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Superman & Lois: Loyal Subjekts

"Why Smallville?"

The Morgan Edge evil plot has been slow to develop and hasn't held my interest. But suddenly, wham.

Brother? Are we talking, like, brother Kryptonian? The symbol on his chest looked like Superman's, but sideways. I have many questions that will probably be answered next week.

The big superminion recruitment question was answered, too. Leslie Larr is originally from Smallville, meteor-shower central, and that's the reason why the supertreatment worked on her and not the others. Now that Edge knows, it's full speed ahead with converting Smallville residents, and even trying to take out Lois Lane, who has gotten too close for Edge's comfort. I enjoyed Lois walking into an Edge conference and telling everyone what was going on. Not that they believed her.

In my review of last week's episode I asked, "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." And voila. I should have picked up on Kyle being turned; they gave us a big hint early in the episode when he mentioned that he had made a big change. But he and Emily aren't fully activated yet. Does that mean the original person is still accessible, only "super super brainwashed"?

While I dislike Kyle, I very much like Lana. She showed a lot of courage and integrity in these past few episodes. And Kyle did at least come through with Sarah's talent show thingie. Maybe if he's recoverable, he'll become a better father.

Enough with Edge and the Cushings. Let's talk about the Kents.

In the ongoing power manifestation department, Jordan caught a kryptonite cold from Clark, who experienced breathing problems and passed out while stopping a massive bank robbery in Mexico. While Jordan suffering through a heat treatment at the Fortress was clearly not fun, I thought the frost-sneezing was genuinely funny. Especially the lamp turning into an ice sculpture.

For me, the best part of this episode was General Lane redeeming himself. While Clark and Kyle wrestled with not being a perfect father, Lois hit General Lane in the face with the fact that he had put the military way above his own family for too long and he was no longer welcome in their home. Jonathan upped the drama by asking his grandfather directly why he'd built weapons that would hurt Superman. Not a small thing, calling a four-star general a coward. Good for Jonathan.

Of course, all those anti-Superman weapons are now a good thing. When Emily, Kyle and unnamed minion number three arrived and started destroying the Kent farm, General Lane fought them off with aerosol kryptonite and Jonathan hit them with Irons' solar rifle.

Edge doesn't know that Superman is married to Lois. Why not? Doesn't he have superhearing? Wouldn't he or Leslie have eavesdropped on the Kent farm?

Bits:

— I liked that Lois recruited Clark to help with the investigative reporting. He's more than just a superhero and a football coach.


— Superman speaks Spanish. Of course he does.

— Leslie Larr's real name is Irma Sayres. I'll acknowledge that the name "Irma" doesn't generate fear. Was that why she changed it?

— The tension in the Cushing home is due to Kyle recovering from alcoholism. Did we know that, or was it just suggested before?

Quotes:

Chrissy: "Where are you going?"
Lois: "Oh, to make a scene."
Great delivery by Bitsie Tulloch there.

Jonathan: "Can't we just like call them or something?"
Lois: "It's named the Fortress of Solitude for a reason."

Jonathan: "So you're just like, fine now?"
Jordan: "Yeah, other than ice breath."
Jonathan: "So you have that now for good, or what?"
Jordan: "Think so."
Jonathan: "What's that feel like?"
Jordan: "Like having a piece of wintergreen gum in your mouth at all times."
Does that mean Superman always has minty fresh breath?

Good episode. Things are picking up. Three out of four dads apologizing for not being good enough dads,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

7 comments:

  1. I'm finally caught up on this show. Hoorah!

    Interesting question about Kyle's alcoholism. There was no question in my mind at any point that he was an alcoholic teetering on the edge of his recovery, but now that you say it I couldn't actually tell you if they ever said that, or they just did an amazing job of recreating all the cues and I was just reading those without noticing they'd never verbally confirmed it.

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  2. Mikey, yes, that's it. I'm an ACOA myself and I was pretty sure I would have noticed if they'd said Kyle's issue was alcoholism.

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  3. Without prying too deeply into anybody's business, I'd be curious to hear from anyone outside the world of Al-Anon if it read any differently without that filter?

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    1. Mikey I’ve never even had alcohol but I also picked Up on Kyle being an alcoholic. Don’t recall if they ever said if he was any recovery program or anything though.

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  4. First, great review!

    Second, to answer Mikey, I'm a person outside of Al-Anon, and I picked up on that Kyle was alcoholic, but I couldn't pick up on if he was in recovery or not.

    Thanks for writing an interesting review!

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  5. Loved this episode! First one minor quibble though. Why do Lois and Chrissy have their evidence billboard in clear visibility of the large open window? Ok, on to all the good stuff. I loved everyone’s roles in this episode. I don’t anyone was superfluous, even Kyle for once. Good on Jonathan smacking some verbal sense into his grandfather, and making use of the weapons he risked his life for. I loved Clark helping out with reporter work. I can’t believe he hasn’t already spoken to Smallville about Edge like Lois wants. It’s nice when he is just as useful as plain old Clark Kent as he is as Superman. I love the following quotes from this episode, and also Jonathan’s talk with General Lane.
    +Lois: “Oh, I’m going to make a scene.” Excellent delivery as Billie said.
    +Clark: You didn’t ask for this.
    Jordan: I didn’t. But you didn’t ask for what happened to you either.
    I’m not sure why Clark didn’t take Jordan to the fortress sooner. I mean by all means still tell General Lane just in case the fortress doesn’t work somehow. But of the two the fortress is always more likely to be the the best help. Didn’t expect Edge to be revealed as Clark’s “brother” (although I expected him to have powers). I too am wondering if it’s just meant to mean they’re both Kryptonian, or if he is somehow a legitimate secret brother of Clark’s. That would be new territory.
    I hope Jordan is able to tell Sarah the truth about himself soon. I know the reasons he doesn’t but we’ve seen this trope enough in superhero stories, especially tv shows like Smallville where it’s always dragged out forever. I just want them to get over it quick for once. I wouldn’t have minded at all if he told her a few episodes ago already.

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  6. RandallJosephSmith, I had the exact same thought about the evidence board. :)

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