Superman and Lois – Into Oblivion review S2 E8

Jeffrey Lyles April 29, 2022 0 Comments Dylan Walsh, Elizabeth Tulloch, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Erik Valdez, Ian Bohen, Inde Navarrette, Jordan Elsass, Kayla Heller, Stacey Farber, Superman and Lois, Tayler Buck, Tyler Hoechlin

Superman and Lois is such an interesting show. It’s got perfect casting for its title characters who have truly amazing and compelling storylines. Both on their own and shared stories. Their roles as parents keep things interesting and the series has been as good as any CW Verse/Arrowverse show when they’re the focus.

But the writers have become too enamored with fleshing out all of the supporting cast to the detriment of a show that hasn’t nearly exhausted the spotlight for Superman and Lois.

As Season 2 continues playing out, the real never-ending battle is between Superman and Lois fighting their enormous supporting cast for screen time.

Into Oblivion has a lot going on. Far too much for a show that is getting more complex and complicated than necessary. There’s literally one important plot going on and the rest is just time-killing annoying fodder.

Let’s start with Natalie. We get flashbacks of her following John Henry to Lois and Clark’s Earth. John Henry’s memory is a little messed up. He thinks Lois is his Lois. I wish the writers would move past this as it’s not helpful to revisit last season’s John Henry subplot. Natalie gives the doctor medical advice, which makes sense as she was a doctor apparently on her Earth.

The writers are making it hard to like Natalie as she’s mean to Clark and snapping at everyone. She doesn’t have the show tenure to go off on Superman yet instantly putting her on the wrong side of this conflict.

Clark plays along with her continued lack of gratitude by giving her (and John Henry) keys to a garage Clark was looking after for a friend. Gee, a house with home cooked meals by Lois or a garage. Tough choice.

Kyle comes to grab the kids for some quality co-parenting scenes and now it’s all kinds of awkward with Lana. The writers really ruined that entire subplot. Mayoral candidate Lana was just fine and more than enough to carry them through the season.

Now she calls Kyle in to help prep for the debate. This is so silly. Even going through the motions of Kyle and Lana getting a divorce serves no purpose for side characters.

Football season is cancelled because of Jon. Clark wants to know who gave him the drugs. Jon gets to do school online instead of being expelled, but still won’t out Candice as his supplier.

Sarah tells Jordan about hanging out with Aubrey and wants them to hang out. His initial thought was the correct one — it’s a terrible idea — but much like his brother, Jordan’s Kryptonite is a pretty brunette. Jordan catches Candice getting threatened and deduces she’s the dealer.

My favorite moment of the night was Jordan saying “You’re doing all this for her? She’s a drug dealer, Jon!” Well, when you say it like that…

Candice’s latest client goes after Jon and Candice using inhaler powers to beat down Jon. This naturally raises the question of a guy who has no interest in Jon’s wellbeing aided by super powers should have left some bruises at the very least. Instead, Jordan — decked out like Superman in Superman: Earth One — gets scrapes and cuts despite actually having powers.

The bruises are enough to convince Jordan to bail on meeting up with Sarah and Aubrey. Jordan isn’t so insufferable a character, but he’d really be better off away from Sarah as she’s a third level subplot he doesn’t need.

Ok, all the fluff out of the way. Let’s get to the actual important stuff.

Anderson is speaking to the Inverse Aly and she’s got some instructions for him to share with her other self. Get off of Twitter ASAP.

Aly calls Chrissy for an exclusive interview and because Chrissy is constantly in the running for the show’s most clueless character, she goes along to the mines. Aly, Anderson and some Inverse redshirts stand in front of what clearly is a Stargate trying to get into the Inverse world. Or maybe it’s a boom tube and Darkseid will show up at the season finale?

Gen. Sam Lane is shocked the pendant isn’t in the storage unit. It’s weird no one thought to make sure Anderson didn’t have it before he went AWOL. Lucy sends a text goodbye message making Sam and Lois fear the worst.

Aly’s crew begins to go through the Stargate, but someone forgot to read the instructions as it’s disintegrating everyone coming through. Chrissy is just about to get sucked in when Superman makes the save. It’s so curious the writers thought the notion of Chrissy getting killed was suspenseful.

Gen. Lane interrogates Aly, who smugly says he doesn’t care about the lost Inverse crew — he only cares about Lucy. Aly is that ridiculously overconfident villain who acts like she has insight on the script. Everything has to line up just so for her plans to come to fruition and she always has a backup even when she shouldn’t be planning for contingencies. She was shocked that the Stargate was killing people, yet she had an alternative already in motion?

Lois searches through Lucy’s place and breaks down at the notion of her sister leaving the family like her mother. As Clark/Superman comforts her, I’m reminded that this show really just needs to spend 85% of the episodes on Elizabeth Tulloch and Tyler Hoechlin. They make Clark and Lois so likable, relatable and authentic.

Lucy shows up at the Kent fam and it’s immediately blowing my mind that they would be so willing to trust her. This is the same shady sister that set Lois up to make her look bad in front of Chrissy and we’re expecting her to have a change of heart? And Clark’s base super hearing, especially on a suspicious person should trigger when someone is lying. Not this time.

And not shockingly, Lucy is in fact still playing the Inverse mole. How many times can you get betrayed before it’s your fault? Lucy slipped something in Sam’s drink so she could steal his badge. It was the only way to ensure that Aly could get through to the other side.

I kinda hate the ending as it made Clark, Lois and Sam look like idiots since Lucy has given them zero reason to trust her constantly. At least the main plot is still interesting despite all the waste of time subplots.