'Black Lightning': Breaking Down the Ending of "Requiem"

Tonight's Black Lightning had some shocking turns, but the most stunning may just be the last few moments of the episode and what implications "Requiem" could have for the Pierces going forward.

Spoilers for tonight's episode of Black Lightning, "Chapter Two: The Book of Blood: Requiem," below.

This season, each member of the Pierce family has had their own mission, if you will. For Jefferson/Black Lightning it was bringing Tobias Whale (Marvin "Krondon" Jones III) to justice, and for Lynn (Christine Adams) and Anissa/Thunder (Nafessa Williams) their work had personal stakes as well. Lynn was working with the A.S.A. to try to find a way to save the pod children as well as the rapidly emerging Green Light babies, while Anissa wanted to save the local free medical clinic. Both women appeared to be making real progress towards their goals -- until tonight.

As fans will recall, Lynn was forced to bring the demented Dr. Helga Jace (Jennifer Riker) in on the work with the pod children despite the fact that Jace is a monstrous figure who carried out ruthless, unsanctioned experiments on her patients leading to them being maimed and killed -- a crime she was in prison for. Since coming on board, Jace has been eager to try a possible cure out on the pod children despite the simulations showing that the serum would outright kill half of them. Lynn kept telling her no and went to work on figuring out a solution herself, something she thought she had found tonight.

After shutting down Jace's over eagerness to kill half the pod children in a trial, Lynn is swayed by new simulations that show the serum will work 100 percent. She and Jace set things up, hit the button and after a brief moment of success, half of the pods begin to die. It turns out that Jace manipulated Lynn into doing the experiment anyway by lying. There was no chance it would have worked 100-percent. Lynn promptly has her dragged away, but it's clear that the sadistic doctor enjoyed what she had done -- and we don't mean saving half of the pod children, either

Meanwhile, Anissa takes to volunteering at the free clinic where she sees a pregnant woman and her boyfriend. He seems very on edge, but they get through the appointment. Later, though, he shows up at the clinic with holes all over his body and face, begging Anissa to save his girlfriend and baby before collapsing dead. A silver substance soon oozes out of his body. After tracking the couple's origin down to South Freeland, Anissa goes to try to help the woman and her baby only to be pulled over by a possibly racist white sheriff. However, before things can escalate, Anissa notices that there is something abnormal going on -- the sheriff has something moving under his skin and decides to get out of there before things get weirder.

It's unclear what the impact of either of these situations will be, though with Lynn having already been shown to feel very responsible for the pod children the 14 deaths will be difficult for her. As for Anissa, it's unclear what the mystery substance is but based on photos for next week's episode, it's possible that Looker (Sophia Vassilieva) may somehow be involved. The character is seen in a couple of the photos cradling what appears to be a newborn baby -- possibly that of the patients Anissa treated.

What did you think about tonight's episode of Black Lightning? Let us know in the comments.

Black Lightning airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.