Superman & Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch who return as the titular characters. They will, in turn, be joined by Emmanuelle Chriqui as Clark’s ex-girlfriend, Lana Lang, Erik Valdez as Lana’s husband, Kyle Cushing. Dylan Walsh will portray Lois’ father, General Sam Lane. Jordan Elsass and Alexander Garfin also co-star in the series as Superman and Lois’ sons, Jonathan and Jordan Kent.
Synopsis
Lana reaches out to Lois and Clark when Kyle starts behaving strangely. Meanwhile, Jonathan opens up to Jordan. Lastly, Sarah storms out after accusing her mom of always covering for her dad.
Review
The series cranks it up to an 11 this week when all the players step up to the fight. Morgan Edge has revealed the secret he has kept up his sleeve that he is in fact Clarks half-brother named Tal-Rho.
He attempts to convince Superman to his side by telling him that he could resurrect their birth mother. Obviously Clark shoots him down on the offer as it comes at the cost of the human race.
So when Superman & Lois first aired and we were introduced to Morgan Edge, this was a Post Crisis reboot for the character as he first appeared in Supergirl way back in Season 3. Back then he was a simple human businessman who was a low budget version of Lex Luthor, all evil intent with much less brains to successfully carry them out. Admittedly this was Earth 38’s version of him. Post Crisis on Earth Prime we now have this calm, calculating British businessman who everybody seems to love.
The episode focuses mostly on his past and how different it was than Clarks. As we all know, Clark landed in Smallville and was raised by loving parents, Edge meanwhile was attacked as soon as he arrived and accidentally killed someone with his heat vision, this caused him to go on the run and to be eventually captured by the British Military and held deep underground for his childhood to early teens, eventually breaking out and swearing revenge on the people. Now how he got from that to wealthy businessman is another story but it sets up the different paths he and Clark went down which made them who they are today.
This episode really did deliver on the excitement this week however, as the main and secondary characters all had their moments to shine. Lois took down Kryptonian Kyle with some Kryptonite. Lana willingly got possessed by Clarks birth mother and even the teens got to face the truth (even Sarah almost got looped into the Kent family secret).
The major highlight was obviously when Clark climbed high into the sky to use the Eradicator to free all the trapped humans, forcing Edge and his ‘Subjekts’ to launch a full attack. The moment of seeing how many people Edge converted was a major shock factor as they all flew off to attack Clark before he succeeded and saved all the residents minus Edge who escaped with his right hand lady.
This sadly did lead me to my major gripe with the show however which is the fact that this takes place on Earth Prime, in the same universe as The Flash, Legends, Supergirl, Black Lightning etc and yet despite the stakes here no one was rallied to help. I remember back in Arrow when Barry was called in to help the team escape once and it was a minor crossover but felt great that they could do that but with S&L no effort has really been made in connecting this show to the wider Earth Prime. This can work in favour and against it because it’s far superior than any of the other shows in terms of storytelling and special effects but to just not involve Supergirl when clearly an extra Super would have helped immensely here just feels like a waste of a shared universe.
Ending with a now worn down Superman landing by the fortress, he passes out while elsewhere Edge and his right hand woman Larr are standing in the desert somewhere and despite his loss he seems in quite good spirits. So what does Edge have for the end game and will the Kents be able to stop him?
Verdict
This felt like a season finale and it was bloody brilliant! I loved how every member of the cast had a role in the build up to the finale and the heart-warming moment of Clark talking to his birth mother. I was however let down that once again the show refuses to reference its brother and sister shows in situations where it would make sense (having Kara and Martian Manhunter rock up to help even the odds would have been phenomenal). But to have Superman save all the Smallville residents in what was a beautifully edited scene (seriously forget this is a TV show sometimes!) and show what he is willing to sacrifice to protect the people of Earth. Tyler is quickly rising to the top of actors who have portrayed the Man of Steel.
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