Black Lightning season 2 episode 8 review: superpowered teen trouble

This review contains spoilers.

2.8 Exodus

Black Lightning is one of only a few shows on The CW that actually treats its teenaged characters like teenagers. This is why an episode that centres around Khalil and Jennifer running away together is so necessarily chaotic. These two have no idea what they are doing, which ends up being the best defence of all, as they lead both Jen’s family and Tobias’ mercenary on a wild goose chase around Greater Freeland.

It becomes immediately clear how bad an idea Khalil and Jennifer’s “exodus” is in the episode’s opening scene, which sees Khalil making a quick pitstop to grab some money. What this really means is Khalil is planning on “collecting” some of Tobias’ taxes from some criminals. Unbeknownst to Khalil, Tobias has already put a reward on Khalil’s head, which means the pitstop quickly turns into a shoot-out that Khalil only manages to get out of with the help of Jen and her powers… not the first time we will see Jen use her powers during this sprint for freedom.

Jen is smart enough to call Khalil out on his idiocy. She’s smart enough to know they need a plan. She is not experienced enough, however, to be able to come up with one. Eventually, the two kids decide to lay low at Khalil’s aunt’s house, though not before Khalil turns his temper on Jen when she tells him she is planning on calling her parents to let them know she is okay.

It is a terrifying moment, and one that both Jen and Khalil recognise as not okay. Khalil brushes it off as a side effect of his time with Tobias, but it was a deeply unsettling bout of temper from the teen. Is this rage related to Khalil’s powers or is it a side effect of all of the trauma he has suffered? Either way, the boy’s got to sort his stuff out if he hopes to have a healthy relationship with Jen or himself.

For the moment, in this breakneck-paced episode, Khalil and Jen have more pressing issues to deal with. When Tobias’ mercenary and Black Lightning/Thunder/Gambi converge on Khalil’s aunt’s house, violent chaos ensues. The mercenary would have succeeded in subduing Khalil, if not for Black Lightning’s entrance.

In the hubbub, Jen and a wounded Khalil manage to slip away. Jen even takes out one of Gambi’s drones and Tobias’ tracker (seriously, Khalil would be lost without Jen), giving these two crazy kids another chance at life on the run. I’m not sure how much longer this teenage runaway act can last (or how long Jen will want it to be last, TBH), but, for now, her father and sister storming in with superpowers blazing, Jen’s family haven’t given her many reasons to come home.

Read Kayti’s review of the previous episode, The Sange, here.