When Jonathan nearly died in John Henry Irons' murder van, Lois felt overwhelming guilt. She is married to Superman and must deal with the extra added exposure to danger that would naturally bring, not just to herself but to her sons. That fear and helplessness, along with the revelations about Irons and his daughter Natalie, combined to reawaken trauma that Lois experienced when she miscarried many years ago.
What do you do when you have super problems that you can't tell anyone? You talk to a shrink, but skirt around the truth. I thought Elizabeth Tulloch was absolutely terrific in this episode. So was Jordan Elsass (Jonathan), who now has to deal with the same problem – being an ordinary human with no powers while in Superman's constant proximity.
Clark's problems are mounting, too. There's worrying about Lois and the twins. There's dealing with the understandable hostility of John Henry Irons, who was married to another version of Lois. There's Morgan Edge's Kryptonians. And now, like a cherry on top of the worry cake, his father-in-law and the U.S. Government are creating special Kryptonite-laced weapons that can kill him. Hard not to take that personally.
When Lois was pleading with Irons not to kill Superman, she was absolutely right that this Earth's Big Blue is a hero, a very good guy who spends every spare minute saving lives. But are we looking at this the wrong way? Morgan Edge's minions don't just have superpowers – they seem to be hosting reincarnated evil Kryptonians. Is that what happened to the Superman on Irons-Earth? Was he taken over by another Kryptonian? Someone like Zod?
Jonathan saw all those videos in the RV, including the crucial one of his own father in black killing his mother. Not traumatic at all, huh? Jonathan was also very intrigued by his biological half-sister, Natalie. We still don't know if Natalie is alive or dead, or where she is, and by now, I really want to know. If Lois still feels so awful about losing her own possible Natalie to miscarriage, meeting Natalie Irons might be just the thing to help her to heal. A relationship with the woman who could have been her mother might be good for Natalie, too.
Finally, I can't help feeling that every minute I spend with the Cushings is wasted. Sarah has serious stage fright but yearns to sing in public. Kyle actually acts like a good dad, accompanying her on the guitar to help her achieve her dream.
And then, Kyle found out that Lana nixed his chance to work for Morgan Edge and took off, completely forgetting his commitment to Sarah and losing all of the good dad points he'd just accumulated. Although at least Jordan was able to pinch hit and save the day, helping Sarah with her social anxiety as well as his own.
Is it wrong of me to wish Kyle would become an Edge superminion and die horribly? That would at least make the Cushing thread more interesting.
Bits and Quotes:
— Clark, Jonathan and Jordan have all quit the Smallville football team. Jordan didn't even seem that upset about it.
— On our earth, John Henry Irons died six years ago under mysterious circumstances.
— On Irons-Earth, General Lane died a hero and wasn't the sort of guy who would drug or torture prisoners. I think I like that General Lane better than this one.
— Do the soldiers at the DOD know that Superman is General Lane's son-in-law? I assume they don't. Are they inching toward John Henry Irons learning the truth?
— I'm feeling stupid about this question, but does Irons' Winnebago fly? That's a bit Spaceballs, isn't it?
Lois: "Are you out of your mind? You don't go snooping around some guy from another world's murder van!"
General Lane: "Anyone not in a red cape, consider them armed and extremely dangerous."
Lois: "John, our worlds are different. Our Superman is good. He would never turn on us, ever." Let's hope so.
Lois: (to Jonathan) "I know what it's like to be in the orbit of someone who can juggle semi trucks and you want to help out, you want to save the world and all you can do is just stand there, holding the wrench."
Best episode so far. Three out of four flying Winnebagos,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
Awesome episode!
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