‘Black Lightning’ Reveals SPOILER’s Origins in "Prodigal Son"

Tonight's Black Lightning saw some major developments for several of Freeland's residents and [...]

By Nicole Drum

Tonight's Black Lightning saw some major developments for several of Freeland's residents and while that meant the end of a journey for one, for another it was a matter of revealing how it all began.

Spoilers for tonight's episode of Black Lightning, "Prodigal Son", below.

While the Pierce family was focused on dealing with Khalil's grim situation after Tobias Whale ripped his spinal implant out of his body last week and left the young man helpless on the street, Tobias was busy moving his master plan to dominate Freeland forward. A key component in that plan involved getting to the pod kids in ASA custody and critical to that plan was none other than Dr. Helga Jace, the monstrous doctor who tricked Lynn Pierce into carrying out a trial that killed half of the pod kids earlier this season.

As it turns out, Jace has a history with not just Tobias, but with Freeland itself. After Tobias facilitates a "day pass" for the not-so-good doctor, he brings her to his home so they can reacquaint themselves -- and he can get information from her. That little catch up revealed quite a bit. It turns out that Dr. Jace has a serious history with the ASA as the architect of the original vaccine program in Freeland. This means that Dr. Jace was responsible for the creation of not only the original pod kids, but Black Lightning himself.

However, her work doesn't end there. As the doctor can't seem to stay out of trouble, the ASA ended up helping her defect to the nation of Markovia. It seems that Markovia was working on a metahuman program and it's something that the ASA wanted to destroy so Jace was sent there under the guise of helping them with the program. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Jace is a sinister beast of a person. She started carrying out tests on kids, got into trouble, and ended up in jail which is where we first met her when she was tapped to work with the pod kids.

Jace's backstory tonight isn't the first mention of Markovia on Black Lightning. The show slipped in a reference to the fictional nation earlier this season in a brief news report talking about the Markovian royal family in the episode "The Book of Blood Chapter Two: The Perdi". However, tonight's reference connects Jace to the nation and, in turn, gives the show's character a deeper DNA to her comic book roots.

In comics, Dr. Jace was the royal scientist in the fictional nation of Markovia who used experiments to give super powers to the king's youngest son, Brion Markov (better known to comics fans as Geo-Force) and his half-sister Terra Markov. She ultimately ends up as a villain of the Outsiders and is killed when she attempts to kill Metamorpho in Outsiders #27 in 1988.

While it's not clear if Black Lightning's Dr. Jace was experimenting on young Brion Markov in Markovia -- if she was, considering that her subjects lost their feet and, in some cases, died, it would certainly be enough to get her into serious trouble -- it is now clear that she has a history with the nation, which could create an opportunity for the show to do more with Markovia and potentially Geo-Force in the future.

As for Tobias' purposes, however, Jace proves to be a significant asset. She is able to lead him right to where the pod kids are being kept, bringing the villain one step closer to having everything he needs to truly rule Freeland.

What did you think about Dr. Jace's origin in tonight's Black Lightning? Let us know in the comments below.

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

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