In Review: Black Lightning (S4 – Ep7) Painkiller

Synopsis: In ‘Painkiller’ Grace is abducted while she and Anissa go to Akashic Valley for their honeymoon, and Khalil goes looking for Grace.

The Story

After trying to bury the darker, more devastating part of his persona.  Khalil Payne has distanced himself from all that he loves in a new city named Akashic Valley. Khalil is trying to find inner peace to balance the two sides of his persona. To piece together the Khalil side and that of painkiller. But peace does not come easy for men with a past like that of Painkiller. When Anissa and Grace choose Akashic Valley as the place to be for their honeymoon. The Painkiller side of Khalil is awakened after having been dormant for a year. When Grace is kidnapped and Anissa gives pursuit of her wife’s kidnappers. Painkiller intervenes and nearly kills her. But thankfully Khalil is able to use his mental discipline to make Painkiller back off.

With Anissa seriously hurt.  It is down to Khalil to rescue Grace from a mysterious woman who seems to be merging high-end technology with human consciousness for some bizarre experiments. With a little help from some new friends. Khalil with a little help from Painkiller is able to rescue Grace. But the mysterious Maya is able to get away.

The Acting

Jordan Calloway makes a fantastic return as Khalil/Painkiller and brings with him a few new friends. Philky who is played by Alexander Hodge and Donald who is played by James Roch.  Indeed, they make quite a good team. Philky being familiar with much of what was done to Khalil and trying to help him find some answers. While Donald is a medic as well as someone that is able to help Khalil stay grounded.

Sibongile Mlambo makes for quite a mysterious villain as Maya. And her true identity is pretty much saved for the end of the episode.

Overall

This was a fantastic episode and a perfect way to catch up with Khalil/Painkiller’s storyline from where it left off in the last series. The story and the setup felt very much like it could well have been worked out for a backdoor pilot for a show about Khalil/Painkiller.

The experimentation that Maya seems to be doing on human subjects and consciousness is quite frightening and reminiscent of what was done to Khalil. Also, Akashic Valley as a city name is definitely a reference to Akashic Records, which in theosophy and anthroposophy is a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intent. Meaning that Maya is playing with some really deep stuff. In one scene Philky mentions Akashic Records to Khalil before they visit his friend Wo Man.

Overall. This was a really cool episode. Probably the best episode of the season thus far.