‘Black Lightning’: 7 Questions Raised by “The Sange”

Tonight’s episode of Black Lightning picked up right where things left off with last week’s “The Perdi,” but despite taking viewers right back to the woods of South Freeland “The Sange” had some wild turns that have left us with a few questions about what’s next.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Black Lightning, “Book of Blood: Chapter Three: The Sange,” below.

In “The Sange,” Black Lightning/Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) followed Looker’s (Sofia Vassilieva) mysterious “element” to find the black twin born to Anaya (Birgundi Baker) a member of The Perdi while Anissa (Nafessa Williams) got Anaya and the white twin to safety in Freeland. While that is going on, Jennifer (China Anne McClain) continues to struggle with her feelings for Khalil (Jordan Calloway). By the end of the episode, the twins have been reunited, Looker has been stopped, Jefferson knows Peter Gambi (James Remar) is alive, and Jennifer and Khalil? Well, Jennifer’s revealed her powers to him and the pair have run off together.

It’s a lot to process. Every loose end has been tied up, but as this chapter closes there are so many more questions as we head towards the next one. What’s next for Jennifer? What was up with Looker? What’s going on with Grace? These are only a few of the questions we have so let’s break them down along with a few others and try to figure out what just happened — and what’s next — on Black Lightning.

What’s next for Jennifer?

Tonight’s episode saw a couple of major status quo changes for Jennifer. Not only did she ultimately run away with Khalil, she also revealed to him that she is a metahuman when she used her powers to save him from Tobias Whale’s henchmen.

The use of her powers suggests that Jennifer is coming to a place where she is more emotionally capable of dealing with her powers — an approach that McClain told reporters during a visit to the set of Black Lightning was one that she really enjoyed — but does that mean we’ll be seeing more of Jennifer’s powers going forward, especially now that she’s confided in someone who understands things form her perspective. It’s possible and it may mean Jennifer is on her path to becoming a hero in her own right.

“Part of her feels like she should step up, but that’s also why she’s so mad that she has powers,” McClain said. “She’s like, ‘I shouldn’t feel like this. I shouldn’t feel forced to step up because my sister has fully accepted it and you know, my dad’s been demoted so to try and help those he can’t given his situation and stuff. I shouldn’t feel like this. I’m sixteen.’ You know what I’m saying? ‘Everybody leave me alone.’ But I definitely think that part of her feels that way. She feels the responsibility to step up, put her suit on, and get her butt out there and help. And she will, eventually.”

What’s next for Khalil?

Khalil also had some major changes in tonight’s episode. Not only did he find out about Jennifer’s powers and run away with her, his decision to defy Tobias is sure to complicate things for both Khalil and those who care about him going forward.

While that’s a lot to deal with — after all, Tobias (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III) isn’t someone known to let things go — it’s also likely that Khalil will continue to struggle with being torn between the life he had before Tobias and the gangster who gave him back his legs.

“Tobias, his reach and his influence on Khalil’s life is only as much as Khalil allows,” Calloway said. “Now you see Khalil trying to fight against that influence but also not even head up fight against that. You’ll see a lot of that crescendo. But you see him torn between ‘Ugh, I need to get out of here.’ He’s looking. He’s trying to navigate through the influences of Tobias, of Cyanide. It’s like ‘Yo, I know this ain’t safe. I know this is not cool.’”

So, what’s up with Looker?

Tonight’s episode saw more of the mysterious Looker, but only further deepened the mystery. The metahuman was revealed to be definitively racist in tonight’s episode, seeing herself as something of a white version of Black Lightning in that she was fighting for “her people.”

But while Black Lightning and Thunder managed to defeat Looker, her fate seemed a little uncertain. Despite being gruesomely impaled on an old fixture in an abandoned mall — her silver “element” drained from her body completely — Black Lightning said that they would turn her over to the ASA, knowing full well that the shady government organization will experiment on her.

So, did Looker survive? Is she dead? That’s not completely clear. What is clear is that whatever happened to her, her hold over The Sange was broken when the “element” bled out of her which seems to hint at a grim fate for the character.

Is Black Lightning working with the ASA?

Speaking of Looker, Black Lightning mentioning that they have to turn over the villain to the ASA prompts a question of its own: is Black Lightning working with or for the very agency that was hunting him?

Maybe. We know that after the events of the Season 1 finale, Lynn Pierce (Christine Adams) has begun working with the agency in an attempt to help save the pod kids and Green Light Babies. While that didn’t go so well thanks to the machinations of Dr. Jace, it appears Lynn is still working for the group. If that’s the case, it’s possible that Black Lightning is, too. It would sort of make sense, considering that the metahuman situation in Freeland is continuing to grow and it’s not like the police are exactly well-equipped for metahuman prisoners.

What is going on with Grace?

Last week, we got a hint that things might not be quite right with Grace Choi (Chantal Thuy). After an emotional confrontation with Anissa, Grace’s skin appeared to shift, something that prompted her to pop a pill to stop things.

Something similar happened in tonight’s episode. While cuddling on the couch with Anissa, Grace excused herself to the restroom where we saw her skin shift an move even more and, this time, her eyes appeared to glow. Another pill and things were stopped, but what is going on with Grace? In comics, Grace Choi is a half-Amazon (from the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall, the City of Women, as opposed to Themyscira) giving her powers such as superhuman strength and durability among others. It’s not exactly clear if Black Lightning will go down a similar path.

What is clear is that Grace is somewhat aware of her powers and, at some point, has found medication that helps control them. The story behind that, however, continues to unfold.

Where does Gambi go from here?

Gambi and Jefferson are reunited this week when, on his way back to Freeland with the missing twin Black Lightning discovers a transmitter from the drone Gambi used to help during “The Perdi”. It marks the end of Gambi being in hiding — at least from those who love him.

So what’s next? Gambi reveals to Jefferson that he’s trying to find out who tried to kill him so that is likely to be a mystery that will unfold going forward, but Jefferson makes it clear to Gambi that he is family.

“Sometimes it recedes into the background, but a sense of duty and a sense of trying to balance things out is a guiding theme for a lot of people I know’s lives,” Remar said during a recent visit to the show’s set. “And I don’t feel that Gambi is any different. It feels he has a real responsibility to rub out some of the bad stuff of the past, and balance and equalize things. Now there is, in episode 5 of this season…I don’t know what I’m not supposed to tell, but there’s a tension that occurs. And when the tension breaks, there’s a reconciliation that the fact that Gambi and Jefferson are family is clearly stated. There is no ambiguity about it at all. And my kids have been mad at me for long periods of time, but I’m always their dad and that’s always number one.”

What’s next for Tobias?

Tobias was largely absent from tonight’s episode, but his reach certainly wasn’t as he sent henchmen after Khalil. With Syonide dead and now Khalil having run away it seems like Tobias doesn’t really have anyone left. It’s something that is likely to impact Tobias not just from a business aspect, but a personal one.

“I don’t think Tobias trusts anyone,” Jones told reporters during a recent visit to the set of Black Lightning. “The only person he did trust was his sister. In some ways, he trusted Syonide, truly, but I don’t think that he was exempt from killing her if he had to. If he had to. His sister was the only person in his world that he trusted. Truth. Everyone else is a pawn in the game. Everyone else.”

Failing his sister and Syonide, Jones admitted that Tobias managed to make himself trust Lala — but Khalil, he pointed out, is not Lala. He isn’t hard, he hasn’t got the experience, and ultimately Tobias really does not have his respect as much as he has Khalil hostage.

“He lost everything. That’s what you gotta remember. Tobias lost everything. I know it’s great because he gained the briefcase. Everybody wants to know what’s in the briefcase. But the cost of that was everything. I think that’s the part where I don’t think we’ve even gotten to the full layers of that this season just yet. The ideas that he’s lost everything. He lost it all. He doesn’t have anything left. That’s why he’s clinging to Khalil so much. Khalil’s not one of his own, though.”

What did you think of tonight’s episode of Black Lightning? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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