[S1E10] The Popular Kids [BETTER]
Borros demands that the kids not fight under his roof, and we're reminded of how much lip-service the lords of the Seven Kingdoms pay to the safety of their guests. Until they suddenly and bloodily don't. Borros may be a boor, but he's no Walder Frey, and Luke makes it out of the castle un-murdered.
[S1E10] The Popular Kids
A few weeks ago, we learned from Gambi that a government organization called the ASA had experimented on the citizens of Freeland, feeding them chemicals that were meant to keep them docile in the wake of '60s political uprisings but that actually ended up manifesting superpowers in a select few. Gambi was tasked with scouting for superpowered kids until he had a change of heart, raising and training Black Lightning as a form of redemption. This week on Black Lightning, we confirm that the ASA is still conducting superpowered experiments with Freeland kids (just as real-life government organizations are still pursuing black political activists with the same fervor they did in the '60s).
But that's not all. In addition to kidnapping new kids for experimentation (as witnessed by our old friend Two-Bits), ASA has somehow kept all the people they experimented on last time. They're keeping them in stasis pods of some kind, which Anissa Pierce discovers when she follows Gambi's tip. On her own, Anissa is too overwhelmed to do anything, so she runs home and tells her father. Jefferson still bristles at any mention of Gambi but agrees to suit up and follow Anissa.
Speaking of people who made it out alive, this episode spends a surprising amount of time with the resurrected LaLa, who has taken over leadership of the One Hundred in light of Tobias' absence. Death has made LaLa weirder, but no less violent. When One Hundred lackeys object to his plan of returning to selling coke and weed instead of the much more popular (but now defunct) Green Light, LaLa doesn't hesitate to kill them and/or rip off their ears. Lawanda was the first of LaLa's victims to come to him as a ghost, but now she's been succeeded by Will, whom you may remember from way back in the first episode when he kidnapped Jennifer and Anissa before getting shot by LaLa. Lawanda manifested as a tattoo on the left side of LaLa's chest, and now a ghost-tattoo of Will occupies the right side. Can't wait to find out exactly what the hell is going on with this guy.
Lo and behold, they discover that "Pudsy's Christmas" is playing softly in the background of one of Malindaz's latest videos titled "Malindaz's Challenge," which is a 90-some-minute long video that if you make it to the end, you're supposed to say "Malindaz's Challenge" three times. Only a few people have actually done it and they've all gone insane. Honestly guys, don't let your kids on the internet, OK?
She's fine in the end (our poor 4Ls have been through so much in just 10 episodes!), and it's Ben the Magnificent who figures out what's going on: There is a man's voice talking in that video, but it is playing at a high-pitch frequency, 17,000 hertz -- one that only kids 16 and under can hear. Yeah, guys, there are sounds that only kids can hear. BRB, headed down the rabbit hole again.
The voice is encouraging teens to kill themselves, and Lila tells Kristen that she also heard the man asking people to be a part of his army. The team finds Malindaz -- she is as vapid as you'd expect from her videos -- and threaten to go to the police if she doesn't take the video down. She swears she didn't know about the voice, someone else produced the video for her. And when she goes running to the person who helped her make the video, wouldn't you know? That person is our old pal Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson). Leland helped Malindaz go from 2,000 followers to 2 million followers. You see that kids? You want more followers, you just sell your soul to devil. Anyway, his advice to his little minion is to put up another video apologizing, explaining that the 'Challenge' video is dangerous, and that she'll be taking it down in a few hours. Obviously, this means that the video will be spread even more than before. And that's exactly what Malindaz does.
I appreciated that these two teens, one a freshman in college and the other a senior in high school, weren't portrayed as dumb kids but as smart, caring young adults who were concerned about their parents...while still trying to hide a bad grade in biology.
This episode provides examples of: Awful Truth: The sheriff is told the reality that his son is a murderer. He goes into a Heroic BSoD over it.
Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Seems to be Zizzo's primary motivation for his little "Lords of Destruction" group. He even says outright that the only reason he's adopted Satanism as his style is that the word Satan, as originally used, simply means "antagonist" and can define anyone who sets themselves against the prevailing authority. In other words he doesn't actually worship the devil, he's just being as big of a rebel as he can without breaking any laws more serious than drug use and maybe underage drinking.
The Cult: The "Lords of Destruction" have shades of this... as do the group of teenagers that end being actually responsible.
Everyone Has Standards: Zizzo may hate the religious community and adults, but he makes it clear he's just a punk and hasn't even thought of murder. Zizzo: Look, we draw stars upside-down, get drunk, and listen to metal, that's it! Alright, we don't kill people.
Fall Guy: The LOD were made into this by the UnSub so that he could get away with the murders. Gideon: It was convenient wasn't it? We had a kid right in the room to tell us where the LOD was...A group of fringe kids nobody in the town would like.
Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: The sheriff cannot believe that somebody from his town could possibly be killer.
Hollywood Satanism: Defied. The small town immediately assumes that the crimes are Satanic rituals. The BAU's first public act in the place is to tell the audience that the FBI has never found evidence of a Satanic ritualistic crime. Unsurprisingly, the BAU is correct in assuming this is not the case.
Joggers Find Death: The Victims of the Week were a high school couple out jogging.
Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: The sheriff is convinced that he knows everything about his town so well that he can't comprehend how somebody there could commit murder. It gets worse when it turns out his son is the killer.
Murder the Hypotenuse: When the UnSub is cornered, Morgan accuses him of this. He denies it long enough to get tackled. Morgan: You're just a horny kid that wanted to get rid of the cheerleader's boyfriend.
Please Wake Up: Cherish when she finds Adam's dead body, followed by a Big "NO!" when she notices the UnSub.
Retroactive Recognition: Yes, Breaking Bad fans, that's Aaron Paul as Mike Zizzo.
Ripped from the Headlines: While the case at hand has nothing to do with it, the satanic panic and the scapegoating of the unpopular, "gothic" kids is taken from the West Memphis 3 case.
The Scapegoat: The UnSub attempts to pin the deaths on the LOD led by Zizzo.
Spanner in the Works: As it turns out, Cherish wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the murder site. Cory just wanted to kill Adam and make it look like the LOD did it themselves. Adam just brought his girlfriend to work out together, and Cory was forced to kidnap and kill her too. Leading to his arrest.Cory: It wasn't supposed to go down this way. It his his run! He runs that trail every day, not her!
Teens Are Monsters: The UnSub was a high school student.
There Are No Coincidences: Cory should've really let the FBI find things out by themselves, because if he'd kept his mouth shut, Gideon and Morgan wouldn't have figured the coincidences keep popping up every time he opens his mouth. Though as they note, this is a Justified Trope as most serial killers literally can't help but inject themselves into the investigation, either through pride, obsession, or an attempt to see how close they're getting. Cory's motivations seem to be a mix of all three (as well as attempting to direct blame to scapegoats).
Town with a Dark Secret: Turns out all of the most popular students knew about the skeleton found at the crime scene, and never told anyone and watched him decompose like it were a game.
In the episode, Claire and Phil threaten to take away Christmas when they discover that one of the kids tried a cigarette but none wants to admit it. Alex takes the blame to save Christmas but it is revealed that they were all saying the truth from the start. Cameron and Mitchell take Lily to get her first picture with Santa at the Mall, but they complain to the management that Santa is not jolly enough for the kids, leads to Santa losing his job. Jay wants to introduce Manny and Gloria to some Christmas traditions while they want to do the same to Jay with Colombian Christmas traditions.
While Claire (Julie Bowen), Phil (Ty Burrell) and the kids talk to Phil's dad, Frank (Fred Willard) via video chat to wish him Merry Christmas, Claire discovers a burn mark on the arm of the couch. Seeing that, they get to the conclusion that one of the kids was smoking a cigarette and they ask them to say who did it. When none of the kids admit the truth, Phil reacts in an extreme manner and threatens to cancel Christmas, taking the tree away until someone confesses.
Despite the dismay of Claire and the kids, Phil stands his ground. Alex (Ariel Winter), seeing that Phil is serious about taking away the Christmas tree, admits that she was the one who tried to smoke. Phil brings back the Christmas tree and Claire says that Alex is grounded for a whole week, starting December 26 so she will not miss the Christmas day but will miss New Years. While they are celebrating, they discover that the burn mark on the couch was caused by the refracting sunlight through a Christmas ornament that Frank sent them. When they ask Alex why she lied, she says that she did not want Phil to take away the Christmas so she chose to take the blame. Christmas is back on, although when the kids reminds Phil he blamed them and threatened to cancel Christmas for something they didn't do, he impulsively offers to take the family to Italy. 041b061a72