5 things Black Lightning fans want to see in season 2

That's right: Black Lightning is back! The superhero family of Freeland made their debut a little over one year ago with a compelling story that balanced their personal drama alongside perilous gangs, shady experiments, and a government organization determined to hunt down metahumans.

The stakes were raised even higher in the first half of Season 2 with Jefferson being booted from his beloved Garfield High School, Jennifer learning to wield her powers and going on the run with Khalil, and Anissa/Thunder trying to navigate her complicated love life alongside her mission to aid her community at all costs. The final moments of the midseason finale introduced a mysterious metahuman who is heading to Freeland to cause more trouble. 

The highly anticipated back half of Season 2 will cover a ton of ground and likely wrap up with a major showdown between Tobias, Black Lightning, Thunder, and hopefully Lightning too — but there are a few things that really need to be addressed prior to the season finale. 

The Black Lightning world expanded a bit with the introduction of the Perdi, a group of Black people living in South Freeland, where race relations are reminiscent of the 1960s. Things should be safer after Black Lightning and Thunder impaled Looker to free her control over the Sange, but it would be nice to get an update. Has their living situation truly improved since Looker lost power? Is Looker still in the hands of the ASA or has she somehow made her way back to South Freeland? It wouldn't make sense for the show to establish this entire community and introduce a big comic character for only two episodes. 

This absolutely has to happen, especially since Jennifer's suit was revealed on social media shortly after the midseason finale. The buildup towards Jennifer accepting and learning to control her powers has been a slow burn but it's time for the youngest Pierce to suit up. Jennifer's journey back to her family and heroic destiny will be an interesting storyline amongst the building chaos in Freeland. What will finally convince her to return home? Who will christen her with the name Lightning? And, what special functionalities are embedded in her suit? There's so much to explore and fans are beyond ready to meet Lightning.

Khalil is a conflicted young man. He knows Tobias won’t stop coming for him but he doesn’t want to be a baddie anymore. His love for Jennifer is obvious but he doesn’t want to ruin her life for the sake of their relationship. What is Khalil going to do? He could switch sides and fight alongside Black Lightning, but that’s going to be hard considering he nearly killed the titular hero and took off running with his daughter. Khalil’s future is completely up in the air at this point but he’s going to have to either keep running or return to Freeland to reclaim his life. 

Grace and Anissa’s relationship is back on, but both of them are hiding the same secret from each other. There hasn’t been much word about how Grace will fit into the remainder of this season, but she has to open up to Anissa about her powers at some point. This would be the perfect path towards forming an early Outsiders collective with Black Lightning, Thunder, Lightning, Grace, and perhaps another unexpected character or two that we may not have met yet. Tobias is obviously working on building a formidable army so Black Lightning needs to assemble a team ASAP. Viewers also want ALL the details about Grace’s powers — what she can do, how she discovered them, what meds she is taking to keep them in check, and how they have affected her daily life.

This one is kind of a given but it’s perhaps the biggest question on fans’ minds right now. Where did this teleporting hitman come from and who is bringing him to Freeland? It’s possible that he was a part of the same original metahuman group alongside Looker and Black Lightning, but perhaps there are strange experiments going on across the United States. There’s not enough known about him to know if he has a comic counterpart but one thing is for sure — he’s bad news and will wreak increasing havoc as Season 2 progresses.

Hopefully, these questions and storylines will lead the show down a continued path of success as it continues to give a realistic perspective on what life would be like for Black superheroes. Catch Black Lightning airing on the CW on Monday, January 21 at 9 p.m. EST.