Superman and Lois Lies That Bind review S2 E12
Not gonna lie, I completely loved all of the hypocrisy and double standards of Clark revealing his secret to Lana.
For all the naïve wishes of his family, Clark understood the need for a secret identity. He can’t protect people who know his secret 24/7 without being a super stalker — apologues to Brandon Routh’s creepy Superman Returns incarnation.
It was for everyone’s good, including Clark’s, that there was a separation between Superman and Clark.
So, it was inevitable that Lana would be pissed knowing Clark’s big secret. John Byrne solved this problem long ago by letting Lana be Clark’s BFF that he told everything to including the fact he was Superman.
That made sense as he had someone beyond his parents to confide in. It also made it easier for Clark to fall for Lois because she fell for Clark first and Superman second.
I never liked the idea that Clark didn’t tell Lana on the show as it was doomed to have this “you should have told me” subplot. Worse, Lana was even more upset at Lois for faking their friendship. That felt like a stretch and the writers are again making Superman & Lois a little bit too much about Lana and her world.
Jordan is busy whining about how this impacts Sarah. This dude is so single-minded. Granted, he acts like a teenager, but good grief I wish there was an option to just watch Superman and Lois and not any of these annoying teens.
Jon and Jordan ditch school to see Nat’s big secret — she’s whipping up her own super suit. In a departure from the comics, Nat plans to gift it to Jon so he can have protection from Ally’s body snatching. To power it, they need to go to the relatively unguarded caves.
Jordan finally does what seemed like the obvious move in the first place in using his powers to extract more X-Kryptonite faster. The plan doesn’t work and it triggers a cave-in, but at least he’s thinking. And on the bright side, most of the teen drama was focused on one subplot.
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Lois apologizes to Lana and says she’s totally fine if Lana tells her family about Clark and drops the Jordan also has superpowers bombshell too.
Clark can’t be bothered with all this as he has to come up with an alternate plan than John Henry and Gen. Lane’s blow up the portal and to heck with Bizarro World idea. These are the kinds of moments when it’s clear the writers understand who Superman is at the core, which is so important.
Superman’s option is to get an assist from Tal-Ro. I’m worried the writers are falling into the Alice crutch with Tal, but he’s been entertaining in these cameo roles at least. He apologizes to Lois vowing never to hurt her family again and Superman and Tal head off to destroy Ally’s pendant.
Ally’s not down for that of course and starts sucking away their powers until Steel arrives to save the day. Steel has had to rescue Superman a lot in two seasons, but it’s largely been of the create space between Superman and the villain rather than defeat the bad guy variety.
As usual, this fight scene was top notch. The show’s approach of limited, but stellar action sequences has been the right choice as it continues to work.
Tal-Ro and Superman manage to destroy the pendant, but both of them are exhausted thanks to Ally sucking away most/all(?) of their powers. In the ensuing face-off, Ally decides she doesn’t need another fight and flies away providing Tal enough of a distraction to bail too.
It would have been too easy for him to stick around and this way he remains a wild card that doesn’t have to be on every episode.
Lana whiffs on telling Sarah about Clark and Jordan and blames Clark and Lois when they stop by to warn her about Ally. She wants a clean break from the Kent family as she can’t keep lying to her family.
It’s so weird how this whole transparency thing actually didn’t work out for the best for anyone. I love this instead of a big kumbaya moment as it shows there’s unexpected consequences for doing the “right thing.” Clark’s family was all about pressuring him to tell Lana for “poor” Jordan’s sake and now the entire family can’t hang out with Lana’s crew anymore. If only that meant less screen time for them…
Of course, that’s not entirely bad. Kyle continues to show what a horrible mistake it was for the writers to separate him and Lana by taking Sarah to a bar so she can start to live up her dream of being a famous singer. Kyle’s been a good dude and that lousy plot twist ruined a likable family unit for no reason.
Back in Bizarro World, Ally has imprisoned her Tal-Ro as he now sees his Kal-El was right about her. Ally isn’t worried though as she sucks his life force dry to seize all his power. In doing this does that also mean Ally is getting all of Superman’s weaknesses? Quick, somebody call Zatanna.
Lies That Bind wasn’t bad especially since it showed the way too rare negative outcome of revealing a secret identity. The Superman action was solid as always, but I miss when Lois had her own storyline that didn’t revolve around Clark or Lana.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW