Well! Been a while, huh? Last time we were in these parts it was March. What has happened in the world since the last time Superman & Lois graced our screens? I… honestly don’t remember. It’s mostly a blur. What I do remember, though, is that last time we were in Smallville, things were beginning to come to a head.
After a tumultuous move from Metropolis to Smallville with their two teenage sons, Lois and Clark found their entire lives up ended. Clark was forced to reckon with how much his role as Superman affected his relationship with his family while Lois became embroiled in a dangerous conspiracy involving Daily Planet CEO bankrupting small towns while searching mines in the local region for Kryptonite X. Meanwhile, Jordan Kent has gone from anti-social, mentally ill goth kid to star football player after discovering that he has latent powers thanks to his dad’s Kryptonian heritage while Jonathan finds himself adrift in a new town, going from star football player to everyone’s go-to punching bag. It’s been a rough time for the Kents, but despite all their troubles, a key throughline of the show has been their bond as a family first and foremost.
That is, except for the Luthor from an alternate universe in which he fought valiantly beside General Sam Lane, the father of his wife, Lois, against a tyrannical alternate Superman who has been on the hunt for Kal-El ever since he arrived here. You know, the usual.
Boy, there sure is a lot going on in this show, huh? Especially in only five episodes. Now, finally, we get to dig into the long awaited (for me, anyway) sixth episode of Superman & Lois in Five Thoughts. I cannot wait to see what this show has in store for me this week, so let’s get to it.
Oh, and spoilers. Duh.
1. A Game Of Tag
Okay, I’ll level with you: I completely forget the tag (heh) at the end of the previous episode teeing up Tag’s return in this episode. It threw me for a loop at first, but once the episode settled in it was like coming home. When Tag first got his powers, I think everyone and myself assumed that it was operating out of a Smallville-esque monster-of-the-week idea where the lives of others around the Kents would be affected by their move into Smallville with a bunch of supers turning up because of stuff and reasons. Thankfully, the show is nixing that in an interesting way by following the Tag storyline and continuing to string the repercussions of Jordan’s outburst in the premiere episode. We’ll dig into the theme of consequence more in the next point, but it has a strong bearing on this aspect of the episode.
One of the things I love about the way they continued Tag’s story in this episode is that even though Tag isn’t necessarily a villain, his antagonistic presence in the plot actually affects two other ongoing elements of the wider drama. For one, his reconnection with Sarah reveals to her his suspicions that Jordan is related to him getting these powers and for another, his escape continues to widen the rift between Clark and Sam as they both take vastly different positions in how to bring Tag in. It’s a lot going on all wrapped up in a story about a scared kid whose entire life has been turned upside down and is only looking for answers. Which is something I like a lot about this show: the problems it posits for the characters, and for Superman especially, aren’t the kind that can be easily resolved without consequence. There is no easy right answer and the compromise will always have costs. Seeing that thematic throughline in a Superman in current year is pretty sick, I can’t lie.
2. Consequences, Or The Stranger Cometh
Like I said, consequences. It’s a strong theme throughout the entire show, to be sure, but it’s key to every storyline going on in this episode and it affirms that early on. For Lois, her entire story is about consequences. The consequences of being a mother, of being a journalist, of being the wife of Superman and of being herself. It’s quite funny to me that the show posits any time Jordan and Jonathan get hurt as this world ending catastrophe for Lois and Clark as parents and yet Lois can come home after a day where she was almost killed by someone with Kryptonian powers and she’ll brush it off like it’s nothing and yet it’s just as integral to the story’s overall theming. It’s a nice little character beat because for Lois to have what is arguably the closest ties to the storyline going on with the series’s main villain, it’s something doesn’t get commented on with quite the same amount of weight as what’s going on with Clark and the boys. While they continue to butt heads, Lois continually gets in the most danger of anyone in the show and will report back to Clark like “Oh, yeah, there was this chick with heat vision and this guy had a ray gun” and, honestly, I find it delightful.
Continued belowSpeaking of ray guns, I was not expecting Luthor to play his hand like this quite this early. Obviously, most of his character trajectory has been a pleasant surprise to me and I feel the need to reiterate that I think leaving Lois and Clark in the dark as to who The Stranger™ is while allowing the audience to follow Luthor’s perspective is a gold mine of storytelling. Watching him get so close to Lois while knowing what we do about his relationship to her while she has absolutely no clue who he actually is is just solid gold. I’ve read my fair share of terrible Superman comics with dumb villains with mysterious backstories who act like the revelation of who they actually are will change comics for ever (cough Mr. Oz cough Rogol Zaar cough the fake Clark Kent cough cough cough) and completely flipping the script by letting the audience know up front while playing games with the characters is so refreshing.
3. You’re Stronger Than You Think Are, Or With Great Power, Comes No Responsibility
Jordan Kent is the best thing to happen to the story of Superman since 1938. That’s my big hot take from this episode. His character went from someone I honestly assumed would be lowkey insufferable to one of the major reasons I am excited to watch this show. Alexander Garfin does just an exceptional job of keeping all of Jordan’s manic, superpowers and football and girls and high school character plotting grounded by forefronting genuine, earnest emotion at the heart of everything. And this episode puts Jordan through the ringer.
First he gets his ass kicked by a returning Tag on the eve of the biggest game of his life so far then his powers become continually erratic and dangerous to the point where he almost heat visions the Metropolis football team in half then he has another blowout fight with his dad about responsibility before shirking that responsibility and ultimately hurting Jon. I said Jordan could be quite insufferable and I think it was because, ultimately, I knew if he had powers, it would lead to his relationship with his dad being one where Clark is overbearing and protective of him and that leading to conflict. That is, ultimately, what happened, but I expected more in the lines of, say, the way Joe treated Iris on The Flash in the early seasons. Dismissive and ultimately quite distant and a conflict derived from poor communication. However, that opposite of that is true, Clark and Jordan and Jonathan are ultimately open about everything because Clark trusts his sons to be honest with him and it’s when that trust is broken (heh) that things fall apart.
In order for Clark to get through to Jordan about the responsibility that comes with his power, Jordan has to understand the consequences of acting without responsibility. And we’ve seen that from episode one. However, while things have often ended on a silver living despite setbacks, this feels like a big one. I’m interested to see where this goes.
4. Edging Into Smallville
I have to admit: I kind of love Morgan Edge in this. He is the most obviously skeezy kind of corporate capitalist investment scumbag that shows up in these kinds of shows, yet Adam Rayner just carries it all with this effortless charm and grace. There’s something so genuinely earnest about the way isn’t showing us yet much of the bad side of Edge, only the side he shows to convince Smallville to trust him. Lois knows he’s bad, we know he’s bad. The show doesn’t need to establish why should despise this guy, but what the show does establish is why no one else despises him.
Take Kyle, for example. Kyle is an interesting character to because, sure, he’s a surly, beer swilling, grilling with Oakleys on kind of small town alpha male with a massive ego and a bigger inferiority complex, but the reason he comes into conflict with Lois isn’t because, it’s because his life and history and personality make him exactly the kind of person to buy what Edge is selling. That’s good writing, that’s how you build drama. People don’t just bicker at each other over who they are inherently, who they are informs their views and beliefs which come into conflict with opposing views and beliefs. That’s good telly.
Continued below5. The Big Game
Yes, this whole thing is just me gushing over how much I loved this episode (which is a relief, because that last episode before the break left me quite cold), but I just love how Superman & Lois is unironically a football show. It makes perfect sense in action and works perfectly as there’s clearly a lot of effort put into making Jordan and Jonathan’s games be central to the story and themes, but it’s not something I was expecting going in.
That’s it, that’s all this point is. I like the football stuff in the Superman show. It’s really neat and it’s done really well and the way it is a throughline for both Jordan and Jonathan makes it thrilling and dramatic in all the right ways. I’m not above admitting that I cried at Jordan’s feral outlet of rage and pain as he screamed while expending his heat vision into his dad’s hands of steel. All of it was exactly what it needed to be and it killed.
6. The Wrath Of a Father Scorned
Man, it’s been so long since I’ve seen it used effectively that I forgot how good an angry, red eyes Superman moment can be. Because Superman’s moment of anger in this episode isn’t just some ambient level of superheroic rage, the red eyes as indicator of nothing more than he’s not holding back. This is Superman pissed. This is a Superman who just found out his father-in-law ordered live ammo to be used to detain a kid no older than his grandsons. This is a Superman who just took a kryptonite shot to the chest at the behest of said father-in-law in order to protect the life of an innocent child.
This is a Superman able to stare down armed members of the DOD and let them know that if they so much as touch that kid, he could end them. Right here, right now. Without even flinching. And what separates this moment from all other dark and gritty and even villainous interpretations of Superman we’ve seen in the recent past is two fold. For one, this moment of anger is a culmination of this episode’s overall themes of control and responsibility and stands in mirror to the exact same situation Jordan was in on the football field. This isn’t anger to prove that Superman can be anger, this a genuine moment of emotion that Superman has to be careful to navigate.
And, for two, it’s important to understand that Clark knows that any person in any room with him while he’s wearing that cape knows how dangerous he could be if he only wanted. That doubt at the back of Sam’s mind will always be present. And yet, for as much power as he has, as much as he could, without breaking a sweat, rip that entire scene apart, he never would. He will always catch himself. Because no one else will. That’s what makes Superman Superman. There is no one there to catch him when he falls.
