In tonight’s episode of Black Lightning, the Pierce family rushed into action against Tobias Whale (Marvin Jones III), each with their own idea of just how to handle the villain. Meanwhile, Tobias had other problems, in the form of Tattooed Man Lala (Will Catlett), who wanted nothing but blood. In the end, though, it was not the Pierce family, Lala, or Tobias Whale who had the night’s biggest secret; it was Agent Odell (Bill Duke). There was a lot to unpack from the last few minutes of the episode, but one thing is clear: Odell is not as completely evil as previously assumed…and he will have a big impact on next season’s storyline.
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How so? Well, this is your last warning that there are spoilers ahead for tonight’s episode of Black Lightning, titled “The Book of Apocalypse: Chapter Two: The Omega.” In the final moments of the episode, two major things happened. The biggest one for the Pierces is that Odell came to their home, outed them as metahumans, and deputized them into the ASA’s upcoming metahuman war against Markovia. The second, and arguably more shocking, revelation is that a trio of metahuman “tubes” were unviled at the ASA, including one that held Khalil/Painkiller (Jordan Calloway)…and he seemed very much alive.
This will come as a shock to everyone, but especially to Jennifer (China Anne McClain), who has been dating Khalil on and off since the pilot, and who was hit hard by his death. At the end of “Angelitos Negros,” which aired in January, Tobias exacted his own brand of revenge and punishment on Khalil after the young man not only attempted to break away from the dangerous gangster but attempted to act as a witness against him with the police as well. Tobias ripped Khalil’s spinal implant from his body and dumped him on the street in front of the church.
The next week, in “Prodigal Son,” Khalil was hospitalized with not just the regular medical doctors trying to figure out how to help him, but the ASA via Lynn Pierce (Christine Adams) doing so as well. Unfortunately, regular medicine had no solutions for him and, without the implant, the toxins that Khalil’s body produced went into overdrive trying to deal with the trauma. Despite Jennifer’s successful pleas to get her mother to intervene and attempt to move Khalil to a pod until a true solution could be found, those toxins proved to be too much. Khalil’s body was soon overwhelmed and ultimately poisoned by them…
…or so it appeared. Tonight’s episode showed that was not the case, although it seems likely that it was either Odell or Dr. Jace (Jennifer Riker) who put him in the tube, since it would be difficult to believe that Lynn would have done so and not told her daughter at all, while Jennifer was suffering so much.
It will be a long wait until the fall to find out what happens next; next week, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow returns to Monday nights on The CW.
