Reviewed by: Michael Bailey
Originally Aired: April 26, 2022
WRITTEN BY: Brent Fletcher & Todd Helbing
DIRECTED BY: Louis Milito
REGULAR CAST:
Tyler Hoechlin (Clark Kent/Superman)
Bitsie Tulloch (Lois Lane)
Jordan Elsass (Jonathan Kent)
Alex Garfin (Jordan Kent)
Inde Navarrette (Sarah Cushing)
Erik Valdez (Kyle Cushing)
Emmanuelle Chriqui (Lana Lang Cushing)
Wole Parks (John Henry Irons)
Tayler Buck (Natalie Irons)
Sofia Hasmik (Christy Beppo)
Ian Bohen (Lt. Mitchell Anderson)
Daisy Torme (A.I. Voice)
GUEST STARS:
Dylan Walsh (General Sam Lane)
Rya Kihlstedt (Ally Allston)
Ian Bohen (Mitch Anderson)
Mariana Klaveno (Bizarro Lara Lor-Van)
Adam Rayner (Bizarro Tal-Rho)
Serena Crouse (Bizarro Misty)
Hesham HamMoud (Bizarro Lt. Reno Rosetti)
Rating – 5 (out of 5): Alternate universe versions of characters are far from a new thing in genre television. It’s not even new for this show given the alternate Superman we saw last year in John Henry’s flashbacks and even more recently in the Earth-Prime mini-series DC is publishing. The rubber meets the road in how well the writers and the actors use the trope to tell an entertaining and compelling story.
With all of that in mind, the people behind the scenes and in front of the camera delivered on all fronts.
First and foremost, the episode was fun. Even when things got seriously dark it was obvious that the cast was having a ball playing these alternate takes on the characters they normally play. Tyler leaned into what a self-centered jerk this Superman could be. Bitsie seemed to enjoy playing a Lois that enjoyed the celebrity life until she realized what it was costing her. Jordan Elsass nailed the Bizarro Jonathan’s descent into going from someone that wanted to be a hero to someone that was okay with killing people for Ally. Adam Rayner turned in a wonderful variation on Tal-Rho. Everyone was at the top of their game and the fun they had on screen made me have more fun watching the episode.
While everyone seemed to be having a good time and this episode showed us what was happening to Superman while he was gone for those thirty days, thus moving the plot forward, the episode also played with some of the subplots that have been part of the season. In particular, Superman’s reaction to what happened to Bizarro Jonathan called back to the problems he was currently having with his Jonathan. It is never specifically said, but it seemed to me that Clark was seeing what being too hard or neglectful on his kids could produce and he didn’t seem to like it. Likewise, Bizarro Tal-Rho saving Superman mirrored Superman saving his Tal-Rho and for similar reasons.
More than anything, I loved that Superman was willing to give Mitch Anderson another chance. I’m not convinced he deserves it, but you could see that Anderson realized what a colossal mistake he had made and Superman not wanting to give up on him goes to the very heart of who Superman is as a character. He never said that Anderson should be exonerated or that he shouldn’t face the consequences of his actions, but he was willing to give Mitch another shot and even though he died doing it Mitch came through.
Until Superman lost the amulets. But that was going to happen anyway.
(I’m kind of hoping that Superman gives his Tal-Rho another shot as well. Even though Tal has a pretty long road to redemption in front of him.)
On a visual level this episode was epic. The alternate looks for everyone were great (especially Jonathan’s 90’s Superboy inspired look) and the whole aesthetic of Bizarro World, from the fashions to the décor to, most importantly, the square shaped planet, stuck the landing each and every time. The visual effects were likewise amazing, especially that fight at the end. This show is doing so well with Superman level fights on a television budget.
This was such a good chapter in this season’s storyline. It has a similar feeling that “A Brief Reminiscence Between Cataclysmic Events” did last season but still held its own. The pacing of the episode was great, as was the way the different chapters were introduced. Having Ally merge with her other self at this stage of the game continues this show’s track record of doing something bold and making me wonder where it’s going next.
This is definitely one of the best, if not the best, episode of the season thus far and this has been a great season for individual episodes.
Maybe it was helped by the 3 week break but I was really impressed by this episode. One of the things I appreciated was that it made this alternate universe “Bizarro” Superman imperfect but not outright villainous. I like the idea that a hero can fall from grace without going total villain ala Injustice Superman (which is a story I like mind you). Speaking of falls from grace this episode retroactively fixed some of the issues with Mitch’s characterisation I had in past episodes. I didn’t understand what was driving him or why he seemed to flip sides so suddenly.… Read more »
My favorite episode of the series so far. Showing what the relationships look like from a different perspective was a regular tactic on Smallville and it works even better here. The negative aspects of the family’s personalities were greatly exaggerated in the bizarro universe. Clark may be wondering if his Jonathan would end up something this if he kept using X-K. Only two misfires. One, it’s not clear what was causing the physical change in the bizarro Suprerman with the crinkly skin and the glowing blue eyes. Did he get addicted to that universe’s X-K? I had initially assumed weeks… Read more »
It was because Lois, Lana and Chrissy weren’t automatically made out to be evil that I didn’t mind their clothing. The idea that if a woman shows a bit of cleavage she must be bad is a tired trope. It’s also funny because a lot of actresses who play characters who dress conservatively often wear more revealing clothing in real life especially at things like red carpet events. I just interpreted this as being a world with alternate somewhat retro fashion sensibilities from Bizarro Superman’s tattered cape to Jonathan’s slightly emo? Superboy look. I didn’t feel like there were any… Read more »
I didn’t think there were such judgments either. In a way the show was subverting the trope, but a casual viewer might assume it was perpetuating the trope instead.
Not going to lie, I have been pretty disappointed with this season. But this episode was a solid 5/5 for me and has me excited for the rest of the season. It was well thought out and visually interesting throughout. Loved it.
A perfect 10 out of 10 grade from me! 😀 The story was just amazing this week. I really liked that we saw the shape of Bizarro’s world. The special effects of showing a cubed earth is just phenomenal. And what we saw of Bizarro’s backstory really makes sense for the character. At times I couldn’t help but think that Bizarro is very similar to Amazon’s Prime’s Homelander from the Boys series in some of the scenes. Bizarro Superman was very attached to what the media thought of him, so much so that turning to Kryptonite for addiction ruined his… Read more »
Going to nitpick, but they wrote Superman as pretty stupid in my book when Mitch gave him the amulets and tells him to keep them safe and he just holds them in his hand and goes outside so all can see when confronting 4/5 Super powered beings. What exactly was his plan??
I think at the moment he was more concered about protecting Bizarro’s family more than about protecting the pendants. Plus I don’t think that his supersuit has any pockets. I don’t think he could hide it in the house either since this was Bizarro’s house, and Bizarro Jonathan would most likely find it if he did hide it. And the odds weren’t exactly in Superman’s favor for this fight. So they would get the pendant no matter what he did I think.He could have flown away, but then who would have stopped the bad guys from hurting Bizarro’s family other… Read more »
I must say, this episode surprised me. I wholeheartedly enjoyed it.
I’ve noticed that there have been comments like” yeah it looks good now, but next year production will drop and then the show will fail.” And these are the same kind of comments that were going on since before the show started. Like “ yeah the first trailer for the show was ok, but later this season it will probably drop it’s quality for the series. This show probably won’t last long.” I don’t get that kind of talk. It’s like whoever says that, wants the series to fail. Or wanted the series to fail from the start. It’s really… Read more »
I just want to add that I believe that this Superman and Lois series is one of the best if not the best Superman series that I have ever seen. I’m so excited for the future for this series and I look forward to seeing what happens next. 🙂