'Black Lightning': What Is Lady Eve's Plan?

While tonight's episode of Black Lightning was largely centered around the Pierce family, Lady Eve made an appearance as well -- one that not only deepened the mystery of what she's got planned for Freeland but revealed a surprising connection to someone close to Jefferson Pierce himself.

Spoiler's for tonight's episode of Black Lightning, "Three Sevens: The Book of Thunder", below.

After spending much of tonight's episode trying to save Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning (Cress Williams) both physically as well as spiritually by trying to convince him not to kill Tobias Whale (Marvin "Krondon" Jones III,) Peter Gambi (James Remar) ends up with the wellbeing of not just Jefferson, but the whole Pierce family in his hands. This spurs the tailor with a questionable history to pay a visit to none other than Lady Eve (Jill Scott). Given that Gambi has some ties to Whale, the idea that Gambi would go to Lady Eve isn't entirely a surprise; that Gambi already has a relationship with the mysterious funeral home owner is.

In the scene, it's revealed that at some point in the past, Lady Eve and Gambi were both part of the ASA, some sort of government agency that hasn't fully been explored on Black Lightning, but more than that Lady Eve was Gambi's subordinate. Gambi notes that he taught Lady Eve everything she knows, not everything that he himself knows. While that's a pretty big surprise, it's what the pair discusses next that is the real shocker. Lady Eve left the ASA to go into business herself, and, whatever is going on in Freeland, Gambi had a deal with her that the Pierce family was to be completely off-limits and safe. With Lynn (Christine Adams) having been attacked in her lab, Gambi went to confront Lady Eve, who reveals that Lynn wasn't the target of the attack by the men she referred to as The Plumber Crew, but her files and research were, items that the crew wasn't able to take as they were interrupted by Thunder/Anissa Pierce (Nafessa Williams). Lady Eve isn't happy about that and threatens Gambi that if he reveals thing about Tobias, well, she's got dirt on Gambi herself.

We've speculated before that Lady Eve might be the real big bad of Black Lightning, and tonight's episode seems to confirm it. But tonight's episode also reveals that her reach goes further than just pulling on Tobias' leash and extends to whatever Jefferson's late father was set to expose before his murder. She's also very interested in this surprise metahuman which begs the question what is Lady Eve up to? It's clear that while she has vested business interests, there's more to Lady Eve than just being a criminal kingpin. Last episode, we found out that whatever Alvin Pierce's research about missing children in Freeland had uncovered, it was sensitive enough that his former editor warned Anissa it could get her killed. Now, it's clear that Lady Eve is somehow involved with or knows about that research.

In comics, Lady Eve is a ranking member of the evil Kobra Cult who participates in plans to use mind control on high-ranking officials of the US Army for the purpose of stealing a defense program satellite and blackmail the government. While that doesn't appear to be quite the direction things are going on Black Lightning, this reveal that Lady Eve was once part of the same agency as Gambi and has at minimum knowledge of metahumans and Alvin Pierce's research makes one thing clear: Freeland's issues go far deeper than gang violence and crime and Black Lightning has bigger issues than Tobias Whale.

Black Lightning airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.