Superman & Lois Episode 3: The Perks of Not Being a Wallflower

Spoilers Ahead; Don’t Cry.

Episodes one and two of Superman & Lois were great. Episode three delivers all the same. The episode starts off with some lightheartedness, which is a great change of pace from the serious tone in the past episodes. The Kent family is painting the house, they get into a little paint fight, and it’s such a great scene after the previous two heavy episodes. All of a sudden, Clark stops in his tracks. He hears the cries for help, and off he goes. The next scene feels like such a classic Superman moment. A highway bridge collapses in China, the bridge is about to land on a poor fisherman, and right before the end, he is saved. Superman lifts the bridge up, and the interaction between the two is golden. Just smiles, no words, that’s it. That’s Superman. A hero to everyone, everywhere. Tyler Hoechlin became my favorite Superman. He has a great Clark Kent, balancing the goofball antics of Clark struggling to be a dad and displaying that stalwart heroism as Superman.

Of course, he comes back home, and his two sons are asking about his super hearing. He gives them a crash course, and off to school they go. Things at school aren’t any better for the boys. Sarah’s boyfriend is looking to mess Jordan up for kissing her. Jordan is caught in a precarious situation, and Jonathan tries to calm him down. Before things get any worse, Clark shows up to save the day. He was listening in, and this is where being a Superman doesn’t make him a super dad. Jordan and Jonathan both feel lied to. They question how long their father has been listening in on them. The teen drama you expect from the CW is in full effect, and it’s not over the top. Sarah herself also gets some good development as we explore her relationship with her mother, Lana Lang. All the teens are angry in this episode. Sarah quits the cheer team, breaks up with her bully ex-boyfriend, and goes off on her mom when confronted. Jordan decides to take advantage of his newfound powers. The powers the supercomputer Jor-El claimed don’t exist. He tries out for the football team, hoping to get even with the team bullying them.

Clark warned Jordan to keep his powers under control, but clearly, he didn’t get the memo. You see a 150-pound kid sacking 200-pound country boys like they are toddlers. This episode really makes me admire his brother, Jonathan, who is on the way to becoming one of my favorite characters. We already went over how much he gave up for Jordan. Still, now Jordan is literally infringing on the one thing he has left: Football. However, after Jordan finally confronts his bully and makes peace, Jonathan realizes that Jordan is really coming into his own in football. When their father discovers what happens, Jonathan goes to bat for his brother, defending him, even admitting that it just might be what he needs. Jordan is finally making friends. Jonathan may not have Superman’s powers, but he has Superman’s heart. Still, I don’t know how you could try and lie to Superman. I could never.

We get a break from Captain Lex Luthor this episode, which I find strange, but at the same time, this episode comes with a lot of new twists. Lois is still digging her nose into Morgan Edge, but now they are pushing back. Her car is bombed. When she finds a lead to some missing Morgan Edge employees, she is attacked by a metahuman who was sent by Morgan Edge to silence her source. She calls for her husband, who comes in at record speed. Superman lands a punch, and the man is unphased. This is where we get to see some creativity from Superman as he uses his ice breath to stop him. However, you gotta wonder how the hell Morgan Edge has someone who can take a punch from Superman under his payroll. The episode ends with the metahuman being killed by Morgan Edge’s assistant, Leslie (Stacey Farber). She literally melts and blows him up with heat vision. Yes, the assistant who was at the town meeting with Morgan has heat vision. Morgan Edge has a Kryptonian under his payroll. This leaves us with a lot more questions than answers. Who are these superhumans? Why are they working for Morgan Edge? One guess I got for you is Leslie Larr might be Lesla-Lar. A Supergirl villain and a Kryptonian from the bottled city of Kandor. Episode 4 better give us a lot of answers because I can’t wait.