Superman and Lois – Loyal Subjekts review S1 E9
Loyal Subjekts proved once again that Superman and Lois is operating on an entirely different level than most comic book TV shows these days.
It’s amazing what a little competent writing and a cast with no weak links will do for a CW Verse show.
It can’t be overstated how important it is that Clark is taking part in Lois’ subplot. In The Flash, Iris rarely gets subplots that aren’t entangled with everything with Barry. Here, Clark is following Lois’ lead, which isn’t a big stretch from their reporting days at The Daily Planet in the comic books.
Lois and Lana are growing concerned with people in Morgan Edge’s leadership initiative program with good reason. He’s converting people, like Lana’s childhood friend, Emily, into his Krypton army.
You’ve gotta give Superman and Lois real credit. Already this season we’ve had multiple Asian characters with speaking roles. That’s something that rarely happens and making Kyle and Lana’s family Latinx covers another demographic that’s woefully underrepresented in the superhero TV landscape.
Superman stops a robbery in Mexico, but he’s fatigued and actually gets knocked down by shotgun fire. Even worse, he’s got bruises from the bullets. Apparently that synthetic Kryptonite gas had some nasty side effects including giving Clark and Jordan a pesky bug.
Clark eventually shrugs it off, but Jordan is in rough shape as it’s slowly freezing his lungs and making him sneeze freeze breath. Lois has had it with her father, Gen. Lane and gets him with nice line. “It sure seems like a weapon designed to hurt Superman would… hurt Superman.”
Superman is one thing and watching her son suffer from something her father did is the final straw for Lois. She doesn’t want anything to do with Gen. Lane any more. Another great aspect about the show is the characters don’t do these big overblown dramatic reactions that feel forced.
Characters react in realistic fashion and their decisions are understandable. When Jonathan confronts Gen. Lane about not trusting his own family it doesn’t feel like some melodramatic moment.
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Morgan confronts Lana about passing on information to Lois. He was fishing and doesn’t have any concrete proof Lana is aligned with Lois, but Lana is rightfully concerned.
At the Fortress of Solitude, Clark gets an assist from the Jor-El program to burn the Kryptonite out of Jordan’s system. With Jordan no showing at the recital, Kyle steps up to accompany Sarah. That should score him some major dad brownie points.
Emily, however, is not concerned with winning any mom of the moment trophy. She ditches her daughter’s performance to join up with another Edge recruit to go after Lois and Jonathan. Good thing the general was still around as he uses some more of the Kryptonite gas to slow them down before getting overwhelmed.
Jonathan reveals he’s resourceful like his mother and pulls out some of the weapons John Henry had stored in his RV. That was a smart rainy day borrow. Kyle arrives and offers to take out Emily and her pal, but Jonathan just blasts them himself. That was definitely the way to go as Kyle zooms in and reveals he’s got super powers now too.
Superman arrives on the scene and knocks out Kyle, but this is a very concerning problem for both the Kent and Lang households.
Kyle comes home and doesn’t remember what happened. Lana pieces enough together to question if he took Edge up on his offer. Kyle only did it to be better for the family. Again, a perfectly credible reason for a character who’s felt like a disappointment to try and make a change for the better. Even if it’s unwittingly climbing into bed with the devil.
Edge calls out Superman, who’s now tired of the games and is ready to take Edge down. Butttt, he’s got powers now as well. That’s not the end of the surprises though as Edge reveals he’s not from Earth and it’s time Superman learned the truth about his…brother. Well, that’s a super (pun intended) bombshell! I didn’t see that one coming, but I think Superman and Lois’ writing crew can pull this off and make it work.
With Edge leading an army of Krypton-enhanced soldiers, it really is shaping up to be very similar to John Henry’s future. This is kind of giving me that same vibe from the first season of Heroes where the characters had a vision forewarning them of a gruesome future and failing at every turn to prevent it. I like that notion that regardless of Superman’s best efforts, this is going down.
The lone issue with this storyline isn’t a problem with Superman per se, but the state of the CW Verse. With this kind of major level threat, the writers should throw in a line or two about Clark not being able to reach Kara/Supergirl since she would be an invaluable ally against Edge and his crew.
Loyal Subjekts delivered another stellar episode for Superman and Lois with some nice action and big twists as the series begins the second half of its first season.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW