Black Lightning: SPOILER Gets a Major Status Quo Change in "Birth of Blackbird"

Black Lightning returned from hiatus tonight and established an epic new status quo for the Pierce family and the citizens of Freeland. The episode also put a pretty unexpected twist on some of Season 2's most unanswered questions -- including the fate of one of the series' original characters. Spoilers for the Season 3 premiere of Black Lightning, "The Book of Occupation: Chapter One: Birth of Blackbird" below! Only look if you want to know!

Surprisingly, a lot of the episode centered around Tobias Whale (Marvin "Krondon" Jones III), despite him having been locked in a very confidential metahuman prison at the end of Season 2. Agent Odell (Bill Duke) spent much of the episode trying to psychologically torture Tobias, in an attempt to figure out what was in his mysterious briefcase. With that came a particular reveal about Tobias' condition -- that his metahuman powers had been wearing off, and he was rapidly aging and dying of old age.

Early on in the show's run, it was established that Tobias had taken a longevity serum, which had allowed him to live for long stretches of time as well as develop a version of super strength. Given the fact that he has been in the metahuman prison for over a month now - and presumably been wearing the anti-metahuman collar the entire time - it certainly makes sense that he would lose some of those abilities in some way.

While there's no telling exactly what this means for Tobias going forward, it adds an interesting ticking clock to his time in the metahuman prison. Combined with the notion that Carson Williams, the leader of the military group that has been rounding up metas, needs a sort of "serum to stay healthy", there's a chance that Tobias' predicament could be further complicated.

"I would like to see him you know, team up to get rid of these Markovian guys so he can get back to his business," Jones said of what he wants for his character in Season 3. "Like, 'hey look man, let's call a truce for a minute.'"

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