Lowry”.
Jennifer
Well, she’s giving her sister solid relationship advice when it comes to Zoe B.
“She’s cotton candy. You need soul food.”
Beyond that, Jennifer meets Perenna, a metahuman therapist. Her parents don’t tell her about the appointment, and Perenna meets her in a park while she’s out for a walk. Jennifer is rightly creeped out because Perenna can alter reality so it seems like they’re not where they were anymore, and that’s exactly what she does when she touches Jennifer.
When she gets home, she yells at her parents. She wants them to stop pretending that she’s some freak. She feels like a prisoner and no one asks what she feels or thinks.
Jennifer thinks she’s a monster, and that breaks Jefferson.
“Baby girl, I’m so sorry. It’s my fault. All of it is my fault. If I could take it away, I would.”
Jefferson blames himself and his meta abilities for changing Jennifer, and it’s so sad to see him carry that guilt.
Jennifer eventually goes to Perenna on her own.
She changes their reality and makes it seem like their in a beauty shop. She tells Jennifer that black women have spent so much time in them to change their appearance and make themselves more socially acceptable, but they’ve also inspired politics and helped send people to the March on Washington during the Civil Rights Movement.
“I’ve always loved the beauty shop.”
After she gets Jennifer to sit down, she tells her that they’re going to build a box for her feelings. Perenna makes some appear and Jennifer makes it gold.
At their next meeting, Perenna tells Jennifer she needs to learn what her feelings are. She touches Jennifer and all we see is Jennifer screaming, consumed by her energy power.
I hope that Perenna can help Jennifer, but it looks like she’s got a lot of work ahead of her.
Anissa
A person named Zlovac is buying up all the real estate in Freeland, and the clinic in Freeland may be closing soon.
This is the perfect job for vigilante Anissa.
Before she gets started, she goes and visits the pastor, and asks him how much he needs to save the clinic.
“If you could write a check, you wouldn’t be wearing that mask.”
In the end, he tells her that they need 300,000 then asks if he can pray for her before she leaves. She lets him, and he prays for her safety before she leaves.
In true Anissa fashion, she goes to Gambi for help in figuring out who’s buying up all the properties and how to take their money because she knows her daddy will tell her she’s not being careful. They get to the bottom of things and realize that Zlovac is probably involved in a money laundering scheme and she’s about to bust it up.
“If I see you doing anything stupid, I’m going to tell you.”
Anissa and Gambi go to the meet up and she kicks ass and steals the money. Gambi even says that something she tells him reminds him of how her dad used to talk. When it’s all said and done, Anissa delivers the money to the pastor, who thanks God for her and the cash.
Back at his apartment, Gambi opens the door to find an unconscious Kara Fowdy outside and looking for help. How she’s managed to stay alive, I don’t know.
In relationship news, Anissa goes and finds Grace. She apologizes for ghosting her, but tells her that they weren’t in a relationship, but she should have had better manners. Grace assures her that she’s fine and she’s not lonely.
Anissa then tells her that her job is super important and taking up a lot of her time. I don’t know if it’s vulnerable for Anissa or if she’s being a little manipulative, but she tells Grace that her sister said she needed to balance things better…and she wants to try to have a relationship with Grace.
I guess Grace is more soul food than cotton candy?
Lynn
Odell wants to bring on a crazy, locked up doctor (Dr. Jace) and Lynn really doesn’t want to, but he tells her it’s all he has to offer. Lynn accuses him of sabotaging her and her research.
“If I wanted to do that, you’d have failed by now.”
He goes on to tell her that she stole this job, and if anyone dies, it’s on her.
Lynn is forced to meet with Dr. Jace and try and get her to come on board. This woman performed unauthorized experiments and caused 10 patients to lose their feet and one died. She’ll work with them, but Lynn has to promise to try and get her a visitation in return for her cooperation.
After she begins her work, Dr. Jace is walking the floor with Lynn and finds out quick that her ankle bracelet will knock her on her ass if she steps outside of the bounds. When Dr. Jace tells her that it doesn’t seem like Lynn is abiding by the Hippocratic Oath, Lynn lets her have it.
Telling her that if she even thinks about messing with those pods, she’ll have her thrown back in jail.
Khalil (Painkiller)
The episode does little to repair the relationship between Tobias and Khalil. At the start, Tobias wants to burn the receipts from his money laundering? and had Khalil hold them until it burns his hand. They repeat the process until Khalil almost makes it through describing the money pick-up process.
Tobias tells him that he’ll have to take over Syonide’s duties since he let her get killed. It still throws me that Kara Fowdy took down Syonide when last season she was holding her own against Thunder.
Later, he sends Khalil to find Rion, a drug dealer who hasn’t paid up, and tells him to do whatever he needs to do to get the money.
Khalil goes to Club 100 and after a guy gives him shit, he holds him up by his throat. Rion comes in and sees Khalil then tries to run. Khalil goes full Painkiller and shoots a dart, hitting him in the throat and causing him to fall from the second floor balcony.
He’s dead as soon as he hits the floor, and Painkiller leaves.
Jefferson & Henderson
At Gambi’s shop, he and Jefferson decide that getting their hands on one of Painkiller’s darts is the best way to work out the chemicals in it to find an antidote. This is one of Jeff’s mission this episode.
Before he can get started on that, he has to go by Garfield and clean out of his office. When he gets there, though, things are very different. Metal detectors are now at the entrances of the school. This is something Jeff fought hard against in the first season.
He makes it to his office, and the new principal is already there. He’s got attitude, and instead of taking Jeff’s offer of showing him around or thanking him for making the transition smooth, he’s extremely curt and makes sure to remind Jeff to call him Principal Lowry, not Mr. Lowry.
When Jeff questions him about the metal detectors, Principal Lowry shows his true colors even more:
“The metal detectors. Is that really necessary?”
“If it wasn’t, you’d still have a job.”
I’m done with this man already.
That evening, Jefferson cleans out his old office and goes home. For a few minutes, Henderson comes by to talk to him about Detective Summers murder.
Henderson is still very betrayed by all that happened, but he knows this calls for Black Lightning, so he puts aside the hurt he feels for the betterment of the community.
The main suspect won’t speak to the cops, but Henderson believes that he’ll talk to Black Lightning. Before he leaves, Henderson finds out that Jefferson lost his job as principal of Garfield. He tells him that he’s sorry and then leaves. As he gets down the walkway, Jefferson stops him:
“Bill, at some point we need to talk this thing out.”
“Yeah, at some point.”
I really hope these two can work things out soon. Their friendship is wonderful, and in the end, they both want the same thing. A safe Freeland.
Soon, Black Lightning finds the guy who torched Detective Summers and questions him. During this questioning, he finds out that Khalil is the one who hired the guy, which means that Tobias is the one who killed Summers.
He goes to Henderson with the information, but Henderson already knows Tobias is still around because Painkiller killed Rion. Jefferson wants to know why Tobias is acting out now after laying low for thirty years and Henderson says:
“Look, I don’t know. Maybe he just didn’t wanna be different than every other gangster in Freeland.”
For some reason I doubt that.
Black Lightning goes and visits Khalil’s mom next, but she said she doesn’t know where he is.
“He got himself into something and there’s no way out.”
Jeff tells her that he can help Khalil out, but she needs to trust him.
“If you want him to live, you need to call him and tell him to meet with me.”
In the end, Khalil goes to meet Black Lightning, and tells him that he needs to leave his mom alone. Black Lightning tries to appeal to Khalil’s human side, the one who had a past and people who loved him.
Khalil says that if he doesn’t leave him alone, he’s going to track down everyone Black Lightning loves and kill them. Instead of answering, Jefferson shocks him, and Painkiller sends a dart his way.
He catches it, and that’s what he’ll take to Gambi. Woohoo! Mission complete.
Following Henderson again, the police find Tobias at the cemetery visiting his sister’s grave? I can’t believe it and neither can Henderson, but they finally can arrest Tobias Whale.
“Tobias Whale, you are under arrest for the murder of Alvin Pierce.”
AHHHHH!
Henderson comes over again to tell Jefferson that they’ve arrested Tobias Whale. Jefferson is visibly shaken by this news and holds onto the door for support.
What did you think of “Master Lowry”? I don’t think the transition will be smooth at all. Will Tobias stay in jail?
We’ll see you next week for more Black Lightning!