Superman & Lois uncover the dark side of Smallville
Superman & Lois is slowly emerging as one of the twistiest, turniest series in The CW superhero canon
TV Reviews Lois
Superman & Lois certainly has no shortage of
ideas. What once looked like it was going to be a simple, adult-focused remake
of Smallville has emerged as one of the twistiest, turniest series in The CW superhero canon. Each week, Superman & Lois seems to introduce a new
Big Bad, or at least a new riff on one of its existing baddies. Just two episodes
after revealing that the seemingly villainous Captain Luthor was actually the heroic John Henry Irons, Superman & Lois reveals that maniacal
businessman Morgan Edge is actually… Superman’s brother!?!
I’ll admit, it’s a reveal that made me go “hmmm” more than “wow!”
mostly because this show is built on such shifting narrative ground that it can
be hard to get your bearings. Last week’s episode pretty casually introduced
the idea that Edge was uploading Kryptonian consciousness into his X-Kryptonite
subjects (or “subjekts” as they’re apparently called), and this episode doesn’t
really do much to expand or explain that idea. Where are the Kryptonian minds
coming from? Why are they evil? Wouldn’t it be a much bigger deal to Clark that
members of his long-lost home world are still alive? Why is he so casual about
the whole thing during his investigation with Lois?
Maybe something got lost in the shuffle of the pandemic production halt, or
maybe there’s some weirdness around the fact that this show was originally
meant to debut after Supergirl’s final season had aired and now has to
write around whatever status quo that show ends on. Regardless, even though “Loyal
Subjekts” weaves together a whole bunch of dangling threads from throughout the
season, it doesn’t play as a satisfying reveal so much as a strange swerve into
new territory.
On the other hand, I never really cared for Morgan Edge as a
character anyway, and Adam Rayner seems better suited to playing a theatrically
over-the-top Kryptonian than a sleazy businessman. So maybe it’s a
swerve for the better. The reveals of “Loyal Subjekts” at least re-anchor the
show around Smallville. It turns out the reason Edge set up shop in the
town isn’t just because of its supply of X-Kryptonite. It’s because living
around that X-Kryptonite has made Smallville’s residents uniquely able to accept
the Kryptonian upload process. If Edge wants to build an alien army, he has to build
it out of Smallville’s best and brightest.
One of the most effectively eerie elements of “Loyal
Subjekts” is the idea of Smallville being sucked into a cult. Episode
writer Andrew N. Wong does a great job mimicking the sort of empty “be your
best self” platitudes that can sometimes mean someone just went to too many
leadership seminars and other times indicate they’ve been seduced into a terrifying multi-level
marketing scheme. It’s incredibly creepy to watch the desperate residents of
Smallville turn to shady means of self-improvement and then claim it’s just the
result of some fun camaraderie-building breakfast meetings. And this episode
does a nice job of subtly hinting that Kyle has joined the program before the big climatic reveal of his heat vision.
The idea of families like the Cushings and the Phans being
torn apart by Edge’s “process” is potent stuff for this family-focused series.
And, of course, the reveal that Edge is inhabited by Clark’s brother certainly
ties into the family theme as well. But I have to admit that I’m still finding Superman
& Lois to be much more compelling when it sticks to small-scale character
stuff rather than big narrative plot twists. In fact, my favorite part
of this episode is the subplot about Jordan getting a (literal) cold when the
synthetic Kryptonite gas from last week turns out to have lasting effects on
both Clark’s strength and Jordan’s newly developing ice breath.
As with the cult stuff, it’s eerie to watch Clark get bruised up by bullets from some bank robbers in Mexico, and even eerier to
watch Jordan almost freeze to death from the inside out. Anxious parents often hem and haw over whether their kid is sick enough to need emergency medical care, and Superman & Lois offers a superhero riff on
that same idea. What starts as a funny gag (Jordan blows his big moment with Sarah
thanks to an inconvenient bodily reaction! His room is an ice cave!) gets serious real fast as his symptoms suddenly worsen. Clark has to
make a last-minute decision to rush his son to “the emergency room” (a.k.a The Fortress of
Solitude.) And then he has to hold his hand through an intense and painful laser
treatment.
Like many a parent who’s passed on a health condition to
their child, Clark feels incredibly guilty about what Jordan is going through—especially
since his son’s powers manifest so differently than his own. (Clark’s never
been sick a day in his life.) Lois, meanwhile, feels like she’s failed because
she’s no longer able to keep her boys inside the protective bubble of ignorance
and innocence that once kept them safe. Superman & Lois’ exploration
of parenting continues to be its most consistently compelling throughline, and “Loyal
Subjekts” offers some really solid stuff in that department.
Again, however, this episode suffers from an overabundance
of ideas. It turns out the reason Jonathan can reassure his mom that everything will be okay is because he’s got a secret stash of guns hidden in the family barn (never a good sign). And he goes so far as to use one of them on their Kryptonian attackers. It’s a truly shocking moment, yet it passes by almost without comment because the show is in such a rush to get to the double reveal of Kyle’s abilities and Edge’s real identity.
While Superman & Lois could and probably will explore the fallout
from Jonathan’s Rambo moment next week, I’m not sure this series has found the ideal
balance between its episodic storytelling and its ongoing narrative yet. It’s too often in a hurry to move onto the next thing instead of living in the moment of some of its action beats.
Now, I don’t want to fall into the trap of arguing that the only
thing that matters about a TV show is its plot. When it comes to its acting, themes, and especially its visual effects, Superman & Lois is
easily one of the best superhero offerings on The CW—and, admittedly, those things are sometimes a little harder to find space to praise in an episodic review like
this. But I also think that Superman & Lois’ impressive “prestige”
aesthetic makes its plot wonkiness feel more glaring than it would on The Flash or Supergirl, where a certain level of silliness is inherit to the
worldbuilding. Superman & Lois has set a high bar for itself over the course of these first nine episodes. The challenge is in leaping it in a single bound now that its latest villain has been unmasked.
Stray observations
- Back in my review of the season premiere, I predicted that
we’d get a surprise twin reveal somewhere down the line, and I’m counting this
Edge twist as close enough! - I get why Jordan had to bail on the talent show, but couldn’t
someone have at least texted poor Sarah to let her know that he wasn’t going to
be able to make it? - While it was immensely satisfying to see Jonathan stick up for his
family, I’m still finding it really hard to care about anything involving
General Lane. He’s a rote character who always feels like he’s pulling focus from
the show’s more original elements. - Eric Dean Seaton brings some stylish direction to this
episode, particularly in the opening montage of Lois putting together her crack
investigative team. - So what’s up with Tegan Wickhem and why is Sarah so adamant that Jonathan stay away from her?
- More importantly, why are Jonathan and Jordan’s lunch bags
so huge??
112 Comments
Edge’s line about ‘ever since he came here’ made it sound like he’s an actual Kryptonian who arrived like Superman and Supergirl did, not whatever is going on with his followers. I’m also wondering if the brother thing is a fake out, just a metaphorical fellow Kryptonian survivor thing.
I knew Kyle wasn’t lasting the season, but him getting possessed sealed the deal. I am surprised Edge apparently let Lana off easy. Or it could be he is saving that trump card for later. I get why Lois is pissed, but the whole “the military has Kryptonite in case Superman goes evil is a bad thing” plot is such a tired plot. Especially since this show IS technically supposed to still be on Earth Prime and thus have been almost conquered by evil Kryptonians (or Kryptonian adjacents) three years in a row.I did laugh at them making Morgan Edge freaking General Zod. I like this episode, but there are a bit of some recycled scripts going on, since Supergirl Season 1 also had their big bad be a Kryptonian relative of the title character, while Season 3 also had Kryptonians possess ordinary humans. And while this is less so, Superman: The Animated Series had Smallville taken over by a cult run by an alien, though funny enough, that episode was solved by Supergirl.
Erik Valdez is still in Vancouver so he’s sticking around for a while. I expect that they’ll be able to cure him.
I’m going to be curious to see if there’s a way to exorcise the Kryptonians from the possessed people. At this point I think it really could go either way with Kyle’s survival, though I will stake the claim that he ultimately rejects the Kryptonian possession. Whether that means he expells the Kryptonian personality, or just explodes is up in the air.
Which means Kyle will make the Ultimate Sacrifice and a teary-eyed Lana and Sarah will cry over his body as he says his last words.
I say they’re exorcisable up to a certain point. I say this because there’s a real strong possibility that Clark’s gonna get possessed — in keeping with how things went down on John Henry Irons’ world — but then he’s gonna need to get dispossessed.
I did wonder about Lana. Edge knows she’s a spy. Why wouldn’t he just forcibly convert her at that point?
The conversion process only seems to work if the person willingly submits to it, and who knows what happens to the Kryptonian spirit if the subject explodes. So maybe Edge doesn’t want to waste his X Kryptonite anymore than he has to?
Taking Edge at his word, the Kryptonian conversion process only works if the host participates fully willingly
I don’t think he can forcibly convert her. The whole scene with Emily seemed to imply that the Kryptonian’s needed active consent to take over the body. He was really pushing Emily on how much she had to want to change. I think that was why.
He probably wants to use her husband as leverage.
Honestly, even if they totally believed that Supes would never break bad, they would be totally justified in making kryptonite weapons for any other stray kryptonians that might show up.
I’ve decided this whole plot line is a scheme by the CW to make it so that when people Google “Smallville cult” they don’t get the Alison Mack thing.
The Tegham Wickham bad girl mystery is genuinely intriguing to me, but maybe just because when I was in high school every female classmate seemed to me like a potentially fun partner, and a potentially terrifying life wrecker
For a moment I thought the show was setting up some toxic masculinity teachable moment with Jonathan, but more likely Tegham has some toxic friends/dark past she needs to work through.
I like it simply because the character expands the world the kent boys inhabit. at the moment the only person we see them interact with on the regular is Sarah and that feels very narrow.
And the football kids occasionally.
Yeah, but with the Kent boys no longer on the team they’re sort of out of the picture at the moment.They do absolutely need to do an episode focused on Jon and Jordan getting up to teenaged crimefighter hijinks.
It may be more that Sarah has past issues with her. Tegan wasn’t really a bitch and didn’t string Jonathon along leading to some awful humiliation that has been a teen trope at times.
I thought that’s where they were going at first, but no, pretty clearly not.
This show is killing it. I haven’t felt this absorbed in an ongoing Arrowverse storyline since maybe the last stretch of Arrow season 5 with the escalating Prometheus stuff. Another jaw-dropping twist/cliffhanger tonight. Really hoping they can maintain this momentum in season 2.When Lois went storming off to “cause a scene” with Edge, I assumed she had some clever ploy to bait him out but – nope! Literally just causing a scene. Caroline is right, somewhere along the way some key X-Kryptonite exposition was lost and it’s a little disorienting (so is Edge casually calling out he knows about Irons’ prophecies – I think he knows because Leslie Larr was spying but shouldn’t Lois be surprised he knows?).Tonight was the first night I really thought Kara, Crisis, or any other recent superhero event should’ve gotten even a broad mention. If the characters live in the Arrowverse there is plenty of justification for Sam Lane to have kryptonite weapons around, controversial as they may be.Wondering why Kyle wasn’t rounded up by the DOD or Lana at least informed given how dangerous he is, or maybe that’s for next episode.
Tonight was the first night I really thought Kara, Crisis, or any other recent superhero event should’ve gotten even a broad mention. If the characters live in the Arrowverse there is plenty of justification for Sam Lane to have kryptonite weapons around, controversial as they may be.This! and thank you. When General Lane mentioned that Clark was the most powerful persoon on Earth, was hoping for an SG name drop and simply adding a “… among all the heroes we have…” would have cemented S&L in the Arrowverse. Also mentioning the DOD/A (?!) has contigencies for all the heroes may have softened Lois attitude albeit slightly. And Sam Lane’s confession of not being a good dad – was hoping for his girls reference with regard to Lois’s sister Lucy…unless he was there for her.
If ever there was a time for Sam to drop a Nick Fury-style “The world’s filling up with people who can’t be matched” speech, it was then.
I was surprised Edge knew about the prophesies, but realized it would make sense for Rosetti to have been updating him. You’re right though – this show could benefit from slowing down and stop cutting corners to get from plot point to plot point.
This episode did feel rushed at times. The laser scenes in the Fortress. Clark’s sudden guilt scene with Jordan. The ice pack scene between Lois and her father. The fact that Jonathan had a weapon stash.These examples of being rushed are part of why I cannot stand the other CW hero shows. Hopefully, the writers will learn to calm the hell down after this. Otherwise, I’m out.
I’m hoping next week does a very deep dive on Edge’s plan (I’m hoping he’s actually someone like Jax-Ur rather than the overdone Zod or an unknown El brother [like the ones who turned up every couple of months in the comic in the mid-t0-late 50s; I think Mon-El was the last of that ilk]). If I get this straight, Edge has either been in disguise for no reason for years (seriously; if your plan is to take over the Earth, why wait? Evil Superman had no trouble doing it) or has recently taken over Edge’s body — though neither of those explains his accent.
Is he actually the Eradicator? If he puts on yellow glasses, that’ll clinch it. He can’t be Hank Henshaw, because he’s over on Supergirl.
When did he find out about Kryptonite X? Why wait to use it? Who are the other Kryptonians? (Are they from the Phantom Zone?) — and does being from Smallville somehow give one powers without sublimating their identities?
And didn’t Hobo Jor-El know about any of this? “Oh, by the way, Kal; your brother’s on Earth and has been trying to get ahold of you. If you have trouble with him, mention your mother’s name is Lara; that worked with Bruce, didn’t it?”This whole thing feels to me like the result of the last-minute decision to turn Captain Luthor into John Henry Irons: “Okay, so he started evil, but we can’t keep him that way.” “Hmmm…how about we come up with a brother for Clark, who actually -is- evil, then John helps defeat him, realizes Clark is a hero, and becomes a good guy, after all?” “Sounds crazy, but it just might work …”
None of this should work, but it’s all keeping me interested.
Dunno about “sublimating their identities” in general but it seems to have worked that way for Kyle. One minute he was super dude and the next he was himself again with no memory of what happened.
What I took away was that, if you’re not from Smallville, the apparent Kryptonian will overwrite the original personality, whereas Smallvilleans have developed enough immunity to resist the invader.
Leslie is from Smallville too but she doesn’t appear to have any blackout issues. Whatever personality she has seems to be on 24/7.
The workshoping has definitely improved a lot of the shows weaker elements. Turning Luthor and whatever they were trying to go for with that into Irons. Turning boring bland Edge into something more interesting. The only thing that’s still a work in progress is General Lane. He either needs to be a part of the family stuff more or turn on Clark. Because the sort of ally stuff doesn’t really work.I did enjoy Jonathan pointing out how awful he’s been. Jon may in fact be my favorite character on the show.
Now that I think about it, is General Lane the only father/father figure who hasn’t worked in the Arrowverse? Detective/Captain/Chief/Deputy Mayor/Commandant/Mayor Lance worked from day one, as did Joe West, Gambi and all of Supergirl’s mothers and mother figures. Luke Wilson is so good in Stargirl that he gets his own sentence. I’m not completely sold on Jake Kane, but he has his moments and he’s better than General Lane. The CW has a history of nailing their parent casting, but they dropped the ball on General Lane.
I wonder if it’s partly because Lois and Clark are fully fledged, mature adults already – they don’t need the guidance of a parental figure like the other Arrowverse characters have, so the show hasn’t been forced to write him as one. (Yeah, technically Laurel and Oliver were adults, but they sure didn’t act like it sometimes. And Barry only recently stopped looking 12.) That said, I wouldn’t mind if they put more effort into fleshing out the alternate perspective he brings to things as another adult trying to watch out for his kids in a dangerous world. It’s been pretty superficial / black and white so far – kryptonite weapons bad, trusting your family good.
That’s because Papa Kane is a part of the military and the Arrowverse shows have made it perfectly clear that they absolutely despise the military and always consider them in the wrong.
It’s probably because all those other examples have at least been parently to their children. Sam’s only ever been cold or hostile to his family.
Oh, Gen. Lane and Papa Kane are definitely sharing the “Worst CW Dad” title. I think maybe even Hiram Lodge over on Riverdale has one or two more redeeming qualities than those two do.
So…edge gained the consciousness of either the alt Superman from JHI’s Earth or the brother of alt Superman?
My early reading of it so far is that Edge is not “possessed” but an actual Kryptonian who arrived similarly to Superman and Supergirl, but we’ll see. Unsure if “brother” is literal or just something Kryptonians might call their comrades.
Yeah thinking that too. He could be alt superman’s brother given the black suit.
Yeah, it read much more as “brother in arms” to me. I don’t see them making such a drastic change to the Superman origin story by giving him an actual biological sibling.
Oh I think it’s literal and he’s from an alternate Earth. It would tie in perfectly with the Kent twins’ storyline.
I’d be okay with an alternate earth sibling. I just really don’t want to suddenly have to get into ‘hey ghost dad, did you cheat on mom / why didn’t you tell me I had a brother.’
I know someone who was asymptomatic with Covid but had a family member suffer through it hard. I can only imagine how the fortress scene must feel for those long haulers. P.s. get your FREE shots if you’re eligible!!!
I’m kinda glad they’re veering away from canon a bit (Edge, to my knowledge, has never been Kryptonian and Superman hasn’t had a brother unless you count Conner/Kon-El/Superboy in some of the comics). Edge is mostly a boring villain who always feels like Great Value Lex Luthor to me, so him becoming something that feels like a real threat is great. I don’t think he’s an uploaded consciousness here though, is he? He says he crashed on Earth when Kal-El did and he had Kryptonian clothes, so I assumed he was a native Kryptonian – it’s not like the crash would have killed him.I do love the whole horror vibe of the small town people being possessed. I kinda wonder if Jonathan is going to end up being John Henry Irons’ protege. We know he feels like a bit of an outsider in the whole Clark/Jordan super training relationship, but Irons could train him to use some of that techno-weaponry.I dunno, I still have no complaints about this show. It’s pretty much everything I could want from a Superman show.
It would make more sense for him to be a Kryptonian then possessing Edge because if it was the latter, how did it happen?
Halk Kar in Superman #80 and Mon-El in Superboy #89 both *thought* they were Superman’s brother. They were space explorers that wore red suits with blue capes, landed on Krypton but were told by Jor-El to leave before the planet blew up and how to get to Earth, and arrived on Earth after Kal-El but with amnesia so Kal could assume they were his brother because all they knew was the name “Jor-El.” It happened twice because DC reused the plot assuming no one reading Superboy in 1961 would care about a story they did in Superman in 1953, and they were probably right; although I suspect Halk Kar is probably considered to be an Earth-2 story for the continuity conscious.
In the comics, when Mon-El first arrived he had amnesia and he and Clark thought they were brothers.
The residents of Smallville being the only people in the world who can properly be possessed by X Kryptonite felt very, well, Smallville to me. I really, really hope “Edge” was being metaphorical when he called Clark his brother, because the thought of there being a secret El brother just doesn’t sit right with me. Though i would assume he would have a house of El sigil on his outfit if he was, and his costume didn’t so there is that. of course I also hope he isn’t secretly Zod.
So they are brothers in the sense that they are the last two sons of Krypton? I would probably like that better
That was my read on it; for a second I thought he was going to reveal that he’s really a regenerated General Zod.
I read somewhere that Kal-El did have a “secret” adopted brother in the comics, H’El. Even the idea of them being biological brothers at least ties into Clark passing down that genetic predisposition and having twins of his own.
Oh Rao, H’El was a part of an extremely dumb New 52 Superfamily crossover story. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read the whole thing, but the bits I did were not very good. I could easy see Edge being H’El since I want to say in the comic the character was trying to recreate Krypton on Earth (like Zod in MoS), hence the story’s appalling name: H’El on Earth (Scott Lobdell you fucking hack.)
Didn’t H’El have more to do with Kara Zor El? I haven’t read it in ages, but thought he turned out to be some weirdo stalker.
H’El did try to recruit kara to work with him to varying degrees of effectiveness, but creepy stalker sounds more like the Power Boy from the pre-New 52 Supergirl
I hadn’t heard of H’El before, but I think y’all are onto something, given last week’s prominently labelled Room 7734.
I’m not familiar with H’El, but last week’s “Room 7734” suggests you’re onto something.
You are totally right, but it was one of the silliest things I can think of in recent Superman comics.
Gotta wonder what Ollie was thinking not only bringing back Edge, but making him a Kryptonian.
I feel like General Lane was getting a raw deal. I’ve always been in the camp that preparing weapons against Superman, when it’s coming from Batman/the military (especially when the military is led by Superman’s father in law) is entirely reasonable. With all of his power, humanity can’t just *trust him.* The Edge reveal did feel rushed; I would’ve done the army reveal this week, and saved the reveal about his own powers for another week.
I didn’t understand why the military was stockpiling Kryptonite weapons against Superman until I watched Invincible. Okay. I understand exactly what possibility the military is preparing for now
Agreed. Even if they do totally trust him, what happens when he gets hit with red kryptonite, or body-swapped, or any of the other crazy things that can happen? *Of course* they need some way to stop him.
And let’s not forget that those kryptonite weapons came in pretty handy when dealing with the Kryptonians Edge sent after her and Jon.
Don’t forget that this IS still, apparently, supposed to take place on Earth Prime. That means it’s still canon to Supergirl and that means the Earth was minutes away from being completely conquered by Kryptonians (or Kryptonian-adjacent) three years in a row, one of which had hypnotized Superman to join their forces and another which was stronger than Superman himself.
I think the main difference is, somehow, Clark didn’t know Gen. Lane had these weapons. Traditionally, Superman and Batman know of each other’s ultimate weapons, and have a peace about it.
It’s like in The Avengers when they found out Nick Fury was building weapons that could, essentially, kill The Avengers. The principle is fine enough, keep people safe from big threats, but just let a super know that you’re developing them, and maybe keep them locked up a little bit safer.
When Lana described Edge’s “work” as self improvement, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between the way Edge lured these people in and what NXIVM was revealed to have been doing.
So can we infer from General Lane referring to Lois as his little girl that her sister Lucy Lane does not exist in the post-Crisis timeline? I realize that Jenna Dewan as that character on s1 of Supergirl did not have great material to work with but I was hoping for more of that character & especially to see her with Bitsie Tulloch as Lois.
I mean, the show has ignored everything on Supergirl so far, might as well ignore Lois’ sister too. :/
To be fair, Supergirl also pretends that anything that didn’t come over from season 1 doesn’t exist.
I think ignoring” is more because of COVID-19 restrictions and not knowing when any episodes would air at any time, so they just stayed ‘insular’ as to avoid spoiling plot points. The same level of “ignoring” on this show, is happening across all the other Arrowverse shows. It’s not unique to this one program. Even Supergirl is “ignoring” Superman & Lois. Batgirl isn’t talking about Flash.
Next season there should be a lot more ‘connecting tissue’ in every show.
Isn’t every daughter her father’s little girl, though?
Well that is true. Still given that there has been no mention so far of Lois having a sister, I am afraid that Lucy has been erased from the timeline
My usual random thoughts: 1. The writers finally remembered Clark is a reporter. 2. Are the four of them reviewing stolen personnel files in the local diner? 3. Edge is recruiting people with nothing to lose. 4. Again, when does Clark find time to be a farmer? 5. He can hear a bank robbery in Mexico in real time? No. Wichita, KS to Mazatlan, as an example (since we don’t know what part of Kansas Smallville is in), is about 1,400 miles, while the speed of sound is about 767mph, which yields an hour and 49 minutes. The writers clearly have no clue how sound behaves or how super hearing would work. 6. Kryptonite gas is a “bioweapon” and it’s “communicable”? 7. Kyle just happens to bring his guitar along and gets to be a hero for Sarah. I used to bring mine to parties but not random places or events and never my kid’s recital. 8. And he isn’t whatever Kryptonian was “uploaded” into his brain full time but Leslie apparently is. What does that portend? 9. Edge is Clark’s “brother”?
re:7I’m pretty sure the guitar was already there, behind the piano. So it would’ve been the school’s. No idea how he got there so fast though. Super speed?
I’ll have to rewatch but I can live with that. The remaining points continue to annoy.
It was just another rushed scene. Whoever did the video editing on this episode sucks ass.
In fairness by that point he does technically have powers, although (and I have only seen up until this episode so this may be confirmed or disproved later) presumably the ‘Subjekts’ only have access to/knowledge of these powers when activated, and Kyle was still himself. Even then, I can excuse him getting up to the stage if he rushed there while Sarah was standing nervously and hesitating, he could probably get there quick enough the hall wasn’t exactly huge.
Hi, former Kansan here! I did some quick extrapolating earlier in the season and apparently this version of Smallville is in Lyon County, about 90 minutes away from Wichita give or take a turnpike.
I keep thinking the folks of Smallville should be hearing sonic booms all the time.
IIRC, there was a thing in the comics that Superman could absorb the energy that would normally create a sonic boom. And if he flew 1400 miles in a couple of minutes he was really traveling, say 40,000mph, well above escape velocity. He must’ve flown a suborbital arc that took him above the atmosphere.
Interesting! It makes sense that they would try to address it somehow.
The comics addressed it but the series is content to pretend basic science simply doesn’t exist. I mean, I get that it’s a comic book show but there are some things you just can’t ignore.
“4. Again, when does Clark find time to be a farmer?”
At super-speed, Clark can likely perform all the farm duties a human farmer can do in a day within 5 minutes.“The writers clearly have no clue … how super hearing would work.”
LOL. Superpowers work however the writers decide they do. For example, every writer of Spider-Man has used his spider-sense differently. Sometimes he can use it to hear radio messages, sometimes he can use it to detect if Aunt May is in danger across the city.“7. Kyle just happens to bring his guitar along and gets to be a hero for Sarah.”
As others have said, it’s a school talent show. They likely have lots of props and musical instruments laying around. They have a piano.
Sooo… was that frozen snot Jordan first sneezed? I couldn’t stop thinking about that for the rest of the episode, lol! A humorous storyline about him catching a cold is so teenager, and just the kind of levity I think this show could use from time to time. But of course it had to become an emergency, and I feel the series leans a little too much on everything being the most serious thing in the world. (The Fortress of Solitude is too often becoming a convenient quick fix for anything they need, as well.) But Clark stopping to take a moment was really really good.Reception to General Lane frustrates me a little bit, because I think he’s easily one of the show’s most interesting characters. His job, vs his relationship to the family, and the way he still maintains this pragmatism about Superman’s powers, and protecting people just in case, is fascinating, and makes a lot of sense, but everybody is beating him up for this. When he was able to help during the attack at the house, it was great to see. The military’s presence in this show in general is a lit more organic than in something like Supergirl, where they basically made her work for the govt like she clocks in at a 9-to-5 job. I have my usual nitpicks like when Jordan messaged is dad at school and Clark was instantly there (I know he’s fast, but can we at least attempt to account for travel time?) and it happened again at the talent show when Kyle was backstage, when seconds ago he was sitting the audience. But I did like his reveal as one of the indoctrinated. Awesome stuff at the barn.
Reception to General Lane frustrates me a little bit, because I think he’s easily one of the show’s most interesting characters.I also quite like General Lane, I think this episode gives him a few more shades as opposed to him constantly sniping at Superman and treating him like a weapon to be deployed. And yeah the DEO on Supergirl was a way to copy the Arrow Bunker/STAR Labs setup somewhat shamelessly, though it grew into its own thing.
At first I thought the “frozen snot” was kryptonite dust and wondered how/when he’d inhaled it.
I think Dylan Walsh is doing his best with this take on Sam (seriously, does the guy live in his office? Does he own clothes besides that uniform?) but I think it’s better for the character in the long term that he got dressed down like this by the whole family after weeks of tension. Hopefully he gets to show more personality next season.
He’s an Army officer on active duty — wouldn’t he always be in uniform?
I always thought an intriguing idea that has always bubbled around the edges of many superman movies and shows, and also Supergirl, is that maybe Kryptonians were not very nice people and were pretty much villains. Many of them from General Zod, to the witches and reign in Supergirl, to the sci-fi show Krypton with its sun cult, has always danced around the idea that maybe Krypton was a pretty evil place and the El’s were literally like Noah or Lot from the Bible, the one decent family on the whole planet
Yeah, like why do the “good” Kryptonians never survive? Because there weren’t any to begin with? This idea also lines up with the Jor-El A.I. from Smallville being vague, controlling and dick-ish with cryptic “You will rule them with strength” messages.
In most flashbacks to the destruction of Krypton, don’t we usually see that Jor-El is the only one saying that the planet is in danger, but the rest of the council (and citizens) are saying “You’re crazy, there’s no danger, we should just keep doing what we’re doing”.These Kryptonians aren’t good people.
I really enjoy the show and the changes it’s made, but Lois is killing this show for me.
Her huge rant last night about not being able to keep her kids safe, yet she acts like an absolute amateur by constantly storming up to Morgan Edge and calling him out on everything. Why just run up and tell him you know the plan? I know it’s to create some drama, but there is very little to show me this is the world’s greatest reporter.
I love just about everything else, especially how the brothers tend to stick together and support each other. (Jonathan is an MVP).
I also have to say the action in the show has some REALLY cool moments. There is a sense of danger when Superman shows up, or just the way they film some of the super speed shots to where he’s in someone’s face. But then Clark actually smiles!
Such a fun first season so far.
Oh, and I took the ‘brother’ comment to be more of comrade in arms deal than an actual brother (I assumed it was Zod).
Can I offer Lois this much excuse for storming in on Morgan Edge like that? She needed to try to warn all those people, even though it was likely a futile effort (and with likely consequences). Maybe she could have not admitted to knowing about the Kryptonian connection, but I feel like it wouldn’t have changed much.
Sure, that totally makes sense. I guess it’s because she’s tried to do it a few times already in a handful of episodes, but that she’s shocked the kids are in danger when there are people following her or Kryptonians being reincarnated.
I guess I can chalk it up to the fact she’s a bit cocky with Superman having her back. Just funny that she’d be surprised the kids are in danger when she is almost literally putting a bullseye (or heat vision) on the whole family.
Apples and oranges but if Kara, who is awful as a reporter, won a Pulitzer on her show, I can believe Lois has a mantle full. The problem is, the writers don’t seem to know anything about what reporters actually do.
It was a tense battle between Kara and Karen Page from the New York Bulletin at that year’s Pulitzers but Kara’s piece somehow edged it.
If the secondhand radiation of the synthetic kryptonite gas is potent enough to seriously harm Jordan, Lois & Jonathan should’ve been dead from Clark exhaling at them. Unless this is another Batwoman scenario were the writers don’t know the difference between a poison & a pathogen.“Morgan Edge” has inverse charisma to the Pre-Crisis version.
Oh man, Adrian Pasdar would’ve had that reveal for LUNCH.
It’d be like a reprise of Graviton.
Why would Lois and Jonathan have “been dead from Clark exhaling at them”? Different adaptations have different rules for kryptonite, but from what we’ve seen, kryptonite isn’t harmful to humans, only Kryptonians.
Radiation is still poisonous even if it’s not specifically keyed to your home planet. Batwoman showed this when Ryan Wilder got fatal radiation poisoning from being shot with a kryptonite bullet.
Technically we don’t even know if this show is the same universe as Batwoman. Assuming it isn’t, this show can invent whatever rules it wants for kryptonite, including it not being radioactive or poisonous. We’ve seen plenty of adaptations where kryptonite (as a rock or something that’s held) isn’t harmful to human at all.As for Batwoman, she was shot and the kryptonite was flowing through her bloodstream. There are plenty of normal earth substances that are safe to be around or hold in your hand, but if they get into your bloodstream they can kill you.
Re the huge lunch bags – have you ever met a teenage boy? They eat a LOT.
“Where are the Kryptonian minds coming from? Why are they evil?”1) Phantom Zone prisoners2) Phantom Zone prisoners
I’m not trying to be super(heh)ficial or anything here, but does Bitsie Tulloch have like… a lazy eye or something? I’d never noticed it before but it was very distracting this episode.
In that photo of Lois and Jonathan, is Jonathan trying to cosplay as Geordi LaForge? I like the abstract quality of it, but it may fly over people’s heads.
I think Edge said the “process” takes a few days to become stable, so I assume that until the stability sets in, those who have undergone the process, like Kyle, go back and forth between being themselves and being the Kryptonian possessing them.
Superman’s bruised body was an excellent image, beautiful (because he’s beautiful) but also terrifying (because this should not happen to him).
What exactly did General Lane do wrong?
The synthetic Kryptonite he created as a countermeasure for Superman inadvertently also made his grandson sick.
“inadvertently” being the key word
There were definitely missed opportunities to sit with the drama more here. For example, I wouldn’t have minded more time between “There’s a procedure that may save Jordan’s life, but it’s incredibly painful and we don’t know how he’ll heal” and “Get on with it, already.” But nevermind, I guess, because he’s fine and now he’s got ice breath permanently.
For someone who they keep calling “the most powerful being on Earth,” Superman sure does seem to get his ass kicked a lot on this show.
Superman has a brother??