Black Lighting season 2 episode 5, “Requiem”, offered a number of big surprises. While the storylines of the second season so far have largely been slow-burning, several of them suddenly exploded in “Requiem” suggesting that big things are about to start happening.
The second season of Black Lighting opened with the city of Freeland in turmoil. Thanks to the efforts of local superheroes Black Lightning and Thunder (principal Jefferson Pierce and his daughter, medical student Anissa Pierce), a secret program was exposed which was trying to develop an army of super-powered soldiers by experimenting on underprivileged children. The program first operated by offering free vaccines, tainted with a triggering agent, to poor families. More recently, the government began secretly distributing a refined version of the same agent through a designer street-drug called Green Light.
This discovery led to a number of problems beyond teenagers on the streets of Freeland violently developing superpowers. The exposure of the government program also revealed that a number of children presumed missing during the 1980s had been kidnapped by the government and cryogenically frozen after developing powers. Dr. Lynn Stewart, knowing something about metahumans, was placed in charge of the efforts to stabilize these children, who had become known as Green Light Babies.
Another cause of the upheaval in Freeland is crime-boss Tobias Whale, who had been in hiding for three decades following accusations that he had murdered journalist Alvin Pierce. Coincidentally, just after he was apprehended by the police, all of the physical evidence against Whale disappeared. Fully exonerated, Whale declared his intention to reestablish himself as a philanthropist among the community he’d been forced to abandon. With all of that in mind, here are the five biggest questions on fans’ minds following Black Lightning’s latest episode.
5. What is Tobias Whale’s Plan For The Free Clinic?
One of the subplots of Black Lightning’s second season has focused upon a free clinic and the efforts of various shady individuals to buy it. “Requiem” revealed that Tobias Whale had been behind these efforts, anonymously donating a large sum of money to have the clinic relocated to another location. As he watched the news report on the donation, Tobias muttered three words to himself - “One step closer.” Clearly, Tobias has plans for the land where the clinic was… but what are they?
4. Is Gambi Really Dead In Black Lightning?
Since the beginning, Black Lighting’s most stalwart ally in his war on crime has been Peter Gambi - Jefferson Pierce’s foster father and a former agent of the government program that turned Freeland into ground zero for an experiment to create a metahuman army. “Requiem” opened with an intense action scene, in which Gambi was run off the road by armed men and his van caught fire before exploding. Jefferson questioned many people but all of his sources denied anyone seeing Gambi escape the explosion. While it is hard to believe a major character would die so suddenly, the comic book version of Peter Gambi died fairly early on in the original run of the Black Lightining comic book. Still, given what Gambi has survived before, it is easy to see why Jefferson might believe that Gambi could either cheat or fake his own death.
3. What Will Be The Aftermath of Dr. Jace’s Treachery?
Despite the objections of Dr. Lynn Stewart, the government added one Dr. Helga Jace to the team of scientists and doctors working on The Green Light Baby project. A medical doctor doing time for gross malpractice and manslaughter, it was felt that Dr. Jace’s expertise in experimental biology made her an ideal recruit for the team. Dr. Stewart’s suspicions proved justified, however, when Black Lightning revealed that the psychotic Dr. Jace had falsified her simulation results because she had grown bored with just running simulations. The end result was all but 14 of the Green Light Babies in cryogenic suspension dying. It is unknown how the government will react to this, but it seems likely that Dr. Stewart will become the scapegoat for their decision.
2. What Is Going On With Grace Choi?
Anissa Pierce’s on-again/off-again relationship with bartender Grace Choi has been an on-going subplot since the beginning of Black Lightning’s first season. “Requiem” revealed that Grace seems to be developing superpowers of her own. Grace’s powers seem to differ greatly from her comic book counterpart, who has enhanced strength and durability; in Black Lightning, Grace is shown to have something shifting underneath her skin, which makes an audible grinding noise as she grows spots like those of a leopard or cheetah. Curiously, Grace seems to be able to make these symptoms fade by taking some kind of medication, raising further questions given how rare metahumans are in the world of Black Lightning and, conversely, how little research has been done into how superpowers work.
1. What Is Going On In South Freeland?
In the final scene of “Requiem”, Anissa attempts to drive to South Freeland in search of a pregnant woman whom she treated earlier in the episode. She is pulled over by one Sheriff Clark, who makes it clear Anissa is not wanted in his town. Anissa is about to press the point, when she notices that worms seem to be crawling under the sheriff’s skin as something moves past her car at super-speed. Deciding that this is too much for her to deal with, Anissa turns around and heads back to the city proper, leaving the mystery of what is going on in South Freeland to wait until next week’s new episode of Black Lightning.
