Four years and we get a bunch of "conclusions" that feel rushed, like the production staff got short notice that the show was being cancelled. But we and presumably they knew for months that the show was ending. The staff on 'MacGyver' had less foreknowledge, and pulled off a better conclusion.
First of all, Tobias had Jeff all but dead... and didn't kill him. But put him in a death trap of sorts instead. Villain screw-up trope number one. Naturally, Jeff gets the hope to carry on, breaks out of his coffin, tracks down Tobias thanks to some technical wizardry by Gambi, and the two have a relatively short fight that ends with Black Lightning having to kill Tobias when an accidentally-impaled Tobias (whoops!) opens fire on BL with guns that can't possibly hurt the hero.
Meanwhile, in a thrilling climax, not, we find out that JJ is an alien energy being that has been kinda/sorta duplicating Jennifer all along. And duplicating her memories and DNA perfectly, but not her physical body. We know less about JJ's alien nature, but she makes the same mistake Tobias did: not making sure the person you killed is actually dead.
So Jennifer comes back, which is kinda spoiled by China Anne McClain being listed in the opening credits. Half the time CW shows list the "surprise" cast in the end credits without the co-starring credits, like on 'Supernatural' back in the day. They couldn't do that time? It's nice to have McClain back, but one feels that Laura Kariuki got short shift. She has to step into the role of Jennifer--sort of--when McClain left, then had her character get killed off so McClain could step back in for a series finale appearance.
Grace remains a non-entity, and I pity poor Chantal Thuy. She got less screen time and personality development than Khalil this season.
Speaking of Khalil, TC finds a way to shut off the kill code in Khalil's brain. But it erases all of his memories of the Pierce family. Not only will this leave huge gaps in his memory, but it sets him up to be unburdened when the 'Painkiller' spinoff comes around. Which it isn't, so that's all a waste of screen-time.
Lopez injects herself with meta-booster and gains electrical powers. Hassan finds out, the anti-meta task force can't take Lopez down, and Jennifer shows up as Lightning and takes Lopez down. End of that plotline.
Jeff and Lynn get back together, in case you were wondering what would happened to the world's most non-chemistry couple. Does anyone out there dislike Christine Adams as much as I do? I'm sure she's a nice enough person in real life, but her Lynn has always been hard, brittle, and defensive.
Jeff and Gambi decide to retire. But say that they'll be back occasionally, and leave the city in the hands of Thunder, Lightning, and what's her name. Oh, right, Grace. Or Wylde.
And at the end Lala emerges from his concrete entombment to chuckle over Tobias' body. Which is hanging out on his balcony, impaled, because I guess leaving bodies hanging on skyscrapers is a decorative touch only people in Freeland could enjoy. And other than an "Is it?" ending, I have no idea why they brought Lala back. I suppose he could take over the 100 now that Tobias is dead, and prove a new nemesis to Lightning, Thunder, and Wylde. But unless they get spunoff into their own show, who cares?
So all the plotlines got wrapped up, in pretty short order. Tobias got killed, Jeff avenged his father, Jennifer returned, Lopez got stopped by Lightning because of their rivalry that never was, and we got a lot of running and shooting as Gambi, Thunder, and Wylde took out the emitter. It all pretty much ended as anyone familiar with the medium of TV and superheroes could have predicted. The main bad guy is dead after yelling a few more racial epithets (as did Looker last week), the main hero retired (again), there's an "Evil never truly dies" ending (and I always liked Red more than Lala anyway: Helen Joo Lee is credited but I didn't see Val), the torch has been passed, and that's it.
Basically, all the world-building and racism subplots that developed over the first three seasons and most of the fourth got tossed. Does Jeff still have his job? Who knows? What will Lynn do now? Who cares? Is Freeland now a safe(r) place to live? Who can tell?
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
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