Welcome back to our weekly catch up with Superman & Lois! Last week was a hell of an episode, huh? If you somehow managed to miss it, you’re going to want to turn back now and catch up on the show before reading on because I’m about to spoil the hell out of things.
No, seriously, go on. Get out of here.
They gone? Good. Well, now we know a lot more about the mysterious Stranger who was out to kill Superman wasn’t, in fact, Captain Luthor from a dead world with a lasting grudge against the Superman of his Earth who killed his family, but was, in fact, John Henry Irons from a dead world with a lasting grudge against the Superman of his Earth who killed his family. Funny how these things work out, huh?
Then, without any further messing about, let’s see how Superman & Lois handles the aftermath of that revelation in this week’s episode, “Holding The Wrench.” Oh, and spoilers, obviously. Do I still need to point this out?
1. Fallout
This show has dealt with a lot of heavy stuff so far and almost all of it has to deal with this ongoing theme of consequence. It’s what makes this show, I think, so particularly effective and mature in its own way; to take a character who is so defined by their actions that they debuted in a comic called “Action Comics” and force them to grapple with the weight of the consequences of those actions. It’s a running theme throughout the show and not do I think it lends itself better to a more mature take on the character than, say, making it so that he is miserable and dour and always on the verge of snapping every two seconds, I think it’s handled beautifully in all cases.
Superman is the superhero. He is the benchmark, the blueprint, and for the longest time he has lagged behind the cutting edge of storytelling in this niche subgenre of live action superhero adaptations. Entire cinematic universes have come and gone and Superman has yet to really have the spotlight he once had and, I think, still deserves. I really think this show should be what changes that and it’s precisely because of the weight of its thematic storytelling.
I usually try to tackle these thoughts in a roughly chronological order as we go through the episode, but I feel like I need to start with the biggest revelation of this episode and one that hits pretty deep. Lois had a miscarriage, not that long after the boys were born. This is big, just as big if not bigger than the identity of the Stranger. Not only does this change the fabric of the family dynamic we’ve seen so far, but it puts into stark relief exactly where Lois’s protectiveness of the boys come from. Could she and Clark have told the boys much sooner and saved themselves all this heartache? Probably. Could Lois have lived with the pressure of her sons being in more danger by knowing than they already were just by existing? I doubt it.
And that’s not even half of it, because the way this revelation is handled is more important to me than the detail. This episode’s framing device of Lois visiting therapy after blowing up at Jonathan is just sublime. It preps us from moment one to expect some kind of blowup while already handling the fallout before that entire session segues into the ending of the episode. I wish I could go on, but I have four more thoughts to get to and I only have so much space. I’ll leave this thought with this, though: Bitsie Tulloch isn’t just the best live action Lois Lane I’ve ever seen, but she genuinely deserves an Emmy for this episode.
2. Returning To Life
With everything else going on in this episode, the Cushings could have easily gotten lost in the fold so I want to take a second to talk about this subplot because it continually fascinates me. It’s just so earnestly and nakedly human in a way that probably shouldn’t work in contrast to all the superhuman level of storytelling operating in the rest of the episode, but somehow did for me. There’s something so genuine about a subplot tackling Sarah’s stagefright, giving her an interest and a want outside of her family or her connection to the Kents, and how the wider story of the rift that Lana’s new job has created between her parents (just as they’d gotten back on the same page, too!) levies its own string of actions and consequences that push them apart even further.
Continued belowFrom Lana trying to protect Kyle from what she now genuinely suspects to be a shady plot from Edge to Kyle pushing Sarah into performing again to Kyle finding out that he was axed for the role to him no showing Sarah’s audition and in the midst of all that, Jordan being the one to be there for Sarah? That’s all really good stuff and, funnily enough, it has nothing to do with Superman. Sure, it takes place in his orbit and, once again, is affected by the consequences of his mere existence in Smallville, but it’s simply a story told in parallel to what is happening with Lois, Clark and John Henry.
3. Bridging Worlds, Dividing Families
Weird that the biggest revelation of last week’s episode still gets billed under what’s going on with the Cushings, huh? Well, again, I didn’t want the Cushings to get lost in the shuffle of all this. If we’re talking about a theme of consequences, I really liked that this episode (from the Superman perspective) was entirely built around the fallout of the revelation of John Henry Irons’s identity and his subsequent attack on Superman and capture. It’s only here that they’ve truly been able to meet face to face, with all cards on the table, and actually talk. I’ve talked before about how our lack of perspective on John’s Superman and why that Superman joined the Kryptonians (probably because he didn’t have Lois in his life?) means that the loggerheads comes from John being unable to see a Superman who wouldn’t turn against and that’s played to a tee here. Remember that John still don’t know Superman is Clark and married to Lois. He thinks Clark is just some guy and Superman has only a professional with Lois. It’s interesting to see such a conflict played out where the players have only their specific perspective on the larger picture, but we as the audience get to see a wider view and it’s played perfectly.
Not just that, but I really liked that John Henry’s simple existence in this world has shaken the foundation of Clark’s family, long before he found out that this John Henry and his Lois were married. From moment one, John Henry began to turn Sam against Superman which is something culminated here and must be worked on going forward. The revelation that John and Lois’s daughter was given the same name as the daughter Lois and Clark lost shakes them. Again, I have to commend this show for not simply falling into the trap of having some mysterious guy from another world show up with a hate boner for Superman and just have a slugfest until he dies or gives up. There are genuine emotional stakes involved in his being here and it affects that personal connections that Superman has with his family. The heart. He’s been attacking his heart.
4. Looking Where You Shouldn’t, or Faster Than A Speeding Bullet
Jon’s not really been a forefront player in the past few episodes, mostly taking a backseat to what has been going on with Jordan and his powers since Tag’s return, so it was nice to see him get some attention here. It was especially nice that it focused on the fact that, much like Lois, he is, in many ways, powerless in comparison to his dad and now his brother. He went from the good son, the star pupil, the freshman starting quarterback to… holding the wrench. And that’s a big shift and not something I was expecting the show to take this seriously. Sometimes life deals you a shit hand. Sometimes you’ve been going strong for so that when get a shit hand out of nowhere and the guy beside hits it lucky, it can feel like everything is falling apart around you.
So it was lovely having Jon have a genuine moment of connection with Lois over this. Sure, it came after him nearly dying for being reckless and having Lois explode at him like I’ve never seen her before, but it all came from a real place. Seeing them make up and hold each other and repair that familial bond just works when a) the drama comes a genuine emotional place and b) Bitsie Tulloch and Jordan Elsass are just this good.
Continued below5. Tempers As A Weakness, Compassion As A Strength
Look, I could very easily snipe at BvS with some pithy thing about how this episode resolves a very similar conflict in a better way, but I’m a grown up now and that’s cheesy. What I will do, though, is compare and contrast the two approaches to a story in which an ideological clash is brought to a head and then nullified by a widening of perspective. We all know BvS back to front by now so I’m not going to sit here and break it down, but I found it interesting that this episode would choose to draw such comparisons by having John Henry stand over Clark with a Kryptonite spear, ready to stab him in the chest, before a shift in perspective stays his hand. Why it works here, for me, where the infamous “Martha!” scene doesn’t is that John Henry’s change in perspective isn’t this sudden realisation that the man lying before him isn’t a soulless alien murderer simply because he has a mother of the same name, but a leap of faith based on his connection to Lois.
John Henry has no way of knowing that this Superman isn’t going to end up on the same planet as the Superman on his world, but he sees the connection he has to Lois and he sees the trust this world has in him and the responsibility weighed on his shoulders. We know Superman won’t fall because he can’t let himself fall. John doesn’t know that, but, in the end, sees something worth sparing. And while they might not yet be ready to work together to face what’s coming, getting these two to this point has to proved to be a far more satisfying a story than I could have expected going in and I, for one, can’t wait to see where they go next.
