Jordan has a serious problem that is making him a crabby incipient superhero – headaches caused by loud noises that culminate in a red heat vision discharge. Tag Harris has a similar problem and his rage made him attack Jordan and kidnap Sarah Cushing. Leslie Larr was also running around with burning red eyes wreaking havoc on behalf of Morgan Edge. This red eye thing is a veritable Smallville epidemic.
Unfortunately, Jordan is fixated on becoming a football hero and hiding his problems when he should be listening to his father. Jordan told Clark, "I'm not you," and he's right. Jordan is "a weird kid with headaches," not another version of Clark with his purer, better defined superpowers. But I still found Jordan's childishness frustrating and sympathized more with Jon, who got to be a quarterback and a football hero again, a role he had graciously allowed Jordan to take away from him. And what did Jon get out of it? A broken arm, and possibly permanent damage. Because Jordan refused to deal with what was happening to him.
The bit that I found the most intriguing was when Superman tried to save Tag from the DOD and got shot with Kryptonite bullets. He went red-eye and almost lost his temper, just like Jordan, Tag, and Leslie Larr. Clark had tried to encourage his sons to trust him and confide in him by sharing the Pa Kent log-punching thing that helped teenage Clark deal with his anger and isolation. Clark told the twins that he is always careful not to lose his temper because he has worked so hard to gain the trust of the world, which has every reason to be afraid of him.
And that brings me to Marcus Bridgewater, who is there to stop something bad from happening: an evil Superman.
Marcus showed up with exactly what Lois needed – a way to scope out the mines. Lois knew that Marcus wasn't completely on the level, but she was ready to use him to figure out what Morgan Edge was up to. And now Lois knows about the X-Kryptonite. And that Marcus has a ray gun. Oops.
This was a busy... okay, strike that, a frantic couple of days for the Kents. Superman & Lois is trying something new to the Superman myth and the Arrowverse – real life, or as real as life can feel in a world with superbeings. What would it be like if Superman tried to manage a problematic family life on top of saving the world every day?
The thing is, I'm absolutely on board when it comes to our two leads. Tyler Hoechlin does a terrific job, and not just as Big Blue, pulling off those amazing feats and looking real and even fantastic while doing it – like that incredible opener with the train tracks and the heat vision. Hoechlin is also totally believable and sympathetic as a soccer dad with the glasses and stubble, confused and upset but always trying to do his best for his family. And Elizabeth Tulloch is a terrific Lois Lane, an overachiever who does it all without ever appearing bossy or controlling. She's amazing.
But I keep finding myself partly checking out when the story turns to the twins, or the Cushings. They're all well cast, especially the twins, but their plotlines aren't capturing my interest.
I am especially uninterested in Kyle Cushing, a one-dimensional right wing character who seems to exist just to suck up to Morgan Edge. And yes, he was actually not a jerk when Edge promoted his wife instead of himself, but Kyle is always going to rub me the wrong way. I did like that Lana accepted the promotion but also decided to help Lois bring down Morgan Edge if he turns out to be evil. Maybe that will be the final straw for the Cushing marriage, which seems to be on the rocks, anyway. Final straw, on the rocks, is that a mixed metaphor?
This long rant on my part was probably because "Broken Trust" felt like more of the same. I'm ready for something to change, and the unexpected break between episodes didn't help.
Bits:
— Let me mention again that the heat vision train track sequence was terrific. They come up with a good one in every episode.
— ... and that Jordan spilling his heat vision into Clark's hand was really shocking. Ow.
— Jonathan tried to say no to going out for illicit beer, but succumbed. I rather liked it, if only that it proved Jonathan isn't preternaturally good every minute of the day.
— Clark was very pissed that General Lane and the DOD are using K-bullets against him. This is a conflict I find interesting and I'm sure it is going to heat up, pun intended.
As I said earlier and at length, this episode was more of the same and I'm ready for something new to happen. Two out of four high tech ray guns,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
I just got around to this episode and find that I agree with a lot of what you said. I really like Clark and Lois and I really at times wish we had gotten a show with the two of them, though I suppose if it would have picked up from where Crisis left off we would have gotten them with twin babies. That would have been fun for a bit but I don't for how long, which is probably why we have what we have. Not knowing how this related to the other shows really bugs me. I had gotten over it a bit during the first episodes but watching it again after so long brought that annoyance back. While I hate what happened to Him I hope this brings an end to the whole football storyline. If he can punch a log like that there is no way he should be playing football. Also the coach not putting his backup qb in until they say something to them was beyond stupid. The end where Sara was telling Jordan that he can tell her the truth reminded me so much of Smallville where it seemed like Lana or Lex would take turns saying the exact same thing to Clark in those early years.
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