'Black Lightning' Season 3 Episode 4: Painkiller and Lala seem to be headed towards an epic showdown
Jordan Calloway's Khalil Payne / Painkiller has always been a pretty popular character on 'Black Lightning' and in Season 3 he has become far deadlier and cooler than ever before. As an A.S.A supersoldier, Khalil shows no hesitation towards killing, mercilessly taking out even his own mother on the orders of the nefarious Agent Odell (Bill Duke).
In Episode 4, Odell tasks Painkiller with finding out who has been stealing weapons and supplies from the A.S.A, a mission he pursues with complete nonchalance. With the heightened abilities at his disposal, including the power to infect people with a deadly neurotoxin that allows him to kill with a touch, Painkiller is virtually unstoppable and honestly, he seems a little bored.
"At some point, death comes for us all," Khalil tells an injured A.S.A soldier before mercy killing him. "And when that time comes, though we yearn for love all we're left with is pain. A person will do more to avoid pain than to achieve anything else in this world. Knowing this, the greatest gift that anyone could ever give is to take that pain away. Lucky for you, they call me Painkiller."
His mission eventually leads him to Sinzell Johnson (Mac Wells), who is supplying weapons to the Insurgency that has rallied around to oppose the A.S.A's occupation of Freeland. Painkiller effortlessly takes out Sinzell, which surprises literally nobody, but now that's done his next mission will probably be to take on the Insurgency itself and that could finally lead to a proper challenge for Painkiller.
The insurgents mention that they have a boss who is working behind the scenes to arm them and go against the A.S.A. There's a pretty good chance that we might already know who that boss is: the Tattooed Man / Lala (William Catlett), who in his last appearance took over Sinzell's operation and decided to take back the streets from the occupying forces.
It looks like we may be building up to an epic showdown between Lala and Painkiller, which should be a treat to watch. Painkiller has already made it clear that there is no one he can't kill but what about when he goes up against a man who can't die? It's the age-old question: what would happen when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?
There's no telling how the Lala-Painkiller showdown might play out but it is bound to be an exciting battle and we can't wait to watch these two powerful metas go head to head.
'Black Lightning' Season 3 Episode 5 will air on The CW November 11.