Some of it worked for me. The highlight was absolutely Emmanuelle Chriqui as both Lana Lang Cushing and Lara Lor-Van.
It most certainly wasn't Lana's fault that Morgan Edge victimized her home town, but she took responsibility and insisted on volunteering to host Lara Lor-Van, rescuing Kyle and the other Smallville subjekts and saving the day. It was lovely that Clark got to visit with his mother and tell her about Martha, Lois and the twins. And I absolutely loved Lana going all fangirl when she saw Superman in real life, not realizing that she used to date him.
I was less happy with the confirmation that Morgan Edge is Tal-Rho, Clark's older half-brother. Isn't an unexpected half-sibling a jump-the-shark moment? I kept thinking that Edge's horrendous, tragic childhood should have made me feel for him, but it most certainly did not.
The big action sequence with the red eyes and the big glowing football was done well, but I kept wondering about things. Like, that was a lot of superminions flying around. How many consciousnesses did Lara Lor-Van save? Why on earth (okay, Krypton) would she only save the minds of psychopaths? Weren't there some good people on Krypton? There were plenty of them on Argo City. You'd think the good ones would have been her priority.
And how did the superminions lose the Kryptonians that possessed them, fall to earth and hit the tarmac, and not get smushed? Did the superpowers linger just long enough? Where was John Henry Irons? What about all the anti-Superman weapons set-up? Was the apocalypse on his world averted here on our earth? Will it not happen now?
Maybe this entire plotline would have worked better with just the powers and brainwashing by Edge, not the Kryptonian consciousness thing. But at least the possession plot is now over, and only Morgan Edge and Leslie Larr remain. Edge still has the sunstone crystal with Lara's consciousness in it. Probably a future plot point.
The Kent twins got some good moments. I liked that Clark and Lois kept their word and told them outright about Morgan Edge being their unknown evil super-uncle. Jonathan told Jordan about the other universe's Superman killing Lois. Jonathan again stood up to his grandfather. And Jordan got to show some maturity this time, telling Sarah he was happy she got a few moments with her dad at the talent show, especially if it turned out to be their last moments together.
But maybe the twins shouldn't have taken Sarah to see her father when he was possessed and threatening to melt people's faces off. Plus honestly, I was a little disappointed that Lana saved Kyle. He actually worked better for me as a villain.
Bits:
Title musings: An obvious reference to the Homeric movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and of course, this episode was about Superman's brother. But the focus was more on his semi-reunion with his mom. So it fit.
Angus Macfadyen, who got a bit more time than usual as Jor-El, feels like a cross between Marlon Brando and Russell Crowe.
The Eradicator was apparently a thing in the Superman comics. It's of course Googleable, if you're interested.
Dr. Dabney Donovan felt important. Will we see him again?
The ending had the powerless Clark dragging himself into the Fortress and not quite making it.
Sarah: "My dad's a disaster, and all my mom's doing is getting her black belt in passive-aggressive texting." That was kind of mean.
A bit of a disappointment. Two out of four Kryptonian psychopaths,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
My second viewing of this episode, my brain got stuck on the scene where Superman thanked Lana for volunteering. Seriously, how in the HECK does Lana not recognize Clark? I know fans always joke about how a pair of glasses can be such an amazing disguise, but it really is ludicrous in this instance.
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