Superman and Lois – Head On review S3 E5
Head On was the rare Superman and Lois episode that actually didn’t need a big action scene. All the subplots came together smoothly for maybe the first time in the show’s history resulting in a very satisfying and well-acted episode.
Lois is off to Hob’s Bay to start her chemo treatment with the intent of looking into Manheim’s files for the other mis, but since she’s there she might as well check out Bruno Mannheim’s files. Manheim catches her and takes Lois on a tour of his cancer treatment facility.
What really worked here is Manheim’s explanation for his devotion to helping his community. His mother lived next to a chemical plant, and she developed cancer with little chance of survival. There was no state-of-the-art facility in the area back then to treat her.
It’s easy to make the villain a mustache-twirling one-note character and that’s not always a bad thing. In this case, it shows a relatable side to Manheim and for all the legit shady things he’s doing, he’s not just a white and black character. Saving cancer patients is a noble goal regardless of what else he’s doing.
Clark’s scene with the cancer patients shows that if nothing else the writers absolutely understand and get Superman to the core. And also, that Tyler Hoechlin innately has Clark’s empathy and compassion down perfectly.
This scene could have played out too much like a PSA, but guest stars Allegra Fulton and two-time breast cancer survivor Daya Vaidya, really bring the humanity to it in a way that makes it incredibly moving and emotional. No one’s going to give superhero shows many glances when it comes to TV awards, but this scene definitely merits some attention.
The kids were preparing for the big school dance, which generally would mean race for the fast forward button, but it was actually fine.
Matteo surprises Nat by running into Jordan, who invites him to see her in person at the farm. Maybe Sam is a bit too paranoid, but he’s not wrong about just bringing anybody to the farm where Clark is liable to come swooping down any minute.
For whatever reason, Jordan was hating big time on Candice still being at the house with the family. He didn’t come off as the jealous type, but it seemed weird that he would complain about sharing a bathroom with a teen girl when he had zero issues when Nat stayed at the house. Candice’s gratitude and sweet demeanor towards Lois just made Jordan come off like a bigger jerk — an unusual position for him. Moody? Heck yeah, but he’s typical one of the more sympathetic characters on the show.
As usual, Lana (or the writers) forget she and Kyle have a younger daughter or the most paid babysitter in Smallville can’t have any kind of social life. For all of the goofy teen subplots we get on the show, one with the wacky adventures of Sophie’s babysitter might be a little goofy fun especially if said babysitter were a closet meta keeping her charge from harm.
Sarah doesn’t understand how to play the wing woman immediately settling in to being the third wheel when Matteo and Nat arrive. It really feels like the writers don’t know what they want to do with Sarah now that she and Jordan are no longer a couple. Was it so bad that they were together anyway?
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It seems increasingly like Lana is the most FF worthy character on the show as her subplots just feel so random. The mayor trying to be fair and balanced while her fire chief husband needs more funding could have been a nice conflict of interest storyline. Now she’s just kinda aimless. This week she’s dealing with former mayor Dean’s son Junior. The casting here was commendable as Dylan Leonard really does look like he could be Eric Keenleyside’s son. Junior thinks Lana got him killed and Lana is considering spilling all the news to Chrissy to clear her name.
Sarah goes to talk with Junior, who’s just missing his father. Lana catches Sarah drinking and in a wholly un-CW moment, Lana starts to overreact, but listens to Sarah and gets the full story. Shocking! More of this please!
Candice’s aunt says she can live with her in Topeka, which means she and Jon are going to have to go the long-distance route. That’s made even more complicated by Jon’s weekends being tied up with working with Kyle at the fire department. This is the kind of annoying development that makes all the investment on Jon and Candice so frustrating. The writers spent weeks in multiple seasons explaining Candice’s crappy home life. She finally gets away from her awful father and then they write her off? That’s why teen relationships on superhero shows are a waste of time.
Matteo tried for a kiss, but Nat panicked and ran off. Sam talked to her as she explained she’s so far behind on relationships and doesn’t want to be weird. Sometimes a show finds a good pairing of characters and it just clicks even if it doesn’t seem like the most obvious duo. That’s been the case with Nat and Sam, which is softening both of them up. After his pep talk, Nat hugged him and called him grandpa. It says a lot for this scene that I didn’t go into “but, he’s not your grandfather!” mode and just took it for the sweet moment that was intended.
Lois insisted on going to the dance, but Clark has his concerns. They’ve got to wait though as Manheim’s goon Deadline (Jason Beaudoin) is going after secure DOD files. Deadline is armed with a Kryptonite shiv, which is a smart weapon as it can cut Superman yet not immediately have him crumbled up into a ball.
Director David Ramsey (Diggle!) did an excellent job with this fight scene showcasing Deadline’s phasing technique and the problems it presented for Superman…right up until Superman sent him into a wall mid-phase. We don’t see what happened to Deadline, but he did manage to transfer the files to Manheim. I imagine it’s going to be a long night for the excavation crew pulling him out of the wall.
Clark returns, but Lois is drained finally admitting she might need to take it easy. The kids forgot to get a picture, but Clark creates a makeshift dance floor so they can enjoy a moment. Jordan sets Sam up with the Senior Swipe dating app, which hopefully will lead to a positive development for ‘ol grandpa. It’s wild how Gen. Lane has proven to be one of the most indispensable supporting cast members of the series.
After showing off his moves at the dance, Kyle and Chrissy hooked up again. I don’t hate that pairing as Chrissy seems more fun than Lana even if it makes for some awkward interaction like when Lana texts Chrissy early in the morning while she’s still in Kyle’s bed. Lana doesn’t want to further smear Dean’s name. That makes sense seeing as how the guy is dead and it doesn’t matter what he did at this point. Lana’s taking it a step further and dedicating the Town Hall in his name in a nice touch.
With Lois somewhat off his back, Manheim can dive in to access the files Deadline recovered. It’s a ton of good stuff on sensitive matters such as the location of Bizarro’s body. That is good news…er, bad news for Superman and crew.
This was a early high point for the season and hopefully the norm for the rest of the year in the way the usual anchor teen and Lana subplots weren’t liabilities this week.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW