Spoilers "Superman & Lois" Season 3
- Thread starter The Realist
- Start date
That was a great line! Hubby and I both loved it.
Yeah. I could see my dad reacting that way if I had cancer. Brutal and heartrending.
I'm really loving this season so far. I feel like the writers took a step back after last season and recommitted to the characters.
Also, I've almost forgotten there was another Jonathan.
:snort!:When was Clark’s dad in the episode?
Yeah, I see what you're saying.
The stuff around Sarah was well done. Speaking of which, I just found out the actress is 22. That makes her older than Kristen Kreuk when she started as Lana in Smallville. Difference is that she actually looked her age while I really thought Inde Navarrette was 14.
The Clark/Dad scene was also really good. I like that Kyle was the only one in their group who got up to help Clark as he's the only one who doesn't know he's Superman.
The Clark/Dad scene was also really good. I like that Kyle was the only one in their group who got up to help Clark as he's the only one who doesn't know he's Superman.
Another incredible episode. I think Lois is more badass with cancer than she was without. Fantastic stuff for Clark, too -- push him too far, and it's no more Mr. Nice Guy. Except he's still Mr. Nice Guy where it counts; I loved his kindness toward Candice after roughing up her dad. Also: "Thank you for your time, General." So cool. 
John Henry's heroics were awesome, too. If they keep this up, they're going to surpass season one.
John Henry's heroics were awesome, too. If they keep this up, they're going to surpass season one.
Superman and Lois
Season 3 - Episode 4 - "Too Close to Home"
SM/Clark / Lois / Dr. Irons: Clark's trying to micromanage taking care of Lois--and everything else, but Lois is quick to tell Clark that she does not need to be watched or coddled, as if cancer has made her fragile.
Sam informs SM that Manheim obtained his blood samples from the D.O.D during their attempt to save SM's life (as seen last season). Superman is more than pissy that samples of his blood were taken and retained beyond the effort to save him...and no one bothered to share than information with him. Taking the situation into his own hands, SM incinerates the stored samples with heat vision....
Irons: Irons suspects his doppelganger was responsible for the Kryptonite tech used by Manheim's men--which Clark is well aware of, thanks to Lois' investigation. Irons is a bit peeved that Lois has been investigating Manheim and is "dragging" his doppelganger sister--Dr. Irons--into the matter.
Clark meets with Irons--the latter reasoning that he should talk to his earth prime sister about Manheim, despite the expected shock it might cause. Sure enough there's the gasp and shock moment but Darlene regains her composure quickly--for the moment. They discuss her late brother, from his changes in personality, distance from Darlene, and death. Although both acknowledge that they are not blood related, for a moment, they bond over similar family histories. Darlene cannot fight being overwhelmed with sorrow and runs off, just as Manheim's men drive up and order Irons into their car...
At Manheim's home, the criminal argues that Lois is hunting him down despite all of the "good" he's done for the Hob's Bay community, and yes, he knows all about Iron's alter-ego. Continuing, Manheim recalls prime Irons always wanted to be a hero, but would not listen..testing Irons' ability to get the loud and clear message as he is shown a photo of Darlene strapped to what appears to be a plasma-based explosive device. Instead of "walking away" as ordered by Manheim, Irons breaks free, leaps from the window and changes into the suit, flying to save his "sister"
Seeking vengeance against Manheim, Irons is stopped cold by the criminal, who threatens to kill the rest of prime-Irons' family if any harm should come to him.
With Irons, Lois and Clark putting their heads together about the Manheim situation, Lois decides to receive treatment at the Hob's Bay hospital controlled by Manheim, as both patient and investigator, believing Manheim will not make such an attempt on so high profile a patient...little does she suspect that Manheim is well aware of her plans, and intends to deal with her personally...
Jordan / Jonathan II / Natalie: The twins are back to bickering over inconsequential teen crap, until Clark orders them to separate and find other things to do. Jonathan confronts Emmett Pergande (Candice's father), accusing him of being responsible for the theft of the truck and Lois' watch, but Emmett does not warm to the idea of being accused of crimes, and responds by punching Jonathan in the face, leaving the boy with a stunned expression, as if he did not expect violence (SEE NOTES). Returning to the farm, he lies to Lois about the bruise on his face, which she misinterprets as the boy being involved some sort of fight club...
Later, Clark and Lois question Jonathan about the bruise, and end up learning about the theft of the truck, and Emmett's assault. Lois--with the boys--heads to Candice's trailer, where Lois warns him to stay away from her family. Emmett flashes his gun, making it clear he's would have no trouble using it against her...
As one would expect, Clark is having none of this, and heads to the diner (where Candice is working) and after Emmett brushes Clark off--then tries to push him, Kent uses his power to force Pergande to promise to stay away from his family (SEE NOTES). Kyle (still in the booth with Lana and Sarah) is rather shocked by how tough Clark seems to be.
Clark and Lois invite Candace to stay at the farm until she can get her life together, with Clark noting that her father is racing away from Smallville (SEE NOTES).
Sam suggests Jordan cut his hair in order to avoid being recognized; Jordan refuses, despite referring to the reason Clark blends in and wears glasses--that its part of the responsibility of being a here. Jordan disrespectfully remarks that Sam would not know anything about that, and leaves his angered grandfather listing his 4-star general rank as a defense (SEE NOTES). After Clark and Lois reprimand Jordan for his behavior, the boy reunites with Sam, apologizing for his behavior. Rather than have Jordan get a haircut, Sam presents Jordan with a D.O.D.-manufactured suit, and a pair of flight goggles his own grandfather wore during WW2. A grateful Jordan promises to take care of the goggles and the dark-colored costume.
Lana / Kyle / Sarah: In the wake of the slap hear 'round Smallville, Sarah stays with her father, who learns Lana slapped the girl over--in her view--being pushy over (among other things) her time spent with Irons. Kyle meets with Lana, who admits she did not slap Sarah due to the suggestion Kyle cheated on her for her controlling behavior--a revelation which does not please Kyle, who noted Sarah should not have thrown his problems in Lana's face.
Kyle asks Sarah to not judge Lana by the latter's behavior on her worst days. leading to a meeting at the diner, where Kyle thaws some of the ice between mother and daughter...both genuinely apologetic. Although Kyle acts as a calming force, there's no indication he's conning himself into believing their family unit will ever be restored.
NOTES:
Last week, Manheim's suicidal thug promised SM & Irons that they were "next"; before killing himself in the warehouse explosion. Now, we know what that "next" might involve, as i'm fairly certain Manheim already had enough Kryptonian blood to create another threat. On that note, i'm still hoping Sam does not pull a "whoops! There was one bag left! Who knew, Clark?" and present one last sample, in the hope of giving to Lois. There's more than enough fantasy elements in the series to allow Lois' situation play as close to real as possible, as viewers simply will never relate to someone suffering from cancer receiving a miracle cure from alien blood.
I cannot believe Candice's father will not resurface.
The look on Jonathan's face was a mix of shock and confusion--the latter emotion stemming from his slow realization that he cannot "man up" to one he considers a criminal without violent pushback. I'm not sure of the writers are playing with the idea that Jonathan is sort of borrowing a sense of strength from living around his father & brother, perhaps as a way of not feeling "inferior" to either, but leading him to make dangerous decisions as if he's not ill-prepared to face criminals.
Jordan's disrespectful argument / reconciliation with Sam was wrapped up a but too quickly; Jordan is far too arrogant about his power and instead of holding back the heroic antics to learn, he's concluded he knows the hero game well enough, feeling the rules & instruction is a kind of deliberate attempt to sideline his
Clark's confrontation with Emmett Pergande will undoubtedly remind some of the scene between the Salkinds' Clark and Brad from Superman II, only this time around, Clark did not offer an explanation for Emmett's witnessed reaction to hitting the equivalent of a brick wall, or the display of strength coming out of nowhere (as far as the onlookers were concerned).
GRADE: A.
Season 3 - Episode 4 - "Too Close to Home"
SM/Clark / Lois / Dr. Irons: Clark's trying to micromanage taking care of Lois--and everything else, but Lois is quick to tell Clark that she does not need to be watched or coddled, as if cancer has made her fragile.
Sam informs SM that Manheim obtained his blood samples from the D.O.D during their attempt to save SM's life (as seen last season). Superman is more than pissy that samples of his blood were taken and retained beyond the effort to save him...and no one bothered to share than information with him. Taking the situation into his own hands, SM incinerates the stored samples with heat vision....
Irons: Irons suspects his doppelganger was responsible for the Kryptonite tech used by Manheim's men--which Clark is well aware of, thanks to Lois' investigation. Irons is a bit peeved that Lois has been investigating Manheim and is "dragging" his doppelganger sister--Dr. Irons--into the matter.
Clark meets with Irons--the latter reasoning that he should talk to his earth prime sister about Manheim, despite the expected shock it might cause. Sure enough there's the gasp and shock moment but Darlene regains her composure quickly--for the moment. They discuss her late brother, from his changes in personality, distance from Darlene, and death. Although both acknowledge that they are not blood related, for a moment, they bond over similar family histories. Darlene cannot fight being overwhelmed with sorrow and runs off, just as Manheim's men drive up and order Irons into their car...
At Manheim's home, the criminal argues that Lois is hunting him down despite all of the "good" he's done for the Hob's Bay community, and yes, he knows all about Iron's alter-ego. Continuing, Manheim recalls prime Irons always wanted to be a hero, but would not listen..testing Irons' ability to get the loud and clear message as he is shown a photo of Darlene strapped to what appears to be a plasma-based explosive device. Instead of "walking away" as ordered by Manheim, Irons breaks free, leaps from the window and changes into the suit, flying to save his "sister"
Seeking vengeance against Manheim, Irons is stopped cold by the criminal, who threatens to kill the rest of prime-Irons' family if any harm should come to him.
With Irons, Lois and Clark putting their heads together about the Manheim situation, Lois decides to receive treatment at the Hob's Bay hospital controlled by Manheim, as both patient and investigator, believing Manheim will not make such an attempt on so high profile a patient...little does she suspect that Manheim is well aware of her plans, and intends to deal with her personally...
Jordan / Jonathan II / Natalie: The twins are back to bickering over inconsequential teen crap, until Clark orders them to separate and find other things to do. Jonathan confronts Emmett Pergande (Candice's father), accusing him of being responsible for the theft of the truck and Lois' watch, but Emmett does not warm to the idea of being accused of crimes, and responds by punching Jonathan in the face, leaving the boy with a stunned expression, as if he did not expect violence (SEE NOTES). Returning to the farm, he lies to Lois about the bruise on his face, which she misinterprets as the boy being involved some sort of fight club...
Later, Clark and Lois question Jonathan about the bruise, and end up learning about the theft of the truck, and Emmett's assault. Lois--with the boys--heads to Candice's trailer, where Lois warns him to stay away from her family. Emmett flashes his gun, making it clear he's would have no trouble using it against her...
As one would expect, Clark is having none of this, and heads to the diner (where Candice is working) and after Emmett brushes Clark off--then tries to push him, Kent uses his power to force Pergande to promise to stay away from his family (SEE NOTES). Kyle (still in the booth with Lana and Sarah) is rather shocked by how tough Clark seems to be.
Clark and Lois invite Candace to stay at the farm until she can get her life together, with Clark noting that her father is racing away from Smallville (SEE NOTES).
Sam suggests Jordan cut his hair in order to avoid being recognized; Jordan refuses, despite referring to the reason Clark blends in and wears glasses--that its part of the responsibility of being a here. Jordan disrespectfully remarks that Sam would not know anything about that, and leaves his angered grandfather listing his 4-star general rank as a defense (SEE NOTES). After Clark and Lois reprimand Jordan for his behavior, the boy reunites with Sam, apologizing for his behavior. Rather than have Jordan get a haircut, Sam presents Jordan with a D.O.D.-manufactured suit, and a pair of flight goggles his own grandfather wore during WW2. A grateful Jordan promises to take care of the goggles and the dark-colored costume.
Lana / Kyle / Sarah: In the wake of the slap hear 'round Smallville, Sarah stays with her father, who learns Lana slapped the girl over--in her view--being pushy over (among other things) her time spent with Irons. Kyle meets with Lana, who admits she did not slap Sarah due to the suggestion Kyle cheated on her for her controlling behavior--a revelation which does not please Kyle, who noted Sarah should not have thrown his problems in Lana's face.
Kyle asks Sarah to not judge Lana by the latter's behavior on her worst days. leading to a meeting at the diner, where Kyle thaws some of the ice between mother and daughter...both genuinely apologetic. Although Kyle acts as a calming force, there's no indication he's conning himself into believing their family unit will ever be restored.
NOTES:
Last week, Manheim's suicidal thug promised SM & Irons that they were "next"; before killing himself in the warehouse explosion. Now, we know what that "next" might involve, as i'm fairly certain Manheim already had enough Kryptonian blood to create another threat. On that note, i'm still hoping Sam does not pull a "whoops! There was one bag left! Who knew, Clark?" and present one last sample, in the hope of giving to Lois. There's more than enough fantasy elements in the series to allow Lois' situation play as close to real as possible, as viewers simply will never relate to someone suffering from cancer receiving a miracle cure from alien blood.
I cannot believe Candice's father will not resurface.
The look on Jonathan's face was a mix of shock and confusion--the latter emotion stemming from his slow realization that he cannot "man up" to one he considers a criminal without violent pushback. I'm not sure of the writers are playing with the idea that Jonathan is sort of borrowing a sense of strength from living around his father & brother, perhaps as a way of not feeling "inferior" to either, but leading him to make dangerous decisions as if he's not ill-prepared to face criminals.
Jordan's disrespectful argument / reconciliation with Sam was wrapped up a but too quickly; Jordan is far too arrogant about his power and instead of holding back the heroic antics to learn, he's concluded he knows the hero game well enough, feeling the rules & instruction is a kind of deliberate attempt to sideline his
Clark's confrontation with Emmett Pergande will undoubtedly remind some of the scene between the Salkinds' Clark and Brad from Superman II, only this time around, Clark did not offer an explanation for Emmett's witnessed reaction to hitting the equivalent of a brick wall, or the display of strength coming out of nowhere (as far as the onlookers were concerned).
GRADE: A.
This was fairly good, handling the family issues with the Kent-Lanes and the Cushing-Lang-Cortezes (?) pretty intelligently and sensitively, though I still wish the show's choice of subject matter were a bit more upbeat.
The bit about Sam wanting Jordan to get a haircut bugged me. If Jordan's as invulnerable as his father, his hair should be uncuttable with anything short of heat vision. That's been basic Superman lore from the beginning. Heck, before the '86 reboot in the comics, not even heat vision could cut Superman's hair, not without extreme difficulty. (The Silver Age approach was that Superman's hair and beard somehow didn't grow at all as long as he was under a yellow sun.) Even if Jordan is less invulnerable, it should still take power tools or something to cut his hair.
Also, Sam's line about how Clark had the sense to go with a nondescript hairstyle as part of his disguise is a bit hard to reconcile with Hoechlin's perpetual stubble. Okay, that is a fairly common look among men today, but far from ubiquitous.
Still not sure how I feel about Bruno Mannheim. One minute he's protesting to John Henry that he's a Legitimate Businessman who doesn't deserve Lois's harassment, then moments later he's threatening to kill John Henry's doppelsister. If he was going to do the latter anyway, why bother with the pretense of the former? Also, how did they get the sister abducted and strapped into the elaborate deathtrap van between the time they picked up JH and the time they reached Bruno's office? Did they take the scenic route?
The bit about Sam wanting Jordan to get a haircut bugged me. If Jordan's as invulnerable as his father, his hair should be uncuttable with anything short of heat vision. That's been basic Superman lore from the beginning. Heck, before the '86 reboot in the comics, not even heat vision could cut Superman's hair, not without extreme difficulty. (The Silver Age approach was that Superman's hair and beard somehow didn't grow at all as long as he was under a yellow sun.) Even if Jordan is less invulnerable, it should still take power tools or something to cut his hair.
Also, Sam's line about how Clark had the sense to go with a nondescript hairstyle as part of his disguise is a bit hard to reconcile with Hoechlin's perpetual stubble. Okay, that is a fairly common look among men today, but far from ubiquitous.
Still not sure how I feel about Bruno Mannheim. One minute he's protesting to John Henry that he's a Legitimate Businessman who doesn't deserve Lois's harassment, then moments later he's threatening to kill John Henry's doppelsister. If he was going to do the latter anyway, why bother with the pretense of the former? Also, how did they get the sister abducted and strapped into the elaborate deathtrap van between the time they picked up JH and the time they reached Bruno's office? Did they take the scenic route?
That did make me laugh when Mannheim started showing John printed surveillance photos from, like, an hour earlier. Yeah, it's plausible, digital cameras, syncing over cell-phones, but it was still mildly ridiculous that his years-spanning in-depth file on Steel is current up to five minutes ago.
Other than planting himself, it looked like Clark used skill instead of strength to take down World's Worst Dad, which I really loved. I also loved Kyle standing to help if needed.
Line of the night:
"This is not a job for Superman."
"He's not going."
I'm so pleased with this season so far!
Line of the night:
"This is not a job for Superman."
"He's not going."
I'm so pleased with this season so far!
I do want to believe, though, that when Clark invited Candice's dad to go outside to talk, he wasn't using a euphemism for fighting, but genuinely intended to try to get to the bottom of the guy's issues and help him recognize that he needed counseling, or something. Because threatening or fighting abusers doesn't change them, it just feeds into the psychology that makes them abusive. And it would lower Clark to his level, especially given his insurmountable power advantage.
He hit his son. I don't think he would be caring to much about the guys psychology. What likely would have happened is he would have given him a warning about coming around his family and then maybe knocking him on his ass with light touch to let him know he means business.
I remember having a similar discussion with you once about Clark's second diner confrontation with Rocky in Superman II. I have to say, I'm a bit less evolved, because I always enjoy seeing Clark teach a bully a little lesson. He also does it, in less direct fashion, in Man of Steel and in the Smallville pilot. It's pretty much a Superman screen tradition at this point (which, of course, doesn't mean you have to like it).
Yeah. I mean, I love kind and gentle and compassionate and empathetic Superman as much as anybody, but there was nothing about Clark's manner that suggested he was contemplating a therapy session for the guy (unless it's the kind of "therapy" that ends with the asshole fleeing for the next county).
Now of course Superman would never hurt the guy to a point where he would have serious life altering issues or would face death. Superman will always have a fundamental respect for life. But like I mentioned. Knocking him on his ass or maybe even letting the guy hit him and breaking his hand I could see him doing. I do think modern Superman would hold back a little more than from the Superman II diner scene because of what we know about concussions these days that people didn't know back then.
I was reminded of that here, but the movie scene was far more petty and indefensible, because he was only avenging his own personal humiliation. At least here, he was standing up for his son.
That's just it, though. Violence doesn't teach any lesson except that violence works, so it only reinforces abusive behavior. I understand the emotional impulse to get back at someone, but if the pragmatic goal is to make an abuser less dangerous to other people, then bullying them back is counterproductive.
In other words, I'm not saying this out of sympathy for Pergande, but out of sympathy for his potential victims in the future. Hurting or frightening Pergande will just prompt him to keep hurting and frightening others, because that's how the cycle of abuse works. Whatever you do to one person, they will pay forward to other people, so you have to consider those other people as well. If the goal is to protect Candice, to protect Jonathan, to protect the people Pergande sells drugs to and steals cars from, then he needs to be rehabilitated, not simply threatened or hurt. Hurting him might satisfy the emotional impulse of the moment, but it's not an actual solution to the problem.
But violence often does work. It's just we people wish it wasn't so. Even Superman doesn't solve most of his problems without violence. The difference between him and one of his baddies is his violence is controlled and without malice. He uses the fact he is the strongest man on the planet and can kick any baddies butt in a fight to help protect and save people.
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