‘Black Lightning’ Star Jordan Calloway on Khalil’s Relationship With Jennifer

The Pierce family continued to deal with consequences and new challenges in tonight’s Black Lightning and that included the complicated relationship between Jennifer and her ex-boyfriend, Khalil.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Black Lightning, “Black Jesus Blues”, below.

Tonight’s episode saw Khalil/Painkiller (Jordan Calloway) starting to recognize Tobias Whale’s (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III true colors which, in turn, led him to pay a very unexpected visit to Jennifer (China Anne McClain). During Black Lightning‘s first season, the two had been best friends before dating and were poised to take their relationship to the next level before Khalil ended up paralyzed and, later, given back his ability to walk by Tobias. As a pawn of Tobias’, Khalil attacked the school and “killed” Black Lightning.

Jennifer cut things off with Khalil after his transformation, but despite this it’s pretty clear that Khalil and Jennifer both still have real feelings for one another and, as Calloway told reporters during a recent visit to the set of Black Lightning, the fact that they are both having a bit of an identity crisis with their newfound abilities and situations, they’re experiencing much the same thing.

“You know, what’s funny about it is, it’s where Jennifer and Khalil’s heart lies,” Calloway said. “It’s one of protection, one of love. You have Jennifer where she’s just trying to figure herself out. Both of them are starting with identity crisis. They’re high schoolers. They going through the teen angst. Except now you’re going to go ahead and throw in special abilities into that. That’s a whole nother world.

Here you have Jennifer where she doesn’t even understand her powers. She doesn’t even understand what she’s capable of. She just sees the reaction of that, which is destruction which hurts people. Whereas with Khalil, he’s realizing these special abilities, where he’s reacting with rage and it’s also damaged other people. But he’s also realizing the situation, his surroundings, with Tobias as well. Where it’s like, “Crap now I gotta be careful because I don’t want to be anyone else into that.”

Even with Khalil’s new understanding of things, it’s still going to be difficult for him when it comes to Jennifer. While she may be what grounds him, Jennifer’s dealing with more than just her newfound powers. It’s something McClain said Jennifer would turn into acting like she doesn’t have time for Khalil even as she fights her feelings for him. Calloway said that struggle will be a challenge for Khalil as well.

“The thing about it is that they both fight against their hearts desire for one another,” Calloway said. “And for my character, for Khalil, his grounding, his rock, his North Star… She’s mad at him. She’s not talking to him. I mean that’s the love of his life. He can’t keep going on without knowing that they are on good terms at least. He may love her, he may want to be with her, but at the end of the day, he just wants her to be okay. You know?

“And so after the whole fiasco over at the school, he has this sort of weight on him. He has this sort of chip on his shoulder where he’s like, “Dang I caused this. What have I done?” He’s be doing some self inventory of, “How did I get here?” And I think that’s a great question that a lot of kids can ask. A lot of us ask ourselves as well. It’s like, “How did I get here? This series of choices that I made.” And you’re going to see a lot of that in this second season. Where he’s realizing that.”

At the end of the day, though, Calloway said Khalil isn’t going to give up on the relationship, no matter what.

“But he’s going to fight back for Jennifer,” he said. “He’s not going to quit. He’s not going to give up. Like I said, that’s his foundation.”

What do you think about Khalil and Jennifer’s complicated relationship? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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