‘Black Lightning’: Tobias Whale Gets a New Status Quo

Tonight, a major status quo change happened on Black Lightning, changing the dynamic between the series’ title hero and his biggest nemesis.

The change comes at the end of “The Book of Consequences” and just prior to the second segment of the season, titled “The Book of Blood,” which…well, doesn’t sound so good for anybody involved.

Spoilers ahead for tonight’s episode of Black Lightning, titled “The Book of Consequences Chapter Four: Translucent Freak.”

In the final moments of the episode, Tobias Whale (Marvin Jones III) finds himself a free man — not just once again the king of Freeland’s underworld, but legally exonerated following his arrest at the end of last week’s episode and no longer a wanted fugitive.

“I think in season one, we’ve learned that Tobias, the character, is not one to allow obstacles to keep him from what he’s trying to do,” said Jones, during a recent visit to the set of Black Lightning. “Whether it be personal, or public, business-wise. You see like what happened with Lady Eve. You might view the person or the situation as this mountain, and he makes it his job to make a molehill out of it — even if it may be perceived like a mountain. He’s really relentless, so I don’t think anybody’s safe. One thing that I learned in season one is that nobody’s safe around this guy. Whether it be by his own hand or in reaction to his own works. I think that you’re gonna see him develop that side of him even more.”

Throughout the first part of the season, the show has been building to this moment. After killing his longtime running buddy, who had committed the crime alongside Tobias and could have been called to testify, Tobias arranged to have a dirty cop steal all of the physical evidence against him and then murdered the officer.

With no evidence to hold him, and no credible witness, tonight’s episode centered around the seeming inevitability that Tobias would walk.

When Jefferson pointed out that he had seen the murder happen as a child, and been instructed not to say anything in order to protect his safety, the Freeland PD and the district attorney pointed out that his testimony would be questioned for coming forward after so long.

This is likely a parallel to events happening in the real world, especially when women come forward as part of the #MeToo movement and the chief challenge to their credibility is “why did you not come forward before now?” However, like most of Black Lightning‘s metaphors, it is a bit more subtly applied than the overt themes explored on shows like Supergirl.

Black Lightning airs on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following episodes of The Flash on The CW.