Black Lightning has returned full throttle for a second season, and the stakes are higher and grittier this go-round. Last season, Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams), a man who had been turned his back on his superhero alter-ego Black Lightning, decided he could no longer sit back and watch his city, Freeland, descend into chaos. After a nine-year hiatus, he chose to slip back into his super suit and use his superhuman abilities to harness and control electricity to try and save his community.
Jeff’s decision to step back into the masked vigilante’s shoes had quite the effect on his family. Namely, his scientist ex-wife, Lynn (Christine Adams) with whom he’d been working to rekindle a romance, and the couple’s daughters, Anissa (Nafessa Williams) and Jennifer (China Anne McClain) – strong-minded young women who are discovering their own superpowers.
Despite his best efforts to help the people of Freeland, the season finale of Black Lightning ended with Jefferson at death's door. The menacing Tobias (Marvin Jones III), and his violent 100 gang nearly got the best of the high school principal. Just before the season premiere, Shadow and Act, headed to Decatur, Georgia to tour the Black Lightning set and speak to Williams about Season 2, how everything is about to change for the Pierce family, and why Jefferson will be juggling a lot more demons both in and out of his suit.
"The first part of this season is Jefferson realizing all of the bad things that happened in season one," Williams says. "He's ready to take all the good and is kind of in denial about the bad. In the first three episodes, he's getting confronted with, 'This is the bad repercussion of what you did to the school, this is the bad repercussion of this and that — this is the bad repercussion of your daughter now having powers.' He’s also grappling with his family, Anissa's jumped in, and she's active as Thunder, Lynn's Green Light Babies, and Jennifer's wrestling with her powers."
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