The fight to save Khalil becomes the fight to avenge Khalil. And Reverend Holt. Tobias meets an old friend, Jefferson brings Henderson into the fold and Jen does something extraordinary.

There’s a moment this episode where a white woman calls the police on Jen claiming she was trying to steal her car. Jen responds by blowing it up and then hiding as her powers overcook. It’s comparable to Jefferson being pulled over by the police back in the pilot, balancing the superhuman threat with the racist one to chilling effect.

The episode is full of moments like that. Reverend Holt’s death, the revelation that Tobias was behind it, Henderson becoming part of Team Lightning. Every scene has meaning and every scene moves things around to make way for the finale and push the characters into new spaces. Tobias is again especially good this week, and I don’t think the CWVerse has a villain better at or fonder of monologuing. Jace too is becoming great fun, a snarky Renfield to Tobias’ urbane Dracula.

But the most important thing this episode does is teach the hardest lesson: you can’t save everyone. Jen and Lynn both come up with brilliant ideas to save Khalil that in a kinder series would have worked. Here, they simply buy him a little time for Jen and he to say goodbye in a simulation of the childhood they should have had.

Jordan Calloway will be missed on this show and I hope he goes onto greater things. As it stands, again, he and China Anne McClain own the episode outright. This isn’t a normal comic book death, this isn’t an instant resurrection. A major player has fallen and no one is going to be the same after this. Interesting too that Gambi faking his death earlier this year gives this more weight. You’re expecting the fake out and when it hits, it hits hard.

Verdict: Tough beats for a tough show, this is another standout episode. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart