Black Lightning

Last season on Black Lightning...

You've been classified

a clear and present meta-human threat to national security.

The Pit is a black site which exists on no map

and from which there is no escape.

I've been studying Green Light for some time now.

And I understand its components and neurological effects

better than anyone.

Ever since I came back alive and when I'm around people

and when I look at them, it makes them tell the truth.

I don't want anything to do with you.

Mom.

I'm sorry.

Oh, my God. Stand back!

Those meta-humans are out of the pods.

Odell's gonna wanna claim them.

You are close to stabilizing

the pod kids, the Markovians know it.

And if they can obtain you

and force you to do the same for their meta-human army...

They'd be the most powerful country in the world.

I'm swearing in Black Lightning, Thunder,

and whatever you're calling yourself.

The Markovian War is coming. And Freeland is ground zero.

Name.

Maryam Luqman.

Date of birth.

April 16th, 2004.

Confirm.

Your enhancement?

I don't know the technical name for it,

but I can blend into any environment,

basically making me invisible.

Like a chameleon.

When did you start using Green Light?

I didn't.

I've been here almost a month

and you ask me the same questions.

I go...

I went to a private school, Chatiers.

Most of the kids there were white,

so everything about me stood out.

Kids learn about Muslims on social media

and the news, and they make comments.

"Is that a bomb in your backpack?"

They filled my locker with pork ribs,

and they would call me names like "Bacon Slice."

Anyway, I...

The school, they were having a gym party,

and I wanted to go and, for the first time,

my parents said that I could.

My friends and some boys,

they thought it would be funny to put Green Light in my food.

Of course, I flipped out,

they accused me of using drugs, kicked me out of school,

and by the time that the girls could confess what they did,

it was already too late.

They had already put me in a pod.

- Name. - You know my name.

Devonte.

Devonte Jones.

Date of birth.

June 28th, 1992.

Confirm.

Your enhancement?

I don't have no enhancements, man.

I don't got powers, I don't got none of that, man.

Look at me. Do I look like I got enhancements?

Only enhancements I got is hypertension and type 2 diabetes.

When did you start using Green Light?

You gotta be...

Yo, when y'all gonna let me out of here, man?

Name.

Jefferson

Pierce.

Date of birth.

September 12th,

1974.

Confirm.

Confirmed.

No.

I'm not answering another damn question until I speak to my family.

My father took me to the clinic

to get the vaccine and...

Please return to your niche

and you will be emancipated.

Last night, I saw a superhero He was black

He said, "This is for the street Black Lightning's back"

It's been precisely 37 days since the children

escaped from their pods and most of them have not been located.

The government's reaction?

Separating any suspected child from their parents

and putting them into detainment facilities like the one behind me

until they've been cleared of the meta gene.

Just moments ago we were told by a source

that Deputy Chief Henderson will be holding a press conference later today

regarding the government's quarantine of Freeland.

We hit the streets of Freeland to see how its residents are reacting.

Where is Black Lightning?

I don't see him.

I blame his black ass, that's right.

Soon as he come back,

got all these soldiers rolling up in these streets,

arresting anybody they want,

they don't care nothing about our community.

People just gonna have to face the fact that Black Lightning is dead.

And that Blackbird has taken his place.

She cares more about the people anyway.

And that's the overriding question in the streets.

Has Black Lightning, who appears to have abandoned the city again,

been replaced by the woman people are calling Blackbird.

I'm Jamillah Olsen, for Clap Back News.

I'm scared.

- Easy now. - I'm scared.

Back up.

This right here

is an abomination.

Really is.

Freeze. Stay where you are. Stop now.

Get on the ground. We will shoot you.

Light his ass up.

Ned?

Ned Creegan?

I prefer Cyclotronic.

Cyclotronic?

That's funny.

Ned.

Why all you metas gotta come up with these corny ass names for yourselves?

You about to give me another one of your speeches, Commander?

You abandoned your sisters, your brothers, and your country...

The only time my country ever cared about me

was when they found out I had powers.

Did they try and cure me?

Help me?

No.

They put me in every war zone on this planet,

killing over and over and over again.

- You were a soldier. - Come on.

I was a petty criminal.

Doing time for stealing a minivan.

Not a murderer, an assassin.

You made me that.

That's true.

I did.

And I have to take full responsibility.

Uh, no.

No! No!

Markovians breached the compound

with a special ops strike team and one meta.

All dead.

- The children? - All accounted for.

Put Freeland on lock down.

Copy.

I'm Commander Carson Williams.

Welcome.

You know those children aren't getting out of that place anytime soon.

And maybe you guys are used to seeing this kind of stuff, but I'm not.

That was a war zone back there.

That Cylophonic, tronick, whatever the hell his name was,

he was trying to get to those kids.

And we're just riding back like nothing happened?

Some of those children came from the clinic.

Is that a coincidence?

Betty, you are a nurse.

Just do your job.

How they got there, what happens to them

is up to the government, not you and not me.

Has the clinic become one more place to identify metas,

then turn them over to the government?

We were there with the good Reverend and the Congresswoman

to make sure the government is treating those children

humanely and according to the law.

You think that's humane,

collars on their necks like dogs?

Anissa, you're okay with this?

Of course not.

- Stop the van. - Betty, wait.

I'm not gonna be a part of this, it's wrong, Anissa.

It's wrong, that thing attacked the facility for a reason,

and these idiots, including this bitch

sitting in the front seat of this van, know more than she's telling us.

Those are children being separated from their families.

And ain't no telling what happened to their parents.

Betty, don't. Betty, what, are you gonna walk? Betty.

Betty, come back.

The door is open if you wanna follow her.

I don't give two shakes of a lamb's ass what you need or what you want.

There's no way I'm going on television and letting myself

or this department become the face of your experiment gone wrong.

You will follow orders, Deputy Chief.

I'm not a part of your damn army.

You and everything,

from the heavens to the smallest crawling thing

in this stain on the map you call a city,

is under my command.

And either you will follow orders,

or I will find the next person in line for your job do it,

fire your black ass, and make sure you don't find another job

until you've defaulted on your mortgage,

your daughter's school tuition dries up,