Episode 6: The Book of Blood (Chapter 2) – The Perdi
Directed by: Oz Scott
Written by: Pat Charles
Following up on the fallout from last week’s episode and the pod kids disaster, Dr. Stewart is devastated by her involvement in it all and becomes the scapegoat for the fiasco in the eyes of Freeland. This leads to her downward spiral throughout the first half of the episode as she is haunted by the loss and her own culpability, perceived or warranted. Christine yet again puts in a great performance here. Once the bedrock of the Pierce family, it was interesting to see the others could not match her degree of hopeful comfort and compassion in her greatest moment of need. Sadly, they all but abandon her once the other facets of the episode start rolling in.
Elsewhere, Anissa follows up on the mysterious happenings of South Freeland and the pregnant girl Anaya (Birgundi Baker) that visited her clinic last episode. This part devolves into a cookie-cutter plot involving racial accords between two backwoods groups, the Black “Perdis” and the cult-like Whites, the “Sange” who have been at odds for generations. Throw in some shallow racial commentary and some “supernatural” element with the Sange and you have a B-movie horror romp. This segment doesn’t say anything new, other than that this two-sided bigoted mentality still stagnates in rural, “untouched” parts of America, even a stone’s throw from civilization. There is certainly no love lost when a skirmish breaks out at the end over a “blasphemous” act perpetrated by Anaya. This side story in South Freeland seems to be the crux of “Book of Blood”, and feels more like a detour adventure – or more accurately a brief filler arc or one-shot comic between two more relevant events – with no significant impact on Freeland proper, or on our heroes themselves.
Meanwhile, the growing tension between Khalil and Tobias come to a head, as a certain revelation and crisis of conscience cause Painkiller to re-evaluate his tentative allegiance to Whale. For a character who began with little to no agency, Khalil has shown depth and breadth, in no small part due to Jordan’s performance. Like Lala before him, I’m now apprehensive of his departure or hiatus in the future.
The inevitable confrontation between Black Lightning and Looker (Sofia Vassilieva), the Sange leader, in the climax of “Book Two” is sure to provide shallow entertainment if nothing else. Moreover, with Tobias persistent rocky return to prominence on the brink of faltering before it reaches its fruition, it’s starting to feel he’s just there to garner attention while making little headway. He’s simply running out of lieutenants and noteworthy henchmen at this point. A villain of his cloth needs to be supported and accentuated by a strong supportive crew of characters. My anticipation right now for next week’s conclusion of “Book of Blood” is only so we can move forward to volume three of season two.
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Hailing from the eastern-most Caribbean island of Barbados, Fabian Wood has long since been fascinated by the power of storytelling to inspire and invoke emotions – whether in film, comics or video games. No longer content to be just an avid comic book reader and video gamer, he’s eager to exercise his literary acumen as an aspiring writer and reviewer.
