DC TV Recap Round-Up, Week 19: Catch-Up Time Again!

17 Apr

Welcome back! With paltry showings right now, this installment with cover two weeks worth of Black Lightning and Legends of Tomorrow! So with that in mind, let’s get down to it…

“Sins of the Father: The Book of Redemption”

Jefferson still has some issues with Gamby, not that it matters to Gamby, who has his own problems now that he went against the evil Proctor and his plans with the Green Light serum. Proctor has Gamby captured, and because he puts two and two together, thinks Jefferson is Black Lightning, and sends some goons to grab him. Thanks to some quick thinking from both Jefferson and Gamby, the two manage to escape their captors. Of course, the Pierce family have to hide out in Jefferson’s boyhood home (where his dad was murdered by Tobias), but them’s the breaks.

In other news, we learn Jennifer’s superpower is creating energy like a generator, which you can’t help but wonder how useful that might be if Jenn decides to use it. Lala is still building up a crime syndicate while Tobias seems to still be missing after that serious wounding. And then we learn that Proctor has been collecting kids who have been affected by Green Light with someone we already know: the vice principal at Jefferson’s high school! And now she has a new task: to help Proctor capture Jefferson!

“At least you ain’t popping up in my shower naked unlike them other ghosts.” “Wait, what?”

–Lala doesn’t mess around this episode, I mean, ripping off ears and facing down a guy whose gun misfires. And now he’s seeing ghost Will. But the worst thing he does? Gives up his mom’s address for collateral for a drug deal! Damn!

–I’m not sure Anissa is getting that Jennifer is really not cool with having super powers.

–That’s such a playful moment between Lynn and Jefferson regarding whether he can see through people’s clothes thank to refining his electric powers.

–This Carver Guy is willing to start a shooting spree outside Gamby’s tailor shop if Gamby doesn’t surrender. Cold.

–Anissa’s reply to hearing the drinking water was poisoned with that serum: “And they called us paranoid.”

–“How do you use the bathroom in your suit?”

–“I don’t do low profile.” “Yeah, I see that.”

–That reaction to the crazy woman trying to throw stuff off her third story apartment window to knock out Black Lightning for the reward money: “You got people trying to drop microwaves on your head, and you’re telling me to do better?”

“The Book of Crucifixion”

Now that Jefferson is in Proctor’s sights as to being Black Lightning, Jefferson’s trusted vice principal is left to engineer a way to have Jefferson taken to him. And that solution Kara has for this is to frame Jefferson for being a drug dealer and have him removed by corrupt cops into their custody! Luckily for Jefferson, Detective Henderson discovers this and informs Lynn what has happened. So now how do the Pierce clan get their patriarch out of prison before he’s taken away to some lab never to be seen again?

The solution comes from Gamby figuring they need to have Black Lightning show up in public to throw off Proctor. That involves a little ingenuity with a hologram projector featuring a Black Lightning hologram and Anissa. And thanks to Henderson busting his corrupt police captain, Jefferson is freed from police custody. Not that Proctor has lost interest in Jefferson as Black Lightning, but hey, that’s a problem for the remaining two episodes of the season.

Gamby: “Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grubb.”

–Henderson gets a promotion to Deputy Chief! Good on him.

–Just when you think we’ve forgotten to blow up that armory of Black Lightning killing weapons, NOPE. That gets blown up good!

–I almost wanted those students to stop this arrest of Jefferson. It’s telling he cares for the kids under his guidance.

–Kara seems bothered by setting up Jefferson, but no, she still has to take Carver’s order to keep an eye on her school boss.

–“Did she tell you about the self-driving van? I’m rather proud of the self-driving van!”

–“Are you resisting?” “I am complying.”

–“It’s okay to be strong and scared at the same time.”

“I, Ava”

Just because Sara broke up with Ava last episode doesn’t mean she’s not concerned when Gary drops by with news that Ava has gone missing. While Ava shows up eventually, Sara’s investigation has revealed by then that she has actors for fake parents and a specific year in the future marked off limits by Rip Hunter. Since that never stopped the Legends before, Sara takes Ray to investigate that restricted time and they find that there’s a LOT of Ava around: in thousands of worker clones! Eventually Ava discovers this too, and now both Ava and Sara have questions to ask of Rip next time they see him.

Meanwhile, Nate and Wally are contacted by Kuasa, who wants to retrieve Amaya’s amulet from Nora Darhk’s possession, but needs their help. That turns out to be a ruse to get the amulet and Nate away from Amaya, because she is still needed back in her time, and that leaves Nate at the mercy of the Darhks. Eventually Kuasa is convinced to help save Nate with the rest of the Legends, but she pays for it with her life. This sacrifice convinces Amaya to do the one thing she shouldn’t do: change history by stopping the slaughter at her village that shattered her people!

Get your own Ava, now available everywhere but Fresno.

–Damien Darhk having performance issues with torturing Nate was great. He just wanted to be back with his daughter, not giving her up as a vessel to a super demon.

–Yeah, they didn’t film that Fresno scene in Fresno.

–Zari mentions Ramadan, which is something she celebrates for its familial connections. This isn’t a show based on religion, but that was a sweet character touch you don’t see too much in a polarized environment like today.

–Also, I’m sure Mick has learned his lesson by calling Zari a bitch. He offers a piece of fresh Sammy.

–“Do you know how hard it is to get an acting job in Fresno?” Low blow for my hometown there, show. Not sure I appreciate it.

–“Do not pull his finger. Let’s just say hot dogs aren’t the only thing he’s learned to light on fire.”

–“Oh, I was shipping you two so hard!”

–“This is the second worst attack of the clones I’ve ever seen!”

“Guest Starring John Noble”

Amaya’s trip to her future, our past, is discovered by the Legends, and with it comes a big problem: it can create an anachronism big enough to let Mallus escape! Damien Darhk reaches out to the Legends to save Nora from Mallus’ control, before that anachronism claims Nora completely. Suffice to say, they need to capture Nora and trust Damien to help them use all the totems to stop Mallus, so that shouldn’t be a problem, right? Well, in order to defeat Mallus and not betray Amaya’s mission to save her people, the solution reached is to help her fulfill her goal so Mallus can be freed long enough to kill him! Yeah, this plan can only end badly.

Even with helping the Legends, Damien would not want to release Mallus because it would destroy Nora. So of course he betrays everyone, but unfortunately does not stop Amaya from changing the timeline enough so Mallus can escape! So now we got a giant demon monster to fight now! Oh, and the Team saved college age Barack Obama from being killed by Gorilla Grodd. Maybe should have lead with that. And noted character actor John Noble was part of the Legends plan to capture Nora, just in case you wondered about the episode’s title.

Probably for the best the President left this out of his memoirs.

–Ray made a song about all of Nate’s emergency codes for memorization, because OF COURSE HE DID. At least he bothered to read the code list.

–Sara tells Ava that she loves her, but Ava’s still in trauma over that clone business, let alone hearing from Rip she’s the 13th version (!) he put into the Time Bureau. Oh yeah, and Rip showed up. Forgot to mention that.

–I wonder how changing the timeline like this for Amaya’s grandchildren is going to affect things now.

–The fun note of Damien fixing that imprisonment floor pentagram so it can actually work…on him. The Legends aren’t experts at magic. Maybe bring someone in to help them on that next season…

–“Tell Peter no more chickens, okay?” If you saw Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, you would agree.

–“The rest of us, we’re on ObamaCare!”

–“Time to make America Grodd Again!”

–“I really miss you.” I know. We all do.

NEXT TIME: The Flash returns as he fights a metahuman who can make her victims fly into the air, Black Lightning faces a deadly trap by the returning Tobias, and the Legends of Tomorrow end their season in a final showdown with Mallus in the Old West!