Superman and Lois – The Ties That Bind review S2 E2
The Ties That Bind continued the mystery of those pesky quakes affecting Superman on a major level while other characters got some seismic activity of their own.
Lois puts together a big breakfast mainly for Nat and John Henry’s sake, but Nat doesn’t really do meat…or breakfast. It was a good try. John Henry is in a bad position as he’s still grieving the loss of his Lois, but likes being around Lois. This feels like a far more sophisticated love triangle than we normally get from The CW Verse shows.
John Henry has little interest in being a home wrecker, but he’s also not ready for full closure on Lois either. That’s why he accompanies Lois to the mine site trying to get some answers on the seismic activity at that site.
Lois is already leery of Dr. Faulkner (Catherine Lough Haggquist) being in charge of the excavation to retrieve Kryptonite since that’s out of her field of expertise, which definitely triggered her reporter sense. And that later turns out to be exactly the right call.
Superman has his own, closely related issues. During the disaster breakfast, Clark got another vision worse than the others this time.
While trying to stop a hostage situation, he wasn’t prepared for the hijacker to have powers. Of impressive note for Supergirl viewers — when Superman got punched into a van, it crumpled on his impact mark, and it shattered the windows of the nearby cars.
Thankfully Lt. Anderson’s Super Squad, including new recruit Tag, who was last seen in Broken Trust, makes the save while Superman deals with another super seizure from the quakes. Anderson basically tells Superman if he’s not part of his crew all of the extra help and resources are over.
Clark visits Morgan Edge aka Tal-Rho in a red-light drenched cell. He’s not very helpful, but Superman does agree to escort Tal to his Fortress (with Jordan in tow) to talk to an A.I. program based on Lara’s (Mariana Klaveno) memories.
These holographic interactions with the dead Kryptonians have been a long-established aspect of the Superman mythos, but for whatever reason it’s not working on Superman and Lois. Maybe it’s because these conversations and interactions feel like a cheat to some degree?
Tal doesn’t have any interest in Lara’s apologies and was actually just faking being too weak to do anything. He gets a solid sucker punch in on Superman while he gets another quake seizure while something starts to come through the Smallville mine. Good thing Superman brought Jordan along. While Jordan can’t hang with his far more powerful and experienced uncle, he does give his dad enough of a breather to recover and beat Tal-Rho.
Back at the slower side of Smallville, Lana’s stumping for Daniel Hart for mayor hits a snag as Daniel gets a job offer and has to leave town. Nice knowing you Daniel…
This raises the question of who could run for mayor. Maybe Lana? Kyle actually gets the same idea just as Lana filed the paperwork to run. Nice to see this won’t be some divisive storyline for Kyle and Lana this season. What a way to make a full 180 on what seemed like was going to be a very annoying character, huh?
Lois has another problem as one of her stories about a cult is getting viral attention for the wrong reasons. Chrissy is worried this could dinge Lois’ reputation and hurt The Gazette’s as well. Considering Lois is basically keeping the lights on in this place, Chrissy sure does seem a bit too unappreciative all of a sudden.
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Jordan keeps trying to be patient, but Sarah is still being shifty. Although she bonds with Nat quickly over car repair. Sarah has a secret and after some encouragement from Nat, finally tells Jordan.
At summer camp, Sarah kissed a girl (but no reveal if she liked it). Jordan acted appropriately teen-like in this situation, which is all we need from our teenage characters. They don’t need to be wise beyond their years because the writers don’t understand how teens act.
Superman brings Tal-Rho back to his cell and while he doesn’t trust his half-brother now, he still wants to. The writers also understand Superman at his core. He wants to believe in the best of people even if they continually disappoint him.
Time for a roundtable talk with Lois and John Henry where Clark compares notes. Turns out he is hyper-sensitive to whatever it is that’s causing those quakes.
Thanks to the last remaining miner detonating the explosives in the Smallville cave, finding it might be tricky. Maybe it’s time to book an appointment with Dr. Faulkner, who’s contacting her mysterious partner ecstatic that whatever is down there is more powerful than they imagined.
Superman and Lois continues to be a show that thrives largely from not insulting the audience’s intelligence. Strong subplots for all the principal characters doesn’t hurt either.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW
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