TV Review: Superman and Lois Season 2 Episode 15

Superman and Lois Season 2 Episode 15 “Waiting for Superman”

Director: Gregory Smith

Starring: Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Jordan Elsass, Alex Garfin, Erik Valdez, Inde Navarrette, Wolé Parks, Tayler Buck, Sofia Hasmik

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 42 minutes

Spoilers follow:

Now that it’s over it’s safe to say that, while Superman and Lois is still a great show, it did suffer a bit from the dreaded sophomore slump in its second season.  Season 2 was not as tightly focused as the first and made a few odd creative choices that prevented it from reaching the heights of that nearly perfect debut.  Those mistakes are too deeply rooted within the construction of the season for the finale to break away from them, so while it definitely packs in a lot of excitement and emotion it’s still a somewhat messy episode that’s not as climactic as it should be.  Worse, the episode delivers one final, controversial swerve that goes against both what most fans want and what the series has previously established.

“Waiting for Superman” begins with Earth and Bizarro-Earth almost completely merged by Ally Allston (Rya Kihlstedt).  The skies are now red on regular Earth and people are being teleported from one Earth to the other with little rhyme or reason.  Chrissy sends out a radio broadcast urging people to find shelter and warns them that Superman is not coming to the rescue.  The Kents and Natalie are all together on the farm until Lois is teleported to Bizarro-Earth one of the many times reality seems to flicker.  She finds Sam (Dylan Walsh) also on Bizarro-Earth, while Bizarro-Lois finds herself on the farm on regular Earth.  Meanwhile, Lana, Sarah, and Sophie (Joselyn Picard) head out to look for Kyle, who has also disappeared.

Despite their alarm, Natalie and the Kent men get to work doing what they can to save the world and their families, even if that isn’t much at the moment.  Having received a signal from John Henry confirming he’s alive, Natalie resolves to find him and rescue him from the space between worlds.  Jonathan and Jordan plan to go with her, but while she thanks them she says they need to stay with their family, with the boys reminding her that she’s their family now too and embracing her.  I definitely would have liked a little more material showing Natalie’s struggle to deal with her new life throughout the season but what there was has been strong and Tayler Buck has proven to be a great addition to the regular cast.  The bond between Natalie and the Kent boys is also very endearing and that made this a strong scene.  Elsewhere on the farm, Clark is dealing with the sudden arrival of his brother, Tal-Rho (Adam Rayner).  However, rather than causing a separate problem, Tal declares that he’s here to help, assuaging Clark’s surprise and doubt by assuring him that the only people on Earth he’s interested in protecting are the currently powerless Clark and his family, not any other humans.  Tal flies into space to battle Ally but she easily subdues him and begins draining his powers.  Once he’s been gone too long Clark sends Jordan up to rescue Tal, ordering him just to grab his uncle and return to Earth, not to fight Ally, and Jordan does as he’s told.  Tal’s partial redemption and the development of a genuine brotherhood between him and Clark has been one of the high points of this season so I was glad to see him involved but going in with effectively no plan was an out-of-character move for someone so adept at manipulation and strategy.

Sam is eventually teleported back to regular Earth, leaving Lois alone on Bizarro-Earth until she bumps into Kyle, who of course doesn’t have as good a grasp on the chaos going on as Lois does.  He begins to break down, convinced that what’s happening to him is punishment for tearing his family apart with his affair and other mistakes but Lois assures him that’s not the case before he too flickers back to Earth.  The show has done a great job of making Kyle an endearing character despite his flaws and Erik Valdez delivers a very good performance in this scene but I would have preferred if the episode focused more on Lois’ reaction to being in the Bizarro world, and, for that matter, Bizarro-Lois’ reaction to being in the regular one.  As it is the former’s situation is largely used as a way to show what’s going on on Bizarro-Earth, especially just how many of its people are members of Ally’s cult believing the merging of worlds is a good thing, and the latter just stands around the Kent farm for most of the episode, not getting any meaningful interactions with Clark or any of the other main Earth characters, which would have been interesting to see.

When all hope seems lost, Clark finds his resolve, asserting that he can still stop Ally.  He tells Tal to fly him to the sun so that he can absorb some of its energy and get his powers back.  Meanwhile, Natalie manages to find John Henry in the void between worlds but realizes that a key part of his message didn’t get through, namely that to destroy the portals connecting the Earths they would need X-Kryptonite.  Fortunately, they eventually surmise that the combined power of both their suits and Natalie’s pod will be enough to do the trick.  Back on Earth, Jonathan and Jordan fear for Clark’s safety but Sam encourages them to have faith in his resilience and capabilities, describing all the other seemingly impossible odds he and Clark have come up against in their time protecting the world (I’ll be coming back to this speech in a bit).

Tal casts Clark into the sun, and he again turns to thoughts of his family to survive.  His plan works and he emerges more powerful than ever, literally glowing with solar energy.  He confronts Ally and when she attempts to absorb his powers again he lets her, and trying to take so much energy overloads her powers and stops the merging process.  The Irons’ risk their lives to destroy the portals and, after flying around the mostly merged Earths in a nice homage to Superman: The Movie, Clark lands at maximum speed on the planet’s surface, releasing a massive burst of energy that separates the two worlds.  The bit with the Irons’ destroying the portals makes as much sense as superhero science ever does but there’s little to no explanation as to why Clark’s new power level was too much for Ally to absorb, why his landing both separated the worlds and returned every one to their proper one, or how he knew any of those things would happen.  In my review of last season’s finale, I defended Clark and John Henry for taking down so many Kryptonian soldiers so easily because sometimes it’s best just to let the heroes be heroic and badass without getting lost in the mythological details, but the resolution to this season’s main threat needed sturdier mechanics.  That said, the world-saving sequence was immense and visually stunning, even more so than this show’s action sequences usually are, and it was still a real thrill to see Superman more powerful than he’s ever been depicted in live-action, enough so that the plotting issues can mostly be forgiven.

Now that we’ve covered the victory over the main threat it’s time to reflect on how effective that threat was this season.  The choice to focus on a villainous cult was sharp, as it worked the threat of families and friends being torn apart, one of the major themes of the season, into the main superhero plot.  That said, the choice to make Ally herself the ultimate villain was a mistake.  Although Kihlstedt’s performance was appropriately unnerving and occasionally charismatic the character remained two dimensional and I can’t help but feel it was a lost opportunity not to have one of Ally’s followers the heroes have a connection to, whether it was Bizarro-Jon, Bizarro-Lana, or Lucy (though the former seems like the obvious choice out of the three), eventually ascend to being the Big Bad.  The exploration of Lois and Lucy’s relationship also didn’t become as dynamic as I would’ve hoped and seemed to be harmed by the limited number of episodes in which Jenna Dewan actually appeared as the latter.  The early episodes of the season did a great job in making Lois’ feelings about Natalie and subsequent reflections on her mother into motivation for her to finally make amends with Lucy but the storyline eventually devolved into Lois and Sam pleading with Lucy to leave Ally only for her to repeatedly reject them until the season’s endgame started and she immediately saw the light after Ally hurt Sam.  I was especially disappointed to see that Lucy’s brief scene in the finale saw her, Lois, and Sam acting as if the wounds between them have been completely healed already.  Although the season made strong use of the Bizarro-World mythology throughout, killing Bizarro himself off so early remains an odd choice, as does most of the all-but-forgotten Mitch Anderson storyline, which ultimately served little purpose but to stop Clark from destroying the pendant earlier, which itself was barely consequential.  It’s also worth noting that Season 2 repeats Season 1’s basic plot almost beat for beat.  Once more, Clark spends the early episodes battling an opponent we think is an iconic comic villain who is eventually revealed to be a completely different character, a misguided hero from another Earth (Bizarro, assumed to be Doomsday, replacing John Henry, who was assumed to be Lex Luthor) that is using questionable means to stop a greater threat (Ally replacing Tal) that Lois was investigating.  This wasn’t actually a problem, as the interpersonal storylines and new characters of the season were different enough that the similarities didn’t become that noticeable while one was in the midst of watching the episodes.  But if the next season starts with Clark fighting who he thinks is Owlman but is really an alternate universe Batman trying to stop Brainiac… well that would still be pretty awesome, but it would be a sign that the creators aren’t actually that creative.

One can’t talk about this season without talking about Lana.  I mentioned in my pilot review my anxiety over the character’s inclusion in the series, especially given The CW’s history with the character from Smallville, but the first season reassured me by avoiding any romantic tension between her and Clark and giving her, Kyle, and Sarah roles that were both well-executed and appropriately sized for supporting characters.  Unfortunately, Season 2 has been much less balanced in its portrayal of the Cushing family and many issues similar to those experienced by Smallville in relation to Lana have sprung up.  Lana actually received less individual development in Season 1 than Sarah and Kyle so it makes sense why the writers would try to expand her role a bit this year, but they overcompensated in a big way.  Lana and Kyle’s separation and subsequent experiences co-parenting were excellently handled but by featuring that, the start of Lana’s mayoral career, and Clark told her his secret in the same season the series gave the character excessive amounts of screen time and focus, to the point where it seemed like Lana was taking over the show, as she often did on Smallville.  This was especially disappointing given the other characters, namely Lois and the Irons’, whose arcs needed more time to breathe and develop.  The character’s reaction to the secret was also problematic as it led to Clark, and especially Lois feeling guilt and apologizing to Lana for things they shouldn’t feel guilty for and to the show putting Lana on a pedestal, similar to what other CW DC shows have done with characters like Felicity Smoak and Iris West.  Lastly, many of Lana’s scenes with Clark in the latter part of the season have been coded in ways with implications that are far too obviously romantic, which is always unpleasant given that the series’ central dynamic is supposed to be Clark and Lois’ marriage.  None of this is meant to be a criticism of Emmanuelle Chriqui, who consistently does well with the material she’s given, even if she’s often outshone by co-stars, especially Valdez and Navarrette.  But the series will need to seriously reduce and alter Lana’s role going forward if it wants to avoid the problems that have plagued many of its DC TV predecessors.

Unfortunately, the finale introduces another element that might become even more controversial than Lana’s portrayal.  In one of the later scenes, John Henry is greeted by John Diggle, with David Ramsey again reprising the role he originated on Arrow and has brought to many other DC TV series through crossovers.  ARGUS, the spy agency Diggle works for, is investigating Intergang, a criminal organization led by Bruno Mannheim, which appears frequently in DC Comics, often as traffickers of alien weapons and technology.  During the investigation, Diggle discovered that Intergang was responsible for killing the main Earth’s John Henry.  More John Henry is always good and focusing more on his doppelganger is an interesting hook for next season but Diggle’s appearance also ties into a much more significant development in the episode, which we need to backtrack a bit to address.  While telling the boys that Clark would be OK Sam described some of the crazy things he and Clark have experienced, including, “Glimpses of other worlds and the leagues of superheroes they have on them,” before elaborating that “Even though we only have your father on this planet, thank God that we do, because he’s the finest of any Earth.”  Within the context of the story, this serves to reassure the boys but it has much greater meaning for the series’ world-building.  By describing Clark as the only superhero of its main world the series establishes itself as taking place outside of the Arrowverse’s main Earth-Prime, where it was originally assumed to be, and on which there are a plethora of other heroes such as The Flash and Supergirl.

A development like this has been predicted by many Superman and Lois viewers for some time due to the minimal references and connections to other Arrowverse series in the show so far.  But having it confirmed still marks a significant shift for the show that has caused quite the controversy, with most fans, including myself, frustrated by it for one or more of several reasons.  First off, it feels disingenuous to where the show came from and what viewers wanted from it.  Part of the initial appeal of Hoechlin and Tulloch’s versions of the characters is that they were part of an established franchise with connections to other heroes and corners of the DC Universe, something that hasn’t been done with Lois and Clark in live-action other than in the tumultuous DC Extended Universe movies.  And more simply, the show wouldn’t exist without the Arrowverse.  It’s true that Superman and Lois has quickly established itself as an all-around stronger show than either The Flash or Supergirl but other shows in the franchise, including Arrow itself, Legends of Tomorrow, and Black Lightning were easily at the same or greater levels of quality at their best.  Separating Superman and Lois from its predecessors, especially Arrow and Supergirl, which were instrumental in it coming to be, comes across as elitist and disrespectful.   Part of the motivation for the move seems to be to free the series from the admittedly complicated canon the Arrowverse developed over its first ten years but cutting ties with the franchise completely wasn’t even necessary for that.  Crisis on Infinite Earths already gave the show a clean slate to alter many characters that appeared previously on Supergirl and other shows, as it did with Sam, Lucy, and Morgan Edge.  It’s also abundantly clear that this wasn’t the series’ original plan and the twist contradicts Superman and Lois‘ own specific canon.  When Diggle showed up last year the show did not introduce him as it would a new character, instead relying on most viewers to have at least some knowledge of his significance to the Arrowverse and history with Lois and Clark from crossovers.  During his appearance, Diggle directly referenced Oliver Queen (implied to be dead as on Earth-Prime) and how he viewed Clark from their crossover meetings, other superheroes, and even his own post-Arrow storyline about finding a mysterious alien box, which played out through Ramsey’s recent appearances on The Flash, Batwoman, and Supergirl.  That all clearly identified him as the main Earth-Prime Diggle, and the creators’ current claims that Superman and Lois‘ version of the character is actually just a doppelganger with a very similar backstory are laughable.  Weirdly enough, if they were really insistent on separating the show despite the drawbacks there was also a much cleaner way to do so right in front of them.  The merging of the worlds was a reality-altering event similar to Crisis.  The show could have easily made it so that despite Clark stopping the merging the characters could have been copied and moved into a newly created world without any other heroes, similar to how the time travel storylines on the other shows have altered details of Earth-Prime history.  But having Sam state that they’ve always been on this isolated world before the merging attempt ended the series not only contradicts itself, it fails to resolve one of the main issues it’s trying to address.

Removing the show from the Arrowverse in the way that it has may reduce the questions about why other heroes haven’t previously been contacted to help stop the potentially world-ending threats Superman and Lois deals with but it won’t stop fans from wanting crossovers of various kinds in the future.  People are going to want those leagues of heroes to actually appear and or want the show to introduce more DC characters on this new world, whether that’s revised versions of old favorites like this Diggle supposedly is, or totally new faces.  The reveal won’t even necessarily curtail the desire for a crossover with The Flash (currently the only main Arrowverse show still running), given how often both shows explore the multiverse (Flash has even managed to establish ties to Stargirl this way, even though that show was more clearly established as taking place on its own Earth before it started).  This decision was not only a major mistake, but it was also established through uncharacteristically lazy work from the creators and it would be best if they backtracked from it going forward.

Thankfully, the finale ends on a stronger note.  Clark takes Lois and the boys for a boat ride somewhere in the middle of the ocean, where he throws his sun crystal into the water, causing a new fortress to be created.  But rather than to give himself solitude Clark intends for it to be a place where the family can spend time together and connect more with their Kryptonian lineage.  When Jonathan glumly states “Probably more for the ones who can fly though?” Clark reassures him that it belongs equally to everyone and tells him that Lara wants to meet him and show him some Kryptonian technology.  I know a lot of viewers might be disappointed that there isn’t a more in-depth conversation between Jonathan and Clark about their relationship and the former’s feelings of isolation and exclusion from his family, given that has been one of the most important stories of the season.  But, while I also would have enjoyed another dialogue between the two like the one they had in “All is Lost” I also like the nonchalant nature of the finale scene.  Jonathan may still be worried about being excluded but he’s on the boat, and Clark didn’t bring him there or invite him to use the Fortress as an afterthought.  That shows that including his son in all the various areas of his life, not just select ones, has finally become Clark’s first instinct.  Improving their relationship is something Clark and Jonathan, and to a lesser extent, Lois, will have to work on continuously, and that the show will hopefully continue to address going forward but this was a heartwarming way of showing that they’re headed in the right direction and a welcome injection of optimism after everything the family went through this year.  Which is kind of how I feel about the finale and season as a whole, as well as the show going forward.  Mistakes were definitely made throughout this season, both by the characters and creators and both will have to be equally as careful not to repeat or exacerbate them.  But Superman and Lois is still a touching, immensely enjoyable show and I’m still anxiously anticipating Season 3.

Notes:

• Intergang is also rumored to appear in the upcoming Black Adam movie.  I certainly don’t think there will be any sort of crossover between that and this show, the timing is just very coincidental.
• Intergang is specifically known for dealing with Apokoliptan technology, so I guess there’s a small chance next season could dive into Fourth World mythology, though I’m not sure Warner Brothers and DC will allow it to do so.
• Lois tells Chrissy Clark’s secret as part of an effort to mend their partnership.  Chrissy’s reaction is, thankfully, one of delight and I understand why their business relationship necessitates as few secrets as possible.  But overall the season was much too critical of Clark’s secret identity and I really hope the show steers clear of any possible storyline about him publicly being revealed as Superman, even though that happened in the comics recently.
• As I said, Ally’s cult made thematic sense for a villain this season but I often couldn’t help but wonder if part of the reason the storyline was included was as a way for the Superman brand to condemn Smallville star Allison Mack’s highly publicized involvement with the real-life cult NXIVM.
• After sending two fancy new trucks to the boys as apology presents (much to Clark’s chagrin), Tal is shown arriving on Bizarro-Earth where he is looking for Bizarro-Lana, who was married to his doppelganger.  I’m certainly hoping we haven’t seen the last of Adam Rayner as he’s been a great asset to the show, particularly this season, but I wasn’t expecting Bizarro-Earth to continue to be involved going forward and it’s especially odd that Tal could get there with such ease given how much trouble everyone just went through to separate the planets.