‘Black Lightning’ 3×02 recap: The stakes get higher for the Pierce family

Monday’s episode of Black Lightning saw the stakes raised even higher for the Pierce family and for all of Freeland.

In case you missed it, here’s a recap of what went down in Monday’s show.

Jefferson knows Odell’s game

Still locked in the facility, Jefferson and Lynne talk as she goes through some data on the remaining pod kids. Jefferson points out that Odell is playing her and using her to get what he wants. Lynne disagrees and of course, right on cue, Odell sends Commander Williams to pop in the room. He says they cannot hear anything going on in the room and wanted to know why.

All of this leads Jefferson to question if the Markovian threat is real, saying Odell might be playing them all.

Oh, he is, Jefferson. He is.

However, the Markovians are real and they arrived in Freeland as the next scene shows several men getting out of trucks at Wolfsbane Mountain reporting for “duty”.

Odell makes his first weapon

As we found out last week, Odell wants to turn all the metas into weapons and use them. He created his first weapon on Monday’s episode as it was revealed that Khalil is alive. While Khalil may look the same, Odell is literally programming him to become a killer by testing a new memory wipe chip. Khalil is now known as Painkiller and is given a target to take out. The target? His own mother.

Just before the episode ends, Painkiller arrives at his old home and is greeted by his mother. She hugs him but realizes her son has been brainwashed. She pleads with him but Painkiller murders her without a thought and leaves her lifeless body on the floor.

Episode Notes

• Blackbird aka Anissa is attempting to help the group that escaped by putting them to work on the farm with The Perdi, who want to have limits on their help with the metas. Blackbird gets violent when The Perdi stands their ground, making it clear that she is calling the shots. Later in the episode, Gambi contacts Anissa and helps her take out what he thought were ASA units but turned out to actually be Markovian.
• Meanwhile, Lala goes looking for information about Tobias Whale’s whereabouts. While searching, he runs across a rival gangster who shoots him. Lala doesn’t stay dead, which helps him gain even more support among the people in the neighborhood.
• Jennifer was barely seen in this episode, but made her mark in the final scene as she kicked ass after some guys attacked her for wanting to stop a fight. In the process, she manifested her powers.

What did you think of the episode? Let me know in the comments below!

Black Lightning airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.