Superman & Lois delivers a pitch-perfect origin story romance
Lois and Clark's love story takes center stage before Superman & Lois brings things crashing down to Earth
TV Reviews Lois
Well someone’s seen WandaVision! Like that Disney+ superhero series, “A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events” uses the conventions of TV to lull viewers into a comforting sense of familiarity before pulling the rug out from under them. The first half of “A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events” is a charming-as-hell flashback episode that fills in the gaps between what happened after teenage Clark left home in “The Best of Smallville” and all the early Lois and Clark relationship stuff that was covered in montage in the premiere. Only it turns out it’s not actually a conventional flashback episode. Instead, Morgan Edge is rooting through his brother’s memories to find a weakness. And fittingly, the thing Edge realizes he can use against Clark is the thing that sits at the heart of Superman & Lois as a series: Family.
“A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events” is really the story of two (holographic) fathers. Jor-El trained Clark with a gentle touch before encouraging him to head out into the world to figure out if and why he would want to dedicate his life to being Earth’s champion. Zeta-Roh, meanwhile, trained Edge using fear, shame, and literal pain to turn him into a dutiful soldier. It’s a difference between heritage (the blood ties we don’t choose) and true family (the people we love). Because Edge has never known real love, he expects that the heritage he and Clark share will be enough to get his brother to join his plan to conquer Earth and restore Krypton. Once Edge has been inside Clark’s head, however, he realizes just how strong his brother’s connection to his Earth family is. So Edge decides to take a leaf out of his father’s pain-and-intimidation tactic playbook instead. It’s only once Edge threatens to kill Lois, Jordan, and Jonathan that Clark finally (reluctantly) agrees to submit to his plan.
Writing all that out makes “A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events” sound a little more cohesive than it feels in practice. In truth, this is an episode with two distinct halves: The fun, sweet flashback stuff at the beginning, and the grim and gritty present-day stuff at the end, which throws us back into the deep-end of last week’s rushed plotting. True to its title, this episode offers a brief, lighthearted pause in the midst of the breakneck pacing that has come to define the back half of Superman & Lois’ first season. And while the moment Clark’s memories first start to go haywire is effectively unnerving (at one point he steps outside his own memory while Lois continues on with their conversation), it’s not quite enough to weave the two halves together into one cohesive whole.
Still, Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch are so goddamn charming together, it’s no surprise that the Superman & Lois writers’ room would take any excuse to spend more time in Lois and Clark’s young, flirtatious days. “A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events” revisits a bunch of scenes from the premiere (many of them in full), but also fleshes out the burgeoning dynamic between the ace Daily Planet reporter and her nerdy new co-worker. Plus it showcases the first time Lois met Superman himself too.
The first half of this episode indulges in all the fun rom-com-y stuff that has always been a superhero story staple. And everything we see in the flashbacks reinforces what a great couple Lois and Clark are. One detail I love is that Lois is the more flirtatious of the two when she’s hanging out with Clark, while Clark is the more flirtatious one when he’s in his Superman persona. It speaks to the way the tights and cape let Clark act with a swagger of anonymity that he doesn’t have in his human persona. And it’s absolutely adorable that Lois actually prefers Clark’s nerdiness to Superman’s confidence.
There’s great, subtle character work like that throughout the flashback sequences. When Lois points out that Superman’s headline-grabbing heroics are pulling focus from systemic problems that can’t be solved with brute force, Clark doesn’t get defensive; instead he joins her in her work to bring journalistic attention to those problems too. Superman may draw international acclaim, but Clark isn’t in it for the glory. He gracefully and humbly deflects as Lois tries to grill Superman in a TV interview. And Superman & Lois cleverly riffs on the “American way” part of Superman’s motto as something Lois says to try to trick him into revealing where he grew up, rather than an actual nationalistic cornerstone of his identity.
I could’ve easily lived in the flashback stuff for the entire hour. (I’d have loved to have seen how Lois actually responded when Clark first revealed his real identity, for instance.) And it’s slightly jarring to return to the theatrics of Edge’s storyline after all the sweet, human moments with Lois and Clark. But this episode does at least start to pay off some of the abrupt plot shifts the show has been throwing out there lately—and not just because Kyle swings around to #TeamLois, while Jordan and Sarah officially become an item.
Using Lois, Jonathan, and Jordan as the fulcrum point for the Clark/Edge story packs a much bigger emotional punch than whatever was originally supposed to happen with the “Kryptonian consciousness” thing the show abruptly abandoned last week. And having Lois reach out to John Henry Irons for help is a great way to weave him back into the story too. Presumably there was a slightly different reason Superman went “bad” in Irons’ universe, since Irons is the one married to Lois there. But the result is the same, and Lois realizes that she’s going to need back up to save the day—and hopefully save her husband too.
One thing this freshman season of Superman & Lois has done really well is to drill home just how powerless humans are in the face of Kryptonians. While Lois and Jonathan were up in arms at the idea that General Lane would make Kryptonite weapons as “worst case scenario” back-ups, it’s pretty clear that he was in the right with that one. Even Jordan’s half-Kryptonian abilities are useless in the face of Edge’s powers, and if Clark hadn’t shown up to save his family, there was nothing they could’ve done to protect themselves.
Some of the most compelling images of the season have been the ones where Clark swoops in at the push of a button to save his family. But the end of this episode takes that device off the table, and sets up a new premise instead: Unless Clark has a secret plan up his spandex sleeve, it looks like Lois, Jordan, and Jonathan are going to have to be the ones to save him (and themselves) from doomsday. That dramatically ups the stakes heading into the final four episodes of the season.
Stray observations
- Why are all Kryptonian dads so old?? Is it supposed to make up for the fact that Tyler Hoechlin is only 33?
- It’s kind of strange that Clark has such deep ties to Smallville given that he left home at what looks to be about age 16 and seemingly never lived there again for any extended period of time after that. I can’t believe he didn’t even fly in for a visit during all those years he was training with Jor-El! Poor Martha!
- It’s also weird to think that Mehcad Brooks’ James Olsen is ostensibly hanging out just offscreen at The Daily Planet during all the flashback stuff.
- Bit jarring to pair a story about Lois trying to protect minority families from a Nazi arsonist with a “comedic” scene where a completely unqualified white man is hired for a job just because he asks Perry White nicely.
- It’s adorable that while Jerry Seinfeld was idolizing Superman, Superman was watching Seinfeld reruns.
- I laughed so hard when Edge called himself “Uncle Morgan.”
- Superman & Lois is taking two weeks off and will be back with a new episode on July 13!
116 Comments
I know it wouldn’t really be a superhero show without the supervillain shenanigans. But I feel like this would be a better show if it was just about Clark being a goofball nerd dad like 90% of the time. I barely care about the Morgan Edge stuff.
Clark really is charming as a nerdy dad and a nerdy husband.And I have to admit, if I knew both Clark and Superman, I don’t think I’d see through the disguise. They carry themselves so differently, and both are believable, that I might say “sure they look kind of alike, but no way they’re the same person”. Especially since I would have no reason to assume that Superman has a secret identity and a nine-to-five job.
Clark is just a dork even as himself, which is great. But also, I love how they adjusted nerdy Clark Kent by doing the bumbling awkward dad angle.
I often wonder if I’d fall for the glasses disguise. But he does carry himself very differently in both. When he’s Superman, it’s like his facial expression and eyes are always imagining about truth and justice. And you’d probably be so distracted by the suit that you’d kind of forget about his face. He’s really good at both though.
Now I’m imagining someone looking at Clark and Superman and going “yeah, Lois definitely has a type.”
You know how, in old comics, Lois suspected Clark was really Superman yet could never prove it to her own satisfaction? I sometimes amuse myself by pretending that current Lois is stupid old Lois. So that scene where Clark reveals his powers to Lois by rising into the air … ? I like to imagine her saying, “Clark, you … you can fly! Do you ever go flying with Superman?”About 12 years ago, DC Comics did a massive crossover where all the dead characters came back as zombies, including the Golden Age Superman and Golden Age Lois Lane. So I figure that Zombie Lois spent half her time terrorizing the living, and the other half wondering where Zombie Clark was.
Ha, that would be amazing. “…there’s two of you?!”On a totally unrelated note: aaaah it’s so g*d* frustrating that clicking on a reply notification doesn’t link directly to the specific post/reply anymore.
To me that’s always been the key to why his secret identity could work. Why would anyone think a guy flying around with no mask would have one?
Yeah, you would see through it. The “glasses on, glasses off” thing is just a suspension of disbelief we’ve agreed to accept when watching/reading Superman and Supergirl stuff. If they wanted to explain it they could always use the Doctor Who “perception filter” device that waves away why people (sometimes) don’t focus on the TARDIS.
Same. The first half of this episode had me grinning so much.
Since it’s not mentioned, I’m suspecting the ‘temp vfx’ when Edge creates his fortress only happened in the Canadian broadcast. Anyone else see that? There’s a massive downgrade in quality with timestamps and a big temp vfx watermark.
Called it with a different personality being Eradicated into Clark.The preview for next episode said that a hero will fall. I bet it’s Kyle.And as for stopping evil Superman, a big part of it will be that Clark has something to fight for (his family), who will encourage him to push through and win.Man, in this reality, Kryptonian fathers are all kind of tubby. That’s more evidence that this isn’t Kara’s universe.
Damn this commenting system, lets try this again shall we?Did anyone else see this VFX flub near the end of the episode? More often than not the CGI for these CW shows is perfectly fine considering the incredibly small budgets and timeframes they have to work with. It can vary from looking bad (Barry looking like rubber or cardboard cutout of Kara being dragged across the frame) to near cinematic quality (the Dominators/baby Dominator on LOT). But I’ve never seen one something quite like this crop up.
Seemed to be in the broadcast version only? That scene looks different in the streamed version.
All the screen caps I’ve seen have the CTV logo, I think only the Canadian broadcast had it and that’s why not many people are commenting on it.
CTV broadcasts are also often used for torrents of episodes, so people will probably see it that way.
Yes! This popped up on the CTV broadcast in Canada, was wondering if the CW version had it too or they fixed it for the American showing. It’s such a sloppy goof, especially getting sent to international broadcasters who also let it pass quality control, that I have to wonder if the production ran out of time or something and let it go as-is. Maybe the show is taking the break to give more time to finish the effects.
I think only the Canadian broadcasts got the shaft. Here’s the same shot in the US version I saw:
Well that’s a lot more impressive! I think the “temp VFX” version could’ve honestly passed even without the final particle effects, it’s such a throwaway shot. It’s surprising they couldn’t at least get a clean version without all the watermarking and camera info burned in.
Saw that here on CTV Sci-fi Channel. Thought maybe they rushed it out for us.
All the flashback stuff was so, so, so good, spent most of it humming the John Williams Superman march. The stuff with Edge was more of a bummer, but that’s sort of a given since it’s meant to be a season nadir. It also clarified the new timeline a little better, with Clark being a part of the class of 95 (hey, that means he’s my age) and I guess he got back to Smallville in 2004 going by Friday Night Lights playing at the movie theater. Looking forward to seeing Diggle in two weeks as well.
Ooh, good catch on the yearbook date! Also, I hope Clark at least called to check in on his mom during those nine years away. (Or more? Did he leave before he graduated high school?)
I hope he at least arranged that half of his Daily Planet salary be sent to her. “Any more at home like you?”“Uh no, not really.”
“I hope Clark at least called to check in on his mom during those nine years away.”I don’t think there’s a phone at the Fortress.
I thought that was the Class of ‘98.
I saw 98 as well.
It looked like a 95 to me, but I didn’t freeze frame the screen so I easily could’ve been mistaken!
I liked the gimmick of showing us the flashback sequences while also moving the plot forward, That was neat.Glad that Edge’s Fortress was just as lame as Clark’s. At least Clark’s has a view.I did like that they name dropped Jimmy and then he never showed up. Like “Oh that Jimmy’s he’s always getting those great shots. You know, just offscreen there.” I suspect Cat Grant was also there, just offscreen.
Jimmy offscreen at least sort of mirrors the entire first season of Supergirl, where Clark was basically a Superman chatbot for Kara. Constantly mentioned, never seen.
Out on the town working at The Daily Planet with a bunch of colleagues. They’re all just out of frame, working too.
Seems like the U.S. broadcast didn’t have the unfinished VFX goof towards the end? It totally distracted me from what should’ve been another cliffhanger ending.Liked the trip down memory lane and the twist; the moment where Clark pulls away and Lois is still acting out the memory is creepy. Lots of nice touches as highlighted in Caroline’s review, including that Lois is attracted to Clark first.I can’t believe he didn’t even fly in for a visit during all those years he was training with Jor-El! Poor Martha!I wondered this about the Chris Reeve movie as well, is the implication that Clark basically lived in the fortress for years to train with Jor-El? Bit jarring to pair a story about Lois trying to protect minority families from a Nazi arsonist with a “comedic” scene where a completely unqualified white man is hired for a job just because he asks Perry White nicely.The Superman mythos, especially in the modern era, has had trouble framing how exactly Clark gets a job at the Planet with virtually no experience. In most retellings the journalism bug doesn’t strike him until he’s well past the age where he could’ve majored in it in school, and getting in as go-fer for the boss might have worked in the 30s but its laughable now. Even Smallville, tasked with the exact job of telling Clark’s coming-of-age, put this aside for seasons before magically getting him in the door.
The byrne origin had him graduate with journalism major before he put the suit on.
Clark’s a good person and a good looking man. It only makes sense that Lois would notice him. I’m glad they showed it.
I did enjoy this version’s attempt at explaining, which was basically “we’ll take anyone who’s willing to work without health insurance.” On a Daily Planet related note, did anyone else notice the clunky early 2000s computers in the bull pen? Nice attention to detail.
I loved this episode, but great point on the Smallville-Fortress stuff. The Reeve filsm did this too and I never understood it. Clark can fly, he surely isn’t spending years alone in solitude.
The flashback stuff was some of the best Arrowverse stuff ever. Ever. This is DC’s #1 couple and the show nailed it. Halfway through I would have said this was an A, possibly A+ episode. Not that the back 20 was bad, but it was just regular above-average B+ stuff. (And I hate to sound like “ho-hum, S&L plants another episode in B+ territory.”) You could tell before that grown-ups were writing this show, but this ep shows that they’ve got some grown-ups with skill on the payroll.
Man, good thing the DOD left the Kent-Lane family completely defenseless even though they now know that an actual evil Kryptonian is flying around trying to make Superman join his ranks. It would’ve been super inconvenient for those writers if Morg-Zoh or whoever-the-fuck got krypto-gassed, shot, or stabbed, or red-sunned, and trivially removed from the equation, like he goddamn well should’ve been because the entire Grandpa Lane thread of this season has been leading to it.This episode is an amazing microcosm of how the writers are desperately struggling to have both their new Superman show and their old Superman shows simultaneously.The new idea is good, you guys, and you’re pulling repeated own-goals with the old ideas. Stop it. Commit to the new idea!
It doesn’t help that different episodes appear to take place in different continuities. I didn’t pay attention to the writing credits but making the twins Lois’ first pregnancy after she specifically said she miscarried her first was a bit jarring. I strongly suspect different writing teams who had little clue what had gone before.
I *think* Lois told Jonathan that she had the miscarriage when the twins were about a year and a half old, although I haven’t rewatched to double check.
She did. They made it pretty clear in the episode where we found out about John Henry Irons.
See I thought the miscarriage happened after the twins were born.
It did. She clarified that it was about 12 months after the twins were born. This was also shown in the photo she showed Jonathan:
Her miscarriage occurred 18 months after the twins were born. Lois explicitly tells Jonathan this.
I think after 11 episodes we can say the following: It looks fantastic. The acting is surprisingly good top to bottom. They do the little things all right. But the actual plot? A little “meh”
– I am actually glad we didn’t see Jimmy Olsen because they would have likely made him Not Black and that would have just drove me up the wall.- The flashback segments were so damn good I wish they had been the whole episode. Clark fumbling after Perry was just the best.- Hey, remember when Sarah had siblings, an older and younger sister, and one of them was apparently a major bully?- I’m not really feeling Jordan/Sarah, but part of that is my general annoyance with Jordan. – I really, REALLY do not want to harp on this yet again, but the fact that Lois calls Irons before Kara really sours that final moment. And unlike Luke or Mary, Lois DOES have Kara’s phone number.
Did she call Irons? She just mentioned “John” and we saw Diggle in the preview, so I’m calling a misdirect.
Oooo good catch!
How/why would Lois know Diggle?
They’ve met by proxy during Crisis, ie. they were on the Waverider at the same time I think. But no, they didn’t share any scenes.
Diggle and Lois worked together during Crisis, I’m pretty sure
I don’t believe they interacted during the Crisis, but him being a source for her reporting in this new continuity wouldn’t be beyond the pale I don’t think.
1 ) She’s Lois Lane. 2) She’s the daughter of Sam Lane, who would know everyone in the DEO and ARGUS.
Considering she doesn’t even seem to know Kara these days, I wouldn’t put any bets on it.
I really can’t understand how the timelines of Superman & Lois and Supergirl line up, and it’s been driving me crazy. Maybe Kara’s still stuck in the Phantom Zone during the recent events on Superman & Lois. Still, it would be nice if they at least mentioned her.
I really don’t know which choice is worse: Superman appearing as a chatbot for he entirety of Supergirl season 1, or Kara not being mentioned at all, even in passing, in Supermand and Lois. Supergirl made a really weird choice but at least they acknowledged Superman and Clark existed. This show just seems to be avoiding it for as long as possible.
Edge having his own fortress in the desert, opposite of Clark’s snowy fortress theme, was a nice idea. Great episode.Although, I still wonder why these CW shows always seem to have an underlying sense of trying to race to the finish line, cramming in every plot beat before the episode’s time is up.I mean, is it really that hard for them to chill the hell out, or do they have some big fear of boring their audiences if they allow a scene to play out for viewers to absorb and be convinced before moving on? This show dances on that fine line. The other hero shows are real bad at it.
The CW shows are built on the old TV model of every episode being self-contained, with an A-plot that can be resolved within the 40-odd minutes and a B-plot that breadcrumbs the larger season arc. I would say though, that usually the A-plot is pretty straightforward – Villain x is in town and hero y needs to stop them. It’s Superman & Lois that seems in particular to want to throw multiple plot turns in every episode, and I wonder if they’re just cramming everything in that they’d do in a 24-episode season regardless.
I actually really like the pacing of most of the CW shows, because the more filler they use to pad out the runtimes, the worse choices they make. Just burn through plots and storylines and keep it going. Don’t give the writers any room to screw up what’s already a pretty good narrative.
Superman & Lois fucking up Nazis together is #CoupleGoals.
Ty-Zor’s hologram exposing Tal-Rho (Why don’t they share a house name?) was like the Bene Gesserit testing Paul Atredies in Dune.
Teen Clark ran so fast he instantly aged up! It took him 9 years to metabolize our sunlight & master their powers. Evil Kryptonians do it instantly. Post-Crisis Krypton of the comics was a loveless society of arranged marriages based on genetics where babies were made in birthing matrices rather than through intercourse. Therefore the parents don’t have to be spring chickens. (Jor-El had to break up Lara’s first marriage before they could produce their rare lovechild.) Or it could just be they have a patriarchy where rich old dudes can use their influence to be matched with younger women.
Re: the Nazi guy… Wouldn’t Superman heat vision-ing that grenade right in front of that family cause, you know, the grenade to explode? Or was he that precise with this heat vision and x-ray vision simultaneously that he could locate the detonator and just disable the grenade without making it blow up?
The answer to any questions like that is: He is Superman, yes he can.
Young Morgan Edge/Tal-Ro?
Good episode but I feel the pace of the show should be slower to let it set in more. Like I would have split this episode into two parts. This one in the flashbacks with Clark and then at the end we see Edge. Then the other episode focus on Edges backstory more and the stuff with Lois. Flash in season one built up the Thawne twist by showing a alternate version of it to make the real one count more. Flash was slow with it’s first season and Arrow for that matter too. Superman seems to fast honestly.
My only gripe is the same one you had Caroline. I wish they went the Birthright route and had him travel the world, working as a freelance journalist before coming to Metropolis. Would have played well into that scene where he talks about learning all the languages.
I thought the black guy at the Daily Planet, holding up the newspaper and talking about how his photos would get him a Pulitzer was their version of Jimmy Olsen??
No he says “Jimmy got a photo” referring to someone else and not himself.
Nah, he’s listed in the credits as Ron Troupe, another Daily Planet employee.
Troupe was one of the first additions to the Planet staff that, in the 50s and 60s, consisted apparently solely of Lois, Clark, Jimmy, and Perry. Cat Grant and Steve Lombard were later retconned in (I believe we first saw them at WGBS), as well as Alice Whats-Her-Face, who worked in the morgue. There was also Charlie Kweskill, who had been a Phantom Zone villain who’d served his time, was exposed to Gold Kryptonite, lost his powers and — if memory serves — was hypnotized by Kal into believing that he was a Planet staffer.
I know it likely wouldn’t grab an audience big enough to sell but I honestly would have watched a Clark and Lois series with these two even without the Super-stuff. They’re amazing together.
This ep was so good. I’m with Caroline, I’d watch a whole movie of just young Clark and Lois getting together. I mean, I did in 1978… but I think these two would do it justice.As did this episode, so many nods not just to the classic Reeve film, but also to the iconic Action Comics cover. So fun.Second half was still good, and left me wanting more, so, mission accomplished! And blergh 2 week break!
I haven’t kept up with this show but I’m itching to see this.
Well, we did have Lois and Clark in the 90’s which did that but I bet a reboot with Hoechlin and Tulloch playing their younger selves in that time would be a hoot. We just need to figure out who would portray Lex. Jon Cryer may still be an option there.
I really hope Superman is playing some kind of long game, like he’s letting Edge put him in that beam to get his powers recharged or something, because otherwise this show just established in its very first season that all you have to do is threaten Superman’s family and he will fold to whatever you want, including letting you use him as a weapon against the entire human race.
I’m guessing he’s somewhere in there and his love for Lois and his family will be the deciding factor in throwing it off. Regardless, Lois is going to have some kind of major role in defeating Edge; I could even see her delivering a roundhouse punch.
I kinda wonder, since Diggle is in the preview, whether the John she called was Steel or Diggle. In fact, I wonder if Diggle could be the hero who will fall? His episode of Flash is the week before this episode, and as far as I know he doesn’t have anymore Arrowverse episodes coming up – maybe him visiting all these shows is something of a farewell tour? But I feel like Lois wouldn’t know him well enough to call him. On the other hand, if Superman is turning, a Green Lantern (or someone Green Lantern-adjacent) might be someone you’d consider calling.Anyway, I feel like I just come here every week and repeat how fantastic and well-made this show is, so yada yada yada, it’s still that.
Would you put it past the CW that, after all the Diggle/GL stuff, in the end, the Arrowverse Green Lantern ends up being John… Henry Irons?
That would be one hell of a fake out if they went with that! I would not put it past them, but I think it’s the least likely outcome (the most likely being that Lois called Irons and Diggle is there for some ARGUS/Army meetup with Sam Lane and literally nothing comes of Diggle being there except someone getting an inspiring pep talk).
I mean, John Henry has been glowing GREEN in that armor, right? RIGHT?
The flashbacks were stellar. They really showcased everything that makes Superman great. I would’ve been content to stay in the flashbacks for the entire episode. As for the lack of Kara, this is a classic comic book problem–I’d say it’s reasonable to assume she’s in the Phantom Zone at the moment.
^This. It’s a classic comic problem. Nothing to do with the show really.
It’s one of those things where the threads feel even thinner now that they’ve established the SuperFriends. At least Legends took a moment to point out that they wanted to get help from the DEO this year, it’s just that the office was blown up.
I know it is confusing as this is on the CW and this is technically a spinoff from Supergirl, but I do not think they are all that eager to bring up supergirl at all anytime soon. HBO MAX partners with the CW for Superman and Stargirl, and the old “arrowverse” shows are all Netflix partnered shows. Way more people will watch Superman on HBO and they do not want to be referencing properties they do not own nor have on their platform. Plus, Supergirl is ending and gets lower ratings, so there is very little in it for them.
So Clark Kent loves Seinfeld, eh? I wonder if he’ll teach his boys the joys of Festivus: the Airing of Grievances, the Feats of Strength… LOL
Imagine if Jervis Tetch, aka the Mad Hatter, had the chance to look into the mind of Superman.
Remember Reign’s Fortress of Sanctuary in Supergirl? I guess Morgan has one, too.
Learning every language on Earth is definitely a superpower, Clark.
July 13th???? Omg that’s too far away!!! Why is this show taking so much breaks SMHOn topic, I’m guessing the next few episodes might see the Arrowverse characters reunite actually. We already saw David Ramsey in the promo for the next episode and since they need more back-up, we might even see Kara join them.
You might underestimate those first sixteen-ish years. I left the country after having known my small suburban town for roughly that amount of time and I still have friends from back then. Even now I hope to take my SigOth to visit someday.Pair that with the fact that Martha Kent is a pillar of the community and the fact that Smallville is probably waaaaaaaay smaller than my slice of suburbia and you have the perfect romanticized childhood, leading to stronger ties to home.
Loved the flashbacks. I hope they do more of that stuff in the future.
You know what I’d like to see them do? A flashback thread where this universe’s Bruce Wayne tries to hit on Lois and just strikes out completely.
I loved this episode so much. If it wasn’t for the Edge stuff at the end I would have given it a A+. So B+ is perfect. Holy shit this made me love Superman as much as Animated versions of Supes from All Star Superman movie and of course Justice league and JLU and Superman the Animated series levels.What a great start to the show… oh and of course Lois fucking Lane is awesome! My god is he perfect as Lois.
This show is making me retroactively angry at Grimm for wasting Bitsie Tulloch for so much of their run. She’s just SO GOOD as Lois!
My initial reluctance to watch this show lay solely at the feet of Bitsie Tulloch, who I thought was miscast as Lois Lane even more than Kate Bosworth. Man, I was 100% wrong. She is great in this. I feel like everyone else who played Lois before had both ends of the spectrum turned up to 11. Seems like every actress player her as “Brassy dame working in a boys’ club,” and “damsel in distress.” Not really any in between. Tulloch doesn’t really do either, but she somehow does both better.
And fittingly, the thing Edge realizes he can use against Clark is the thing that sits at the heart of Superman & Lois as a series: Family.
In one of the recent comic runs for Superman, The Eradicator showed up to kill Jonathan because he was half human. The Eradicator had put a phantom zone projector its chest and trapped Krypto – sooo Supes brought Lois and Jon to one of Batman’s bases… on the moon.The Eradicator tracks down Jon and we get a great scene, once Lois, off camera, finds some of Batsy’s gear.“… Never Mess WIth The Baby Bear When The Mama Bear’s Nearby!”
“a completely unqualified white man is hired for a job just because he asks Perry White nicely.”Because otherwise, Perry doesn’t hire Clark, he never becomes a reporter, never meets Lois, etc. The Silver Age comics had Clark “earn” his job and “Lois and Clark” had him impress Perry by turning in a killer story. But then maybe he doesn’t get paired up with Lois, etc. because he’s already a great reporter. The writers could have done a longer version of how Clark got hired but then what do you chop out to make up the time? Sorry but some things just aren’t politically correct.
Was it ever really clarified in the Golden Age how Clark got his job at the Daily Star? We know why he was there — to be aware of breaking news — but did we ever get the how? I assume Siegel or Binder or Bernstein or Finger cleared that up under Unca Mort in the 50s, but I don’t remember a GA story that told us that. He was just there.
My usual random thoughts:
1. How long was Clark gone? He was a teenager when he left home and he returned as an adult.
2. Obviously long enough for Lana to get engaged. Supergirl has always been sloppy with its timeline, can we expect more of the same? How did he explain his absence?
3. Martha still made the super suit but without the emblem, which explains the old style “S”. I wonder when he’s supposed to have ditched the trunks?
4. The phone booth was a nice touch but why change to Superman on the street but back to Clark in the phone booth?
5. Clark learning he was creating problems (i.e., causing stories to be overlooked) as well as solving them was another nice touch.
6. Ditto the Fortress proposal.
7. Wait, Lois’ first pregnancy was the boys? What happened to the daughter she miscarried? Wasn’t that before?
8. Okay, Edge apparently didn’t know about it but why not Clark? Why didn’t he realize something was off? Or were they real memories and the writers simply got it wrong? Speaking of a sloppy timeline.
9. Apparently it’s been long enough that Clark has recovered his powers. Why didn’t Edge come after him while he was powerless? Or is Clark still recovering and Edge overpowered him and that’s how he got him to wear the flashback gizmo? That’s a major loose end.
10. Sarah and the boys repeatedly talking about honesty feels like it ought to be foreshadowing.
My retrospective impression was that Edge was leading him through happy memories, so the first pregnancy would be overlooked.The phone booth thing to me was that the first time — with the slight glance — was a nod to Reeve’s 1978 double-take — and the second time was pure fan service.
“1. How long was Clark gone? He was a teenager when he left home and he returned as an adult.”Don’t most Superman adaptations/histories have him leaving Smallville as a teenager, building the fortress, then staying there for years to train in using his powers?“Supergirl has always been sloppy with its timeline, can we expect more of the same? How did he explain his absence?”This is “sloppy”, it’s part of Superman’s history. As far as his absence, he left as a teenager. It would be easy for Martha to say that he left for college early, or just got a job out of town.“7. Wait, Lois’ first pregnancy was the boys? What happened to the daughter she miscarried? Wasn’t that before?”As others have posted in other comments, that episode stated that the twins were 18 months when Lois had her miscarriage. We see a photo of her with the twins when she was pregnant again.“9. Apparently it’s been long enough that Clark has recovered his powers. Why didn’t Edge come after him while he was powerless? Or is Clark still recovering and Edge overpowered him and that’s how he got him to wear the flashback gizmo? That’s a major loose end.”We saw in the previous episode that he had enough of his powers to fly to the Fortress. “Why didn’t Edge come after him”? He did – he followed him to the fortress and instead of killing him, he used the flashback gizmo to learn Superman’s history on Earth to understand why he cares more about Earth than recreating Krypton. Not a “major loose end”.
LOVED the flashback stuff. Gimme a Supes and Lois show sans the brats!I really can’t get over what a bad fit the guy playing Jor-El is. And the guy playing Zeta-Rho looks like someone melted Charles Laughton with hot wax. Not good in an otherwise really fun show.
Looking forward to the HoloDad fight scene in the finale, though.
The backyard Kryptonian BBQ and beer standoff will be epic.
Hobo Jor-El vs. Pasty Zeta-Rho.
Just shameful, really.
John Henry is gonna suit up as Steel!
They could (should?) sit the teenagers for half a season and do an extended run of Lois and Clark in Metropolis. Kids could be 10. This is where you could bring in young Kara and Alex.
It was a bit weird he jetted off to his “ice castle” for like ten years(?) – if his mum had said something like “Are you back for good this time?” it would have made more sense than Clark straight-up abandoning her. That was really the only bum note for me, given that we know Clark loved his mum and Smallville. The creation of his “fortress” looked mega impressive but still ended up being a cave rather than the impressive structure Kara uses – this, coupled with the apparent timeframe and weird omittance of Kara when ‘family’ is this show’s theme – has made me start to wonder if we’re actually watching a different Earth. Like, this Superman and Lois, and the Earth, are identical to the Arrowverse one, just without other heroes. But then if John Diggle’s turning up, who knows.
Pretty sure that most adaptations of Superman (or histories in the comics) have Clark leaving Smallville as a teenager, building the fortress, and staying there for years to learn his powers. Yes, he loves his mom, but he understands that his destiny is to be something greater than some Joe Schmo living in Smallville, and that led him to the fortress to learn his powers.
I agree with everyone thus far — the flashback scenes were ace. I was yelling PHONE BOOTH BITCH at my laptop like a kid.
If experiencing that type of pain turns him, it will be really thin. His response to pain shouldn’t be the same as Edge’s as an alienated teen. Unless the red beam is some kind of mind control, but it didn’t seem that way. Edge hasn’t been reading as someone under mind control. I guess we’ll see how this turns out. I just hope it isn’t some stupid thing like most events of this kind on Arrowverse shows. See: the current story on Batwoman.
As someone further down the thread mentions, it looks more like was Eradicated — though it begs the question of why his will was so quickly sublimated. I assume it’ll turn out to be Zod yet again, though I’d love it to be Jax-Ur or Gra-Mo or someone a little more fan-servicey.
I thought the red beam was red sun energy, which shouldn’t hurt a Kryptonian, just take away their powers. That major departure from canon came about during the JHI arc. It’s honestly like these people have zero knowledge of the source material.
So what about these so-called “extended cuts” on the CW app? The running time on this one was actually about 30 seconds SHORTER than the average CW episode. Was this really extended at all? Or do they mean alternate? And how much shorter was the broadcast version?
Edge: Its your uncle Morgan coming to pay you a visitJordan: Hi Uncle Morgan.Jonathan: Shut up Jordan.
Fun episode with a good use of (and excuse for) flashbacks. And next episode… John Diggle… for some reason.
“Superman & Lois is taking two weeks off and will be back with a new episode on July 13!”
Oh for fuck’s sake…
The only thing that really bothered/surprised me in this flashback episode was that I was waiting for Supeman to fix the broken window he threw that Atom man through. (But yo?! Supes where are you going?)
Outside of all of the plot and pacing discussions: How cool was the first suit with the bright primary colors and the Fleischer red-on-black shield? A great touch.