Superman and Lois – Fail Safe review S1 E13
Fail Safe was a well needed cool down episode after last week’s intense installment.
With two episodes left this season, the final salvo is yet to come, but for now it’s time for the good guys to enjoy a little peace after a chaotic few days. Pacing these little happening episodes is important. Too many and it feels like a series rarely has any excitement. Too few and there’s never a moment for the characters to reflect and process what’s happened.
Some reflection was needed for the whole crew. For Clark that meant dealing with the very good likelihood that someone else could seize control of him and manipulate him into being their world-destroying pawn capable of killing his loved ones. He doesn’t want what happened with Edge to occur again especially with Edge staying mum on the location of The Eradicator.
While Gen. Lane would just as soon destroy all the weapons of Superman Destruction out, Clark decides it’s better for the contents in storage 7734 be put to use as a fail safe.
Lois is not happy with this plan and promptly chews Clark out.
Elizabeth Tulloch does such a great job with Lois. It’s probably because she’s the one love interest from the comic the writers just write how she is in the comic — passionate, fiery, smart, caring and indomitable. Laurel never got that chance in Arrow once Olicity took over; Iris essentially had to drop her entire life once Barry revealed he was The Flash to her and Mon-El ditched his wife and the Legion to spend any time with Supergirl.
But Lois? She can be all the things comic fans expect of her and it’s making her one of the better co-leads in this era of The CW Verse. She doesn’t back down from calling Clark’s plan to keep the weapons stupid while relenting once he suggests giving it to someone he trusts. John Henry Irons has quickly been established as a key player in the series and now with the show’s version of “the Kryptonite ring” he should remain an essential part of the cast.
And it was also fun watching Superman and Steel capture Leslie Larr complete with fist bump.
This episode’s Smallville Gazette subplot didn’t quite work as Chrissy accused Lois of being on the side of “the man” for not getting a statement from her father. That’s a significant conflict of interest that most actual editors would avoid in the first place. Clark admits they’ve played fast and loose with journalism ethics for awhile, which is true, but Chrissy shouldn’t be pushing for special favors from Lois’ father with Lois as the writer.
Kyle is still facing the backlash for supporting Edge. As we’ve seen over the past few years, when powerful charismatic figures go bad their supporters don’t just shrink away. The mayor is in full CYA mode and wants Kyle to take a leave of absence, pledging to help smooth things over, while actually badmouthing Kyle and Lana to anyone who’ll listen.
It’s hard not to blame Kyle for wanting to leave Smallville seeing as how everyone legit turned on them.
Sarah’s waiting for the inevitable spazz out and skips the school assembly with Jordan, who wants to be the supportive kinda boyfriend. Jonathan also bails on the assembly to hang out with the out of his league junior Teagan (Kayla Heller). Tegan doesn’t have any real interest though and is more concerned with getting all the juicy details about what happened from the grandson of the general handling the case. At least you didn’t have to pay for dinner, Jon.
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After recalling several of the worst father/son pep talks known to man, Edge realizes he can’t do it his way and finally decides his father’s path is the right way. His eyes have turned blue. That’s different — did Morgan Edge just become a White Walker on us? Kidding. He’s clearly become Bizarro. Superman zooms in and Gen. Lane just says Edge, but Superman’s global surveillance pulls up nothing.
That’s because Edge has gone to the sun where he placed The Eradicator and is already absorbing it into his system. Yep, this rematch is not going to work out too well for Superman and company.
Fail Safe allowed for a quick moment for the characters to catch their breath before the sure to be exciting season finale.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW
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