'Black Lightning' Season 3 premiere reveals Agent Odell secretly plans to turn Freeland’s metahumans into government's weapons
'Black Lightning' Season 3 finds the A.S.A and Agent Odell (Bill Duke) in an uneasy alliance with Black Lightning/Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) thanks to the threat of invasion from Markovia, a rogue nation with its own army of metahumans. But even though they are supposedly on the same side, the A.S.A has always had a troubled relationship with Black Lightning and season 3's premiere revealed Agent Odell may not be telling the whole truth about what he's actually doing in Freeland.
The A.S.A first came to Freeland under the leadership of Agent Martin Proctor (Gregg Henry) in the 1980s, distributing an experimental vaccine that led to many individuals including Jefferson himself becoming metahumans. They returned to the city in more recent times with the drug Green Light, which created a whole new batch of metas in the city.
Agent Odell became the head of the A.S.A after Proctor was killed by Peter Gambi (James Remar), Proctor's former colleague and Jefferson's closest friend. In season 3, however, we find out Proctor was intentionally turned into a scapegoat by Odell in order to cover up the A.S.A's true agenda.
The revelation, surprisingly enough, comes from none other than Tobias Whale (Marvin Jones III). While being interrogated by the young meta Issa Williams (Myles Truyyit), who is working under the direction of Odell, Tobias reveals Agent Proctor wasn't a rogue agent and that he was secretly taking his orders from Agent Odell, who in turn was getting his orders directly from the President.
According to Tobias, Agent Odell's instructions are to obtain all metahumans in Freeland, turn them into weapons who can be utilized by the government, and then tie up all loose ends. Odell kills Issa in the premiere so that the young metahuman can't reveal his agenda to Black Lightning or anyone else who might come looking, proving once again he is willing to go to any lengths to fulfill his mission, even if it means killing every person who stands in his way.
'Black Lightning' Season 3 Episode 2 will arrive on The CW October 14.