Weekly TV Reviews: Superman & Lois s1 ep4

 

The family drama continues...

It's a classic football game with dark skies and pouring rain, setting the stage for Jordan's big game and adds another notch into the belt of Jonathan's growing insecurity with his brother which has been steadily building since Jordan discovered he has slight abilities. The family drama never misses a moment to focus on the family unit with the arrival of Lois' father who has plenty of opinion about Jordan's involvement in football and Clark's "priorities" changing. Her father comes with plenty of concern with Clark not being in Metropolis and the concerns of the citizens with him not being around which leads him to ask Clark for a show of good faith and escort a prison transfer. Clark refuses.

"Superman & Lois" is about the conflict of choices for Clark when he has to decide between his role as Superman and his role as a parent. He chooses to be with his sons with practice and listening to Jonathan's concerns about his friend instead of being there for a prison transfer that leads to the prisoner escaping and Superman arriving too late. He's in a constant conflict between Clark Kent the husband and father, and Superman the hero that saves the day. The twist is that his family is what gives him strength, with his sons' call for his help turning out to be just what he needed to fight back against a sonic blast. Meta-human development in their friend was caused when Jordan's blast hit another substance that gave him powers. 

1.) Small Town Vibes

Jordan is living the dream with a football star status that makes Jonathan a tad envious of his brother's success. We are no stranger to small towns and their drama, and this show captures that vibe entirely with the status clash. The Kent twins are on their own coming-of-age journeys but the show doesn't slack on using them to show the struggle within the town. The football players have their own inner conflict that's anything but friendly. This is seen through a player picking on another by calling him broke and telling a waitress to have him pay first. The player (Harris) is also a focal point for the episode when he's seen "shaking" in a way that reads "superpowers here" and can only mean trouble. Enter the trouble when Jonathan goes to check on his friend who is "buzzing uncontrollably" in the bathroom to the point his cast shatters off his arm. Jordan and Jonathan find their friend shaking out of control, and can't seem to make him stop. 

2.) Edge Strikes Against Lois

Lois has been fighting since the pilot to call out Morgan Edge's true agenda for Smallville and no one but Clark and Chrissy (editor of the paper) wants to believe her. Now that she's getting close and hitting a nerve just before the big vote, Edge sends his legal goon to deliver papers for Lois' lawyer that effectively keeps her from being able to write for the paper. This leads Lois to come up with her own idea to get her words and opinion out there, by asking her gorgeous husband Clark to show up at the Assembly and share his opinion. The nays stand-alone with Chrissy is the only one to vote against Edge's plans while the rest of the town votes in favor of more jobs versus paying attention to what he has planned for their town. Lois views her fears about losing the romance in their relationship with all their duties and struggles, which leads to quite the surprise date night when Clark plans a romantic candlelit dinner in the barn. 

3.) Lana and Kyle

Their issues have been rooted in their relationships since we first met them and they're only getting worse with each episode. Especially now that Lana makes it clear that she believes Edge is a jerk and took issue with Kyle not bothering to even ask if she was uncomfortable with her boss cornering her. The conflict between them is very real and another notch of the show that isn't based in the super but in the small town struggle. Despite being a show about Superman and involving superpowers, the show is rooted in reality, in small-town life, in family drama, and in the extraordinary found in the ordinary. In a twist Lana and Lois start to hang out at the bar over drinks, discussing their lives, relationships, and Clark Kent. A spark of light comes at the end when Lana wakes up to find Kyle making breakfast for their daughters and they have a moment that seems to be sending them in a better direction. 

The end always ends with an ominous tone and shows Sam deciding they need a contingency plan to deal with Superman, and Edge's true agenda is revealed - plans to create an army using what lays within the mines. 

Quote:

"There are nutjobs that want to kill me all the time" - Clark 

"See you soon, big blue" - warning from a prisoner 

"This, my time with you, is what gets me through everything else" - Clark (to Lois)