Black Lightning: Did SPOILER Get New Powers?

The fourth and final season of Black Lightning debuted on The CW Monday night, revealing to viewers what is next for Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning (Cress Williams) and his family after the Markovians were defeated and the shady A.S.A. exposed last season. Thanks to previews and photos from the season premiere, “The Book of Reconstruction: Chapter One: Collateral Damage”, it was no surprise that things weren’t going so well for Jefferson and probably weren’t that great for Freeland, either, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t some surprises in store — including the reveal of a new shocking new power for one character.

Warning: spoilers for Monday night’s season premiere of Black Lightning, “The Book of Reconstruction: Chapter One: Collateral Damage”, below. Read on only if you really want to know.

Tonight’s episode opens with Jefferson visiting Bill Henderson’s grave. Henderson’s death during the fight against the Markovians and the A.S.A. last season is one that weighs heavily on Jefferson with the hero blaming himself for it to the point that he has decided to walk away from being Black Lightning again. However, when he leaves and is driving through the streets of Freeland, he comes across a young black man being harassed and brutalized by two white police officers. The young man is someone that Jefferson knows and despite him vouching for the kid being harmless — he was apparently going to or coming back from violin practice — the cops turn their guns on Jefferson, which prompts him to use his lightning powers on them. While he also fries the police car, he takes an extra step with the officers, by using a targeted blast of electricity to each of their temples.

It’s pretty clear that Jefferson did some serious damage to the officers. Later, Gambi (James Remar) catches up with Jefferson at a bar, expressing concern that if Jefferson is going to use his powers he needs to protect his identity by wearing the suit. Jefferson goes on to reveal that he fried the dash and body cameras of the officers and then went one step further. He tells Gambi that he wiped the memories of the officers so that they won’t be able to identify them.

If what Jefferson said is accurate and he was able to wipe the memories of the officers, this would be a new power for the hero. Generally speaking, Black Lightning’s powers are impressive but limited to things like electrokinesis, energy absorption, the ability to create force fields, electric blast, and general enhancement of his physical abilities which themselves are already pretty impressive given that he’s an Olympic-level athlete in peak physical condition. While an argument can be made that because the cells of the brain function using electrical impulse — to put it very generally — it would theoretically be within Black Lightning’s ability to have control over them, this opens up a whole new set of abilities for the hero.

Given Jefferson’s emotional and mental state in this episode, this new power could be scary as well. Later in the episode, Jefferson goes after a gang member who shot Jennifer (China Anne McClain) and brutally unleashed his power on the young man with such ferocity and lack of restraint that he’s said to be crippled. It’s a new show of force from Black Lightning, one very unlike the hero viewers and Freeland know and love.

It’s also worth noting that Lynn exhibited some powers herself this issue, using Gravedigger’s power of persuasion to stop a human trafficker and while it’s unclear if she is going to continue to have powers, it is clear that her experiments into the metagene aren’t done. Lynn has a plan to isolate metahuman powers, but with Tobias Whale (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III) now involved with her lab, that could go awry as well.

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