Superman and Lois – Last Sons of Krypton review S1 E15
Sometimes it’s worth delaying gratification. That was definitely the case with the season finale of Superman and Lois, whose first year continually delivered on winning episode after another. And the season finale didn’t decide to buck the trend either.
Chaos has come to Smallville — specifically Morgan Edge and his Eradicator program. After a quick useless shootout, Edge decides to draft some new Kryptonians from a squad of soldiers. This makes more sense than Suzy Homemaker and Conrad Couch Potato.
After all the fuss about the military occupation, suddenly Smallville is fully on board with listening to General Lane. Chrissy writes a quick special edition of the Smallville Gazette to get people ready for an evacuation. Kyle, Lana and Sarah are helping to lead the evacuation effort.
Good for Kyle to get a hero moment rescuing a woman from a burning building. He’s been a good…edgy character with a good heart and the writers did right by him by not keeping him antagonistic to Clark and Lana forever. Character growth can be a good thing.
Superman is still coming up short trying to track down the kidnapped Jordan, last seen getting corrupted with the Eradicator program and Zeta-Ro, Edge’s father. The show didn’t do the best job of explaining Edge and Kal-El’s parentage, but it’s one that’s not too hard to fill in the gaps thanks to other Superman media.
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Jordan breaks free of the programming just long enough for Superman to track him, but it’s all for naught as Zeta-Ro reasserts control once Superman arrives and promptly punks out Clark.
Steel is ready for the rematch and enhances his hammer with a little red sun lighting. The Superman and Lois writers have done a phenomenal job of making Steel an equal partner to Superman and not just an easily disposed of sidekick when the real threats arrive.
It’s Steel that snatches a disoriented Jordan/Zeta-Ro and brings him back to the barn so Lois can try and break through the programming on the mental plane. You’ve gotta appreciate the deep dive reference to Thaddeus Killgrave, a weapons designer that battled Superman in the comics. Jon was armed with one of Killgrave’s guns to keep Jordan/Zeta-Ro in line.
Proving the show can thrive without Superman doing everything, Lois and Jon end up being the ones to save Jordan and get him to break free of Zeta-Ro’s influence for good.
That just leaves Edge for Superman and Steel. The effects budget must have gone through the roof for this sequence. It’s impressive the quality of these action scenes and how they seem like they’d fit just as easily in a big screen blockbuster than a TV series.
Steel and Superman team up again to battle Edge’s super soldiers (ha) and finally take Edge out. This was a nice team effort and Superman was hardly diminished in sharing the spotlight. He even got to make the last minute save to prevent Steel from crash landing from orbit.
Now it’s time for the after party and fallout. Smallville is on clean-up mode and Superman reveals that Edge is Kryptonian. Even if he’s not at the action forefront, Superman always gets at least one very Superman sounding bit of dialogue. This time it’s when he says “I’m not the one who saved Smallville. Its people did.” That’s the humble, confident Superman that should inspire countless heroes.
Lois offered to buy half of the Gazette so Chrissy doesn’t have to sell while giving her more stakes at the paper. That’s a good deal and provides Lois with a greater expansion of her main subplot.
Gen. Lane is stepping down from active duty with the DOD and strongly suggests John Henry would be a great fit. John Henry’s reason for leaving — seeing the face of his dead wife in Lois — actually works without feeling too soap opera-y.
We’ll save that for the final scene as another spaceship pod crashes into the Kent farm. I was very much expecting a cute white dog to emerge. Instead it’s John Henry’s daughter, Natalie (Tayler Buck), who arrives. She managed to track her dad down, but she’s in for a very weird encounter when she sees Lois.
That was a very solid season finale. It wraps up the threat of Edge (for now), gives the characters a well-deserved first season happy ending while setting up an intriguing scenario for Season 2.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW