Superman and Lois – A World Without review S4 E2

A World Without provided the obvious fallout with the death of Superman.

In the immediate aftermath of Doomsday bringing Superman’s limp body back to Smallville, Lois and the boys immediately rush over to him. Lana is close enough to the scene to convince everyone to back away and give Lois space to grieve her very close friend. That was a little odd as Lois didn’t deserve some monopoly on grieving the death of the world’s greatest hero.

The writers do account for this awkward moment somewhat by having one of the onlookers realizing that Superman was Lois’ husband. But he’s a good guy and won’t say anything. It’s also more than a little weird that Sarah is with Lana, but her youngest daughter is again completely forgotten about.

With the supporting cast rotating in and out of various episodes it does make sense to sideline her for the entire final season, but giving Kyle and Lana a second daughter rarely felt necessary. And as usual, A World Without features too many scenes of Lana taking cues from Sarah in terms of what she should do. The writers really have botched that whole Lana/Sarah dynamic up throughout the series.

At Lois’ prompting, Jordan takes Superman’s body to the Fortress in the hopes of healing him. Yeah, that seems a bit doubtful without a heart, but whatever helps you all sleep at night.

Lana checks in on Lois, who’s blaming herself for Superman’s death. It does feel odd how S&L is almost positioning Lex Luthor as more of Lois’ arch-enemy instead of Superman.

Jon is trying to keep it together for the family by trying to keep Jordan from going off after Luthor. He mentioned that Lois still has to finish radiation and reconstructive surgery. Whether that gets addressed this season is one thing, but it’s nice that last season’s major storyline hasn’t been conveniently brushed aside for new drama.

Jordan is searching for Clark’s heart as that might be the way to save him. Foolishly, he goes after Lex in his junior aviator costume.

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Lois is processing by working on Superman’s death article when she spots Luthor walking to his hotel. She confronts him and Luthor pieces together that Jordan is Superman’s son. It was weird that Lex immediately pieced together that Jordan is Lois’ son even though he’s wearing far more of a disguise than Clark did as Superman.

Lois trounces poor Jordan’s self-esteem by saying “You are not ready for Lex Luthor. You are not your father…not yet.” And Jordan proceeds to prove her right by going after Clark’s heart again and falling into a trap sprung by Lex. He gets hit by some Kryptonite beams but manages to fight them off. Not the sonic disruptor that Lex has on hand, however. To once and for all end the drama, Lex squishes Superman’s heart. That’s a vicious bastard thing, but a super heart should be able to recuperate like the rest of Clark’s body if it’s actually put inside him, no?

Sarah tries to help Jon track down the heart assuming Lex has it chilling in the ice bucket at his hotel room. While Lex is at the diner, Sarah tries to distract him while acting super obvious. Lana gets Jon before he’s discovered at Lex’s while he calls Lois with a choice to save one of her sons. Presumably, she makes the call to save Jon since the logical perspective would be Jordan could survive an attack from Lex.

Jordan returns saying he failed as the family heads to the Fortress. This all stems from Lex wanting to get back in contact with his daughter and it turns out that Sam actually knows her location.

Before dealing with that mystery, it’s time for the Lois, Jon and Jordan to ponder how they will live in a world without Superman. Clark made an interactive crystal for them like Lara made for him upon her death. That’s an ominous note and one that certainly will make for a boring season if we really are going to deal with a world without Superman for too much longer this season.

The Doomsday/Luthor focus should resonate more, but because S&L did a more effective Superman gone missing story arc back in Season 2 this isn’t connecting as well. Fortunately, the show can still rely on the dependable performances from Tulloch, Garfin and Bishop to navigate through the tricky narrative moments.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: The CW

For the comic book inspiration of A World Without, check out the Superman: Funeral for a Friend trade paperback on Amazon.

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