Superman & Lois
Things are really coming together on this season. One of the things I enjoy about "Superman & Lois" is that I'm never sure where things are going to and it keeps me on my toes. Let's get it into it!
"Tried and True"
General Sam Lane: "I hate to break it to you, but being a parent never gets easier."
Lois Lane: "That could only be said by someone who didn't have to breastfeed at 3 a.m."
General Sam Lane: "Too much information."
At the fortress, Superman gets more backstory from Bizarro on how things went down on his world. It seems like everything merges on the pendants: the one this world's Ally has and the one that Bizarro brought here that is now in the possession of the DOD. Superman tries to get the pendant from Anderson but his mistrust of the Man of Steel is driving him to make bad decisions. Sam Lane does his best to bring his daughters together when he surprised Lois by bringing Lucy to the Kent farm. Jonathan's drug taking comes to a head when he is tapped to lead the Smallville football team against a lead rival. Lana and Kyle are still navigating the fallout from Kyle's affair.
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| Bonding. |
I really enjoyed the opening of this episode. We get our first really good look at "Bizarro World." I loved the camera work, the way it was shaded. It did a great job of showing not telling. There is a world where they would have put narration by Bizarro over this sequence, but I think that would have really diminished it. I liked that the show trusted the audience to understand what was happening without having to hold their hand. It made things much more impactful. There were a lot of questions raised in this sequence too. Lana has superpowers? I loved how the ending sequence with Superman fighting in the halls of the DOD echoed the opening. It was a nice way to bookend the episode.
I was surprised to see the Lane sisters reunite so soon. I am enjoying this new version of the relationship between Lois and Sam. It feels like a real evolution from last season. It feels like they are actually moving forward. It's nice to see Sam taking initiative with his daughters and showing how much he cares about them. This all comes from a place of love. Lois and Lucy knowing that their dad is coming from a genuine place is what I think sort of pushes them in to giving it the old college try even if it all falls apart in the end.
Bitsie Tulloch and Jenna Dewan have a ton of chemistry and I think the show does a great job of showing both sides of this. We know that Ally Alston is evil and that Lois is completely correct at her. That being said, Lucy does not, but we are able to still see where she is coming from. We understand the years of sibling rivalry that the girls are trying to work through. We feel their frustration. We see Lucy as a real person. I loved her interactions with the boys and with Clark. It's clear that she loves these people, Lois included and they all love her too. You know things are going to crumble, but it doesn't make it any less heartbreaking when it inevitably happens.
I am kind of digging the way they are dealing with this affair drama between Lana and Kyle. I appreciate that during all this drama dealing with alternate worlds and other selves the show is still finding time to work in this real familial drama that people deal with every day. Emmanuelle Chriqui is really killing it here. This is the first time that the show has really given her some meaty material and she's sinking her teeth in. She really takes us on face journeys which I really appreciate and her telling Kyle that she wants him to move out is really powerful. I think sometimes guys in these situations, in television and movies, are commended for breaking things off for their family, but Lana isn't sure if he would have if not for Sarah's accident. And that would be hard to shake.
Everyone here knows that I loathe this teen drug storyline and combining it with football is not the way to win me over. Honestly, there isn't much I dislike more than like locker room hype talk by a generic coach. I will say that I felt like we are getting some forward movement here particularly with Jordan finding out at the end of the episode and the fight. So, let's hope that this storyline can take a turn for the better.
I feel like we need to talk about Mitchell Anderson. This guy is a freaking tool to the point where he almost feels like a caricature. This is the guy that Sam Lane chose to replace him and work with Superman? Did he completely change when he got the job? Why would Sam choose this guy? He clearly has no idea what it takes to be partners with Superman. I just find the whole Anderson doesn't trust Superman plot line kind of laughable. Since he made his debut, Superman has been saving people and averting disasters across the world no matter where they happen. So, Anderson being so mad about Superman flying off to avert that avalanche in Russia feels bonkers to me. Everything that Anderson does in this episode just makes him come off as a tool and a hypocrite, which may be what the show is going for.
Even thought I don't completely buy that the General would authorize this Anderson takedown of Superman, it does lead to a pretty dramatic climax and cliffhanger with Superman beating up soldiers and getting arrested for treason.
Grade: B+
"Anti-Hero"
Lt. Mitch Anderson: "You. You killed my team."
Bizarro: "I kill anyone who gets in my way."
Superman is being held in the same red sun cell as his brother, Tal-Rho. Anderson will not let him out until he reveals the location of Bizarro. Lois and Sam are doing everything they can to get him free, but Lois has other things to deal with when Jonathan is accused of selling X-K. Sarah is trying to figure out what kind of relationship she wants to have with her dad, if any.
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| Disappointment. |
At the end of season one, I honestly thought we had seen the last of Tal-Rho. So, imagine my surprise that he is being woven into the plot of this episode. If I had a gripe about last season, it was the Kryptonian brothers didn't have more like genuine interaction. A lot of times it felt very like, Tal-Rho mustache twirling and Superman being the upfront good brother. We are getting a lot more nuances this season and I'm happy for that. Anytime that it is revealed that there is Kryptonian family of Superman, I am here for it. Family is such a consistent and important theme throughout the Superman mythos that I think keeping Tal-Rho around can only be a boon to "Superman & Lois."
What I loved the most in this episode were the interactions between Superman and Tal-Rho. Tal is always going to be antagonistic towards Kal. That is just part of his personality. But I like that juxtaposition against Superman's Boy Scout-ness. What I enjoy about this, is that you really don't know how things are going to go. I could have seen Tal giving up information about Superman's secret identity in order for some sort of leniency with Anderson. I knew that Superman wouldn't allow them to torture Tal for too long and I knew he gave them the wrong fortress information which only fed Anderson's dangerous paranoia about Superman. I was almost sure that the brothers fighting was just a ploy to get away but I wasn't one hundred percent sure and that is something.
You really start to see that brotherly bond solidifying when Superman abandons the fight between Bizarro and Anderson to try to save Tal from the Kryptonite bullets that Anderson shot him with. It is pretty harrowing watching Superman fly Tal to the sun to try to save him. I was really concerned that Tal wasn't going to survive. He does and lands back in prison but there is a lot of trust that Superman is giving Tal and I'm really curious to see if that trust is well placed and if that all pans out.
This leads us to Anderson's heel turn. I'm really glad they didn't drag this out. It was becoming more and more clear that Anderson was going to take this path, so I'm glad that he did sooner rather than later. Gassed up on X-K, Anderson storms the desert fortress, shoots Tal, smack Superman around and ends up killing Bizarro. I'm honestly pretty bummed that Bizarro is dead. I'm hopeful that this is just some sort of fake out and he finds some way to resurrect. Bizarro has been such a strong part of this season, I'm not ready for him to be gone. I'm definitely ready for Superman to beat the snot out of Anderson, something that is hopefully coming later on in the season. The episode ends with Anderson confronting Ally and presenting her with the other pendant. So that'll be great.
Lois spends most of the episode yelling at her son instead of looking for her husband. Again, you all know I hate this and I'm not going to harp on it. I will say that I'm glad that everything is out in the open. I think that Jonathan protecting this girl at the potential cost of his own future is dumb but at the same time, it is also a very teenager thing to do. And it also feels like an in character action for the son of Superman. I've been rough on this storyline but I have to give it up to Jordan Elsass, the actor who plays Jonathan. He really does a great job here and the scene where Jonathan breaks down in tears after he's dressed down by Clark really got me. Well done. You'll be missed next season.
The dissolution of the Lang-Cushing family continues. Sarah is struggling on how to handle this. Should she cut her dad out completely because she wants to support her mom? Or should she try to salvage and repair her relationship with him. It's clear that Lana doesn't want Sarah to cut Kyle out completely but also wants the decision to be Sarah's. There's a lot of nuance here and I'm digging it. I don't think it's weird that Sarah wouldn't feel comfortable talking to Jordan about these things. So, she calls Aubrey, the girl she kissed and then ghosted. Aubrey is a delight. A child of divorce who gives Sarah solid advice that leads her to talk to Kyle at the end of the episode. More Aubrey please.
Mayor Dean is using all this as campaign fodder and hosts a family values town hall at the diner. Lana confronts him and lets him have it. I loved it. It was very empowering. But I will say that I thought that some of Dean's supporters seemed to drop him pretty quickly.
Things are really coalescing well. Sophomore seasons can be hit or miss but so far there's no sign of a sophomore slump here.
Grade: A-
Next up, John Henry's awake and acting strangely and Jonathan faces the consequences of his actions.
What do you guys think? Are you enjoying this season so far? Are you hoping that Bizarro will be back? Let me know in the comments.
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