Black Lightning Recap: Here’s Everything You Missed in the Series Finale

After four seasons, the Black Lightning series finale aired Monday night. The episode saw a final showdown for the fate of Freeland with one last face-off between the Pierce family and their allies and Tobias Whale and heading into this last hour, things were in a dire place. Last week’s episode left Tobias on top having apparently killed Jefferson Pierce and with the metahumans of Freeland still de-powered, time was running out. There were a lot of boxes to check off in “The Book of Resurrection: Chapter Two: Closure” in terms of stopping Tobias and saving the metahumans of Freeland more generally and the stakes have never been higher.

Need to get caught up on all the major details and stories from this week’s episode of Black Lightning? We have you covered. Here are all the major plot points for “The Book of Resurrection: Chapter Two: Closure”. Warning: Full spoilers ahead for the series finale beyond this point. Read on only if you really want to know.

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The episode opens with the Pierce family in the Sanctum with TC and Gambi dealing with what appears to be the death of Jefferson. The photo is real and Gambi hasn’t been able to find Jefferson. The plan now is to get the powers back and go after Tobias so Jefferson hasn’t died in vain. Anissa declares that Tobias Whale is going down for all his crimes against not just the Pierces but the whole city of Freeland.

Tobias has a press conference asking people to join him in making “Freeland great again”. At the police station, Detective Shakur finds the metaboosters in Chief Lopez’s office and realizes what she’s done. He tries to call presumably Black Lightning to alert him that she has energy-absorbing power and is on the warpath.

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Jefferson wakes up in a coffin. He screams for help but no one can hear him as he’s been buried in an unmarked grave. He keeps hearing Tobias’ voice in his head, further agitating him in the situation. We get a flashback to thirty years ago. Young Jefferson sits and watches Gambi bury someone. Jefferson killed a gang member in self-defense with his powers, and Jefferson pledged to never kill again. Gambi says he’ll teach him how to use his powers for good.

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Gambi gets a break on where the emitter is being kept — Drakestone, which is owned by Tobias. Getting to it is going to be a major challenge. They then realize that JJ has gone back to the ionosphere to charge up again and while there, she’s sucked into an energy mass before escaping. She returns to the Sanctum and nearly collapses. She brushes it off. Meanwhile, in the ionosphere, the energy begins to take a face, then a form. It’s Jen. The real Jen (played by China Anne McClain).

JJ and TC have gone into the tunnels and JJ is acting weird before she collapses. Jen shows up. It turns out that JJ jacked Jen’s DNA and was impersonating her and now Jen is back to take back her life. JJ and Jen fight, but when JJ attacks TC, it enrages Jen. JJ explains that whatever she is, she’s from the Glaze (what they call the ionosphere) and has no physical body of her own. She was envious of Jen and used Jen’s trips to the ionosphere to, eventually, take over her life. JJ manages to get the upper hand and Jen sees her life flash before her eyes.

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Gambi gets to the crypt where the emitter is being kept and he, Grace, and Anissa begin their attack. They fight their way through some guards and get through some obstacles and Gambi finds the emitter, sets it with some explosives, and detonates. Powers are restored and Wylde and Thunder show up to save Gambi just in time. On their way out, though, Thunder is shot with the next generation DEGs.

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In his coffin, time is running out for Jefferson and he says his final prayers. His father’s death flashes before his eyes and Jefferson meets up with him again in a space between life and death. His father imparts upon him some wisdom, telling him that he has everything he needs to stop Tobias. He tells him to stop hiding under the bed and get it done. Jefferson wakes up in his coffin, his powers restored. He draws power from the promethium in the Earth itself and uses it to escape his grave.

Gambi, Anissa, and Grace show up at the Sanctum. She survived the DEGs. Jefferson checks in and gets Tobias’ location. Jen blasts JJ and then fully embraces her Lightning powers, engulfing JJ and ending her.

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The police track down the chief absorbing power from the power grid and Shakur takes off to deal with her. Shakur shows up to stop the Chief from sending the city into a blackout, but she turns on them. Lightning — the real Jen — shows up to fight her. Lightning takes her down easily.

Black Lightning shows up at Tobias’ and the two fight in an all-out brawl of fists and powers. However, Black Lightning blasts Tobias out the window and he ends up impaled on a spike on a balcony. Tobias pulls out guns to start shooting and Black Lightning blasts him once more. Tobias rapidly ages and dies

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TC, now re-powered, goes into Khalil/Painkiller’s mind to tell them that Tobias is dead. He also tells them that he can free them from the kill order against the Pierces but if they get rid of the kill order, he forgets the Pierces. Khalil decides to cut the cord, as it were, and forget the girl he loves to stop the kill order against the Pierces.

In Freeland, with Tobias dead, the Pierce family celebrates Anissa and Grace’s wedding. Jen struggles with the fact that her father is the only person who realized JJ wasn’t right, but she gets in good spirits to help kick off the celebrations. Jefferson and Lynn announce that they are getting remarried after all this time. Jefferson also announces that he is retiring as Black Lightning, turning over the fight for Freeland to Lightning, Thunder, and Wylde. Gambi also announces his retirement, turning things over to TC.

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The series closes with Lala finally escaping the concrete he’s been encased in after it was knocked down during Black Lightning and Tobias’s brawl. He looks out the window and sees Tobias’ impaled corpse below and says “Somebody finally stuck it to your ass”, laughing.