Spoilers "Superman & Lois": The Fourth and Final Season

[David cgc]

Grizzly-bear Luthor is a lot easier to watch when people react to him in sensible way. "Wow, Lex's last several right-hand people have ended up dead under suspicious circumstances. Guess there's a job opening!"

It's nice that Amanda finally realized she wasn't different, and "Brainiac" seems to be relying on knowing his place and keeping ready to get out once the getting's good, but it's still a stunning reach that a vast network of people would've worked for Luthor when it's been obvious for decades that when once he decides he needs you, he's already decided he's going to kill you. They can't all have thought they were smart enough to give him the slip, or his one special twu luv, or just too dumb to realize they were on the edge of a cliff.

 

[Christopher]

It's nice that Amanda finally realized she wasn't different, and "Brainiac" seems to be relying on knowing his place and keeping ready to get out once the getting's good, but it's still a stunning reach that a vast network of people would've worked for Luthor when it's been obvious for decades that when once he decides he needs you, he's already decided he's going to kill you. They can't all have thought they were smart enough to give him the slip, or his one special twu luv, or just too dumb to realize they were on the edge of a cliff.

If you look at certain very prominent billionaires who have been heavily in the news lately, they tend to have long histories of stiffing the people who work for them, stealing credit for their work, refusing to pay them, throwing them under the bus when they became inconveniences, etc. Yet they still get people to work for them, because they had PR hype to sell a false narrative of how great and successful they were, and there were always people who fell for the hype instead of researching the reality. So all of this is very sadly plausible.


Incidentally, I'm not finding Milton Fine any more interesting as a character than Luthor, since he's even more one-note, just a guy sitting in front of a bunch of screens and boasting snidely about how brilliant he is. He's more of an exposition device than a character, really. This season's doing some excellent character work with the main cast, but it's really dropped the ball with its villains.

 

[The Realist]

A very large number of people have been eager to continue cozying up to a certain someone IRL, despite all his history of throwing people under the bus as soon as their usefulness ended, or they defied him, or they became a liability, or whatever. Some of those folks have even found themselves indicted, incarcerated, bankrupted, etc. But people keep lining up to put their heads on the chopping block, because the promise of money and power makes people even stupider than that other great seducer, the promise of sex.

(And I see Christopher ninjaed me on this obvious point of comparison.)

 

[FreezeC77]

The CW posted a slightly longer teaser for the final episode.

Spoiler

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BTW, I know it's been a few years since I think it appeared in the comics... but I think Truth, justice, and a better tomorrow is a much more fitting tag for Superman who is a hero of all people.

 

[David cgc]

Well, granted, but that goes back to this version of Luthor never showing the honey that went along with the vinegar. Like, I can see how real-world billionaires have their public personas which could be appealing, but this Lex was too brutal and callous to appeals to the brainy crowd, but too wry and urbane to appeal to the brawny crowd. He doesn't talk like he's "telling it like it is," but he also doesn't offer the "I can see through the illusions, man" vibe. He acts like the hair-trigger thug that'll cut off your fingers for mouthing off, and talks like the unflappable bank agent who's going to foreclose your house, but he either needs to talk like he's really angry about the stuff that makes you angry, or act like he's got an aura of success where anyone who comes with him is going into a bright, glorious new future. Even if it's glib and superficial, it needs to be there.

He's all backwards to be an appealing, charismatic figure in any dimension. This Lex has always been mask-off, but the show's acting like there's been some change in what he's showing, but it's just status quo, except Amanda isn't blind anymore because it's the point in the season where she doesn't have to be. She didn't learn anything about "Grechen" she shouldn't have already known from Lex's prior behavior and blatant lack of interest in her as a person. She's acting like he seduced her, when the way it was that he just stood there while she seduced herself.

 

[The Realist]

Good analysis, but I think we have to keep in mind that we're only seeing Luthor (with the exception of a handful of flashbacks) after he's spent 17 years in prison, years in which he nursed an enormous amount of rage and vengefulness, which now seems to be shading toward full-on madness. He may have presented a very different face to the world prior to his incarceration. Yes, he was undoubtedly still a terror one-on-one when he chose to be (Peia described it as confronting the devil himself), but he could have been less blatantly brutal and more seductive before destroying Lois and her family became his unrelenting obsession.

 

[mswood]

We're not supposed to believe it. The point is that Luthor believes it and that belief drives his vendetta. And the point of this episode was to show how a person in power can use the media to advance a self-serving lie if media personalities like Godfrey prioritize a "both sides" mentality over actual fact-checking. (Which is why it was a mistake for Lois to accept a debate on their terms, because that gave them control of how the narrative was framed.)

The show is making it appear that many people (maybe not the majority but enough of a percentage to ruin or damage their reputation) do believe lex's story.

Simply put reporters do make mistakes. Why isn't there press that Lois is the one who got Luthor freed. He's playing it like she did this fraud against him to keep him imprisoned.

That logic falls apart when she is literally the reason that he is now freed. She is the one who released evidence freeing Luthor. Yet we don't see that even being addressed.

I mean what do people think Lois changed her opinion on the threat level of Lex? She has believed him to be a master criminal and an extreme threat to people on the planet. Do people believe she got him released because she believes he was reformed in prison?

Now sure Luthor is obsessive. I can understand him. But not the bulk of the general public.

Now Clark is not going to do something illegal. But just in this episode both characters have multiple means of having proof. Kansas the setting of Smallville and Metropolis is a state with the law that only one party needs to know a recording is being made. Lois was in position to record multiple people who state Lex's actions including Lex himself. Superman and Clark have also been in contact where they have stated things that don't make them come across as innocent. So even if you think Clark wouldn't you feel that Lois wouldn't. Part of this has occurred in her business, By multiple people.

Then of course, we use parallels with politics and media where we have people who frequently openly lie and are believed by millions. But that metaphor doesn't hold here.

Superman has been around for probably close to 20 years by this point. Kins should now be close to 17. Give Lois and Clark a few years from when Superman first showed up to them dating, getting married and having kids who are now near 17.

This is a guy that has been saving people in small numbers and on a planetary scale for decades. Someone who gets no monetary reward for his service (the DOD didn't pay him), He hasn't seeked political power. He doesn't profit from merchandising, nor does he try and stop people from making merchandise. And he hasn't used his voice to enact political or societal change (per Bruno last season). His family isn't in private school (even in metropolis). The only thing you could now accuse him of his gaining success as a print reporter due to his abilities as Superman. A job based on his position that probably earned based on US (not even Kansas wages), likely 70 to 100 grand a year. That's hardly getting rich off of his abilities. And of course records would show he didn't enrich his parents life financially. And then his very significant pay cut living in Smalville.

Now there would be handful of people who think Superman is a hoax. And there would be people who due to his half brothers actions are going to fear what Superman could do if he went rouge. And a larger but still rather small percentage who would just like to see someone famous and well regarded take a fall.

But that wouldn't be a very significant portion of the populace.

Especially since literally a just more than a year ago, every single being on earth was saved by Superman in a very, very visible way. This isn't like he took down a nuke that no one realized was gong to blow. The effects of the transfer between worlds was happening all over the planet. Every single conscious person would have seen and felt the impact of it.

And the idea that Lex could use the media in a few months period of time since his release to enact such sweeping changes in the general population is utterly irrational.

Its poor storytelling.

 

[mswood]

I mean what about camera footage of his actions in Smallville. I've lived in several small towns in my life, and even going back decades that would have camera systems. They may not all have audio, but visual yes.. The residents of Smallville believe Clark. Why hasn't the footage from the bar or the diner with his daughter been released. Those clearly show someone who isn't behaving rationally. Why is their footage of his daughter pushing him away. Why are people have to get in front of a women to shield her from Lex in a bar.

Where is the evidence of red sun lamps being replaced in smallville. You would certainly have some banks and stores exterior camera systems showing that. And that happening near the time lex was making moves in Smallville. And evidence that they came on during that the time of the footage that Lex was confronted by Clark. Hell even people would cell phones would be recording way the hell did all the exterior street lights turn red. It's circumstantial, but it's still evidence.

Then if you claim well Lex blocked the rest of the camera system from working, then you have. Well why is it that every other device isn't working, but Lex's is.

 

[The Realist]

Simply put reporters do make mistakes. Why isn't there press that Lois is the one who got Luthor freed. He's playing it like she did this fraud against him to keep him imprisoned.

That logic falls apart when she is literally the reason that he is now freed. She is the one who released evidence freeing Luthor. Yet we don't see that even being addressed.

Lex is playing it as though Peia's "attack" on Metropolis (actually her helpless physical breakdown as she neared death) threatened to reveal the truth about what happened to Moxie, so Lois was trying to get ahead of the situation by publishing the story about Luthor's innocence, hoping to conceal her role in the "conspiracy" that framed him. Lex laid it out during the Godfrey debate.

 

[Mudd]

What's Brainiac Milton keeping under glass, there?

 

[Christopher]

BTW, I know it's been a few years since I think it appeared in the comics... but I think Truth, justice, and a better tomorrow is a much more fitting tag for Superman who is a hero of all people.

Yeah, I like that. Of course, it was originally just "truth and justice"; the "American way" part wasn't added to the radio series's narration until WWII. It was dropped postwar, then restored when the TV series came along during the Cold War.

Well, granted, but that goes back to this version of Luthor never showing the honey that went along with the vinegar. Like, I can see how real-world billionaires have their public personas which could be appealing, but this Lex was too brutal and callous to appeals to the brainy crowd, but too wry and urbane to appeal to the brawny crowd.

The impression the show gives is that Luthor never dealt much with the public himself; he probably had PR people who handled that side of things and created an appealing public image for him through secondhand means.

Still, you're right -- it would be much better if this Luthor weren't such a relentlessly cold and cruel figure, not just for plausibility but simply to make him more interesting to watch.

He's all backwards to be an appealing, charismatic figure in any dimension. This Lex has always been mask-off, but the show's acting like there's been some change in what he's showing, but it's just status quo, except Amanda isn't blind anymore because it's the point in the season where she doesn't have to be. She didn't learn anything about "Grechen" she shouldn't have already known from Lex's prior behavior and blatant lack of interest in her as a person. She's acting like he seduced her, when the way it was that he just stood there while she seduced herself.

Well, Lex was in prison for 17 years, so if Amanda's the same age as her actress, she would've been 19 when he was convicted. So their entire business and personal relationship would have formed while he was incarcerated, and thus she wouldn't have known him that well. She somehow formed a prisoner-groupie obsession with him while building his company into a success on her own. And when he got out, she let the fantasy she'd built up of how it would be with him blind her to the reality of who he was. And he played along with that because it was useful to him.

Now Clark is not going to do something illegal. But just in this episode both characters have multiple means of having proof. Kansas the setting of Smallville and Metropolis is a state with the law that only one party needs to know a recording is being made.

It hasn't been established in this series that Metropolis is in Kansas. That was an invention of Smallville, a convenience to allow the storyline to move back and forth easily between the two locations. Smallville itself wasn't established as being in Kansas until Superman: The Movie -- in which Metropolis was overtly just a renamed New York City. Before that, DC Comics generally assumed that Metropolis was in Delaware and that Smallville was somewhere in the rural East, possibly Pennsylvania or thereabouts. The '40s radio series had established Clark's hometown as Centerville, Iowa.

For what it's worth, The Flash established that Earth-Prime's Metropolis was in New York State, which is consistent with Supergirl putting Earth-38's Metropolis in the northeastern US. Since this series is also part of the Arrow-multiverse, it's reasonable to expect that its Metropolis is in NY as well.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Good thing they sent Bruno to the Strykers in Kansas.

 

[David cgc]

Hasn’t Metropolis been being “played” by Chicago, at least recently? I’ve been noticing the Sears Tower in a lot of establishing shots.

 

[The Realist]

It hasn't been established in this series that Metropolis is in Kansas. That was an invention of Smallville, a convenience to allow the storyline to move back and forth easily between the two locations.

And this series has implicitly done the same thing, since it has established Smallville as being in Rice County (a real-life county located smack in the middle of Kansas), and Metropolis as being within easy driving distance from there.

 

[FreezeC77]

And this series has implicitly done the same thing, since it has established Smallville as being in Rice County (a real-life county located smack in the middle of Kansas), and Metropolis as being within easy driving distance from there.

Yea. I dunno if there have been maps in the series, but as you said we have seen characters drive to Metropolis from Smallville and its pretty much a few hour drive. I think Clark or Lois even says something about it being a few hours drive in the first episode when Jon is missing his girlfriend.

 

[Christopher]

Yea. I dunno if there have been maps in the series, but as you said we have seen characters drive to Metropolis from Smallville and its pretty much a few hour drive. I think Clark or Lois even says something about it being a few hours drive in the first episode when Jon is missing his girlfriend.

Oh, I see. I didn't remember that. Well, I did have the impression that something post-Smallville had done the same thing of putting Metropolis in Kansas, but I didn't remember it was this show. I guess I should've realized. But the Arrowverse Wiki just says it's somewhere in the US.


Hmm... I wonder why it was that the makers of Superman: The Movie decided to put Smallville in Kansas as opposed to somewhere else. Was it a Wizard of Oz reference?

 

[David cgc]

The show has never been specific about exactly how long it takes, or even how people tend to get there (maybe Lex is taking a private plane between Metropolis and Smallville), so there's some amount of deniability about where Metropolis actually is in this version.

 

[The Realist]

I don't think so. Folks have pretty clearly been portrayed as taking day trips back and forth to Metropolis by car on a number of occasions (as in the Metropolis party that the boys, Sarah, and Natalie attended last season, where Natalie first met Matteo).

 

[David cgc]

There are day trips and there are day trips. Metropolis could be in place of Omaha, Kansas City, even St Louis if you drive in shifts and the show has a tendency to take place during long summer days. 11 hours to Chicago is probably too far, though.

There aren’t any really good candidates for a place that’s in driving distance to the center of Kansas and has a substantial shoreline, though.

 

[Christopher]

There aren’t any really good candidates for a place that’s in driving distance to the center of Kansas and have a substantial shoreline, though.

Has S&L's Metropolis been shown with a shoreline? Well, it does have a district called Hob's Bay, which implies the existence of a bay.