Black Lightning – The Book Of Rebellion: Chapter One: Exodus

By starrymag | December 10, 2018

By: Jessica Wolff

 

 

Jennifer Pierce (China Anne McClain) and Khalil Payne (Jordan Calloway) pull up in front of a building, and Khalil explains that he needs to make a stop to get them some money. Khalil grabs his gauntlets from the trunk, goes into the bar, and tells the gang members that he’s there to collect. One of them tells him that Tobias Whale (Marvin ‘Krondon’ Jones III) put a bounty on his head and Khalil fights the gang members as they shoot at him.

 

Khalil dodges gunfire as he runs outside with a bag of money and Jennifer is startled by the noise. After seeing the shootout, she creates a ball of light and throws it at the telephone line. The gang members are blinded by the light, and Khalil uses the opportunity to escape with Jennifer. Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) asks Peter Gambi (James Remar) if he’s found anything yet as Lynn Pierce (Christine Adams) embraces Gambi upon seeing that he’s alive. Gambi apologizes for what he’s put them through, but Anissa Pierce (Nafessa Williams) is still angry about him faking his death.

 

Jefferson tells her they need to focus on finding Jennifer, and Gambi tells them that there is no sign of Jennifer on public transportation, leading Jefferson to conclude she’s in a car or on foot. He tells Gambi that Perenna’s suggestion that Jennifer is with a boy, and Anissa speculates that the boy is Khalil. Anissa tells them about the text she saw, and Jefferson is angry about her not telling them about it. He declares that Khalil is dangerous and that he’s going to ask Bill Henderson (Damon Gupton) about putting out an APB before asking to look at Gambi’s traffic cams.

 

Henderson asks Lynn if she has any idea why Jennifer ran away, and Lynn suggests in might be related to their decision to home school her. He assures Lynn that Jennifer is like a niece to him and promises to do everything he can to search for her. Meanwhile, Black Lightning surveys Freeland from the roof and spots a car containing a couple that looks like Jennifer and Khalil. He leaps down and rips off the front windshield, but the couple is not Jennifer and Khalil and Black Lightning tells them to get out of there.

 

Jennifer confronts Khalil about his stop leading to a shootout, and Khalil tells her he didn’t know about the bounty on his head. She gets angry about having to use her powers in public, and Khalil apologizes before telling her they need to get another car. Jennifer tells him they need a plan and a place to stay, telling him that her parents will search her friends’ houses first. Khalil suggests they can go to his aunt’s house for the night, and Jennifer agrees. They break into a parking lot and Khalil hotwires a car. Jennifer tells him she wants to call her parents, but Khalil yells at her and refuses to let her.

 

Gambi shows Anissa security footage of Jennifer using her powers in the shootout, and Henderson shows the desk sergeant (Crystal Lee Brown) Jennifer’s picture and asks to have the rest of the force looking for her. Patrolman Roman Hicks (Derek Evans) informs Henderson that there’s a dead body matching Jennifer’s description, but he declares that it’s not Jennifer upon arriving at the scene.

 

Nichelle Payne (Yolanda T. Ross) goes home to find Tobias waiting for her. She asks if he’s there to kill her, but Tobias tells her that he has a strict ‘no mama’ rule. He asks her to call Khalil to tell him to keep his mouth shut about his plans and informs her that he ran away with Jennifer. She tells him he’ll have to kill her first, and Tobias questions how she ended up with a weak son as he leaves.

 

Yvette (Tonia Jackson) opens the door and Khalil asks for a place to stay. She asks if it’s true he kidnapped Jennifer, but Jennifer insists that they ran off together. They convince Yvette to let them stay and she agrees. Khalil apologizes to Jennifer for yelling at her earlier, and Jennifer warns him that she’ll light him up if he yells at her again. Khalil gives her a burner phone, telling her that her parents deserve to know she’s okay.

 

Black Lightning and Thunder confront the gang members about Khalil and Jennifer’s whereabouts, but the first one they ask refuses to snitch. Thunder throws him across the bar, and another gang member reveals the type of car that they drove off in. As they walk away, Thunder answers a call from Jennifer and Black Lightning asks Gambi to trace the call. Jennifer assures Thunder she’s okay but hangs up before Gambi can complete the trace.

 

Anissa is frustrated that they were unable to pinpoint Jennifer and Khalil’s location, and Gambi suggests she get some rest. She is mad at him for faking his death, and Gambi apologizes. Gambi tells her he was trying to protect them, and Anissa confronts him about all of the other secrets he’s kept from them to protect them. He insists that sometimes they keep things from the people they love to protect them, and that leaving them was the hardest thing he’s ever done. Anissa tells him they’re not a family without Jennifer, and thanks him for helping them in the woods.

 

Lynn drinks as she deals with the loss of Jennifer, and tears apart Jennifer’s room looking for answers as she breaks down. Jefferson stops her and consoles her. Jennifer cuts Khalil’s dreadlocks despite his protests, telling him he looks like Whoopi Goldberg. He apologizes for his behavior after he got shot, telling her he was frustrated with losing his ticket out of Freeland. Khalil tells her he doesn’t care if they’re running, as long as he is with her. Jennifer finds a lump on the back of Khalil head, and tells him he should get it checked out.

 

Tobias talks to a painting of his sister about his failed plan, telling her that Khalil is now their enemy. He has a full conversation with it, responding to his sister’s supposed comments. Tobias decides to try and change his methods if they aren’t working and calls his sister the best person in his life. Jefferson puts a blanket over Lynn and finds Anissa looking at Jennifer’s wrecked room. He explains that Lynn wrecked it and tells Anissa that she should have told them about Khalil sooner. She gets angry that he’s blaming her and tells him that his treating of Jennifer as a prisoner probably caused Jennifer to reach out to Khalil in the first place, declaring that he drove both her and Jennifer away.

 

Nichelle visits Lynn and apologizes for ignoring her and Jefferson’s calls. She tells Lynn that she never wanted Jennifer to get mixed up in Khalil’s trouble and that Jennifer and Khalil are probably at Yvette’s house before giving her the address. Lynn thanks her and calls Jefferson to give him the address. Anissa tells Gambi to bring the van and Gambi tells her he wants to give her something of her own before handing her a key to a motorcycle.

 

Cutter (Kearran Giovanni) visits Tobias, and comments that she thought he was against hiring black people. Tobias tells her that he’s against hiring incompetent ones, and she tells him that she wouldn’t be there if she had factored in their past. She offers her condolences for his sister, and Tobias tells her she told him to try new things yesterday. Tobias tells her he better get his money’s worth, and she comments that his threats have returned before asking who he wants killed.  He shows her Khalil’s location, but tells her he wants him alive. She asks him why he needs her if he has a tracker, and the reminds her that he is supposed to be an upstanding citizen. Tobias comments that sometimes it’s best to leave things to the professionals and she agrees to take the job.

 

Yvette urges Khalil and Jennifer to hide upon seeing Cutter on her doorstep. She answers the door, and Cutter poses as a detective wanting to talk about Khalil. Yvette sees through her lie, and Cutter pulls out a knife before forcing her way into the house. Khalil attacks Cutter as he dodges her knife. They fight in the kitchen and Jennifer runs to pull Yvette into the bedroom. Cutter continues throwing knives at Khalil as he dodges and tries to shoot darts at her. She pins him to the table and then pins Jennifer to a door with several knives.

 

Before Cutter can strike Khalil, Black Lightning pulls her arm away with his lightning. Black Lightning throws her back and Thunder dodges her knives. Jennifer pulls herself and Khalil free and escapes with him. She and Khalil run into the woods, and Cutter follows them. Gambi follows them with a drone, but Jennifer knocks it out with her powers. Gambi tells Black Lightning and Thunder that he lost them, and they go into the woods to search.

 

Jennifer asks who Cutter was and how she knew where to find them. She realizes that the lump in Khalil’s head is a Tobias-planted tracker, and that the spark in their kiss was related to the tracker. Jennifer pulls out scissors to remove the tracker, but Khalil refuses to let them near him. He suggests she use her powers to short-circuit the tracker, but she doubts her ability. Khalil tells her he trusts her despite her hesitation and reminds her that he doesn’t care if he’s running as long as it’s with her. She is able to short-circuit the tracker and kisses him, realizing that the tracker-related spark is gone.

 

Black Lightning calls out for Jennifer but walks away when there’s no sight of them. Jennifer and Khalil come out of the bushes they hid in and run further into the woods. Cutter calls Tobias, and promises she’ll find Khalil soon. He sees that the tracker is disabled, and she yells at him for having to fight metahumans. Tobias asks what she means, and she tells him that Black Lightning and Thunder showed up. He questions what Black Lightning wants with Khalil and realizes that Black Lightning has showed up every time the Pierces have been in danger.