‘Black Lightning’ Spoilers: Season 1, Episode 2 Synopsis, Trailer Released

Jefferson Pierce is faced with a dilemma in next week’s episode of “Black Lightning.”

According to the synopsis for Season 1, episode 2 of the CW series, Jefferson (Cress Williams) has to decide whether or not to take up the mantle of Black Lightning once more. Although he successfully saved her daughters Anissa (Nafessa Williams) and Jennifer (China Anne McClain) from The 100 at the end of the series premiere, Jefferson is well aware that Freeland remains a dangerous place to live in as violence continues to rage the city. Jefferson’s ex-wife Lynn (Christine Adams) doesn’t want him to go back to his former life as a vigilante, but the school principal’s old friend Gambi (James Remar) urges him to return to the streets as Black Lightning.

In the trailer for the next episode, Jefferson pays Lala (William Catlett) a visit after the gang leader broke their arrangement. “We had a deal,” Jefferson reminds Lala of his promise that he would keep Will (Dabier) away from his daughters.

But instead of apologizing for what Will did, Lala tries to justify his cousin’s decision to kidnap Jefferson’s daughters, claiming that Anissa and Jennifer “have been running their mouths to the police.”

The confrontation between the two doesn’t end well for Jefferson, as one of Lala’s crew punches him in the face with two others pointing their guns at him.

Despite how unfortunate the incident concludes for Jefferson, that particular moment appears to have helped him make up his mind about his future as Black Lightning. Because at the end of the trailer, Jefferson is seen telling Lynn that “It’s time. The people need Black Lightning.”

Elsewhere in the hour, Anissa and Jennifer try to deal with the aftermath of their kidnapping. In addition, next episode is also expected to reveal how Anissa will try to understand the events in the final scene of the series premiere.

At the end of the pilot, Anissa woke up from a nightmare and accidentally broke her bathroom sink as she was relieving that night’s frightful events in her mind. Clearly, Anissa is a meta-human like her dad. But since Anissa has no idea that she comes from a lineage of meta-humans, executive producer Sam Akil said that Anissa won’t quickly realize that she has powers.

“She just thinks it’s the result of going through something traumatic,” Akil told The Hollywood Reporter of how Anissa will try to make sense of the incident. “She thinks, ‘I’m just having panic attacks but now it’s messing with my head. Is this real? Is it not real?’ I wanted people to have that journey with her because that’s how we all would feel. If you walked out of here now and you had a panic attack and hit the table and it broke, you’d be like, ‘What the hell just happened?’ You wouldn’t be like, ‘Oh, I got these powers!’”

“Black Lightning” Season 1, episode 2, titled “Lawanda: The Book of Hope,” airs on Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 9 p.m. EST on The CW.