“Superman & Lois” Review – S02E11 – “Truth and Consequences”

Reviewed by: Michael Bailey

Originally Aired: May 3, 2022
WRITTEN BY: Andrew N. Wong
DIRECTED BY: David Ramsey

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:
Daisy Tormé (Hedy)
Leeah Wong (Emily Phan)

Rating – 5 (out of 5): Secrets and the consequences of those secrets were at the heart of this episode, which makes sense considering that the word “consequences” was in the episode title. It’s right there and hard to miss. The thing that wasn’t as apparent to me before this episode was how that was the thematic through line of this season. Jordan is keeping a secret from Sarah, which causes their relationship to dissolve. Jonathan kept the secret of taking the X-K drug and then the identity of the person that that sold him the X-K caused a serious rift in his relationship with his mother and especially with his father. Superman keeping the secret of his family and his private life from General Anderson led to Anderson going rogue and delivering the amulets to Ally Alston. Lois not telling Chrissy about her keeping an important fact out of her expose of Ally’s cult caused a temporary conflict in their working relationship.

Not that all of these secrets are equal. I am certainly not suggesting that Anderson was justified in…you know…taking X-K and killing the Bizarro Superman and everything else he did. I realize that Superman was willing to give him another chance but that doesn’t make his actions noble. Jordan’s reasons for taking the X-K are understandable but that doesn’t mean he should get a free pass either.<br>

And on and on.

My point (and I swear to God I have one) is that I was so focused on Bizarro and Ally and the big picture plot stuff that I didn’t piece together, until this episode, that the ultimate theme of knowing when to reveal a secret, no matter the danger of what could happen.

Last week was a fun episode and it had a lot of neat Easter eggs and the whole concept of the Bizarro World was well thought out and executed, but the real takeaway should have been Clark needs to do better talking to his kids or he’s going to lose them. Bizarro Superman was an extreme, complete with a drug problem, but he and our Clark have one thing in common; they both tend to focus so much on what they think is right that they miss something really important right in front them. Not telling Jonathan or Jordan about his other life for fourteen years was a mistake. He had the best of intentions, but he left them unprepared on how to deal with what happened to them last season and what is happening to them now. Seeing the worst case scenario of not doing a better job of being there for his kids is probably a real kick in the pants for Clark.

And this episode was a turning point for that, especially with Lana getting thrown into the middle of everything.

More than there were some amazing performances. Bizarro Jonathan was legitimately sinister, especially in the scene with Sarah. And I love how far gone he is because it provides so much drama to the story. It also gave Jordan another chance to step up and their second fight was great. I could be wrong, but it felt like a call back to the training sequence earlier in the season. I’m not sure if the choreography lines up, but it had that same energy. Seeing Jordan go further down his hero’s journey is just a joy to see and I’m hoping that another lesson Superman learns is that he is the one that needs to take the lead on Jordan’s training.

And then there was the big Clark/Lana reveal. The writing of the scene was strong and Tyler’s performance as he revealed his biggest secret to his oldest friend was so emotional. Emmanuelle stuck the landing with her reaction as well. One of the things that people use to beat up on Superman is how silly it is that the main part of his disguise is a pair of glasses. The thing is that people can miss things with the people in their life. Earlier in the episode Lana mentioned that Clark always seemed to be keeping something from her and in a weird way that may have created a blind spot for her. It’s like he was keeping something from her, so she created a weird kind of distance as well. The look on her face when she finally put it together said everything and this was a great way to end the episode, especially since it wasn’t some sinister machinations on the part of the villains or evil doppelgängers showing up at the farm.

There is a part of me that is hoping that this isn’t leading to Clark revealing his secret to the whole world. I’m not a fan of the concept and I think it opens up too many cans of worms. I’m hoping that this means that they are going to increase the circle of those that do know, which might make it easier on the kids if nothing else.

Special mention has to be made of Tyler’s reactions in this episode. The look of utter happiness when he learns that Lana won the election was great. Equally great was his reaction when Lois, Jon, and Jordan all agree right away that he needs to tell Lana. You can tell that he had this whole speech in his head and when he didn’t have to make it there was a moment of, “Oh…okay…that was far easier than I thought it was going to be.”

We have another brief hiatus before we get the final four episodes of the season. I’d love to have everything play out right now, but there’s a part of me that is okay with the wait. I’m not ready for this season to be over. Putting that off a little longer works just fine. For me, at any rate.