The Ties That Bind
Episode 2 of Superman and Lois Season 2 starts with Lois making a big effort to put on a family meal for their new guests. The thing is, Nat is actually A vegetarian so her efforts in making bacon and eggs doesn’t go down well. However, they’re all interrupted by Clark inexplicably passing out after sensing something bad approaching. Clark eventually sits with Lois and John, admitting that he’s seeing visions and has been since saving the sub. Lois believes these could be residual memories from when Krypton was destroyed. Clark isn’t so sure. In order to find out the truth, Clark visits Morgan Edge in prison. Tal doesn’t know much but urges Clark to let him out and take him to his fortress to find out the answers. Clark isn’t stupid and despite Tal admitting he’s not dangerous anymore, Clark isn’t going to take that chance. At school, tensions continue to ensue between Sarah and Jordan. Jordan encourages Nat to join them at lunch, where he notices her taking more of an interest in her than him. In fact, Sarah even invites Nat over to help with the car, forgetting about her plans with Jordan. That night, Jordan heads outside to find Sarah on the porch. It turns out she actually kissed someone at camp, a girl called Audrey. Sarah tries to brush it off like it doesn’t matter but she still cheated on him, and Jordan is crushed. At the paper, Lois comes under fire from an old case years ago. The case in question revolves around a self-help guru called Ally Austin. He’s a cult-leader and seems to be responsible for a death that’s hit Lois hard. Lois tried to find evidence to take him down but now this has circled back around to her. Austin has conducted a podcast about being mistreated by her. Lois is confident it’ll blow over but… it doesn’t. The podcast goes viral and the heat threatens to burn Lois’ life. Her inside source at the time actually happens to be her own sister. She was encouraged to “find her other self” which includes taking a bottle of pills and almost drowning. Lois managed to save her but the thing is, she’s unsure whether her sister is actually going to corroborate this story given they haven’t been talking for such a long time. Determined to push this aside for now, Lois works to investigate the tremors at the construction site. With the workers there just as confused as she is, Lois enlists the help of John to set up a seismometer on the fringes of the site to monitor activity. While this is going on, a separate subplot involving the mayorship of Smallville takes a big blow. Daniel Hart, the promising candidate to challenge the current mayor, has had another job offer and decides to bail out. Instead, that focus turns toward Lana, who decides to run in his stead. Kyle even manages to get the fire department to support her. Out in the field, Superman passes out again while on an assignment. He’s saved by Anderson’s lackeys though, and brought back to base. Anderson speaks to him about the operation, urging Supe to stay out of their way. This ultimately serves as the final straw for Clark, who remains determined to get some answers. Clark is joined by Jordan, who together break Tal out of prison and head to Tal’s fortress. Using a crystal, a vision of their mother appears. After some awkwardness between Tal and his mother, she eventually agrees to help decipher Clark’s visions. According to her, it appears a cosmic being may actually be causing these violent visions. Specifically, whatever is down in the caves. While they talk, another earthquake ensues as tremors crop up across Smallville. Workers inside the caves are completely taken out with ease, with one of them even sacrificing himself to try and save the town, causing a cave-in. While this is going on, Superman doubles over and suffers from his horrible visions again. This gives Tal enough time to break free from his restraints (well I definitely didn’t see this coming!) and prepare to leave. Jordan manages to hold him off though, managing to even land a few blows for good measure. When Superman finally regains his strength, he beats down Tal and takes him back to prison. Whatever is down in the caves, it’s lusting for blood and Superman may not have the strength alone to stop it.
The Episode Review
Superman and Lois returns this week with a slower episode, with a few predictable subplots thrown in for good measure. It’s been pretty obvious that Sarah cheated on Jordan at camp and thankfully this hasn’t been dragged out across too many episodes. Likewise, the race for mayor is now going to see Lana step up to try and lead Smallville. This has been brewing for a while and it seems she’s got a good shot of turning the fate of this town around. Meanwhile, we get a bit more action as Tal unsurprisingly double crosses Supe and almost manages to get away. Thankfully Jordan was there though and stopped this from happening. This works well to show the growth of his character, and the continued manifestation of his powers. We do also get a glimpse of Doomsday too, albeit with some grunts and a dark outline, but it’ll bee interesting to see what happens with this storyline going forward. For now, Superman and Lois bows out with an open ending that certainly leaves the tantalizing prospect of next week’s follow-up very much on the table.
