'Black Lightning' Season 3 Episode 7: Jefferson needs to get off his high horse and stop risking lives of fellow citizens
Jefferson Pierce / Black Lightning (Cress Williams) is a hero and not just when he puts on his suit. His dedication to justice and his high moral standards are what make him the inspiring figure he is both in his civilian role and his vigilante one.
In 'Black Lightning' Season 3 Episode 7, however, this same morality is what makes everybody's lives unnecessarily complicated. If it wasn't for his daughter Anissa Pierce / Blackbird (Nafessa Williams), Jefferson would have never helped the resistance and after watching the episode, we know just how disastrous that would have been.
At the end of the day, Jefferson is an idealist. Despite everything he has been through, he still believes that truth and justice will always find a way to triumph. However, what Jefferson doesn't seem to have realized is that he's not a superhero fighting crime bosses anymore. The A.S.A isn't going to just pack up and leave Freeland without a fight and whether he wants to admit it or not, lives will be lost on both sides by the time this occupation comes to an end.
The A.S.A does not care about morality and as they demonstrate in the episode, they certainly do not care about taking the lives of children. Black Lightning might have a strict code of conduct but the A.S.A has no such code, no honor, and absolutely no qualms about killing every last man, woman, and child in Freeland if it means that they can get what they want and Jefferson would do well to remember that.
There is a real crisis in Freeland and what Jefferson should be trying to do is save as many lives as he possibly can. If he's going to stop and police the methods of everyone trying to actually make a difference, then he might manage to come out of this occupation with his own conscience clean, but that will come at the cost of his fellow citizens' lives.
'Black Lightning' Season 3 Episode 8 will air on The CW on December 2.